After All This Time: What She Wished Read online

  After All This Time:

  What She Wished

  By

  Brittainy Brown

  Copyright @ 2018 Brittainy Brown

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Can a beautiful vibrant woman once crushed by love, learn to trust again?

  Forever it seems after her breakup from a not-so-great relationship, beautiful and vibrant Tina Jordan is still trying to get back in the game. She is thinking her heartbreak might not ever mend because she still can’t imagine loving again.

  And just like that, it changes.

  Awakened at the crack of dawn by a phone call from a former high school crush – the, what is supposed to be a short call delivering bad news, turns into a floodgate of reminisces that kindle a long-forgotten flame.

  When David Chase gets a chance to call Tina Jordan – the girl who sat in front of him in History class – he jumps at it. The circumstances aren’t the best but when he hears her voice, he finds himself falling for her all over again. He isn’t about to let her get away a second time and after talking for hours, he makes a date with her.

  When David and Tina finally get to act on the smoldering passion of earlier years, they share an over-the-top romance that neither one saw coming but both of them wished for. It is a courtship for the ages. After pining over what shouldn’t have been, what couldn’t have been, Tina and David come together for the best of what is yet to be.

  CONTENTS

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  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  CHAPTER 1 MEMORIES

  CHAPTER 2 DAVID

  CHAPTER 3 THREE FRIENDS

  CHAPTER 4 HER FRIENDS MAKE FRIENDS

  CHAPTER 5 HER FRIENDS MAKE FRIENDS

  CHAPTER 6 NOTHING TO BE SORRY ABOUT

  CHAPTER 7 HER OVER ME

  CHAPTER 8 VALENTINE

  CHAPTER 9 ANOTHER EVENING IN HER ROOM

  CHAPTER 10 A VERY DIFFERENT PERSON

  CHAPTER 11 TINA AND TOBY

  CHAPTER 12 THAT HUNGRY LOOK

  CHAPTER 13 LOVE AND SCHOOL

  CHAPTER 14 A GREEK INTRUSION

  CHAPTER 15 LYING, CHEATING BASTARD.

  CHAPTER 16 LIFE AFTER HEARTBREAK

  CHAPTER 17 BACK TO STAY

  CHAPTER 18 LOVE BUDS BY THE COAST

  CHAPTER 19 LOVE LIKE THEIRS

  CHAPTER 20 A PAIR OF PIGEONS

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  BOOK DESCRIPTION BREAKING POINT

  CHAPTER 1 BREAKING THE RULE

  CHAPTER 2 A SURPRISE OR A MISTAKE?

  CHAPTER 1

  MEMORIES

  T

  ina dipped her brush into the paint can, the bristles of her short stained brush becoming deep cream as the brush scooped thick paint. She planned to paint the edges of the wall, she was banishing the colors of the past. She wanted to scrape away anything that reminded her, anything that brought back even the smallest sliver of the past. Their room at her apartment had been cream and Charlie claimed even colors could be a more powerful reminder than places, so she had to change the color of this room. She absentmindedly dropped the paintbrush in the can, her eyes roaming around the square room.

  She took one last look round the room before she transformed it from what she remembered.

  This room is one of my greatest reservoirs of happy memories.

  As that thought came to mind, Tina tried remembering other places that held happy memories, soothing memories that made her life meaningful because she hadn’t been so sure in the past year. The past year had too much pained condensed in it, like an air-filled balloon the explosion rocked her, pain yielding memories and questions. Sometimes Tina knew she could not provide answers to those questions, no one except Toby could but still, she asked. She didn’t understand.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Tina wondered.

  This whole house was full of good memories. Her childhood had been awesome, she was full of love and laughter. This was the house she had grown up in. Her first kiss had been on the bed in this room Tina thought, her eyes making a fleeting movement to the spot behind the window where the bed used to be. She had read her letter of admission from the University of California here. Her best childhood memory had been the day her parents came back home together, she remembered it had been raining. The rain was a gentle sprinkle of water that caressed her back as she ran to hug her father when he came out of the car.

  “Are you back now dad?” she had asked him, refusing to let go of him when he wanted to pick up his luggage.

  “Yes pumpkin, I am back now,” he told her, his warm smile heating up her heart in the cold rain.

  She didn’t know much then, she was not yet twelve then. She did know her mom and dad had a fight and he didn’t come home for over two years. She missed him, she missed the deep timbre of his voice and the prickly feeling of his stubble when she hugged him in the morning before joining the school bus. He was back and that day the happiest day of her childhood. It stopped being the happiest in college and went a distant fourth later in college, she had more happy memories with Toby. Those were memories of a heartfelt love, love that she told herself she felt in her bones. Now she wasn’t so sure if she had really felt them in her bones.

  Tina had removed them from her list of happy memories. Toby had contributed to the first, second and third but now she had removed those and placed her dad coming back as the first. Tina wasn’t sure that was right but she couldn’t understand how someone who caused her so much joy could cause even more pain. During the first two months of his leaving, Tina sometimes felt her heart would jerk to a stop with the amount of palpitation she felt. Sometimes there would be a creeping cold, Tina now understood why people covered themselves and stayed in bed when in mourning.

  There was a cold that came from inside, it felt like dying with every breath.

  Tina shook her head, she was lost in memories again. She was working on stopping that, she didn’t want any unconscious reminiscing. She looked at the window and tried to remember happy childhood memories.

  Her room had been a grayish cream, the color never seemed to fade despite the long years. It was dull but that had been the only thing that was dull about her childhood. She was the only child from her parents, she remembered pestering her mom for a baby brother when she was eight. She stopped doing that later when her dad came back, she wasn’t sure why he left but she felt that might have been one of the reasons. Her mom confirmed it one afternoon when she was in high school. They could only have Tina, she said and she was enough. Tina remembered the deep blush she had when her mom told her that.

  High school was a struggle to fit in at first but when she did, it became a breeze. Evergrant high was just down the street. Tina would leave her house and go in the opposite direction, she was going to Charlie’s house. On getting to Charlie’s place, they would go round the end of the street to take the long way to school. Despite that, they were always on time that was how close their houses were to school.

  Charlie had long lost hi
s long childhood curls. Then he had hair that reached down his neck and into his eyes. He used to complain he couldn’t play basketball well then, he claimed the hair kept wandering into his eyes.

  “The swoosh movement confuses me when I run.” he would complain to her.

  Tina making her famous long face, turning up her nose as if to smell the words about to come out of her mouth, would answer him with the same answer every time.

  “Then go cut it, Charlie.”

  Charlie would shake his head and run off to continue playing. His hair was his pride then.

  It took Ronda insisting she wouldn’t go on a date with him if he didn’t remove those “unsightly twirls” for him to cut them. He always said it was those exact words that did the convincing for him and not his greater want to go on a date with Ronda. Tina didn’t care, she was happy he had them cut.

  On getting to school, Tina would open her Donovan diary. Her mom gave her the diary telling her to write all her bad experiences into them and leave them there. It had worked then, her diary had been full of her lunch getting stolen in class, Pedro and his clique bullying her and her missing a few marks in a history test. It stopped working when she became a senior, she felt the experiences got more painful than the book could contain and withhold. She had written it down when David McCallister started dating Maxine. She wrote it down but she still felt the hurt whenever she saw them sitting together at lunch, when she saw David wave to Charlie and her as they went home. He was waiting for Maxine, Maxine the vixen.

  One afternoon after David finished soccer practice, he was sitting beside Tina. He was talking about how he hated the fact that their school goalkeeper was too fat to dive properly when she surprised him with her question.

  “What do you see in Maxine, David?”

  David looked shocked. She saw his eyes arch, expanding his absorbent eyes to even more width. His pimpled cheek turned a shade of pink and he rubbed his neck with his left hand. He took time, not for a lack of answer but to reorganize his wits. The question had thrown him off.

  He looked into Tina’s green pupils, Tina was sure he could see the brown edges of her eyes, the blemish she always tried to hide.

  “She’s beautiful Tina. I like her and she likes me. She looks out for me Tina. Why are you asking?” he answered her, still fixing his gaze on her eyes as he expected her reply.

  “Well, she’s mean. You realize there is a reason why people call her a vixen. I don’t like her.”

  Tina replied, looking away from his piercing gaze. She saw his spotted feet, his pink nails contrasting with the dirty white soccer boots beside them.

  David removed his hands from inside his bag, holding Tina’s right arm with his left. Tina wanted him to stop, she was angry with him for dating Maxine.

  Why Maxine of all girls?

  And she wanted him to hold her still, for a bit longer. Her eyes failed to rise and her breath became a bit shallower. She stuck her gaze on the outline of his chest, the vest was wet with sticky sweat. It clung to every piece of skin on the upper region of his body, Tina felt like she was seeing him topless. She had never seen him topless.

  “People don’t understand Maxine. She’s a fantastic person, she just had a tough childhood. I like her Tina and I would love you as a friend to like her too.”

  Tina knew he said all that. He gave her the ‘good person’ lecture. She knew he spoke and breath had become words. But the only thing she heard was “I would love you.”

  She believed that. He would realize his mistake one day and break up with Maxine. He would look beside him and she would be waiting. He never did.

  CHAPTER 2

  DAVID

  “W

  here are you going, Freckles?” Pedro said, dragging her back by her bag, his voice vibrating with a Spanish accent like the gurgling of running water from a tap. Tina sometimes wondered if he went back to Mexico after school and came back the next day, his accent was horrible.

  “Nowhere.” she answered, stepping forwards to meet him.

  She was never scared of Pedro, the worst thing he would do was take her lunch. The problem arose when the gang shifted their attention to Charlie. She knew Charlie was scared even though he would never admit it, she could see it in his quivering eyes and the silent throb of his throat when Pedro said “Curly.” in his Latino shaded voice.

  Charlie used to stay behind her, watching with trepidation. His fear was always evident, even with his poor attempts to hide it. He stopped staying behind her when he saw her step up to Pedro, he didn’t want to look like the guy hiding behind the skirts of a girl. This didn’t help him, sometimes it made his fear even more apparent just like now.

  “Yes.” Charlie answered, stepping forward in slow measured steps. His round necked T-shirt read “Eat me”. Charlie was quivering like Pedro would eat him. Even if that was possible, there was no way Tina was allowing that to happen.

  Pedro pushed him while one of his mates ran to block Tina as she started to protest. She tried pushing past him but he was bigger and stronger than her. Tina watched as Pedro pulled Charlie down with his bag. He stood up again, this time with obviously reduced conviction. Pedro must have noticed this but he was enjoying this. This was sport to him, he smelt the fear and became activated like a shark smelling blood. Pedro pushed him again, this time with more force. Charlie fell, he didn’t stand up this time. Charlie curled into a ball, Tina was reminded of Survival Tactics she had been taught in Nature class.

  “The millipede curls into a ball, protecting itself with its hard chitinous back.” Mrs. Poddle had said. Tina wasn’t seeing any chitinous back on Charlie, he had nothing to protect him. This wasn’t survival, this was surrender.

  Pedro dragged at Charlie’s hair, intending to pull him up with just one strand of hair.

  “Get up Curls” Pedro shouted.

  “Leave that boy alone Pedro. Go find someone your own size.”

  Tina turned around in surprise, no one had ever talked to Pedro that way. She saw it was the new boy, the boy who had a grin stuck on his face. He was always happy about something. He didn’t find it difficult to settle in because he joined the school soccer and track team. He seemed to be pretty good because all the cheerleaders were always talking about him.

  He was standing upright, looking at Pedro with a smirk on his face despite the seriousness of his warning. Tina wasn’t sure which looked funnier, the smirk on his solemn face or the smiley on his shirt. He sure had a weird fashion sense.

  Pedro was caught off-guard with the initial threat but he had gathered his wits. He wasn’t going to stop what he was doing just because the new boy said so.

  “Do something about it.” Pedro said, taking one step over Charlie’s limp form.

  The new boy walked to Pedro. He stopped for a few seconds in front of Pedro before walking around him to lift Charlie. He helped dust down his dirty “Eat me” shirt then offered his bag. Charlie collected the bag and walked to Tina, who hugged him. The new boy then walked around Pedro again to stand in front of him.

  “Leave these guys alone Pedro.” he repeated. He had reduced his voice to a whisper but Tina was sure Charlie could feel his breath; he stood so close to Pedro.

  “I said do something about it.” Pedro repeated. Tina wasn’t sure but it looked like Pedro had taken a step back. His jaws didn’t have the tight set he had a few minutes ago, Tina wasn’t sure but it did look like Pedro was scared.

  Who is this guy?

  The new boy turned around and went back to his friends. One gave him his bag, Tina realized she didn’t even see him give the bag to the boy. She looked at Charlie whose eyes were still closed. She looked up to have a final look at the new boy but couldn’t find him. His friends must have surrounded him.

  Pedro watched them go then turned back to face Tina.

  “You weren’t any fun to disturb anyways.” he said. He snickered and walked away.

  Tina didn’t get to see the new boy again till two weeks later. Evergran
t high had a soccer match against Top-Trees High school. Top-Trees were a rival of Evergrant, the tension in matches between them seeped beyond the field and player, beyond fans and normally non-committal students to the parents of the students. Everyone talked about the upcoming match with Top-Trees. The match was at a higher stake now. Top-Trees had beaten Evergrant the last three times they met, two of those games had been friendlies and both had Evergrant at home.

  Before the game Tina and Charlie skipped Spanish class, deciding it was more fruitful to get comfortable seats for the upcoming game. Charlie was his usual chatty self, Pedro had stopped coming for them since David stopped him. Charlie seemed to have forgotten that the new boy was responsible for this but Tina fixed her eyes on him as they trained. She remembered as he brushed Pedro’s threat away like he mattered little, she wished to have courage like him. She wished he could be her friend, train her to be fearless.

  The team had their brown Evergrant training apparel on, some guys preferring to train shirtless. Tina wondered what the sense was in not training with a top given you play the game with a jersey top on.

  “What did you say Tina?” Charlie asked, looking at Tina with quizzical eyes. Tina wasn’t sure she didn’t see laughter in the set of his eyes and mouth. She wondered what was funny.

  “Say, did I say anything?” Tina answered, taking her gaze to the thin tall figure at the post. He had to be the goalkeeper but was that why he looked like he would grow to touch the clouds as they sped by. He was too thin.

  “Yes, you did. What are you thinking about? I was telling you about out using Matthew as the top striker again. You said something about being shirtless.”

  “Oh.” Tina realized she had said her feelings out loud “I was wondering why Teriq and Zachary had their tops off, aren’t they going to have their jersey tops on when the game starts?”