The Goodbye Note

Chapter 13

Song that I recommend for this chapter is Yellow by Coldplay.

***

Tonight I have the date with Dean. I honestly think that my mom is more excited than me, she hasn't left me alone, don't get me wrong, I love that my mom cares, but I just feel like she needs this for me more than I do. "So where is he taking you? Oh and is it casual, or dressy? Are you going to wear makeup? If you go to his house is there going to be adult supervision? Emily are you excited?" She asks in a single breath. I laugh.

"Mom do you want me to answer each and every single one of those questions?" I ask as she nods her head. "But I literally don't remember a single one."

"Where is he taking you?"

"I think an arcade then picnic on the beach."

"Are you going to wear makeup?"

"Nope."

"Please."

"Fine just mascara."

"Are you excited?"

"I guess."

"And are you going to his house?"

"I don't think so." I tell her as she grabs mascara and hands it to me. I put a little on and get dressed once my mom leaves the room. I am wearing a sundress and I put sandals on. I pull my hair out of my ponytail and brush it, then I grab two strands of hair from the front and clip them behind me. I look at myself in the mirror and see a girl that's taller than me standing behind me. She has black curly hair and blue eyes, she looks like Emma but she isn't quite her. I turn around and the woman is gone. Today is exactly five months. I want to be in bed crying but I already agreed to go on a date with Dean, and if I cancel I would have to explain that my sister is dead and I just don't want him to know, at least not yet. I grab my phone and it dings. I unlock my phone to see a message.

Dean                                                                                                                                                                                   I'm here!

I quickly grab my purse and head down stairs. As I'm halfway down the stairs I hear a knock, please don't tell me he wants to meet my parents.

"Good morning ma'am," Dean says politely. He looks up to see me coming down the stairs and smiles my favorite wide smile.

"You must be Dean," my mom says, "it's nice to meet you sweetie, I'm Susan." Oh God, she couldn't just say Mrs.Hernandez. Susan? Really?

"I've heard so much about you." Dean lies, I never told him about my parents, but whatever, brownie points I guess. I walk up to Dean.

I smile, "We should get going." He nods in agreement. I say bye to my mom and we get in his truck. I've been in his truck before, after Xander's party, but I was too busy crying to look at his truck. It's definitely older, but not ugly. I could definitely see myself riding around in this truck with him.

"What kind of music do you like?" He asks me.

I shrug, "Whatever you want to play, is fine." He says okay and starts playing the song Yellow by Coldplay.

"Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you. And everything you do. Yeah they were all yellow," we sing together and laugh.

When the song finishes we arrive at the arcade, yes everything in this town was that close. The arcade has been open for forty year now, this is where my parents went on their first date. I've only been here once, but I was very small, so I don't really remember. It looks the same, the old concrete wall with paint falling off. If I didn't live here, I would think this place was abandoned. He parks his car and we get out. He opens the door to the building and lets me go in first. The old couple that runs this place smile as we enter. Dean pays for the tokens and we start our day at the arcade. We play games until we are out of tokens. Dean has many tickets, so when he's not paying attention, I steal some. In the beginning I thought he didn't notice until I took some more and he turned and took all of mine. We are laughing as I chase him around the place. Once I finally caught up with him I took all of my tickets back and I took his. In the end he ends up getting them from me.

"Once we turn the tickets in for prizes we have an amazing picnic on the beach waiting for us." He tells me as we make our way to collect our prizes.

We get to the prize area and we get our own prizes to remember this day. I got a giant bear and he got a bunch of candy, which I will most likely be stealing from him later. "The arcade was fun," I tell him, as we make our way to his car.

"Yeah, I agree, but now is the amazing part. Sitting on the beach eating delicious food while watching a beautiful sunset and a beautiful girl," he says which makes me blush.

When we get to the beach he gets a picnic basket from the backseat and lays a blanket down on the sand. The sun is just beginning to set, which looks amazing. He lays food out and we both eat until we were full. "Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to say thank you for today, I know it's not over, but it was a good day. And hopefully we can do it again." I say as I lay down on the blanket.

He looks at me, "I want to do this with you as many times as you allow me to."

I smile, "Sounds good. Dean, tell me about yourself, you never talk much about yourself."

"I have a little sister and a dog." Dean tells me. I was expecting more than that, but some people like to keep their lives private, me included. "How about you?" I give him a look to let him know I'm confused on what he means, "Do you have any siblings, or pets?" Does it count if my sibling is dead? I froze, I don't know how to answer that. Emma counts, right? "Oh, it doesn't matter." He tells me, I guess he realizes that that question shocked me a bit. "Emily, do you want to hang out sometime next week?"

I nod but realize he has his eyes closed. He's laying on his back, he looks so peaceful. All his muscles are relaxed. He looks younger. Like he's fifteen instead of almost eighteen. "Yeah, for sure." I tell him and he opens his eyes.

"You can tell me if I'm not good at this," he says as he gestures to us, "I don't usually ask girls out or go on dates, so I don't know if I'm doing this right."

"No, don't worry, this is perfect." He's perfect. I lift myself up to see the beautiful sunset. I've always been a person who thinks of the deeper meaning of things. Like sunsets. It's not just the sun setting. It's saying that we're done today, but we have tomorrow. I believed that until Emma. She didn't get a tomorrow. But I do. And so does the sun.

After a while we pack up and he takes me home. As we pull into my driveway I notice that there are extra cars. One of those cars is Mackenzie's. I say goodbye to Dean and quickly run to the house and head to the back door, to avoid her. I open the door and Mackenzie was standing right there, she knew I was going to go through the back door. "Emily, it's Dan."

***

Cliffhangers... don't we all hate them. So how was the date? Where would you have taken Emily if you took her on a date? I'm happy that we had a whole chapter of Dean. There's a lot to come, but NO spoilers!

Lots of love, emma<3