Chapter 18: Taking a chance with fate

It was Monday morning and me and my uncle had just finished washing up our plates and cleaning the kitchen. I had only been here for 2 days and was beginning to realize some of his habits, everytime he cooked he cleaned the kitchen right after he ate and  I'm  not saying that's a bad thing but it's a habit nonetheless.  "So that's the guy isn't it?" he asked me  with his eyes wide. "I  get the feeling that you like him but you just don't want to admit it" he continued on. 

"Oh gosh no!" I said quickly as I felt my cheeks heat up like an oven. I covered my face but if I kept my hands there any longer they would be blistered and burning red from my embarrassment.  "He has a girlfriend and besides he's a little strange" I added. 

I watched my uncle as he walked over to the couch and turned on the television. "Come on! He can't be that weird if you invited him over here last night!" he said to me while he put the remote in front of the T.v. and started flipping through all of the channels. The voices of people and music were being heard from the t.v but as soon as they were heard the sound was diminished and the cycle repeated again and again until the Sci-fi channel was on the screen. 

I sat down ignoring the T.v. and jumping right back into the conversation. "Hey! Let's get this straight...He came over here but he said Jess told him I was here....I'm sorry I let him in I just wasn't thinking really...We talked about important things actually-" I stopped talking and found myself staring at the t.v. but I wasn't really seeing what was on the screen, I was looking at something much more vivid. I saw David and I on stage singing and boy were my nerves kicking in and I wasn't even actually on stage yet. 

My uncle raised his eyebrow a little and squinted. "It's fine you let him in...I trust that you wouldn't do anything stupid- I just don't know him...What do you mean when you say 'important things?' " he asked me as he grew silent waiting for me to answer. 

My heart had been jogging for a while now as I was thinking about the competition but now my heart had gone on a full on sprint because I was actually talking about it. "Well- there's this competition and we're going to be singing a duet...He's supposed to come back over today and give me more details actually but so far that's all I know" Everything felt so real, I knew it was real but I had just kind of been putting it off so I guess I just kind of forgot how nerve racking it was actually going to be. 

My uncle's eyes filled with glee. "Wait a minute! MY super-shy, quiet niece is going to be SINGING in front of a bunch of people and she didn't even tell me?!?" He turned to me and started laughing. "Yeah..I know..I'm going to sing but it's for a good reason...Who ever wins gets $800 and I'm not passing that opportunity up" I said while smiling looking as cheesy as ever. 

"Oh darn" he said slowly. I noticed he looked kind of upset about something. "What?" I asked him hoping he would answer me but instead he said the last thing I expected him to. "I want to go but I have no one to go with...Do you think it would look odd if I showed up alone? Am I too old to even go?" he asked while looking nervously around the room. "I'm not sure...But don't sweat it you look pretty young anyways heck, you might even have to show I.D." I said jokingly. He sighed and went on saying "I'm such a lost cause! I met this woman earlier this Saturday and we caught each others eye...I thought we had a connection but I guess not..." I crossed my legs and rested my hands on top of them "Tell me more about this woman" I said intriguingly. 

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"Okay so, she had hair that was orange but then again it looked brown. Her grey eyes were squinting from the sun and it looked like she was looking for someone or something. I wasn't sure what to say to her and I just kept standing there debating whether or not I should speak up or just let it be.  

"When I finally caved in and decided to approach her we stood there staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. I still remember how fierce my heart was beating when I asked her  if she needed help with anything. She started apologizing for how messy her clothes were and told me all about her paintings, she's an artist.....A struggling one." 

"Her daughter sounds like a handful though, she was looking for her because she realized that she had skipped school and had no idea where she could be. I felt bad and felt like it would be too forward for me to ask her if she was single" 

"She asked me what I did for a living and I stumbled on my words like a dumb ass. But she seemed pretty impressed that I was a Cardiothoracic surgeon and a psychiatrist. All I did was answer all of her questions but I really wanted to know more about her." 

"We kept talking about my surgeries and all of that kind of stuff and all the people's lives  I saved and she told me she likes people who care for others, I didn't really know what to say but I just stood there smiling and before I knew it she was trying to get rid of me." 

"I mean she smiled at me but she said she enjoyed our conversation even though it was for a short period of time. She claimed she wished we had more time to talk but I'm not sure if she really meant it so I just said yeah and told her it was nice meeting her. I started heading  towards my car to get ready to leave and visit your grandmother later that day but I still can't get her out of my mind and it's only been a day" 

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Ignore Melody's stupid finger alignment here....I didn't realize it was that bad :S lol 

I quickly interrupted him before he even continued talking. "Sooo you just left? You didn't even at least give her your number?" I laughed , it was really funny how awkward and timid he was sometimes and he had no reason to be shy. He had lots of accomplishments and would be the perfect partner for anyone his age. "Have you thought that maybe just maybe she was trying to get you to give her your number without being too forward herself?" I asked him while pointing my index finger up towards the sky. 

"Look at me! I told you I'm a mess" he started laughing also and pointed towards himself. "I haven't been in a relationship in 2 years...I don't want to make a fool out of myself but...If we see eachother again then, we see eachother again but if not I guess it just wasn't meant to be..." He said as his voice trailed off and he got up from the couch. 

"Soooo...About that whole '$800 reward" thing, if it's for the silly mirror don't even worry about it. I already sent your mom a check annnnd a reccomendation to a therapist...I'm not trying to be rude but I really think she needs someone to talk to" 

I never really thought about it until now but my uncle was right, my mom probably did need someone to talk to. Life must be lonesome for someone who pretty much worked right beside her own husband who could barely stand her. My mother invested most of her life into making my father happy and she never really got to have friends and enjoy life itself. "Yeah you know she barely has any friends...Maybe that's why she acts the way she does" I said plainly while sinking my elbow into my crossed leg, my nerves were a bunch of little metallic beads sitting on a thumping speaker and they were bouncing all over the place. 

"Well maybe I can get her some help...If she isn't resistant. I'm going to be upstairs on the third floor making a blueprint for the recreation room I'm going to have built. If you need me just come on up okay" he said as he pointed his hands towards the brick wall behind him trying to point to where he would be. 

I headed down stairs to go to my room and  was reminded of the one little thing I absolutely hated about this house. Everyone could see the inside of the house and tell if you were home or not, it was creepy to say the least. I stood by the door scratching the wrist of my right arm not exepcting to see a familiar face standing behind the glass door. I opened the door and let them in and you could feel the floor grunt with every step that was made.

"Gheez Jess! What have you been eating these days?!?!" Kizzy shouted out as she walked through the door with Jessica hanging on her back like a Koala bear. "Hey there sis!" Jessica shouted out to me from behind Kizzy's head all while practically still holding on to Kizzy for dear life. Her hair was down, she was wearing a leather jacket, dark black eye shadow that made her blue eyes look like two mini oceans, and violet lipstick she looked edgy and rough and it didn't exactly make her look good. 

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked simply with my eyes wide as I held my hand out to them as if I could come up with some reason as to why they were here. We really needed to get some thick drapes and put them over the windows and the doors because everything was open, too open. 

"We need to talk to you- well Jess needs to talk to you but not really, she's pretty much asking for your opinion on something that she's is freaking out about. You know Jess though...She's ALWAYS over reacting" Kizzy said as she laughed and rolled her eyes just before Jessica nearly gave her the look of death. "Go outside, I can't even stand to be around you right now" She said  to her while eyeing her up and down. It was obvious Jessica was tense which was pretty unusual for her. 

Kizzy left the room and my sister immediately broke down like a car filled with diesel. "Oh my God I can't even believe I'm going to tell you this. I'm so- I'm so..." She grew silent and took a break while holding her head down in her hand as if she were ashamed. What did she have to say? Was it REALLY that bad? "I'm so God damn stupid! Let's go somewhere people can't hear us" 

I led her into my room and without a doubt or hint or reluctance Jessica started confiding in me as if she were on some sort of que. She wrapped her arm around my wrist and gripped it tight while pulling me in closer to her. "Look you can't tell anyone this but- I sent a topless photo to cris!" She nearly shouted out at me because she was so anxious and she rolled her eyes. "Im so fucking dumb!" she said once more. 

I knew my sister and Cris had their 'risque' moments if you know what I mean but I was still shocked she sent him a topless photo. Me and my sister never really talked before and now that we were talking more and more lately it was all so new to me, everything. The fact that she just said this to me made me feel like she trusted me which was weird because she never did. I was silent for a while and just had my mouth open and figured it was time to say something but I honestly didn't know what to say back. "I-I'm sorry but I honestly have no clue what to say" was all that I said to her while standing there thinking of all the worst things imaginable. 

My sister breathed in deeply and strong and exhaled just as loud as she walked over to my bed and sat down on it with her hand covering her face a little. "That's it? That's all you have to say? You're not going to say anything else?" She said as if she were confused. 

Words were not something that I could come up with at that moment. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and make her feel bad about herself although she probably shouldn't have done what she did.  I got on the bed and reached over for my sister as the bed squeaked from our weight shifting. I wrapped my arms around her and could feel her breathing heavily. "If he sends that photo to anyone I'm screwed" I rested my head against hers and just sat there listening to her, I felt like that was better than even attemptng to say anything. We sat there in silence but and her breathing grew slower.

In an instant she jumped up from the bed. "Shit! Uhh, I should get going, It's weird but I kind of feel a little sad not having you around even though it hasn't even been a week yet or anything like that but I just miss you...Please don't stay here for too long, things feel different without you" and just like that she left. 

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There was nothing to do after she left but somehow I found myself taking a dip in the pool. Her last few words stuck with me 'Things feel different without you'. She was right, things were different but I like things the way they are now. It hasn't even been a full week yet but things felt different, in a good way. I actually feel like a part of me is no longer empty but I don't exactly know what that thing is.

The water surrounds me and graces every move that I make. My skin tingles from the suns jagged rays and my hair caresses my collar bone, feeling like a soft mush of silk under all of this water. I extend my body straight out like a pistil inside a flower and move my feet back and forth as I come to the surface gasping for oxygen to fill my lungs. 

I breathed in deeply and quickly gasped once I saw David kneeling down towards the pool acting like an annoying brat. "Rawwwr!" He hissed out to me as a sinister look peered throughout his deep blue eyes. 

"Agh!" The water crashed up against my skin and sunk into my mouth from my panic. I almost forgot I was in water and was bobbing around around all over the place. 

I got out of the pool with my hands over my chest, still breathing in staggered motions. "I could've drowned! Or fallen on my head or something worse! What were you thinking?!?! Are you stupid or just plain evil?!?!" 

David stood there smirking at me and snickering like it was funny. "Stupid, no...Plain evil....Yeah maybe I might be" he said as he tilted his head and tapped the side of his cheek. Wap wap wap! "Come on! Give me your best shot, doll" He kept smiling at me and it was irritating like a bee sting. "I know I kind of deserve it...Hit me, I'm ready although it's not like it will hurt anyways" he looked me up and down and laughed some more. 

I scowled and rolled my eyes at him, he really was something else. "You know...You're so fucking stupid sometimes...I wont even hit you because I don't think you need to lose anymore brain cells from the blow to the head that I would give you right now" 

David walked around me, forcing me to turn around while he stopped moving and stood there in front of me. "You know that was pretty rude but I only came here to tell you about the competition anyways so I really don't really care about the ASSumptions you make about me" he said to me as he put an emphasis on the first three letters in the word assumptions. 

"Well if you came here to talk to me why are we standing here? I mean afterall you did just make a rude entrance....You might as well just walk straight into my bedroom..." I was being sarcastic but David played along and walked straight through the back door into the livingroom, trotting around until he opened my bedroom door and invited himself in. 

I walked through the bathroom to go to my room and just before I kept walking on I stopped and glanced at the mirror feeling pretty bare. I grabbed a long shirt I left hanging on the rack next to the bathtub, I really needed to organize my stuff. 

I walked into my room and saw David standing there looking frustrated and bothered. "Are you alright? If it's about what I said-" 

David had his hand touching his face and he was looking down at the ground. "No it's not you...It's something else" He stopped for a moment and bit his lip a litlle bit. "Yeah it is kind of about you...I've been trying to tell you something for a few days now but I'm not sure how you will react" 

"It can't be that bad, besides it's just me....What would I possibly do?" I asked him while looking up at the ceiling annoyed, by his cowardness. "I thought you said we needed to talk about the competition anywanys...What does this have to do with anything?" I asked. 

"Alot" he said quickly and then closed his mouth shut and remained silent. I put my hand out and touched his wrist lightly while putting my other arm out in the air to hold his other arm but I stopped and just left it there hanging in the air. I wanted to see how he would react before I grabbed his other arm but he was in another world and I looked down into his eyes as his hair was brushing up against my forehead.  

This feeling that I was feeling was all too familiar yet very distinct. "What is it? I don't know why you're so afraid to tell me..." I said to him while still trying to look at him but all he did was sigh and say "You don't realize how you react sometimes" What the hell did he mean 'How you react sometimes?' I thought I was a pretty calm person, he didn't even know me that well so who the hell was he to judge? 

David quickly pulled himself away from me and threw his arms up in the air. "You know what, I'm just going to come out and say it but don't say I didn't warn you." He paused for a moment and kept looking at me. "The competition is tomorrow at 3 p.m. , I'm picking you up and don't worry about trying to practice....I like winging things" He said that sentence so fast like one of those annoying automatic and electronic voices you would hear on those silly infomercials on Television. 

"What the fuck!" I yelped, I was nervous already but now he made me even more worried. He was out of his mind or either stupid but that came as no surprise to me. "Are you on drugs? We only sang that silly song together once and you think we can go on stage in front of a bunch of people and 'wing it', you're a dumb ass!" I shouted out to him. 

David had a smile on his face that could stretch from California all the way to Maine. "I love how optimistic you are" he said sarcastically and went on saying "I don't like practicing anything...In life sometimes it's just better to go with the flow" he said with his light blue eyes shining bright like two little suns. 

I didn't say anything, I was frozen by my fear. We were both standing in silence but David patted my shoulder gently with his warm hand. "Look, I believe in you so the least you could do is believe in your self." I stood there wanting to say something, I opened my mouth to say something but words just weren't coming to me, my breath was taken away. 

"Look  just relax...When we get there and go on stage throw up your Dio's even though we're not singing a rock song...It's just tradition"  He said while throwing up the rock and roll hand sign. He looked at me up and down because I was confused and my face showed my confusion. "You don't know about Ronnie James Dio and his grandmother?" He asked, sounding dumbfounded like that was something everyone should know. I remained silent and he laughed a little before saying "Wow...You know what, just forget it...I'll tell you the story later" 

I was still lost, so lost. "Ronnie James Dio?" I said confusingly while doing the hand gesture. It felt uncomfortable doing this and I wasn't even on stage yet but I sure would be tomorrow, thanks to David's short notice and crazy way of thinking.

"Yeah, Ronnie James Dio...Anyways, you surprisingly took that way better than expected...I thought you would say you didn't want to perform with me anymore" He said to me and after he said that I was thinking about bailing on him but then he kept talking. "You know, I knew I could count on you to respect my personal opinions about practicing....You still over reacted but it wasn't that bad...Thanks" I over reacted? He really was out of his mind and now I understood why he probably didn't win the last few times he participated. "I have to go...I'm sorry this was short notice...Just don't let me down." And just like that he left. 

I walked out of my room and went upstairs all the way up to the 3rd floor only to find my uncle standing there looking around at the empty room and scratching his forehead. "Hey Melly, do you think I should paint this room red or indigo?" He looked up at the ceiling and said "What about a vaulted ceiling? With colored glass...Now that would be nice huh?" 

"That sounds like a lot of work but it will be beautiful either way...I think indigo makes more of a statement than red...Not everyone paints their rooms indigo...It's different and I think you could pull it off with the right furniture" I said to him as I looked around the room with my eyes wide open. He had a decent amount of room  to put some nice furniture in here, I just hoped he wouldn't over crowd the room with too much stuff. 

He started smiling and said "You know, I like the way you think...Sooooo how did everything go with loverboy?" He said while smirking at me. "You know I could hear you right? You guys sound so cute...You sound like two little kids fighting over a doll or something... it's truly adorable" He added before laughing his ass off. 

"It's not funny!" I said somewhat loudly. "He's such a dumbass and he doesn't even bother to think things through, he thinks we can go on stage and sing a song from the 60's that I barely even know half the lyrics to and win a competition...Oh yeah and the real kicker is that it's TOMORROW and he waited this long to tell me A DAY BEFORE! You know sometimes I want to just slap him!" I said while putting my hand on my hip and rolling my eyes trying to understand his logic but it still made no sense whatsoever. 

"Oh man, this is going to be great! I'm definitely going to be there...What time is it?" My uncle said excitingly, he was just waiting to see us make a fool out of ourselves. He started laughing and then calmed down a little bit but he was still grinning from ear to ear. "I'm just kidding but in all honesty I just want to hear you guys...No one can turn down some live entertainment..Hopefully the crowd won't be so tough." 

I placed my hand on my head and sighed. So many things were probably going to go wrong and he was in denial about everything. "I can't go up there and make a fool of my self" I muttered under my breath. I could see it already the awkward stares, the silence, the people standing there not even dancing. Was it too late to back out?