Aveline

Chapter Fourteen

After Lilian left my room, I laid down and began to write. Memories flooded my brain.

"Mommy I want to know about the beach again," I tell her, sitting down next to her on the couch.

Daddy isn't home and won't be coming home tonight. That's very good because it means me and mommy can have as much fun as we want.

Mommy holds out her hands and I stand up with her. She twirls me around and I giggle.

"You want to hear about the beach?" She asks, making me excited. I nod eagerly and she complies.

"The beach was beautiful. It has sand, small soft flecks that sift through your toes and fingers and it gets stuck in your wet hair. The air smells salty from the fresh waves that roll across the shore and guess what?"

I jump up and down. "What! What!"

"There's always an ice cream truck parked on the sidewalk for when you get out of the ocean and want a treat," she tells me, sweeping me into the kitchen and going to the freezer.

I step onto the stool and take a seat on the counter. She grabs out mint chocolate chip ice cream and hands me a spoon.

We always eat from the tub.

I grin, scooping some up and into my mouth.

"I want to see the beach, mommy," I tell her.

"And I want to take you there," she tells me with a smile.

It's too bad that never happened. It would have been nice.

But I don't want to dwell on past memories. I want to write her this letter and then burn it. I want to confess everything to her and then burn it.

So then the ashes of the paper are all that's left and she can read it in the afterlife. If there even is one.

I tap the pencil against the notebook and close it, not knowing how to finish it. I'll finish it tomorrow when I have more inspiration.

• • •

"I don't like being blindfolded," I tell Chase, pushing away the black strip of cloth. He pouts, holding it up.

"But, A, this is a surprise. And surprises only work like this," he complains, waving the blindfold in front of my face.

"You could murder me," I deadpan.

"I would never," he gasps with a hand to his heart.

"I'm going to need that on paper," I say, crossing my arms over my chest. He glares at me for a moment before running into his room and back out.

He places the lined paper on the wall and scribbles onto it.

"I, Chase Denvin vow not to murder Aveline Gold today or any day forth," he voices out loud and signs his signature. He hands it to me next.

I bite my lip to hide my smile and sign my name underneath his.

"Fine," I finally give in. I let him tie the blindfold over my eyes.

He laughs suspiciously behind me and places his hands on my shoulders to guide me.

"What are you doing?" I can hear Evan ask as he enters the hallway. "Oh—is it the thing—"

"Shut up!" Chase interrupts him. "You can't tell her or it won't be a surprise."

"Just take me to the damn place already," I tell both of them as they begin to whisper. I can't see anything and I'd like to get my vision back soon.

I'm also clueless to what Chase wants to surprise me with. He just barged into my room ten minutes ago and said he wanted to show me something special.

"Okay I want you to guess," Chase tells me, beginning to move me around. I walk where he guides me, hoping I don't stub my toes.

"If I stub my toe you'll be the one that gets murdered," I warn him, voicing my thoughts.

"I am about to revoke your surprise, Ms. Cranky," Chase mumbles beneath his breath.

I can hear a smack and Evan says, "dude, I wanna see her reaction. I'm putting off work for this so don't revoke it."

I laugh softly, of course Evan would want to see my reaction instead of working. I place my arms out in front of my just in case.

"Fine I won't revoke it," Chase grumbles. "But here we are."

I lift a hand to the blindfold but someone whacks it away. "Not yet," Chase tells me.

I exhale a breath and let him open the door. He guides me inside and takes the blindfold off.

"How do you like it?" He asks, excitement clouding his voice as he makes jazz hands.

I look at what's in front of me.

"You got me. . ."

Evan releases a loud laugh from behind me. "A stripping pole!"

I can't help the bubbling laughter that spills out of me. There's a small stage with a pole in the center of it. There's a little bar and LED lights flashing red, blue, and white.

Odd colors at the moment.

"Why did you get me a stripping pole?" I question him, going over to the edge of the stage and pressing a hand to the wooden surface.

Chase shrugs and says, "I heard you mention to Lillian that you had a pole in your fathers estate that you would use to dance on. I figured since this place is so boring, you might want something to do."

It's so sweet in a really odd way.

I grin facing Chase. "I like it."

He places his hands on his hips and smiles like an idiot. "Good because it's non refundable and I remade one of Leo's rooms for this."

I laugh again, shaking my head at him.

Evan scoots forward. "Well—are you going to show us what you can do."

My cheeks heat and I look back at the pole then at my outfit. I'm in one of the black skirts with a black top. In fact—a lot of my clothes seem to be black. I'm not sure if it was intentional but it happened.

I roll my eyes and say, "I can't do what I want to do in these clothes."

Chase pouts but says, "you can show us tomorrow when you have what you need."

I grin and nod. I've never danced for anyone before. "Yeah, that will work."