The Yellow Umbrella

Chapter Thirteen: Snowflakes on My Tongue

"Am I a bad person?" I asked Wyatt as we strolled through the packed mall.

It was literally days before Christmas and I had somehow forgotten to buy presents for everyone, including my officially new girlfriend.

Seeing stores packed with last minute shoppers made me feel a little better about myself that there were other people in this work procrastinating just as much as I was. I saw a mom, dad, and son walk out of a bakery with a gingerbread house building kit and felt a wave of sadness. I would never get a memory like that. I wished I had done more, made more memories when my parents actually liked each other. What would I tell my kids about my childhood? That I sat around and watched my family crumble apart? I shook the feeling away and tried to think of what I could get my parents. Love for each other?

"No, you're just a lazy person." Wyatt answered with the brutal honesty I relied so heavily on.

"Noted." I nodded my head, "It's a Saturday, why aren't you at Alison's?"

Trying to hang with Wyatt was near impossible when he made the hour drive every weekend to see satan.

Wyatt rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't go there every Saturday-"

I stopped abruptly in front of an arts and crafts store, cutting Wyatt off. My mom loved crafts, we used to spend our afternoons doing random projects together when I was younger. I still had the lopsided scarf we made together six years ago. Funfact: knitting is not a two person activity.

"Can we go in here for a sec? I see some yarn my mom might like." I asked?

Wyatt was unfazed, manically texting. I snuck a peek at his phone and saw it was Allion. She was probably pissed he was with me instead of her.

I grabbed his arm, "Come on, the she devil can wait!"

I stuck out my other arm as if we were going into battle, "Come forth, let us duel with scrapbook moms and socially awkward girls in their twenties that knit!"

Inside the store, Wyatt took a call and disappeared immediately. I shrugged, ignored his standoffishness, and marveled over origami paper with waves. My cousins in Japan used to mail us little origami creatures during the holidays. I picked up a purple fountain pen and dragged it smoothly across the sheet of tester paper, Grabbing a handful of colors, I drew lines beside it to compare colors. If the colors were in order, it would have been one hell of a rainbow.

"Wow, you have a real knack for drawing." A girl with long blonde hair laughed, pointing at my masterpiece

And when I say she had long hair, I mean like Rapunzel length hair, it hung past her knees. I was impressed she had it kept so nice though, not a single knot, a braid crown wrapped around her head.

"Aspiring artist." I joked, switching the red pen for a gold one.

I felt like a kid in a toy store. Did this pen have glitter in it?

"Do you craft?" The girl asked.

I drew a spiral with the pen. I was right, little specks of gold glitter. I was considering buying one, for my mom of course, but maybe I would have a school project where I would need to use it for...

I closed the cap and shook my head, "Nope, just Christmas shopping."

"You go to Southern, right?" The girl asked, "I'm Kacey, I just transferred like two months ago."

I wasn't surprised I didn't know her. My high school was huge, I didn't know half the people at Grayson's party.

"I do," I picked up a silver pen and uncapped it, "Beautiful," I mumbled to the lopsided stars I sketched in silver, "Sorry, I'm Jake." I set the pen down.