Forgetting You

Chapter 1

I hadn't seen Ashton Michaels in six years. Honestly, I had never really paid attention to him when we were younger, even though he was constantly over at my house, visiting with his family. My dad was best friends with his father, and when his mother passed away, they moved away and basically dropped off the face of the earth. Now, they had come back just in time for our junior year to start, and my dad had insisted we had a welcome back party for them. All seven of them. Yes, SEVEN.

Ashton had five brothers. He had been given three younger siblings, and then had two older. The last time I saw them, Ashton was just a skinny gawky ten year old who wore glasses and had a huge metal mouth. Alex was the youngest one, at age four, so now ten, and was quite frankly, a cute little kid who had a very.... interesting vocabulary that I was pretty sure he picked up from riding with his dad at the trucking place he worked at. The second youngest one was Peter, a very intelligent kid who hated playing dirty, if I remembered him quickly, and was probably now around fourteen. The kid right before Ashton was Kendall, the now fifteen year old that used to be the toughest nine year old on the block. Then the two oldest was Zack and Noland. Zack was twelve, two years older than I, and Noland used to be fourteen.

Noland was probably the one I looked up to the most. Noland and Zack, when I knew them, had a band. Noland was a rocker boy with a tongue piercing and a voice that was almost as glorious as nutella and graham crackers (My favorite snack as a prepubescent kid). Zack had a sick guitar that he could play just as equally well and Noland could sing. They were the dynamic duo that the girls at their school would drool over. My mother didn't really approve of me hanging out with a boy six years older than me, so Ashton always had to be there. Of course, as a girl who just wanted to play with Polly Pockets this whole idea seemed absurd. It ticked me off that I had to hangout with some nerdy kid when I was just trying to hang out with my hypothetic brother. Looking at it now, my mother was probably smart to do this, but at the same it just didn't make sense to me.

And now, I would be seeing Ashton and Noland again. The only reason why I was nervous for seeing Ashton again was because he could seriously hurt my street cred (which was actually nonexistent, but I still liked to pretend I had at least some swag). He would probably want to cling to me at school, due to I had an obligation to be nice to him under orders of my barbaric father. Just thinking of this act made me shudder. Noland, on the other hand, I was particularly thrilled to see. With six years of no contact whatsoever, I was excited to hear how he and Zack's band was doing. Did they add another person? Did they change the name? Did they have a CD? About a thousand questions were running through my head.

"Emberlynn Quinn Stevens, have you been sitting on your bed for the past hour? The Michaels will be here in fifteen minutes!" My mom, a tall bony lady with a perfect smile and bouncy brown curls burst through my bedroom door. Almost instantly, her face pinched into a deep frown as she saw what I was wearing. "I told you to dress nicely!" She scolded me, briskly walking to my closet and digging through the racks.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, shouldering myself past her to pick my own outfit out. I was not a toddler. "I lost track of time. I'll hurry."

"And don't you dare wear those ugly moccasins." She commanded. I took an inward gasp. Those were my favorite shoes. In my opinion, they could go with any outfit and I would still look like a million bucks.

"Fine. Please leave so I can get changed." I demonstrated to a simple floral sundress. Nodding her approval, she strutted out of my room closing the door. "And my moccasins are not ugly." I sniffed towards myself, taking a long glance at them piled in the corner of my bed. Sighing, I just decided I should probably listen to my mother. Stripping down, I slipped the dress over my head and then ran a hand through my dark wavy hair. I didn't really have enough time to straighten it, so I just shrugged my shoulders and left my do as is.