Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 27

The rain was falling heavy that day, the cold breeze and rattling of raindrops were a treat for Crystal right now. As had a nice quiet time to contemplate things.

Sitting in front of the counter of their eatery, watching the stream of water pouring down, along with the ripples on the ground as droplets touch it.

She sighed as she was still unable to get the void that she was feeling inside of her up until now. It was starting to make her feel distressed as she doesn’t know what was causing it.

“Crystal, everything all right hon?” Her mom was already beside her, wiping some of the countertops with a rag.

She straightens a bit in her chair before smiling at her. “Yeah mom, it’s nothing to worry about,” she just says, trying to sound as calm and okay as possible.

“C’mon, tell me, what’s the problem?” But it seems her mom knows her all too well, sensing the dismay and sadness in her voice.

“It’s just…” she lets out a long sigh.

“Is it about that young boy you brought last time?” her mom finishes for her.

“What?" that caught her off guard, making her blush as blood started to rush to her cheeks. "Mom no! He’s just a friend,” she says waving her off at the thought of it.

That made her mother laugh a bit. “I know, but he seems like a really nice boy,” she adds.

Crystal could not help her giggle from escaping at the thought of Larse being a nice boy.

“I kind of doubt that mom?” she smirks, rolling her eyes at her.

“Oh, so you don’t like him,” her mom seemed a bit shocked, putting a hand to her mouth at the thought.

“No mom!” she could not help but whine seeing the funny look on her mother's face.

That made the two of them giggle at the thought of her and Larse being together was something she never thought of, though the man was nice and all, but she just knew he was not a good choice, especially with his reputation and all.

Sudden thoughts dawn on her mind, so she couldn't help but ask herself. “But, how come you’re okay with him but not with Clyde?” she whispers, remembering the day in her old timeline she introduced Clyde to them.

The man was quite shy and polite, though he wasn’t able to talk much Crystal knew the man did his best to at least introduce himself.

“What was that hon?” her mother asks not being able to fully hear what she had said.

“Nothing mom.” She just smiles at her

Her mother sighed. “Why don’t you go home and relax, we can handle things here, since there isn’t much to do, I doubt we’d get a lot of customers today, especially with this kind of weather,” she states waving at the empty eatery that time.

Her mom was probably right as they don’t usually get a lot of patrons during the rainy season. Wanting to at least contemplate in peace she agrees and starts packing her stuff.

“Okay mom, I’ll see you later then,” she kisses her goodbye before leaving.

With an umbrella in her hand, she walks into the downpour, smiling as she felt the coldness of the shower, temporarily erasing some of her thoughts and worries.

She was greeted by a familiar figure, holding a big black umbrella when she was about to cross the street. “Hey, Crys!” she waves upon seeing her, smile and all.

“Brit?” she frowns, a bit surprised seeing her friend there. “What are you doing here!” she asks looking around as it seems her friend was all alone.

“I went to your house but there was nobody there, I figured you’d be here instead,” she says before immediately clinging to her arm.

They both giggle as they get wet from the drops of rain when Brittany was still fixing her umbrella so that they could walk together.

“Yeah, I try to help out my mom at the eatery every now and then. So, why the sudden visit?” They were now walking side by side in unison as to keep up with each other, making sure that both their umbrellas would keep them from the rain.

Brittany let out a deep breath. “Well, it’s that time again where my parents would end up bickering while handling their affairs in order, before coming into an agreement, and there is no way in hell I’m going to let myself go through all of that all over again,” she grumbles rolling her eyes at the thought.

“It must’ve been hard for you,” she could not help but say, seeing the frustration in her friend's face.

“Yeah, and now it’s happening all over again, good thing I ain’t the cry baby like I was before,” Brittany smirks, making dancing like steps as they walk.

“Is that the reason why you never got into a relationship?” she could not help but asks.

Her friend had always been dating in their old-time, but never once has she ever introduced or mentioned anyone to her that lasted more than a day.

“Maybe, I really don’t understand the whole process anyway, you invest your time and effort on something, then when one of you lose interest it’s just so easy to forget about the whole ordeal, so why would I waste my time with something like that,” Brittany scoffs. Waving her hand in the air as she made her explanation.

“Maybe for the sake of true love, companionship, and security?” she lets out a half-smile as it was something that she really enjoyed when she was with Clyde.

Letting her arms go, Brittany stands in front of her putting one hand on the hip and the other raised to her face with her pointing finger up.

“Girl, if I wanted security I’d just invest my whole life into my career, save money and get insurance so that I’m good up until I’m old, if it’s about companionship, I have you and some other friends that I’m going to meet along the way. And don’t get me started on that true love s**t, cause both you and I know that only about a handful of people experience such a thing, and just to remind you, you didn’t get that on our future timeline.” She raises an eyebrow at her, lips crumpled as she pouted.

She could not help but let out a deep sigh remembering the thought of that said past.

“Maybe it was just because I made some mistakes,” she says, voice a bit low making it sound almost like a whisper.

“Yeah, like giving everything you’ve got to that guy, you basically made him the center of your whole universe, so please don’t repeat that again, I don’t want to end up pulling you up from that kind of deep s**t depression, all because of some stupid guy,” Brittany scolds.

Crystal could not help but feel ashamed upon hearing that, especially since she was actually thinking about Clyde these past few weeks.

“Sorry. But, I just can’t seem to forget about him, especially now, I’m seeing that man that I fell in love with all over again, I mean, can you even find someone like him who is so devoted, patient, and caring?” she ended up telling her thoughts once more.

That made Brittany’s face crumple even more. “Devoted to Dana maybe. But during your relationship, I highly doubt it, especially since he basically just used you, or have you forgotten about that?” She snaps her finger in her face.

“But that was the other him,” she quickly states.

“Yeah, the future him. You get that word fu-tu-re,” Brittany reiterated each word like she was explaining it to some child.

“Don’t you think he might change on this timeline? Like how some things change,” she could not help but say.

She didn’t really want to fully let go of the idea that she and Clyde might still end up together, especially since she was seeing a whole new view on things.

“Nope,” Brittany said.

“Not even a little bit,” she says. Still a bit hopeful of the idea.

“Girl, look here. The man’s obsessed with his girlfriend, you’ve probably understood that since you can see how he is around her, he’s basically blind-sided because of her foolish love crap. Why do you think Dana’s so confident fooling around with other guys,” Brittany flaps her hand around as she explained her thoughts.

“Because she’s a w***e,” she smirks, feeling her blood burn from just the thought of the woman.

“Yeah, we can’t deny that but also because her man is downright crazy about her, plus she basically has him at the palm of her hand. I wouldn't be surprised if they had planned to get back together during our previous time, just so she could screw around those past few years,” Brittany adds.

That made her skin crawl and her blood boil even more. “You think so?” she could not help but frown at the thought.

Thinking about it, she could not help the sudden struck of pain inside her chest, knowing that she had been played by them all along.

“Yes! The woman’s a total b***h, and Clyde’s a total wuss for letting her control him,” Brittany spits at the mention of the man's name.

“Do you think she was like that even in our old time?” Clenching her fist tightly to her chest, she could not help but remember the Dana that she had encountered before.

“Definitely, and no doubt about it,” Brittany sneered.

There was now a heavy feeling inside her chest, as she once again felt the pain of losing to that woman after all that she had done.

“Then, why do you think the two of them broke up?” She now has this intense wanting to find out more of what had occurred for their future to become like that.

“I dunno, you were his girlfriend, don’t tell me you never ask him that?” Brittany shrugs her shoulders.

“I did, he just never told me,” Crystal could not help but look her friend in the eye with a sad smile.

Brittany just gives her a tap on the arm. “Well, maybe this is your chance to find out, maybe this is the reason why we're here in the first place,” she states.

“What do you mean by that?” She could not help but frown on her last statement.

Her friends quickly grin. “I just have this theory, but I’d like to keep it to myself since I’m still not sure why the hell we ended back here,” she waves her off.

“So, you’re saying the two of us got transported back in our past because of me?” She raises a brow at the thought of it.

“It’s possible,” Brittany nods at her quite sure of that theory of hers.

“How come?” She ended up putting one hand on her waist. Now suddenly interested in the reason behind their sudden return to the past.

It was also something that she questioned herself over and over before, thinking that it was some kind of miracle from above, but after meeting her best friend and finding out that both of them got there at the same time, suddenly made things a bit more confusing.

Brittany was about to open her mouth when she suddenly ends up palming her face. “Oops, I think they found me,” she murmurs.

“Who?” Crystal quickly turned to where her friend was looking.

Just a few meters from where they were was a car with a man wearing a black raincoat that covered only his body standing firmly while holding the vehicle's door, his eyes were looking intently at them.

“God, I so hate this day!” Brittany rolled her eyes.

“Brittany! Get in the car now!” the man growled.

She almost jumps upon hearing the voice, but her friend seems unfazed.

“Will you be all right?” she asks, worried about what might happen.

“Don’t worry, I can handle this on my own, I’ll see you at school on Monday okay,” Brittany gives her a quick tap on the shoulder, smiling as she walked past her.

There was this sadness in her friends' eyes that didn’t escape her sight, making her worry even more.

“Okay,” that was all she can say.

She wasn’t really able to stop her seeing as Brittany seemed ready to face the man head-on, she was sure that it was her father, seeing as how they resembled each other a lot.