Chapter 4: Unhexpected Visitor

It's been a couple days since my visit to Axel and Hellen. Thought it hadn't been much of an adventure as I'd hoped, it'd still been a nice change of scenery. In fact, being out at sea had actually been just the golden ticket I needed to help calm me down to the point where I wasn't so depressed and frustrated anymore. Even if Isabella had hexted me several times during the visit – I'd simply ignored every one of them.

"I'm home!" I call out after coming in the entrance of my father's hideout, having been out gathering some berries mom needed for a pie she was planning to make for dessert tonight.

"Yes, we can see that," Kubby says jokingly, smiling over at me.

"Very funny, Kubs." I tell him with a slight laugh as I proceed to walk in the kitchen.

I set the basket containing the berries I gathered on the table before going over to the fridge. I'm just reaching to get a carrot when I feel a hand be placed on my shoulder. Turning my gaze away from the food I was going to eat as a small snack, I see a piece of watermelon being held out to me.

"Eat this." Mom's voice says softly.

I sigh, looking back at her, trying to distract myself from the sudden flow of memories of a happier time that one piece of fruit stirred up in my head.

"Thanks, mom, but I'll pass on that." I say, forcing a smile.

Mom frowns a bit, yet holds the fruit a little closer to me, silently insisting that I eat it. I bare my teeth, trying to keep from letting the tears my body wanted to shed for no reason at all flow down my face. So what if watermelon reminded me of when Isabella and I would eat our share of it and have our own little seed spitting contest? It didn't mean anything. I was over the fact I wasn't going to be around her as much now.

I slowly take the fruit being offer to me, fed up with the feeling of wanting to cry. The sooner I ate it, the sooner this pain I felt would be gone. I start to walk away, barely vocalizing a 'thanks' to Mom, heading for my room.

Once in my room, I sit down on the edge of my bed, staring at the watermelon as though it were some strange new food. The pain I feel in my chest worsens the longer I stare at it, motivating me to take a bite of it. After taking that one bite, I finish off the snack as quickly as I could. Yet the nostalgic feeling remains long after I'm done with it. I try taking in a deep breath, steadily releasing it as I subconsciously reached for my MirrorPad to play a game, wanting to distract myself.

However, what I grab isn't what I wanted. Instead of my MirrorPad, it's a picture. A picture collage that showed both me and Isabella as we grew up, the one she made for me, as I had made one for her. The picture I had not even dared to look at for weeks. Inwardly, I find myself wishing upon an invisible star that things could be as they were between us again…

My gaze eventually strays from the picture to a box that had been sitting beside the picture for weeks. The memory of asking Tinker Bell to make a ring that I had planned to give Isabella came rushing into my head. The promise ring I was going to give her the same day she was being sent to Ever After High.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see my dad come in the room, but I don't bother to look at him.

"Junior?"

"Hm?"

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say though I'm surprised to find I'm choking on my words.

Dad comes over and stands in front of me, arms crossed as though he's ready to scold me for something.

"You're not over losing Isabella," He states like he's sure of himself.

"Yes I am." I protest. "I just feel nostalgic at the moment."

"Junior, you're crying."

Upon dad saying that, I absentmindedly reach up and find myself wiping away a fresh tear from my face.

"Now where'd these come from?" I ask with a slight laugh.

Dad shakes his head.

"Quit denying it, Junior. You're not over Isabella as well as you thought you were."

"Yes, I am."

"Junior…"

I clam up when dad's tone becomes one I have never heard him speak in. It sounded like anger mixed with worry. Almost like a warning.

I'm just about to speak when dad sighs and tells me to follow him out into the 'living room' of the hideout. I obey, hoping that I wasn't going to receive a "we're worried about you" lecture from mom.

However I stop in my tracks when I came in the living room after dad. There was one extra person there. A young man who had fair skin, dirty blond hair, and blue eyes that held a certain you-have-some-explaining-to-do look in them, as though he were trying to intimidate me without even saying a word.

"Chip?" I ask without thinking.

"Hello, Junior." Chip greets me. "Haven't seen you in quite a while. How've you been?"

"Fine," I reply, shrugging while sitting in midair.

"That's good," Chip says as he gives a small smile. "At least you've been getting along just fine."

I raise an eyebrow. Chip's tone isn't exactly a friendly one anymore, giving me the sense that something was wrong.

"What do you mean?" I question.

Chip is silent as he takes out his MirrorPhone, tossing it in the air and catching it before speaking, "Isabella called me yesterday."

"And…?"

"She told me you weren't talking to her. What gives, Junior? It's unlike you."

I cross my arms, bowing my head as I fell silent. I didn't know how to answer that, nor did I want to. Why should I explain to him why I wasn't talking to Isabella? He wouldn't understand what it was like to lose his best friend forever after. As a matter of fact, no one here in this hideout would ever understand what it felt like to lose someone who's been in one's life for forever after.

"Junior, you've upset her greatly with your silence," Chip says after a while. "Hurting her, even."

"How am I hurting her?" I ask, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"You two have never gone a day without at least saying one word to each other. Isabella's scared that you hate her. Just because she's at Ever After High doesn't mean she doesn't want to just toss your friendship to the side. She misses you the most out of her entire family. As I said, you're hurting her by not speaking to her." Chip holds out his MirrorPhone to me. "Please, Junior. Just talk to her. She has something she really wants to tell you."

"Oh, and what's that? She done met her Beast?" I spat.

Chip shakes his head, his silently urging me to take his MirrorPhone to call Isabella. I stare at it, thinking about how mom had presented the watermelon to me earlier and how dad told me I wasn't over losing my best friend. It was as if they knew Chip was going to come and try to get me to talk to Isabella. But even so, maybe what dad said was true. Maybe … maybe talking to her will help me get over thing.

A defeated sigh comes from me and I take the phone just like I had taken the watermelon and the picture earlier. I dial her number and raise the phone up to my ear - waiting for her to answer the call.

Man, I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted anything. Thank goodness I get a lot of free time this month, so I WILL finish both this story and Monstrous Ever After. My apologies for my laziness.