R. E. V. I. E. W.
Last Christmas – Chap 4
I left everything. I didn't bother to pack all the random little trinkets and thingamabobs that I'd collected in the year and a half that I'd been at the Xavier Institute. I didn't bother to make my bed. I left the locket on my pillow.
My neck felt bare without any chains on it. I refused to wear any necklace but the one that held the key to my heart on it, or the locket Bobby had given me. And I didn't have either of them with me.
I wanted Bobby to give me the key back, especially since he obviously couldn't handle the responsibility it meant for even five minutes.
When I returned, everything in my room was the same, except my bed. The sheets smelled fresh and the covers were artfully arranged. And the locket was on my pillow.
I didn't expect anything to be any less different. I was only gone for two weeks.
By my bed was a picture of Bobby and I smiling at the camera. I'd put it face down when I'd left, but now I turned it back up and draped the locket around it.
A tentative knock on the door alerted me of an intrusion right before the door opened a crack. I opened it the rest of the way to reveal Bobby standing in the hallway, looking awkward. Guilt was on his face and his stare was directed at the floor.
He wordlessly held his right fist out, palm up. Slowly, he uncurled his fingers to reveal a key on a silver chain.
Equally slowly, I take my hand and place it over his, closing his fist back up again.
He raised his gaze to my face, a question in his eyes, and I gave a small smile.
*Break to insert nonsensical rambling*: let me explain. I had plans for her to be gone a looooong time, like at least a year, but then I realized that that would be a pretty stupid reason to leave the mansion, so it's two weeks. Very unepic, I know. I just thought of a way to make it better though. But it doesn't make the most amount of sense... but then again, this doesn't either...
~ J. J. Bean