Unforgotten Memories

Chapter-3

Jackson

"Hello?" She says, sniffling from the other side of the line.

"Pumpkin?" I ask apprehensively, sitting up straight and leaning against the headboard of my bed.

"Are you crying?" I put a shirt on and get ready to sneak into her room.

"No?"

*Sniffles*

"Stop lying to me, Rosie." I say as I start my bike.

"Where are you? Are you riding the bike? Don't call me when you're riding. I'm hanging up." She says.

"No no no! Don't you dare hang up on me. I'm on my way to your house. Keep your windows open, because daddy is on his way." I retort smugly. She chuckles and I can imagine her shaking her head.

"You aren't my daddy, you fool." She says laughing lightly.

"Ohh you'd love to call me that soon, babygirl." I say, fake deepening my voice. I park my bike a couple of blocks away from Rosie's house so that I don't wake her parents up. Since Rosie's room is on the second floor, I gotta climb a terrible tree with splinters. Every time I climb this tree, my hands bleed because of all those splinters. Rosie keeps scolding me, telling me that it'll get infected if not treated properly. But I'd rather have a nasty ass infection than not being able to see my girlfriend in the middle of the night. I grab a thick branch and pull myself up whilst placing my foot on another one. I keep climbing till Rosie's window is within my reach. I gently knock on it, precariously holding on to a tree branch. She moves her curtains aside and opens the window, letting me into her room.

"Baby I got a couple of-"

"Splinters? I know. That's why I kept my first aid box ready." She says interrupting me. I smile proudly at my pumpkin and kiss her cheek.

"You always whine like a baby whenever you climb that tree." She says, plucking the splinters off my hand. I move a strand of hair from her face and enjoy the view of my little nurse, tending to my wounds.

"Why were you crying?" I ask softly. She looks at me with her big doe eyes, her lower lip trembling and tears threatening to spill. She nods towards her bed before letting out a painful sigh. I follow her lead and see a book, The Fault In Our Stars.

"Ugh for God's sake Rosie!" I groan while taking her in my arms. I kiss her temple and take her to bed, placing her in my lap.

"Why do you read this crap if it makes you cry every time?" I ask with amusement.

"Because it's so good." She whines, pushing her face against my neck.

"Whenever you read this, you're a crying mess. I should've never gifted you this crap." I mumble. She lifts her head off of my neck and looks at me with wide eyes.

"Don't you dare call this crap! This is one of the best books I've ever read." She says, grabbing the book and hugging it to her chest. I let out a quiet sigh and hold her tightly.

"You're really stupid, you know?" I whisper into her ears.

"I know." She mumbles.

"But you're my stupid." I say kissing her all over her face. She breaks into a fit of giggles and pushes me away.

"You're so clingy. Can you stay even a minute without touching me?" She asks, getting off of my lap. I pull her down back into my lap and hug the life out of her.

"There is no way I can stay even a second without touching you." I say, placing my head on her chest. She gently strokes my hair and kisses my forehead.

"And there is no way I can stay even a second without feeling your touches." 

I try to the best of my abilities to not look at Rosie as I am sitting in the passenger seat of her car. She was this innocent little nerd in high school, a shy, docile, soft spoken girl. Well, she was all that in public, with me, she was a total crackhead. But now, I feel like I don't even know her. She has changed a lot......physically. Her shoulder length brown hair has now grown till her waist. Rosie used to hate having long hair, she'd always complain how tangly they would get and how difficult it was to tame them. So she would maintain them till her shoulder length. I never thought that she could get any more beautiful than she already was, but boy I was wrong. She took her own time to transform into this gorgeous, graceful woman.

Sigh.

She's a woman now. She has put on some weight and that just adds up to her beauty. Her arms and thighs have become thicker. Her little waist, well, isn't that little anymore. How I wish I could hold her in my arms, like old times. I so wanna feel her body against mine. It's pretty ironic, that I cannot bear anyone touching me physically, yet I have this strong urge to feel Rosie up.

"Nothing has really changed here." She says chuckling nervously.

"Yeah. It hasn't." I say, focusing on the road ahead of us.

"Uhm listen, I will get out of your hair as soon as I can, just give me two days. Once everything settles I'll leave." I say, embarrassed. I didn't consider the possibilities of my house being sold. I didn't even consider how I'll be living here. After what happened in the base camp, I wasn't in the state to think of inconsequential things like these.

"What are you saying, Jackson? Are you trying to me hurt me or something?" Rosie looks at me with a hurtful expression.

"No, I just-"

"Then stop blabbering nonsense. You aren't leaving until everything is settled. You're gonna stay with me till you get a stable job. Don't even think of moving out otherwise." She says. Her face is flustered out of angst and she looks nothing less than a grumpy chipmunk. I stifle my laughter and look at her from sideways.

"I'm sorry." I say lowly, trying to hide my smile. She lets out a loud sigh and places her hand on my arm.

"No, I'm sorry. I just overreacted." She says. I stiffened when she touched my arm. How do I tell her that I have a problem with any sort of physical contact? I immediately smacked her hand away, the regret resurfacing of course. She looks at me with shock and sadness.

"I'm so sorry. It's just that, I am kinda weirded out with people touching me." I mumble. She nods her head understandingly, giving me a soft smile. However bright her smile is, they don't reach her eyes. I lean back on the headrest and close my eyes, regretting my decision of coming here. I should've just moved to another country. Coming back here was nothing but a huge mistake. I am pretty sure Rosie has moved on from me, she probably has her own life to attend to. She might've even got a boyfriend. 8 years is a very long time, and for a girl like her, it's next to impossible to not have a boyfriend. I mean, who wouldn't want her? She's smart, caring, sweet, gentle...........fuck I missed her so much. This distance that we're having is killing me. But there's nothing I can do about it. Being in the war zone for 8 years has fucked me up, mentally and physically. I'm too screwed up to live with. I'll have to spend the rest of my life alone because I know for a fact that I cannot lead a normal life from now. Everything has changed and it has changed for the worse.

"We're here." She says pulling over to the front side of her house. I take a look at her house and nearly gasp, everything looks exactly like how it was the last time I saw it. Except for the tree, which was covered in splinters.

"Wasn't there a tree here?" I ask her as I get out of the car. She looks at the place I was pointing at and gives me a sad smile.

"I made daddy cut it off the day you left. I never liked that tree anyways, it was full of splinters."

"Then why did you keep it for that long if you didn't like it?" I whisper. I cringe at my question. We both knew very well why that tree was kept there for so long. It's as if I'm trying to rekindle those moments with her. I look at her apologetically for a minute or two, before she tells me,

"Because it carried certain memories, that I once treasured."