Incandescent

Chapter 3 - Gaping at him like a confused little duckling

HELLO, ALL OF YOU!!!

TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE  ON HAZEL AND ASHTON :) THERE ARE GOING TO BE SOME FLASHBACKS IN THE CHAPTERS FROM NOW ONWARDS SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT THEIR FRIENDSHIP WAS LIKE DURING SCHOOL.

ENJOY!🖤🖤

I ran frantically towards Grandpa's room, where the stupid phone wouldn't stop ringing, and no one else was picking it up. I dashed into his room and picked the phone.

"Hello?" I was greeted back with a voice that I could recognize anywhere. Ashton. My best friend who now apparently didn't even remember me. I kept quiet.

"Hello? Grandpa?" he asked again.

I shoved the phone towards Grandpa, who was sitting peacefully on his bed, doing meditation. Couldn't he have picked up the phone?

"It's Ashton. He wants to talk to you." I informed him.

"Tell him that I don't want to talk to him." Grandpa said loudly, to make sure Ashton would be able to hear it at his end. I lifted the phone to my ears and spoke again, a little hesitantly.

"You must have heard that right?" I asked, dying to hear his voice again.

"Tell Grandpa that I'll come by the house around 2 PM to meet him." And with that, he cut the phone. I couldn't help but noticing the boredom and disinterest in his voice. It was clear that he had no interest whatsoever in talking to me. It made me feel disappointed as hell.

"What was he saying?" asked Grandpa. If he was so interested in what Ashton had to say, why couldn't he have spoken to Ashton himself?

"He's dropping by at 2 PM to see you." I put the phone back down on the desk and stomped out the room. It was 1 PM now, and Ashton would be here in an hour. I didn't want to face him, so I would just have to go back to Arlette's pretending to have a meeting or something. I picked up my bag from the couch in the living room and was about to leave when I was stopped by Aunt Jen.

"Hazel! Helena and I are going to the passport office for some work. I need you to prepare lunch for Ashton and stay here until he comes." Aunt Helena was the wife of my mom's second brother. A lot of family and relations, I know.

"What? But I have an important meeting to attend." I lied. The truth was that I was just nervous to actually talk to him face to face.

"Cancel the meeting then. Please, Hazel? If I could manage I wouldn't have asked you." She persisted.

"Okay, fine. I'll make lunch." And I stormed into the kitchen angrily. He didn't even want to see me. Then why was I being forced to be all nice and make lunch for him? The only reason I was doing this was because Aunt Jen asked me to. I heard her speaking on the phone and went back into the living room to hear who it was.

"Please come on time Ashton. Hazel is preparing lunch especially for you, you wouldn't want to miss it." she chirped enthusiastically. Why did she have to tell him that? I went back into the kitchen and finished making the food, while both my Aunt's left for the passport office.

Ashton

It felt refreshing and nostalgic at the same time, to be back in LA after 10 long and hard years. This place harbored some very good and very bad memories, most of which I didn't want to remember, but then again memories can't just be deleted.

One of the memories I desperately wanted to forget about was the memory of my former best friend, Hazel Martin.

While I was in London, I thought about her a lot, but now that I was back in LA, a place where everywhere I went was filled with memories of her, the need to see her in person was too strong. But there was something thing that was overpowering my need to see her again. Anger. Revenge.