[b]Here we are again. This time it's a whole chapter that takes place back in time. Before Evelyn came in the picture. Yes, nothing more to say I think... Enjoy. And as always; let me know what you think!!
Love Liz xxx[/b]
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CHAPTER SEVEN:
THE WORST BIRTHDAY
Amanda was on the couch with her head in David’s lap. She was playing with the Play Station Portable her mother had gotten her for her 18th birthday. And it was clear that she wasn’t the only one who had wanted a PSP. David looked envious at her and the game.
“Can I try now, Mandy, please?” he asked for the hundredth time.
Amanda laughed. “No, I’m playing now!”
“But you’ve been hogging it for the last hour!”
Amanda put the racing-game on pause and looked up at David’s face. “You do know that it is my game, right?”
David shrugged. “Yeah, but…”
Amanda sat up. “And I just got it today. And today just happens to be my birthday. My 18th birthday!” She started the game again.
David smiled at her. “Yeah, of course I know. Hello? We were having cake here like an hour ago.” He looked at the 101 Dalmatians watch on his wrist. “…or two. It’s ten already!”
“No, you’re joking?” She paused the game and grabbed his arm and looked at the watch herself. True enough Pongo’s paws were pointing at number ten and number twelve.
“That means that you’ve been hogging the game for two hours!”
Amanda let go of his hand and giggled. “It’s still mine…”
David crossed his hands and failed miserably to look grumpy. Amanda burst out in laughter by his weird look and David started to laugh as well.
Amanda sighed. “I wonder what’s taking mum so long though.” She sounded slightly worried.
“Yeah, she left hours ago. Where was she going?”
“She said that she was just gonna drive Nan back home, but that shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes - an hour tops!” She checked David’s watch again, but didn’t notice the time this time.
David could see she was a bit worried. “Mushroom, she’s probably gone in and joined her for a coffee! No worries, now can I play, please?” He flashed a bit grin at her. At the same moment the doorbell rang.
“There she is now!” David said while reaching for the PSP.
Amanda got up. “Why would she ring the bell? It’s her house…”
“Oh, yeah…” David smirked. “You better go open though, maybe it’s another birthday surprise for you?”
Amanda beamed. “What have you done?”
“What? I haven’t done anything?” David tried his best to look innocent, but Amanda saw through him.
“Alright, I’ll go open.” She started to run slowly towards the hall, but David cleared his throat, and Amanda stopped and turned.
“What?” Amanda saw David nodding towards what she was still holding in her hand. “Oh, alright. Here you go!” She threw the PSP over to him. David grinned and Amanda wondered if she would ever see it again. The doorbell rang again.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming!”
She skipped happily to the door, wondering what on earth it was that David had arranged. When she opened the door, she got the feeling that something was way off. She felt pale and dizzy, and had to hold on extra tight to the doorknob.
What she saw first was a man in uniform, and two police-cars with flashing red and blue lights.
“Miss Miller?” said the officer. “Amanda Miller?”
Amanda didn’t reply. She was speechless.
“I am sorry miss, but are you Amanda Miller?”
Amanda didn’t know what had happened, but she knew something was wrong.
“DAVID!!” she screamed. “DAVID, COME HERE!”
David rushed to the door. “What’s wro..”He saw the police officer and the flashing lights on the car as well and muttered to himself. “Oh, dear.”
He went over to hold Amanda, and she turned and snuggled against his chest, holding a firm grip on his checkered shirt, making it wrinkly. Her eyes never left the cop. She started to shake.
David held her tight. “What’s happened?” he asked the police officer.
“I’m sorry to intrude on your evening, but could we possibly take this inside. You might want to sit down…”
“Yeah, s-sure.” He stuttered and moved away from the door so that the police officer could pass him, being followed by another uniformed man and woman.
“Living room?” the police man asked.
David nodded in reply and led the way, still holding Amanda tight to his chest, almost dragging her along.
She didn’t cry and she didn’t speak, she seemed paralyzed, like somehow she already knew what the police man was gonna tell her.
They all sat down. David and Amanda in the big sofa against the wall and the police officer in the furthest love-seat by the window, while the other two sat down in the sofa opposite.
“Before I say anything, I need to know that you are in fact Amanda Miller?” the police officer looked at Amanda. But her gaze was somewhere else. She was staring at the wedding picture of her mother and father on the opposite wall.
David looked down at her. “Mandy?”
She didn’t reply.
David nodded to the police officer. “Yes, yes, she is.” He held her even tighter.
“Good. And you are?”
“Ehm, I’m David, sir, David Jones.”
The police officer took out a small notebook and wrote his name down, the other two mirrored him.
“And are you a boyfriend of miss Miller?”
“No, I’m her best friend, sir.”
The two men and the woman wrote down another note in the book, and then the police officer looked up at David and Amanda again.
“Ok, well, I am officer Owen, and this is my deputies miss Callahan, and mr. Brown.”
They both nodded at Danny and he nodded back.
Officer Owen made a little cough. “Well, I am afraid I have some bad news.”
David sqeezed Amanda harder into his chest, but Amanda didn’t seem to notice. She kept staring at her mother in her wedding dress and holding on to David’s shirt.
“There’s been an accident. I’m afraid mrs. Miller and mrs. Jenkins has been killed in an accident.”
Amanda didn’t react. She kept staring at the photo of her mother.
“Mandy?” David tried carefully to gain contact with her. “Mandy did you hear what mr. Owen said?”
Amanda looked up at him and nodded. “M-mum and g-g-grandma’…” she started to sob.
David looked at officer Owen again. “What happened?”
Amanda looked at the other two and they looked down at their notebooks without writing anything on them. Officer Owen cleared his voice yet again and made direct eye contact with David, who was still holding Amanda as closely pressed to his chest that he could without squashing her.
“It looks like there was a ten wheeler that changed lanes and hit mrs. Miller’s car. And I am afraid that her little Bug stood no chance in the 50 zone. I am so sorry.” Officer Owen looked down himself, this was clearly not what he wanted to be doing tonight and David could see a big amount of sympathy in his eyes.
Miss Callahan looked up from her notebook and Amanda looked straight in her eyes. She could see a tear running down miss Callahan’s cheek and that seemed to wake Amanda up.
She leaned out of David’s arms and supported herself with the back of the sofa. She ignored David’s worried look as she turned to face officer Owen.
“A-a…” she tried to swallow the big lump that seemed to have been glued in her throath, but it wouldn’t go away, “A trailer did this?”
Mr. Owen looked up and met her gaze. “Yes, miss.”
He got up and moved over to the seat next to Amanda. “I am so sorry” he took one of her hands and placed it in his.
Amanda nodded to show her appreciation for his thoughts, but she couldn’t manage to bring herself to talk. She would just start to cry and that was not something she intended to do in front of these three uniformed people.
An hour later the police were gone and Amanda sat in the sofa with a hot cup of chocolate, despite the fact that it was a hot August night, with David still holding her. They didn’t say much for a while. They just sat in the sofa, sipping on the hot drink.
Amanda had so many thoughts flying in her head. Why her? Why her mother? Why her mother and grandmother? Why couldn’t she have let her mother drive grandma home an hour earlier like she had wanted to? But, nooo, of course Amanda had to keep her there longer trying out her new camera, taking portraits after portraits.
Amanda jerked, like she suddenly woke up.
David put his cup on the coffee table and looked at her. “What is it?” he said in a concerned tone.
“My new camera. Where is it?”
“It’s right in the kitchen, shall I go get it?”
Amanda nodded and sat up straight as David got up. She took a big drink from the cup and smiled vaguely at David when he handed her the camera. He sat down right beside her again, afraid of leaving her side.
Amanda had wanted a camera like this forever and had finally gotten one. It was a Canon digital camera, with loads of advanced settings and buttons. But Amanda turned it on and maneuvered her way to the place she was searching as she had had the camera for years.
She stopped at a picture of a beautiful woman with brown short hair and brown, sparkling eyes. She was smiling broadly, showing her smiling-wrinkles by her eyes. She was holding around a smaller and older, but not less beautiful lady. She had the same brown eyes as the other woman in the photo and the same eyes as Amanda. The older woman on the picture had a lot more wrinkles, around her eyes and mouth, but she smiled just as broad as the younger woman on the photo. Her hair had gone grey, but was long and, thick.
That had been one of Amanda’s favorite things about her grandma; she didn’t curl it and cut it short long all the other ladies at her age had done.
Amanda shed a tear that fell on David’s hand which was resting on the coffee table.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Amanda, not taking her eyes of the three inch screen on the camera.
“Hey…” David turned Amanda’s face to face his. He dried her tears away with both of his thumbs. “Are you OK?”
Before Amanda could answer he interrupted. “Of course you’re not! What a stupid question!” He smacked himself in his forehead and that made Amanda smile. It was only a little smile, but still, it was a smile.
“I’m sorry.” David looked at her with warm eyes.
“It’s no problem. Thank you!” she leaned in for a hug.
He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her to his chest. “For what?”
Amanda felt the tears pressing on again and decided to let them out. “For being here with me…”
“Like I could possibly be anywhere else! I’m here until you chase me away, you know that…”
“Yeah,” she sobbed, “I know.”
Amanda couldn’t hold it in anymore she let her emotions take control and started shaking as tears streamed down her cheeks and she heaved for her breath between her sobs.
David just continued to hold her. He rocked her and stroked her hair as he tried to sooth her. He didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t shush her, if there was any reason to cry, this would definitely be it!
As the clock passed midnight Amanda had cried herself empty. She sat up and dried her eyes. She saw that David was looking at her in sympathy.
“Shall I go get you something to wash your face with?”
“No, I need the toilet anyways…” Amanda got up. “But thank you…”
She walked out in the hall and entered the bathroom. She turned the water on and bent over the sink and washed her face. When she looked up she saw a girl that looked a lot like her but had big poofy eyes and her hair was all messed up. She sighed and dried her wet face.
When she came back out in the hall again David was leaning against the wall waiting for her.
“Hey,” she said in a sleepy voice.
“Hi, Mushroom.” He opened his arms.
Amanda smiled a little and let him hug her again. “I’m really, really tired…”
“I know, baby, want me to leave so you can sleep?”
She put her chin on his chest so she looked up in his face. He continued to hold her, as he looked down.
“Do you think your parents would mind if you stayed? I really don’t wanna be alone tonight…”
“I’m sure they won’t mind, Mandy. They called me just now, I told them what happened, I hope you don’t mind?”
Amanda shook her head. “No,” she sighed, sadly, “it’s no secret. I guess it’ll be in the paper tomorrow, so… Maybe not names, but still…”
“Yeah, I guess. They wanted to come over…” Amanda tried to interrupt, but David kept going, “don’t worry. I told them to wait, at least ‘till the morning.”
Amanda smiled vaguely at him. “Thank you, again.”
“Don’t mention it.” He sighed and yawned. “Well, it’s definitely time for bed now.”
David started to guide her in the direction of her bedroom. But she stopped him.
“Do you mind if we sleep in mum’s room?”
David faced her. “Of course, if you want to?”
Amanda nodded and David supported her up the stairs.
Amanda was exhausted and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
“Um, David…?” Amanda looked up at the boy sitting across her in the long sofa in the living room.
He looked up from the football magazine he was reading. “Yeah?”
“I’ve been wondering about something?”
He put the magazine on the table and put his hands over his knees and looked at her.
Amanda was wearing a black, sleeveless dress and had her hair in a high ponytail. A pair of beautiful, golden earrings lay on the table and she was playing with a matching golden locket that hung around her neck. You could see that she had been crying. Her eyes were red and poofy and she had mascara under her eyes.
“What was your birthday-surprise?”
He looked confused at her. “Sorry?”
“On my birthday, when the doorbell rang…”
David understood what she meant and sent her a little smile. Amanda couldn’t help but think how cute he looked with his hair curly and in his black suit-pants and the black shirt untucked and slightly unbuttoned.
“…what was my birthday-surprise?”
“Oh,” he rubbed his face and smiled to her, “we were gonna get you a dog, a Dalmatian.”
Amanda’s eyes grew big. “Really?”
David nodded.
“And mum is OK with it?”
“Yeah she was…” David looked down.
Amanda sighed and thought about her mother and grandmother. “Was… I’m never gonna get over the fact that she’s gone, am I?”
David looked up at her and reached his hands out and grabbed hers. “I don’t think you can get over that. You just have to find a way to live with it. Your mother wouldn’t want you to be sad all the time, you know.”
Amanda smiled gratefully at him. “I know. My mum would just push me out the door and tell me that the world was mine, and I could be anything I wanted to be. That nothing should stop me.” Her eyes shined and she beamed at the memory.
“Well, she was a very wise woman.”
Amanda nodded. She let go of David’s hands. She cleared her throat and looked up again trying to maintain a smile. “But where’s the puppy now?”
“Oh, well we thought it might be too much for you to deal with right now, so mum gave him to my sister. Kate was thrilled to add a dog to her and John’s house.”
Amanda sighed. “Hm, it would be nice with a dog though. Although I probably wouldn’t give myself one at that day either.”
David didn’t respond. He didn’t know what to say. Amanda seemed ok all things considered, but he was worried that she was hiding something.
“What was his name? Hang on! It wasn’t Pongo was it?” she smiled at him.
He giggled slightly and just nodded.
Amanda laughed as well and threw a pillow at him. “You are 18 years old, David. And that is a cartoon!”
“I’m actually not 18 in another week and it’s the world’s greatest cartoon ever!”
Amanda shook her head. “There’s no debating with you is there?”
He smiled cheekily. “Nope..”
There was silence again. Amanda just studied David’s face. She was so grateful for him. She did not see how she could have survived the last week without him. He had been there for her through everything. He was her rock.
“You know?” he looked at her again. “I’ll get you another dog some time.”
She gazed back. “Really?!”
He grinned at her. “Yupp! I promise.”
“Awesome.” She looked down and smiled. “Ehm, David?”
“Have you been thinking about another thing as well, Mushroom? You’re on fire tonight…”
Amanda couldn’t help but smile at him. “Shut up!” She threw another pillow at him. “But yeah, I have.” She giggled. “Since it’s my house now, and it’s kinda big, I just wondered if you might wanna move in here with me? And we could get a couple of other room mates and fill up the bedrooms?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I can’t live here alone, and you’ve already lived here for a week now… But only if you want to?”
David beamed at her. “It would be awesome!”
“Cool.” Amanda smiled at him. She felt bad for feeling happy, but as David had said her mother and grandmother wouldn’t want her to stop living. And she felt that her mother would be behind her a hundred percent on this matter. It would be a good thing. She’d always have David, of that she was sure...
