The days passed, and even though my dad (it was still weird to call him that) had told me not to work, I still worked at In-n-Out whenever I could. I still wanted to try and get my Mom out of the hospital as soon as I could, but it was starting to feel more hopeless every single day. It didn't help that I was still keeping Ashley in my house, away from her father.
Yep, that's right. Ashley was living in my house.
We had to go shopping for some clothes one day, and I remembered being extremely anxious and stressed. I couldn't help but look over my shoulder every few minutes, keeping my eye on every homeless man that I could see, or just anyone who looked suspicious. Eventually, Ashley seemed to sense my discomfort, and she wrapped her arms around my arm. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at her. Her face seemed a little bit red, but she was looking me in my eyes (did I ever mention that her eyes enchanted me? They were so pretty) and said, "It's okay, Chris. I'm okay." When I heard those words, I immediately relaxed, and I said, "Alright. But let's hurry, anyway."
She nodded, and we both walked into a Kohl's, trying to find some clothes that she could wear and look nice in. She would try on outfits, and I would say that she looks nice in them, and she'd get some. Once we were done and collected a whole multitude of clothes, we went to the cashier. He rang up everything, then he said, "That'll be about $528.39."
I'm pretty sure that my face went white, but I managed to say, "Alright." I used my debit card for this, and inside, I was crying. There went years of hard work, and there was less money that could go toward Mom's treatment. I couldn't help but feel a little bit more hopeless. As we walked out of the store, Ashley clutched the bags of clothes close to her, and seemed to have a hard time carrying them. I didn't say anything and instead just took the bags out of her hands and started carrying them for her. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and said, "It's-it's okay Chris, I can carry-"
"Don't worry about it, Ashley," I said, and I smiled at her. "This is the least that I can do for you, okay?" She looked like she wanted to argue, then she just walked along behind me, her head down. It suddenly occurred to me that this was kind of like a date, and I felt my face heat up a little bit. "Hey, why don't we get something to eat?" I asked while looking back at her, trying to take my mind off of that subject.
She nodded, looking down, and I couldn't help but notice that the tips of her ears were red. It made her look really cute. I turned back forward and shook my head, trying to get the thoughts out of my head. It wasn't the time for thoughts like that. I would tell her what I felt later, when everything had finally blown over, and then things like this would continue from there. God, I prayed in my head. Help me get through this. (It was very weird being a Christian.)
We both found a spot to eat, and we both ordered some food, and I paid for it all, despite Ashley protesting. She eventually caved in, though, and we both sat down to wait for our food. There was a long moment of silence, and the tension between us thickened considerably. It felt very suffocating, and I knew that I had to break out of it, So I finally said, "So…what do you want to do after high school?"
She thought about it for a second, then she said, "I want to be a nurse…or maybe an elementary school teacher."
"Oh, I like that," I said, and I smiled at her. She seemed to get a little bit flustered, and she asked, "How-how about you, Chris? What do you want to be?"
I thought about it for a moment, and I realized that I had no idea what I wanted to be. In everything that had happened, I had no chance to think about what I wanted to be when I graduated high school. "I…I don't know," I said truthfully. "I think it'll come to me eventually."
She nodded, and then it was silent again. It was clear that Ashley was still a little bit scared, as I saw that her hands under the table were trembling. It must have been very hard on her; she was going through so many things at such a young age. I slowly stood up, and I pulled my chair around so that I was sitting next to her. It was still silent, and Ashley seemed to be even more nervous than before. I slowly but surely put my arm around her shoulder. "It's alright, Ashley," I said quietly. "I'm here with you. You don't have to worry about anything right now, okay?"
She nodded quietly, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. We stayed like that, then I heard our order being called, so I had to let go of her and get the food. I came back to the table with it, and I sat down, and we started eating. As Ashley ate, her worries seemed to go away, and she just seemed to be enjoying eating the food and being with me. I couldn't help but smile at that. But at the same time, I was still wary, and I had to figure out exactly what I would do if Mr. Hendrickson did ever come around. I really hoped that he didn't, and as we finished eating and headed back to my home, I did not see him at all.
I didn't fully breathe a sigh of relief until I was back inside of the house. Once the door was locked and all of the curtains on the windows had been closed, I breathed a sigh of relief. I set down the bags of stuff that we had bought onto the floor, and I slid down the wall onto the floor. I put my head into my hands, and I took in a deep breath, and I let it out slowly and shakily. I had no idea that I was this nervous about all of this. But it felt really, really good to be inside of the house, safe from the probing glance of her father.
With that said and done, I stood up again, picked up the bags, and made my way to Ashley's room. When I got there, I noticed that the door was closed, so I knocked and said, "Ashley? I've got the clothes with me. Can I come in?"
I heard something fall over, and about a minute later, the door opened up. There stood Ashley in a shirt that seemed way too large for her and…wait a minute, was she not wearing anything underneath? I felt my face heat up, and as I looked at Ashley, I realized that her face was also red, this time as red as a tomato. The bags dropped out of my hand, and we both stood there for a moment looking at each other. "S-SORRY!!" I yelled, and I turned and ran downstairs, hiding in the kitchen. It felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I started praying to the Lord. "God, please," I said, closing my eyes and folding my hands. "Give me strength." I know that it sounds like a joke prayer, but I was really being serious. This really, really sucked.
I walked back up, making sure to calm myself and prepare myself, then I walked back up the stairs and knocked on the door again. There was no response from inside. I looked down and noticed that the bags of clothes were all gone, and just as I looked back up at the door again, it opened. There stood Ashley, still in the oversized shirt, but with some shorts on. Her face was very much still red, though. We stood there awkwardly for a minute, then I said, "You look really nice in those clothes." My voice seemed a lot higher than it normally was.
She nodded, and she started to twirl her hair with her finger a little bit. I found it kind of cute. There was silence between us again, and eventually, I said, "Well…with the problem of clothes figured out, you can stay here for as long as you like."
She nodded again, and it seemed like she wanted to say something to me. Her mouth opened, then it closed again, and she looked at the ground, not saying anything. We both knew that this wasn't going to last for long. Neither of us wanted to say. Neither of us wanted to think about it. But it was still in the back of our minds: this was temporary.
The days of summer kept going on like this, and eventually, it was July. We had both gotten used to living with each other, and there were also some boundaries that we had set up as well. They were the obvious ones, and for the most part, we adhered very well to those rules. Over the course of those days, we talked to each other more and more, and every day we found each other feeling more comfortable around each other, and everything was great.
…everything was great. Oh, right! I should tell you about the time when we went to the movies again, this time with Dick and Hailey.
We had gone to see a different movie this time, and this one was called Differences. It looked like Dick was okay with watching romance movies all over again. Ashley and I were waiting in front of the theater, Ashley dressed up in a way that made it look like no one would recognize her. And I mean that. She had on glasses (like the thick ones that you would see on those girls that are considered "ugly" in those teen movies), had her hair done in a way that was completely different from what it normally was, and wore clothes that were completely out of character for her. Normally, she wore baggy sweaters, long pants, and boots. But now, she was wearing shorts (not too short, but short enough to make a guy blush), a long sleeved sweater that was form fitting, and Converse.
Oh, and she also had a mask. You know, those face masks that celebrities sometimes wear? Yeah, she was wearing that. Despite all of what she was wearing, I still thought that she was one of the most attractive people that I'd ever met. And I'd met only a few other people who I would consider attractive.
Dick and Hailey walked up, and the very first thing that I noticed was that Hailey's arm was laced through his. I looked at that, then I looked back at Dick and Hailey and said, "So when did you two start dating?"
Immediately, Hailey's ears turned red, and she immediately looked away from me. Dick's face was also red, but he took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "For maybe about two weeks," he said, and it was clear that he was very embarrassed as well. "We connected over stuff that we had both gone through, and we're not…well, related by blood, so…"
He didn't say anything else, but I immediately understood: it was a little bit weird for them, since one is the son of a guy and the other is the adopted daughter of the man. "Well," I said. "I think that…your father will probably approve of this relationship. And I think that you both need some happiness in your life."
They both looked at each other, then they looked back at me. "Thanks, man," Dick said. He had a grateful smile on his face. I smiled back at him, also winking. "Just make sure to do nothing dirty." Immediately, Hailey's face turned bright red again, and Dick said, "Alright, now that's just-"
"Come on, man, you know that I was joking," I said, and I couldn't help but laugh. Ashley giggled at my side. It seemed that she was enjoying what was going on.
"Well, two can play that game," he said, a mischievous smile on his face. "How about you tell us what's really going on between you two, Chris, huh?"
Immediately, I felt my face heat up, and I said, "Okay, how about we go inside and see the movie now?" I turned and started walking to the movie theater. "We're going to be late, and we have to see all of those commercials!"
"Chris, wait!" Ashley said, and she followed after me. I looked back at Dick and Hailey, and I saw Dick smirk and wink at me. Sometimes, I wanted to punch that guy so hard in the face so that he could get a good look at reality and also ruin his face for a day. But…well, he was right. And I think that I was angry because I knew that he was right. "What was…what was he talking about?" Ashley asked me, bringing me back to reality.
"Oh," I said, and I smiled at her. "I actually have no idea." (Lie.)
She smiled back at me and said, "Okay." She slipped her hand into mine again, and we walked up to the ticket booth. "Hi," I said. "Four tickets to see Differences?"
The clerk looked at the four of us. "Couples day out?" he asked, and in his voice, I could sense jealousy.
"Well-"
"Yeah," Dick said, and he inserted himself in front of me and started to talk to the clerk. "I'll be paying for everything, so what's the total?"
The clerk stared at Dick for a few seconds before snapping out of it. "Oh, yeah," he said, and he actually sounded a bit flustered. "Uh, your total is $10." I raised my eyebrows. He was getting a discount for this? Did he actually have this much of an impact on the people around him?
"Oh, no, no," Dick said, and he tried to stop the clerk on the inside. "I want to pay the full price. What is it?"
The clerk kept on stuttering, and I turned to Hailey and Ashley and fake gagged. They both giggled at me and at the mess Dick had gotten himself into. A few minutes later, he came back to us, and he said, "Well…that was interesting."
"No, really?" I said, completely deadpan. At that, Hailey and Ashley burst out laughing, and I couldn't keep my composure, so I started to laugh, too. Dick was very confused about why we were all laughing, and eventually, we all walked inside. "Do you guys want any of the snacks here?" I asked, looking at all of them. "If you do, I've got it covered."
Ashley's eyes shined. It was clear that she wanted some more snacks than the last time that we were here, and I was happy to give some to her. Dick and Hailey looked at each other, then they shrugged. "I'll consider this even for paying for the tickets," Dick said, and he looked up at the menu. "But are you sure? The tickets were a lot cheaper than a lot of the stuff up here."
Inwardly, I knew that he was right. I also knew that if I spent more money, then that meant that I would have less money to pay for my mom's recovery. But at the same time, I remembered what my dad had said. As much as I wanted to ignore it, it was still in my head. "Are you going to avoid all of your friends, take away a huge chunk of your life just so that you could have more time with her?" I shuddered, and Ashley looked at me, a little worried. "Are you okay, Chris?"
"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile. "I'm fine." She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she didn't. Once everyone had told me what they wanted to get, I walked up to the counter. "Hello," I said. The person working there turned to me, and I immediately felt all of the blood in my body go cold. I was looking at Mr. Hendrickson. "Oh, hello Chris," he said, and his voice sent shivers down his spine. Before my anger took over, I noticed that his face actually looked a lot better than it did the first time that I had seen him. He had shaved, and he wasn't really hiding the scars on his face. Overall, he looked a lot more presentable.
"Hello, Mr. Hendrickson," I said. It took all of my willpower to not punch him in the face, and I had to use my reserve willpower to not let my face betray any of the emotions that were boiling up inside of me. "Any luck in finding your daughter?"
"Unfortunately not," he said, and he sighed. "I've been searching for about a month now, and I still haven't found her. I'm thinking of going to the police soon." I felt more chills going down my back. "Well, with that all aside, what would you like to eat?"
"Well, I'd actually like to get one of those bundles," I said, pointing at the board with the deals on it. I had to be sure to get something that wouldn't draw his attention to Ashley. "The first one, specifically. And I'd also like…another medium popcorn and a medium drink?"
Mr. Hendrickson whistled. "That's a lot of food for one man," he said. "And probably even more devastating on your wallet."
"Well," I said, and I pulled it out. "I'll manage."
He shrugged. "Suit yourself." He rang up everything, and then he said, "That'll be about $56.20."
Inwardly, I felt myself shrink again. That was a lot of money for some snacks that were going to be gone in two hours. But I managed to get the money out of my wallet and give it to him. He looked at the money, up at me, and smiled. (I just wanted to punch his smyg face so hard-) "Thank you for your purchase," he said. "Just let me get your change, and your food should be out soon."
I nodded and smiled again, and I had to fight the urge to turn and face the others. I couldn't do that at all, or else his attention would be drawn to them. So I faced him and watched as he put in the cash and got the change out. He came back to me and said, "Here's your change. Your food should be out in a second."
"Thank you," I said, and I turned to head back towards me friends when I felt his hand on my shoulder.
"Oh, I should also mention, Christopher," he said, his touch sending shivers down my spine. "I don't quite appreciate liars." Those words sent a shiver down my spine, and I turned to face him again. He had a smile on his face, but there was an anger in his eyes that made me freeze in place. He kept talking, "So if you wouldn't mind me asking one more time: where is my daughter?"