Perfectly Hopeless (23 page)

“
I love you, Henri.” She backed away, letting Doug step into view.

“
Love you, bud.” He patted Henri’s arm before taking off out of the room.

Aunt Janet stepped up along with his uncle. They each grabbed his hands. “You always were stubborn, even at a time like this.” His uncle joked. He cleared his throat extra loud and shook the emotions away.

“
You remember all those talks we had kiddo. And you remember that I love you. We all do.” She kissed his forehead extra long.

Henri smiled at everyone, pleased to see his entire family and Maven around him in a time like this. He wasn’t sure if it was the end, but there was an eerie presence in the room. “Don’t forget about Maven.” He looked at Flynn this time. “Don’t let her be miserable, any of you.”

Sandra and April snuck past their brother and kissed Henri on the cheek. They whispered I love you in his ear and stood beside their dad trying to hold it together.

“
I promise I won’t let her be miserable. Although I might make her miserable if I come around to much.” Flynn grinned, looking over at Maven. She smiled.

“
He’s my cousin and best friend. I swear he’s good company. Don’t be afraid to call him if you’re ever down. He owes it to me, take advantage.” Everyone laughed.

Flynn looked around the room, not sure what was to happen next. “Why don’t we leave these two alone? We said our goodbyes. Besides, I don’t think he’s going anywhere just yet he still is handing out orders.”

Everyone cleared the room. Maven pushed the door shut and climbed up in bed again. Henri pulled her close. He closed his eyes, breathing in her hair. “It’s safe to say that I’m in love with you.”

“
I love you too, Henri.” He pulled her hand to his chest, holding it there.

“
I keep waiting for it to stop. And then I think how stupid that is because I would never know it.” He sighed.

Maven concentrated on the crashing of his heart into her palm, and slowly it lessened and lessened until she fell asleep. She woke every few minutes to be sure he was still next to her, his heart beating. And then she would close her eyes again.

Finally Henri’s heartbeats were nothing but a memory—for her or anyone.

Henri would forever be a memory, a great memory that she would carry with her forever.

Fall

The crisp leaves raced across the pavement of the university. A car pulled into a parking spot coming to an effortless stop. Maven immerged from the back of her parent’s minivan, along with Nick, Maggie and her mother.

Her dad surveyed her new college campus. Nick unhitched the uhaul’s door, sending it above his head with a rattle. “This place isn’t bad.” He looked around at all the young girl’s carrying up boxes of their own for the new school year.

Maven rolled her eyes. “Only you, Nick.” She helped her mother carry the light boxes up the long path to the dorms.

Maggie followed behind. She caught up with Maven pulling at the corner of a frame in the box in her sister’s hand. “What is this?”

“
A picture,” Maven insisted. “One that Henri painted. I am hanging it in my dorm.”

“
It’s nice.” Maggie drifted back behind her sister, watching her happily head inside the dorm. Something she hadn’t seen in a long time since Jake Summit dumped her. She never thought something awful like losing someone you cared about would change things so. But they did, Maven was a new person. Henri fixed her.

***

Flynn dropped down by the water, pulling out his cell phone.

How’s college? Sorority Freak.
He smirked, resting the phone on his knee.

He received a reply almost instantly.

Nice one. It’s great, just about settled in my room.

He looked at the water, everything motionless. A pale leaf fluttered from above and brush against his nose. He batted it away.

Will you be around this summer?

Maven pulled the framed painting from the box. She took a seat at her desk, running her fingers across the glass. She smiled at the memory.

Of course. Portwood is a tradition.

Another leaf sailed eerily from the tree brushing into Flynn’s nose. He sighed, irritated, and stood up, surveying the tree
.
There were no more leaves left to bother him. With that in the back of his mind he sat back down, resting his back against the trunk.

We will have to get together and share some Henri moments. I miss him.
He replied, letting out another sigh.

Suddenly a rush of leaves swirled around him falling on his head. Flynn jumped.

“
I don’t believe in ghost, Henri,” Flynn said dryly, stuffing the phone into his pocket. “You got to do better than that if you want to convince me of such a thing.”

Maven told Flynn she had to finish up unpacking and flipped to the video on her phone, the one of Henri. She smiled at the sound of his voice, the flicker of life in his eyes. Happy to have that one constant reminder of him, not a day went by that she didn’t revisit it. So she could drift back into the greatest moments of her life, to that brown eyed boy that made her laugh, that made her smile and happy. He had made her so happy.

“
We just made a memory…” Henri’s voice echoed into the small dorm room.

Maven gasped as the painting Henri made her slipped off her desk and landed on the floor without breaking. She kneeled down and retrieved it, taking the hammer and nail out of her box to hang it in its rightful place on her wall, beside a picture of Henri and her from the night of the ball.

She touched the corner of the picture frame admiring his handiwork.

For once she looked forward to what was to come.

“
I love you, Henri.” She smiled.

Other books from Holly Hood

Wingless Book Series

Wingless (V.1)

Polar (V.2)

Scattered and Broken (V.3)

Prison of Paradise (V.4)

Letters to you (V.5)

Back to life (V.6)

Ink

Love Sucks Series

Love Hurts: The killing of Rose

Contact Holly Hood

[email protected]

Twitter:
Winglessreapers

Blogger:
http://fictitiouschronicles.blogspot.com/

Check out another amazing author, Brandi Salazar’s new release, Buried Secrets!

Buried Secrets

Prologue

Fall crept in like a burglar while the town slept. It brought with it a chill that felt refreshing after one of the hottest summers on Oakridge record. A slight, sticky fog hung in the air and evidence of Halloween was on nearly every doorstep in the form of carved jack-o-lanterns. Skeletons hung on doors and festive orange lights draped roofs. Leaves coated the ground, wet and matted to the sidewalks and streets.

James breathed in the cool air that stung his nose just a bit. He loved when school let out at the end of the day. He never could wait to get out of the confines of the small, overcrowded classrooms. Even now he couldn’t fully escape it. Classmates of his both walked and ran the same mile stretch he was, laughing and talking about anything and everything. Right now, he knew the junior high girl and her friend from his science class walking a few feet behind him were debating the hotness of Tommy Henderson, the varsity basketball player for Oakridge High. Everyone knew him, and everyone loved him. He was going to take the team to the championships. Probably would graduate and take some college to their championship, too. Something the whole town could be proud of.

James wasn’t popular. Wasn’t even semi-popular. He lacked friends in a big way and he was quiet, something his mother always told him would make people think he was a snob or thought he was better than everyone. He didn’t. Actually, he thought he was pretty much a loser. His face was dotted with acne, he was tall, but gangly, things his dad never missed an opportunity to point out would prevent girls from ever looking his way, and his voice cracked at the most inopportune times. He was a mess. He did have one friend, though—Andrew Jones, but he liked to be called AJ.

They met a few years ago when James was playing in the woods. AJ found him digging for worms—he’d been on a mission, wanting to teach himself how to fish, to live off the land like the people from ancient times—and he’d offered to help. AJ had run off, leaving James to sit and wonder where he had come from—he hadn’t heard him approach in the first place—when he came back cupping a handful of water in his palms. He’d dumped the liquid in the hole James had dug, and moments later, worms began squirming to the surface.

They had become fast friends. James kept their friendship a secret. He wasn’t sure why exactly; except that AJ was his only friend and he wanted to keep him all for himself. If he told someone, they might want to meet him then the magic might go away. So they spent all that summer collecting worms and pretending to be hunters in the deep woods behind Oakridge Park. When summer break was over and school was back in session, James was disappointed to find that AJ wasn’t in any of his classes. In fact, he wasn’t in any classes in the school. No one had heard of him.

He finally broke and told his mom and dad about him one evening over dinner, because he was worried about AJ and needed to share him with someone so he could feel close to him again. Like if he kept him a secret, and didn’t see him, then he wouldn’t be real anymore. It was an odd way to look at it, he knew, but he hadn’t ever had a friend quite like AJ. He was fun and daring and super inventive, and he liked James, flaws and all.

So when he told his parents about AJ, they were happy for him. His mom said he probably just missed him in the halls. The schools weren’t huge, but they were big enough to lose someone in. His dad said that AJ probably just went to a different school. Maybe in the next town over, since no one knew him here. That settled it for a bit, and the next time James saw AJ, which was at the park just after sunset one evening when James was on his way home from skipping rocks in the small stream in the woods, he asked him about it. AJ had told him that both theories were wrong. He lived a few miles west through the woods and his mom homeschooled him. He said his dad did some sort of factory work in the next town, which was just enough to pay the bills and put food on the table, according to him. It was only then that James realized AJ didn’t wear the best of clothes and he wasn’t as kempt as he was. But that didn’t make any difference to him. In fact, he felt closer to AJ than ever before. Finally he had found someone who would never judge him. Someone that could truly understand him.

So when Mercy Worthington fell into step with him, James’s heart beat a rapid tempo and his stomach turned to knots.

“
Hi,” she said in a very delicate, but cheerful voice.

James stared at the ground and muttered a hello, but he couldn’t get up the nerve to really look at her.