Braided

Chapter 22: Dear Diary

"Oh my God Nathan you're so strong!" I cheered him on as he carried the side table down the narrow stairs.

"Thanks, I always knew I was tough." He flexed his arms like he was a strong man.

"Feel them." He had his arm flexed in front of me. I giggled and touched his arm playing along with him. He knew he didn't have hardly any muscles, but that didn't mean he didn't have the right to brag about what he did have.

"Oh you're muscles are so big." I played along.

"I know, I mean I'm scared of my own strength sometimes."

"I bet you are my tough guy." I poked him on his nose.

"Okay, let watch this tough guy get this to you're room." He smiled bending over to pick it up again.

"No, no no." I waved my finger at him smiling before handing him the towel I was holding, "Lets scrub it here before you Amazingly bring it to my room." I smiled picking up the spray and the other towel from the floor. I had gotten them earlier when I had thought I was going to be the only one here, but like always Nathan came to my rescue.

It wasn't a hard task, but it was slightly fun to see the old dusty thing become almost new. It was a lot dirtier than I had thought, because at some places it was harder to scrub and I had to get new towels. The dust had to of been thick on it from all the time it had spent living in the attic. It was still a pretty piece nonetheless.

When we were done I followed Nathan to my room. The way he was carrying it it seemed like it was nothing to him. It was kind of embarrassing to admit that I probably wouldn't had been able to do this on my own. I wasn't very strong and it would had probably sat in the attic for a bit longer till Mom had gotten home.

"I brought you something." Nathan smiled reaching into his back pocket.

"Really?" I smiled wondering what he was going to bring out.

"Ta Da!" He flipped a photo to show the both of us laying on my bed cuddling. It was the thing I had asked him if I could have.

"Oh My God Nathan!" I grabbed the photo and hugged my lovely boyfriend in happiness. It was perfect.

"I knew you'd love it." He smiled down at me.

"It is." I smiled back before giving him a peak on the lips.

We laid on my bed watching a movie. I hardly paid attention and kept staring at the picture of us. It was perfect. We both looked so in peace and relaxed and you could tell we loved each other. We did it without kissing or hugging it was just simply laying on the bed next to each other. Nathan only had time for the movie because he had to go some where with his parents. I was so sad to see him leave, but looking at the photo reminded me that I shouldn't be. We were perfect. Everything was perfect.

I walked by the attic door I could see the light coming out of the bottom of the door. We had forgotten to turn off the light. I opened the door and decided to go back up. I didn't explore it much before and it was kind of a new area of the house I hadn't been to very often. It was still pretty foreign to me. I paused at the box I had put together at the top of the stairs. I had forgotten that I had even packed it together to look at.

I decided to peak around the room some more and I didn't realized how thick everything in the attic was covered in dust. Maybe it was a mixture of the lack of lighting and the expectations of dust that caused me to not realize how thick everything was layered. I didn't even realize how thickly layered the desk side table was until we got it downstairs. Everything up there had to been there for a long time.

I tossed the box on top of my bed and then cried out in aggravation. when I automatically noticed the dust leaving a dark mark on my freshly cleaned covers

"I just cleaned these." I whined trying to wipe it off, but soon gave up. I just sat on the bed sorting through the box. What was use of being careful my cover was already dirty. I placed some of the items down and around on the bed. The first thing that caught my eye was the diary for 1999 and curiosity arouse when I saw it. I wonder how my grandmother reacted to the day I was born. I flipped the pages till I got towards the end October and then slowly turned the the first of November. I might as well read about what lead up to my birthday.

November 1st 1999

Hello Diary Today I have Great News! Brandy has decided to come back home from Texas for a little while. She's taking a plane here tomorrow. She said she wanted to have it be a suprised, but Ididn't want me to have plans. I wouldn't of anyway. I miss her so much It had been so long since I had seen her, lately her phone calls had been less frequent too. I hope soon she'd decide to move back or at least in the same state. I've missed her quite a bit and it's been stressful for me to worry about her. I hope she gets over that whole ordeal and come back. It's been a year and she deserves better. I just want the best for her.

Love

Martha

I skipped to the next page. There was no mention of Mom being pregnant with me or even she was excited for it. I didn't know that they would let someone pregnant ride a plane, especially since she was so far along with me. Maybe my grandmother didn't know and that was what the surprise was all about. Maybe Mom was a bit late on the informing train.

I paused in shock at the sight of the first line of her next entry of what was supposed to be my birthday.

She took the girl I don't know what to do.