Chapter 10
"Mrs. Dolly, you belong over here," I moved Mrs. Dolly, my old doll, over to the corner of the wall. I had the doll for three years and it was the only doll I had. I actually found it myself when I was outside one day. I just saw a small object in the middle of the street, and I decided to go examine it to find her. I don't even know what happened to her.
"Good girl," I said and smiled, looking at the one-eyed doll. Its blond hair wasn't even blond anymore, like the day it was when I had found her. She was my only friend—the only thing that actually loved me and played with me. She felt like my only family.
I flinched when the door flew wide open; it almost hit me.
"You little shit," my father was surprisingly home—his eyes weren't even looking straight at me. His dark hair was a mess, and his clothes were ripped up and dirty. He was only wearing one dirty shoe and his belt wasn't even tied right. He held an empty glass beer bottle in his hand.
"What are you doing on the floor?" he raised his voice. "Get up and go play outside! Not in here!"
As I grabbed my doll, I guess he got impatient when I felt the bottle instantly touch my back painfully hard—I couldn't even describe the pain and still can't. All I can remember is me crying on the floor, trying to rub my back but couldn't as my arms were too short. I remember my father grabbing me by the arms and drag me outside until he threw me to the hard and hot ground. I didn't even have time to blink before he shut the door and locked it. I knew that because when I tried getting in, it wouldn't open.
People walked right by the house but they didn't even stop to help me or anything. They would just stare as they kept walking—I'm sure they didn't even care that was going on. I was sobbing but I wasn't screaming; I didn't want to cause any major commotion. So moments later, I sat there just eyeing everything until the door finally opened. But it wasn't for me; my dad had left once again and I don't even think he noticed that I was outside as he quickly passed right by me and kept walking weirdly away from the house. I took advantage of the fact that the door was opened and dashed right in. But it was bad idea to go back in, because it was only the key for me to get slapped hard by my own mother. She held a small cigarette butt with her other hand, using both her index and middle fingers for support. I only lied on the floor, rubbing my hot cheek as she sat down on the couch, ignoring my small sobs and groans.
I'm startled when I focus right on Creek, who's playing with another kid right here in the park. He wanted to come here for a while, and I actually like being at the park. However, I don't feel like playing or anything, so I just gave him permission to play with other kids his age. God, Annie. Stop remembering things! I bury my face into my hands for a while, to keep myself calm and relaxed. But who am I kidding? I'm not relaxed right now, ignoring the actuality that we're at the park. I just need someone to talk to; however, I just have Creek and Finnick. Then again, I can't talk to Creek about these things.
I lean back on the bench, close my eyes, and let out a big breath. But that's when I hear a familiar voice.
"Annie?" her voice sounds exactly the same as it did back in college. Is she really here? Is this really her? "Annie, is that you?"
I open my eyes and I'm right. It's her.
"Jackie," I say in full shock. "Foxface?"
"Annie," her expression turns into a huge smile and that's when I quickly get up to pull her in for a huge hug. I can't believe she's seriously here; what brought her here? Is this all just some odd coincidence? I don't care. I just don't care; at least she's here.
"I can't believe you're here," I say as we sit down, "We haven't seen each other since college."
She smiles. "Yeah, look at you, you look great! I mean, you look the same but you still look great."
The same. Does that mean I still look like the same Annie who wasn't worrying about guys, and was just focused on her future?
"And you look like the same, smart and pretty self you were in college," I say, because she does.
She smiles even more and looks down. That's when I notice something on her finger. It's something that makes me jump and almost shout.
"Foxface," I look at her right in the eye, "Is that a… engagement ring?"
"Yes," she shows it off. It's the same one that me and her always wanted when we were to get engaged with someone. Of course, I didn't get something near as good as that.
"Who's the lucky man?" I ask.
She smiles again; this time, showing off her teeth. But when she says who the guy is, I want to yell at her. Not like that, but I want to tell her everything negative about the guy. I know the guy, as a matter of fact. Me and Gloss, when we were still in college, would double date with Foxface and her fiancée. At first, I thought both of them were the sweetest guys on Earth, especially Gloss. But now, I know that not only Gloss is the fake, but also Brutus. That's right: Brutus is going to marry Foxface.
"C-Congratulations," I try my hardest not to sound disappointed. But I know that I just did.
"Thanks," she says and takes a look at her ring. "He proposed two months ago; our wedding is a week away, and we decided to get married here."
"Why here?" I ask.
"Well, this place is not filled with a bunch of kids, and I've always wanted to come here. This place seems calm and nice."
Everybody says this place is calm. They're right; it truly is.
"What's wrong?" she asks. I guess she noticed my worried and disappointed look.
"Nothing," I shake my head and exchange glances with a stranger. "It's nothing."
"Something's wrong," she says, "Tell me."
Everything is wrong—I married a hypocritical, selfish, abusive, fake phony who doesn't even respect me or love me. I married the worst guy I could ever think of. I got pregnant when I wasn't even planning on having a kid. I don't regret having Creek though—I just wish I should've waited longer. I ran away. I am in huge danger, because anything can happen. If I ever do go back, which I'm absolutely not, Gloss will kill me and only God knows what he'd do to Creek for coming along with me. And now this… Foxface is getting married to the best friend of Gloss. Brutus is almost like the exact same person as Gloss—they're both self-centered jerks who don't respect anyone and only use girls for sex. I wouldn't be surprised if Brutus has another girlfriend right now. I seriously wouldn't doubt the possibility of him cheating on Foxface. But I can't tell her this; she'll probably hate me forever if I do. But I'm just doing it because she is my best friend. She was pretty much the only friend I ever had. I don't want all of that just going down the drain—but she just deserves so much better than Brutus.
"I'm just really glad you're getting married," I lie to her—I can't believe I just lied to my best friend.
"Oh, well thanks," she smiles, "But wait, where's Gloss?"
Oh, I left him, I think to myself, I was through with all of his crap and I decided to just leave him. I didn't feel like putting up with him anymore, and I was also thinking of our son. Our son is the main reason why I chose to run away with him. Our son deserves a much better life than the one we had with him. Gloss doesn't even deserve a son like Creek; he doesn't deserve anything.
I sigh.
"Is something wrong?" she asks.
I close my eyes and when I open them again, she looks worried.
"Annie?" she says.
"Look," I begin to say and I feel a little bit of regret. "Since you're my best friend, I'll tell you. I trust you, but please don't tell Brutus, okay?"
"Annie," she says, "I'm about to marry him. I can't keep secrets from him."
"And I can't keep secrets from you, since you are my best friend," I say and she takes a deep breath and nods.
"I left him," I say, "He would always yell at me, beat me, yell at Creek for no reason… He just wouldn't respect us, you know? I'm fed up with him and I just got my stuff and left in the middle of the night."
"How long have you been here?" she asks; full pity is all over her.
"I don't know, like three days… four." I respond.
She places her hand on my shoulder and pats it softly. She does feel sorry for me. I don't blame her though, but I don't want this to happen to her. I just don't think I'll be able to convince her not to marry Brutus. And I can't do that to her, knowing the risk of our friendship ending.
"I'm so sorry, Annie," she says, "Don't be sad. It's better now—he's out of your life, he doesn't know where you're at, and don't worry about your secret. I'll take it to the grave."
"Thanks, I knew I could trust you," I say before she pulls me in for another hug. That's when Creek runs straight towards us.
"Mommy! I won! I beat the other kids!" he's jumpy.
"I'm so proud of you," I say and rub the top of his head softly.
"Who are you?" he asks, looking at Foxface. "Are you the Joker's sister?"
"Creek," I respond to him, giving him "the look."
"What, mommy? She looks like the Joker," he says.
"That's no way to speak to someone," I say as nicely as I can, "Where are your manners?"
"I'm sorry," he says and turns back to Foxface. "So if you're not the Joker's sister, why is your hair red? It looks like ketchup."
"I'm sorry," I whisper to Foxface. She shakes her head and smiles, "Don't be."
"And of course I'm not the Joker's sister," she goes on telling Creek, "My hair is just naturally this way. It's like how your hair is naturally blond."
"Oh," Creek says and scratches the back of his head, "Well don't hurt mommy with your powers. I don't like it when people hurt my mommy. Me and Batman will get you if you hurt her."
"Don't worry," Foxface says in full laughter, "Me and your mommy are friends."
"I'm still watching you," he says before he dashes off and plays with the other little kids again. I don't think I've ever witnessed Creek being over-protective over me. It's kind of nice but at the same time, he doesn't have to do that. I'm supposed to protect him, and I am. I just don't want people to think he has bad manners, because he doesn't. My little Creek is the sweetest, most charming little boy I've ever laid my eyes on; after all, he is my only son. I love him for dear life!
"I still remember when he was just a newborn," says Foxface.
"You saw him? I ask, because after I got pregnant, Foxface and I never hung out or talked that much again. And after I married Gloss and had Creek, we drifted apart—I thought she had already moved away or something. I guess she saw a picture of him on the Internet.
"One of Gloss's friends showed me," she says. I thought Gloss said he didn't want anyone else seeing our baby.
We continue to talk for another hour before Brutus calls her phone and she quickly rushes off. We didn't really talk about anything big, except for what we've been doing, how we've been, and our relationships. Of course, I explained everything about Gloss to her—she was shocked and stunned by the way he had "changed." But the truth is, he never even changed. He's been the same demon ever since college, and probably even since high school or middle school. Most people never change, and the question is… Have I changed?
We drive back to the motel around eight o'clock: I'm ready to drop everything and just lie down on my bed, ready to go to sleep. But one thing holds me back when we step in front of the door and I see a small sticky note attached to it. I guess it was barely placed because it would've flown off many minutes or hours ago. My tired and exhausted face turns into a huge smile when I read the note:
Annie, the most beautiful girl in this world. Please, if you have time tomorrow, can you join me and a couple of friends for dinner? If you want to join, just call me tomorrow and I'll pick you up.
P.S. Don't even bother fixing yourself up… doing that doesn't make a difference for your beauty. You're lovely no matter how you look. Stay that way, Beautiful.
- Finnick
NOTES: Well this chapter's pretty slow and stuff. But I just wanted to bring Foxface back into the picture for a little bit. She will be back for another chapter though, or two. I'm not sure yet but I absolutely loved writing the scene at the beginning. I wanted to flashback a little: her father came home drunk, threw an empty bottle of beer at her, and kicked her outside with burning hot temperatures. He left shortly afterwards but when Annie went back inside, her mother slapped her and continued to smoke her cigarette. Ugh, stupid abusive parents. Well, the rest is pretty much Annie and Foxface seeing each other for the first time since college, and Foxface is engaged to Brutus! Grrrr... Come on Foxface! Open your eyes! Haha, I'm the author and I'm all reacting to this XD Well I hope you guys enjoyed this pretty slow chapter and thanks for reading:) Please review:) And also, in the next scene, we will see other characters from the book:D
Raina4Ever: I try to make Creek the cutest kid:) "Your brain will explode." XD Oh Creek, gotta love him:) And I'm glad I introduced you to a word you've never heard before! I love it when I do that:) And Finnick and Annie will get pretty serious before Gloss starts searching, just letting you know. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this slow chapter:)
Catching Fireflies: Yeah! Gloss will search for them soon *scary intense music* I just need to make Finnick and Annie's relationship more serious before he does. And we find out that Finnick doesn't care how Annie looks at the end:) I hope you enjoyed this pretty slow chapter:)
Juliet's Shadow: Super-Finnick... We all know who that came from;) Finnick and his sugar cubes... Annie is missing out! Let's just hope they have sugar cubes in the next chapter;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter and got you entertained while you're on a long drive:) Thanks:)
Dracolover: Heck yeah! Finnick and his sugar cubes are like Creek and his action figures. Ah... what about Annie? Maybe Finnick and his sugar cubes are like Annie and her Finnick;)... I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you!:)
ClatoandFannie: Yay! You're the first person to have a theory about Finnick! I love it when people come up with these kinds of theories:) And let's see if your theory is true later in the story:D And I'm really glad and pleasured that you think I'm one of the best writers on this site - there is a lot of very good and amazing ones out there as well! But it makes me feel good about myself. Thank you so much for that and thank you too for your theory! I hope you enjoyed this chapter:)
Michelle (Guest): Thank you! I'm glad you like this story:) I loved seeing how people reacted to the dream; they're all freaked out at first but then relieved at the end XD I hope you enjoyed this chapter and about Candles, I'm halfway done with my chapter, so it'll be updated in no time! My chapter's pretty short though... But I'm excited that you're reading that story as well! I hope you'll like it:)
glimmergirlhg1: Aw, thank you!:) I'm glad you like this! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, despite the fact that it's pretty slow... But thank you so much!:)