Forgotten

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I was woken the next morning by the sunlight streaming through the little crack in the blinds. 

I lifted my head and looked around. Everyone but Pops was fast asleep on the floor of the living room. I looked to my left and saw Uncle who had one arm under his head like a pillow and the other arm over Aunty who was using his chest as a pillow. Slowly my eyes swept over to Lisa who's head was on Aunty's calves and legs were over Nana's own legs. Nana, on my right, was using Papa's chest as pillow last night, I assume. Then there was me, and I was sleeping on Lisa's abdomen and judging from the pillow on my legs, Papa was using them as a headrest. 

I slowly got up making sure not to make noise. I sneaked out of the room and went to brush my teeth. Then I tippy-toed over to the kitchen where Papa was drinking coffee, while reading the newspaper. I grabbed myself a cup and poured some coffee after reading '7:23' on the clock on the microwave. 

I went to sit beside Pops and he pulled the crossword page open and set it between us, a pen in his hand and a small smile lingering on his face making the laugh lines around his eyes wrinkle. 

Half an hour later Papa and I decided it was time to wake everybody up. We got three glasses of cold water, for Uncle, Lisa, and Nana, deciding to leave Aunty alone since it was her birthday, and tiptoed back to the family room. 

I had one glass and my camera in hand and Papa had two glasses in his hands, each positioned on top of a sleeping family member. On the count of three, we spilled the contents of the glass letting in land on their sleeping faces. Then, I waited 5 seconds before taking pictures of the chaos. 

Pops and I stepped away and stood against the wall laughing as everyone tried, in a hurry, to untangle themselves. 

Quickly, I hid the camera in my pocket to make sure no one found out that I had taken pictures. Then, before we can get scolded, we ran out of the family room, and into our separate rooms to freshen up. 

I was helping Nana in the kitchen, just cutting bread since I can't really destroy the kitchen that way, when the door bell rang. Papa was gone to get something that Nana yelled at him to go get from the store and Lisa went with him. Uncle, was cleaning the backyard, and Aunty was putting the extremely breakable items up into the bedrooms and then locking them. Wild things can happen at these house parties. 

I put the knife down, and went to open the front door yelling "Coming!"

I pulled the door open to see a man, around uncle's age standing there with two boxes of beer. I opened the door wider, only for him to step back with a confused look on his face.

 "Your not Lisa," he stated.

I chuckled, "No, I'm her friend," I responded. 

"Oh, phew! I thought I was at the wrong house. Well, hello there! My name is Peter. I'm the neighbour," he said pointing to the left of the house.

"Hi Peter," I greeted, "My Name is- "

"Jessalynn TATE?!?!?" 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Why did this always happen to me!

"Tucker?" I asked, staring at Nate's high school best friend slash teammate walking up the driveway, "What are you doing so far from home?"

"Small world! I've lived with my dad since university because Mom got remarried and I wanted to give them some space. Then I just got used to it." he explained, "What happened to you? You basically disappeared after high school, and you look so different now," he walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me, "in a good way."

I broke away from his hug, sighed and ignored his question. "Come in," I told Tucker and his confused father. 

"So, where is Rob," Peter asked me.

"He's in the backyard, go on. I'm sure you can find the way." I told them while walking back towards the kitchen.

"JESSA!!!" Nana screamed for me.

"Coming Nana!" I answered and then shot them an apologetic look before running of into the kitchen, letting them find their own way outside.

Turns out, Uncle Rob had asked for them to come earlier to help move the furniture. 

Once the furniture was a set up, they walk out into the backyard again. Then Lisa and Pops got home arguing about which route was faster and who's fault it was that it took so long to get home. I grabbed Lisa's hand and I got to decorating. Thankfully, so far, I didn't have anymore encounters with Tucker. 

We covered the tables with dark purple table cloths, and set white napkins for each seat and put a weight with 3 balloons attached to it on each table. 

Then we moved on to the kitchen covering those tables with plastic table cloths so that food would make a mess on the table itself. 

We covered the entire roof of the kitchen, and dance floor area with white, purple and light pink balloons. Then we moved on to the streamers. 

We were just about finished when I heard Lisa squeal. I turned around to see her jump into Tucker's arms. 

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOUR DAD LIVED HERE!" she screamed at him.

"Well, you didn't tell me your Mom's birthday party was here!" he retorted. 

Then they gave each other creepy smiles and started a full on make out session right there. 

I couldn't believe my best friend was dating Nate's best friend.

I coughed to get their attention. Let me tell you, it didn't work. Then I grabbed the tape roll from beside me and chucked it at the back of Tucker's head. 

The response was immediate. He completely let Lisa go, and she crashed onto the floor two seconds before I bursted out laughing. 

"WHAT THE HELL TUCK!" Lisa screamed. 

"Sorry! I thought it was your dad or something. I just got scared. It's Tate's fault! She threw the tape!" he replied while pointing a finger at me and trying not to laugh at Lisa. 

"Tate? Who is tha-" Lisa froze, "Tucker, how do you know Jessa?"

Lisa asked, the wheels turning in her head as she connected Nate to Tucker. 

"Oh, we went to high school together!" he replied at the same time I said, "He is Nate's best friend." 

"WAIT!" Lisa half screeched, "Nate is the friend you were visiting when I crashed into you!"

Tucker and I looked at Lisa with matching confused faces. 

"Why does that matter?" I finally asked, voicing my thoughts.

She made a whinny sound and responded, "We were living right beside each other!"

Tucker chuckled, "Yeah, I realized when I dropped you home." Lisa frowned at him.

I laughed, "Oh yeah! Since he was visiting Nate, he was probably our neighbour for the week."

"Our?" Tucker questioned me this time, "You mean you and Nate are neighbours?… That's why he wouldn't let me come visit him! I should go get him then." he mused, "He knows the people here." 

I didn't have enough time to think about that statement, because then the door bell rang.

Soon the place was flooded with most of the guests. I say most because all I heard for the last half an hour was, "Jackie's not here yet!" from Lisa who couldn't stop whining about her brother not showing up yet.

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Jackie, Jackie, Jackie!!!

Happy Thinking

-Grey