Chapter 8 Trip Down the Memory Lane

"Mark did you take your books? What about your clothes? You have the keys to your dormitory, don't you? Did you keep the photos you took of your mother? Take care of them, or else I'll have your head in a platter. Oh and by the way, did you take your set of keys to our house? I gave one to you, the other one to Cadence and one set of keys I have kept it in the porch near the vase of roses. So in case you or Cade want to come home to get some of your stuff, and you have forgotten your keys, you know where the spare ones are," my father keeps on ranting and Mark nods his head occasionally, trying to save himself from the public embarrassment he is receiving from my dad's little lecture. So right now we three are at the airport, greeting Mark goodbye as he is heading to his college in Manchester. Apparently, my father was giving a last time prep talk to Mark. A few minutes ago, a group of some girls saw my dad lecturing Mark and giggled, saying something along the lines of 'he's so adorable, listening to his father's instructions.' Basically, Mark had heard it too, and his already scarlett colored face turned crimson red as he looked all the more embarrassed. And at the moment, I couldn't hold my laughter in as I bursted out laughing. Mark just scowled at me while dad shot me a disapproving glance.

"Yes dad," said a red-faced, embarrassed Mark.

"And don't get laid way too much. We don't want some STD on legs," he said and I knew he meant it as a joke. I couldn't hold it in me much longer and I doubled over, laughing. Mark seeing my happy-go-lucky expression, got happy, I can say that because he was fighting to keep the smile off his face. He straightened up and scowled at me before turning to dad and glared at him.

"Dad!"

"Okay, okay. I'm just looking out for you, you know. I'm just worried. Because you don't have some parental guidance here. I'm going for two months, so you are the closest thing Cadence has as a guardian. Wouldn't want you getting sick now, do we? And also because I love you, I don't want you getting into trouble. Focus on your studies and also don't forget to take acre of yourself. I have given you enough cash for these two months and also you have your credit and debit cards," my father explained or in other words, continued his rant-lecture.

A few minutes on and my father was finally done with lecturing Mark. Mark finally turned to me, his expression vulnerable. His eyes turning glossy with a new set of unshed tears. Without saying anything, he crushed me in his arms, a bone crushing hug surrounding me.

"Can't breathe," I choked out. His weight was literally crushing me and the fact that he is all muscular and weighs a ton, doesn't help. Immediately, Mark pulled back, his face apologetic.

"Call me if you need anything. Anything at all. Don't think that just because of my college, I won't be able to come visit you. I'm going to visit you every weekend. You get it? Every weekend. And God! I'm going to miss you terribly," he said sighing as he again pulled me in a bear hug. I eagerly hugged him back, missing the feeling of home I get from him, just yet.

"Yes, Mark. You shouldn't be worried about me. Worry about yourself. I have Caleb and Hailey's family here. You're alone there. I'm going to miss you so much, you have no idea, Mark," I said quietly into his ears, almost soothingly.

A few minutes later, we are all done with the greetings and after hugging for one last time, we pull away. Mark's starts walking towards the direction of the security, but not before giving us one last lingering glance. I smile at him, trying to keep him motivated, as I held the tears at bay. He gives us a small sad smile, before disappearing in the mob of people, who were all embarking on their different journeys of life, giving rise to new chapters of their lives.

My father sighed sadly, from beside me and turned to look at me. He took my hand in his and gave a reassuring squeeze. I smiled at him and he smiled back at me.

After dropping Mark off at the airport, we both got in his car and he started to drive back home. No words spoken. No conversations held. The atmosphere was defeating. we both 't bother to say anything, too absorbed in our own thoughts to say something. The silence was deafening but we didn't bother to break it. I mean it was silent but not to the point where it gets uncomfortable. Apparently, my father found it obligatory to break the silence as he decided to speak up.

"Cadence after we get home, I have some things to give you. You know some necessities like money and a credit card, too. Maybe if you want to go shopping or something. And also some of your mother's stuff. You know her cooking books and recipes that she has preserved. After all you are following her footsteps, I thought why don't I give those stuff to you? You know Pat will be so damn proud of you right now," he said quietly as I turned to face him. He was looking at me, too, smiling softly, a hint of sincerity radiating from his words.

I smiled back as my hand reached out to pat him on his shoulder. He smiled even widely at my gesture and I nodded at him silently saying 'everything will be okay,' when in reality I know everything won't be alright. Especially after my realization. But I'm not going to show him just how much broken I am from inside. It will be wrong. On so many different levels. Firstly, I don't want to break his heart by saying something negative. Secondly, after my little confession, he wouldn't want to go to Japan and will decide to stay here with me when he really wants to go for his business stuff. Now as much as I don't want him to go and stay here, I can't be that selfish now, can I? I mean he really wants to go as he too needs a closure and also because his career can expand. I feel my eyes brimming with tears. My mom's gone. Forever. She isn't coming back now. My father's leaving for Japan tomorrow. For two damned months. My brother is miles away from me. He can only visit me once a week. I don't know why but I suddenly get this feeling. Emptiness. Lonely. Deserted. Isolated. Away from everyone.

As soon as my father parked the car in the garage, I shot out of my seat and start jogging my way up to my room. I enter my room and shut the door behind me.

As the as I hear the satisfying sound of shutting the door with a click, I crumple down and start sobbing. So much for being strong for my family. A few minutes pass and I start to gain a little control over myself again. My sobs turn into hiccups and I wipe the few stray tears away hastily with the back of my hands. After calming a little more, I walked to the bathroom and looked at my reflection. I gasped softly as I realized that I looked even worse since my mother's funeral. Large bags surrounded my big brown doe like eyes. Honestly, my eyes weren't any better. They were red, blotchy and still puffy due to the water leakage a few minutes ago. I washed my face, ignoring my reflection as it will be painful. After refreshing myself, I exit the powder room. Just when I enter my room again, I remember that my father wanted to hand over some things to me. I started to walk downstairs.

Cue the fake strong act, again.

I enter the living room but don't see him anywhere. I started for him in the kitchen, in his room, in the music room you name it. But I couldn't find him anywhere.

Panic began to settle in the pit of my stomach. I started to get more and more paranoid. A weird feeling (the bad kind of weird by the way) started to grow inside me. I felt bile rising in my throat. I just hope that he doesn't take some real extreme steps. Steps that were scary and dangerous. Steps that could lead to death.

No! Don't drop the 'D word' yet!

A weird gut wrenching feeling began and just the tears I had managed to put on bay just a few minutes ago, started leaking like the Niagara Falls.

"Dad!" I started hollering again and then the realization hit me. He might have gone out for a walk or something and might have left a note to let me know about his whereabouts. So after that I started searching for a note or something. But I couldn't find any. Not in the kitchen, not in the music room, nowhere.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Calm your tits. Hold your horses. He might be outside.

A feeling of hope rushed past me and I started making my way to the front way, sprinting. I fumbled with the doorknob and opened it with a jerk, a wave of cold wind slapping my face. I shivered slightly as I took in the cold London weather. It's almost Autumn and the weather has cooled down already way too much. The oversized dark blue color shirt that I borrowed from Mark and my PJs were not exactly a huge help to fight the cold wind away.

Ignoring the cold weather, I took a sharp breath and looked around to find any hopes of finding my father. In the yard, the plants that my mother so tenderly and lovingly grew, seemed to be dancing in a daze under the moonlight. My eyes scanned the area and as each second grew by, the hope started to diminish. Not a good feeling, I tell you. Just as I lost all the hope and was about to dart inside, to call Aunt Becca and Uncle Peter, a silhouette by the large oak tree near the gate of our house, caught my eye. It's face seemed to be turned towards the sky. It didn't seem to be weeping or crying. Just looking at the sky with loving, sad and distraught eyes.

By the silhouette, I knew that it was my father.

"Dad!" I called out to him and he seemed to snap out of his state of trance. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back at him and sprinted to him. I, out if nowhere threw my arms around his neck hugged him.

"What happened princess?" He asked me as his voice danced and tinkled with amusement. I pulled back and took a good look at him. He was smiling at me.

"I thought I lost you there for a second. It was not a good feeling," I said timidly and he sighed.

"I'm not going anywhere. At least not so soon except for my little trip to Japan. But trust me, those two months will be over before you could say 'Gilbert Robinson.' In like you know snap of your fingers," he said and to add effects, he literally snapped his fingers. Like literally.

"But I'm going to miss you so damn much, dad. But don't worry, I'm strong. A princess is strong enough to live without her King for at least two months," I said jokingly and he chuckled. His laugh was like music to my ears. Literally. It was melodic and real. Not fake. I felt a little proud for the fact that I could make him laugh.

"So what were you found out here?" I asked after our little moment was over.

"Oh, I was just thinking about stuff. You know missing her. I have so many memories here near this tree. We have some amazing time out here. Romance was always alive when it came to us. We were undoubtedly the most romantic old couple out there. We used to lay down here on a blanket and gaze lovingly at the moon, talking about life, do some of those 'lovey-dovey' stuff," he said as he sighed and a dreamy look passes his face. It was so clear how much he adored mom. I felt happy as I looked at his love for my mom.

"Aww dad, every girl wishes that her husband is like a reflection of her father. I have never seemed to agree more on that," I said honestly.

"Don't worry you'll get your Prince, who will take you away from the king," he said playfully and we started chuckling. Now I really wanted to tell him I don't plan on finding that 'prince' for me. But I didn't want to ruin his mood. He finally seemed to be a little happy and positive. I'm not going to take it away. No now. Never.

"So what do you want to give me?" I asked as we started trudging inside to our house.

"Oh some of your mother's stuff. You know like I said, some of cooking books, recipes, her photo albums and stuff. But I am taking a few of hers and our family photos with me, okay?" He said sternly.

"Okay, okay," I said rasing my hands my mock surrender.

We went inside and into my parents' room. The next hour was spent sorting out my mother's stuff. We kept a few of my mother's clothing and that was even more than what I own as a whole. Some of the clothes were discarded for charity. A few of her accessories were discarded again for charity and some my father asked me to keep them as for memories. As much as I wanted to protest saying 'I would never wear that,' his stern eyes boring into mine stopped me and I pouted.

He gave me her books, recipe books, cooking books and all the stuff that a chef would need for their career. My father said that those stuff would be pretty useful for me. For my career as an assistant chef. The term that I used for myself brought a smile to my face. It lit up my face. I am not even eighteen yet and am already included in the staff of a 'Michelin Star' restaurant and not as a waitress might I mention. I mean yes I did need my mother's help to learn to cook and Caleb's help to get me through, but I did it. All to make my mother proud. I mean she never really said that she wanted me to become a chef or a cook but it meant the world to her, so if I could follow her footsteps, she would have been ecstatic. After those stuff, my father wanted to give me money and a credit card.

"See, I'm giving you £5000 in cash and also a credit card. Don't worry about the limit. If you want to buy something, use the credit card but use the money in terms of extreme emergencies only. Like when you want to go to school and stuff. Don't use cash way too much," he said sternly. I modded after a roll of eyes, of course.

"So did you pack your stuff yet?" My father asked me as we were done with the final set of boxes of books.

"Yes, I'm done," I replied as I tried to keep my voice steady. Living without my family was going to be tough. I mean Hailey and her parents do adore me but Hailey's twin, Nick, used to be my childhood bully. Who's to say he won't bully me now, too. But he is scared a little of Hailey and she injured him severely once when we were 15 when he is pranked me. She even threatened that if he won't get off his usual pranks on me, she wouldn't mind kneeing him at the place where the sun doesn't shine.

After we were done organizing our stuff, we both went to our respective rooms, but not before hugging each other once.

When in my room, I changed out of one pair of PJs into another pair. Funny if you ask me, but the comfort that PJs provide is greatly appreciated by me. I mean by almost all of us.

After changing, I went over to check my bags once more, to make sure that I have all

the stuff I am going to need there.

Just as my eyes reached over to my phone, that was placed on the study table, the door to my room sprang open and slammed shut behind the person. I quickly turned around and gasped softly when I realized who it was.

"Nick?!"