This Can't Be Love

Chapter 13: Homecoming

After a very long week, it is finally Friday evening and Samantha arrives at Bethany's house by taxi as usual. As she steps into the house and begins to take off her coat and winter wear, she wastes no time asking her mother about Aaron.

"So, have you talked to him?"

"To Aaron? Not really."

"We should call him. He was always doing nice things for us before this happened... Invite him over for dinner, to make up for the Thanksgiving he missed."

"That would be nice..."

Samantha hangs up her coat and grabs her travel bag. She begins to walk up the stairs.

"I'll be right down, I'm just gonna put this away."

Bethany looks at her with a smile.

"Well its a little late for me to start cooking now, doll. What do you say we just invite him over and maybe order out?"

Samantha keeps walking upstairs without looking back at Bethany.

"I dunno, mom. I think we should do something special..."

Bethany sighs and chuckles to herself. She walks to the kitchen and opens up some cabinets to figure out what she can cook up.

Samantha is upstairs now and enters her room, she sees a folded note on her bed with her name on it. With a furrow of her brow, she mumbles to her self as she goes to pick it up.

"What's this now..."

She unfolds the note and begins to read it. As her eyes trail through the words on the paper with a mild squint, she shakes her head and folds it up again.

"This is from like seven years ago..."

She walks over to her dresser and pulls out the bottom drawer to toss the note in it. But when she pulls the drawer out, she gasps and her eyes become wide open. She calls out to Bethany who is downstairs in the kitchen.

"Hey mom...!?"

Bethany hears this and walks over to stand next to the stairs and respond.

"Yes, doll?"

"Did you go into my room?"

"No, honey. Not at all, why?"

"Are you sure? Because... Well... Did you go in any of my drawers?"

Samantha now stands by the top of the stairs looking downward at Bethany, who assures her response to the question.

"No, Sammy, I literally haven't been in your room in years. Is something wrong?"

Samantha hesitates to tell her and ultimately just shakes her head and walks to her room again.

"Don't mind me, mom. I think I misplaced something."

Bethany shrugs her shoulders and goes to the pantry by the kitchen. Samantha, upstairs, sits on her bed staring at an empty dresser drawer that used to be filled with notes and letters, slowly shaking her head.

"This isn't happening..."

Samantha's habit of hiding proof from her mother of Aaron's affection for her is the only thing keeping her from talking about it. She still does not want to tell Bethany that something is missing, simply to avoid further questioning. She looks at the window of her bedroom, which is securely locked and shows no signs of tampering. She looks around her room trying to find a clue that someone has been in there but, other than the empty drawer, everything looks as normal as usual.

Downstairs, Bethany is on the phone with Aaron while casually checking some items in her pantry.

"...Well we're just happy that you're ok."