Monsters And Us

I looked out the car window and all I saw were forest, I sighed deeply and said "mom, why'd you have to make us move?" Mom laughed and said, "Annabel I've told you a million times, my work transferred us here, your father is already at the new house with your brother. Please, Anna just have fun, this is like an adventure maybe you can go exploring with your brother." I looked at my mom and said "Mom I'm not 8 anymore, I don't go exploring." Mom rubbed my head with one hand and chuckled "I know I know too old to do childish things right? Well maybe you can make new friends, maybe even meet a cute boy" she looked at me and smiled, I uncomfortably moved away and said, "Yeah, thanks mom I'll try." I just stared out the window realizing I'm going back to my childhood town, and the realization finally settled back inside me, I had vivid memories of this place some painful memories I'd rather suppress within myself. The sun shined dimly throughout the thick canopy of trees along both sides of the road, I breathed deeply and just focused on what's to come, maybe I'll meet some new people or even have a better boyfriend. We stopped at a gas station in Forks called shell, which was like a few minutes away from Forks, the town twilight made famous, I knew a few people from there like Ashton Bentley, who was the same age as me only shorter but by now he's probably taller and likely moved out of Forks. Mom stopped the car and began putting gas into it and I got out to stretch my legs and we decided to spend a few hours in forks while we were. I decided to walk all around and walked into a cafe called a shot in the dark, I walked in and sat down at one of the tables by the windows and looked over at the menu and a waitress came up to me "What would you like? Mrs...." She looked at me and her mouth fell open, and she smiled big and bright and repeated herself. "I'd like a peppermint cappuccino, and I guess a yogurt parfait." "I'll be right with you Mrs. Bowyer." She quickly ran out towards the kitchen and I was looking at my phone playing a mobile game then eventually browsing w*****d and Pinterest before I noticed someone standing in front of me, I looked up and saw a tall man who looked about my 18 years of age with short messy brown hair and a small yet trimmed beard, he had dark brown eyes that looked so familiar to me yet I was clueless as to who he was. "Annabel is that you?" "Umm yeah? Do I know you?" "Well I think you do, I'm Ashton Bentley from next door, we used to go to middle school together, then you moved because of your parent's job." "Ashton? is that actually you? God, you've gotten tall?" My mom interrupted as she came in "Hello Mrs. Bowyer, yeah sorta had a growth spurt by puberty." he jokingly said but was thoroughly embarrassed. My mom grabbed a coffee to go and left me and Ashton alone, we began talking for a while and all of the past memories just came over me like a wave and suddenly it was as if I hadn't left at all. "So what happened with Mr. Cox? Like did he ever find out who put his boxers on the flagpole?" "No I don't think he did, I mean he had a hard time getting them down, especially since someone also took his belts so his pants kept falling down. I think everyone assumed it was me so I kinda went with it, I kinda wanna know who did it." Suddenly a high pitched squeal came from the entrance of the cafe and suddenly Ashton was on the ground with a girl hugging him and kissing him all over. "Oh my god Ashton I missed you soooooo much." the girl squealed "Bailey, can I get up now?" "oh yeah, I forgot." The two got up and Ashton dusted himself off and the blonde girl hung onto his waist tightly and smiling, she was the total opposite of me. She had sandy blonde hair, warm tan skin, makeup out the ass, a gold septum piercing and looked like the average millennial. "Bailey this is Annabel, she's an old middle school friend. Annabel this is Bailey, my..." "I'm his sweet cute girlfriend, right Ashton?" He nervously chuckled and nodded, before walking back into the kitchen and finishing work, Bailey turned to me with a facial expression that only told me 'back off b***h he's mine' She huffed and walked away from me and went over to the counter and sat down waiting for Ashton. Well I guess I made a new friend I thought sarcastically to myself I left the cafe and slowly made my way around town, not much to do here I walked around seeing all the sights and even a few twilight based stores, when someone grabs my shoulders, I turn around and see Ashton, out of breath and exhausted. "You...don't....know.... how hard....it was to..... find you and get away......from bailey." He said with a tiresome smile "Um did you need something Ashton?" I replied "Here" He said as he handed me a crumpled up piece of paper and straightened himself up and slumped back down when he saw Bailey walking by, and quickly hid behind me looking to see if she would come in or not. She looked in the store and saw me, glared at me then left without saying a word to me. "Why are you avoiding your girlfriend?" "She's obsessed with me like if she could she'd surgically attach herself to me." "Wow, that's too clingy for my taste." He straightened himself up and stood in front of me, and began looking at the merchandise of Twilight character's Edward Cullen and Jacob Black and examined the pictures for a few minutes before talking. "So why is everyone obsessed with these two? I mean yeah their hot but too muscular for my taste." He jokingly said "I don't know Edward is kind of cute in a vampire phase kind of way." He turned to me and asked "Would you like a life-size shirtless cutout of him?" he chuckled "Maybe or the real thing." I chuckled back at him "One Robert Pattinson coming up, anything else ma'am?" "Maybe some Ashton Bentley." I jokingly said "OK, that's a little weird, just saying." "Sorry was just making a joke but still sorry." For a few minutes, we just stood there awkwardly until my phone started buzzing and I let out a sigh of relief as I see it was my mother texting me that we have to leave. "Well, I guess I'll be leaving now." "Where are you going?" "Well I'm moving to Port Angeles, sorta my childhood home." "Cool, well i gotta get back before Bailey spams me with text, I'll see ya i guess." "See ya." We both parted ways as we exited the shop, and i felt the need to run and hide after that interaction, "God what was i thinking 'Maybe some Ashton Bentley.' god I'm a loser." i thought to myself I looked at the crumpled up piece of paper in my hands, and a small smile began to grow on my face and i read the paper, it was his number. I walked all the way back to the car clutching the number to my chest which at that point was beating faster than racehorse and my face was beet red with joy, i quickly tried to hid my joy from my mother and slowly got into the car and put the number in my back pocket and waited for mom to get out. "So Anna do you miss being in Forks again?" "I guess," I said with a slight high tone in my voice "Well, that's good cause we might be going back and forth a lot." "Why?" "Well mainly cause your father has some catching up to do as well as me and now you do." "um ok?" I plug in my earbuds and closed my eyes and slowly fell asleep to the sounds in my playlist, I awoke when the car jerked forward, I looked around my heart racing and looking at the road ahead and in front of us was a large black bear and it's three cubs following behind, the momma bear turned it's head towards the car before running across her little ones right behind her. Well Welcome to Washington I laughed to myself, as my mom drove on.