Chapter 3
THREE
ANNIKA
It’s a tradition for Chloe and me to see the premiere of the new vampire movie Darkfall.
Well, this is only the second year we’ve done it, but after seeing the first, we swore to each other that it would be a tradition, just the two of us.
This year is extra special because we are seventh graders, which means we can go to the mall alone.
Usually, my mom tags along with us, but I begged her this time.
I had to promise to text her every half hour, but it was worth it.
My mom drops us off at the entrance of the theater about an hour before the movie, so Chloe and I can walk around the mall and sneak some snacks in the giant tote bag she brought with her.
“Remember, Anni, every half hour! If you forget, I’m going to call you,” my mom yells from her Jeep.
“Stop yelling. Everyone can hear you.” I swear my mom lives to embarrass me.
“I’m not yelling. I’m raising my voice. Have fun! Text me!” my mom yells again and waits until we walk inside to drive off.
She’s so protective of me it feels overwhelming sometimes. However, I push those feelings away because I think of Chloe and her parents.
As we step into the mall, Chloe reaches into her bag and pulls out a small stack of papers and her strawberry lip balm.
“Anni, my grandma Alice gave me a box of random crafts and paper. I found some old postcards inside that have these stamps with the letter ‘A’ on them. I thought they were cool, and you could add them to your scrapbook.”
She applies her lip balm and hands me three postcards that I flip over and look at each as we start walking around the mall.
One has “Nashville” in big letters on one side, which is where her grandma lives.
The back has some cursive scribbles that are hard to read, but Chloe is right.
There’s a pink stamp in the corner with a fancy “A.” The others are pictures of cats, with the same hard-to-read scribbles on the back and the same stamps but in blue and the other in green.
“These are so cool. I love them so much! I wonder what the note says,” I say, trying to squint and read.
“I’m not sure. I was trying to figure it out too, but my grandma writes so sloppy, I can never read the birthday cards she sends me. There were a lot of cool papers in the box, too, that I’m excited to paint on.”
I look at the postcards again, remembering the first postcard I ever received.
It was from Chloe in fourth grade. She was visiting her aunt in Florida during Christmas break.
We missed each other so much and tried to talk on the phone, but when I tried to call, she was already asleep.
So one day, I got a postcard in the mail, and it was from Chloe.
It had a picture of a beach with palm trees on one side.
Chloe wrote, “Hi!! I miss you!! Love, Chloe!!” on the other side.
There was a daisy stamp in the corner. I got a scrapbook so I could keep the postcard safe, a little memory tucked in the pages.
I sent her a postcard back, and we always send one to each other when one of us travels far away from home.
I think I’ve filled up half of the scrapbook with her postcards so far.
Chloe’s the only one to send me postcards, but it’s cool to see these old ones that her grandma got.
It’s kinda like reading a mini-story about someone’s life.
I wonder if my mom has any old postcards I can add to the scrapbook as I take another look at the fancy “A” stamp.
“I’m definitely going to put these in my scrapbook. Thanks again,” she responds with a little wink and grabs my hand, skipping in the direction of the candy store.
I fill up a bag of peanut butter cups, and Chloe gets a mixture of gummy bears and sour straws. We are so different sometimes it makes me wonder why we are friends. But maybe us being different is why it works so well. We are never competing for the same things.
“Do you think I can fit a lemonade in my bag?” She walks over, slurping a sour straw in her mouth.
“Maybe if you don’t put the straw in and if you keep it really still.”
Before heading back to the theater, we load up her bag with two pink lemonades, a giant pretzel, and two corn dogs. I can already feel the stomach ache I’ll probably get later today, but this is our traditional movie food.
We buy tickets and make our way to the theaters, trying to act sly and hide Chloe’s bag from the theater attendant so they aren’t suspicious.
We make it through easily and quickly slide over to Theater Five, where the movie is playing.
Technically it premiered last night, but there was no way my mom was going to let us see it at midnight. Which reminds me I need to text her.
We find our seats at the very back center, unload her purse, then lay out all our snacks.
“So, is Reid your boyfriend yet or what?” Chloe gives me a sly look while sipping her lemonade.
My mouth drops open. “You can’t just say things like that out in public! What if someone from school hears you?” I quickly scan the theater. We arrived so early that we were the only ones in the theater. The previews haven’t even started yet.
“Oh, puh-lease, everyone knows you two like each other.” My face heats up at the topic of my crush. I can’t help it. I get all nervous but also excited to talk about Reid.
“Puh-lease back, not everyone knows. And besides, I don’t know if he likes me the way I like him.” I sip my lemonade, trying to remember any hints he’s given me.
“The way he looks at you in history class is so sweet. They could have an entire aisle dedicated to it at the candy store.”
“What kind of looks?”
“Like.” Chloe makes an exaggerated, happy puppy-dog look and then a silly smile. “Like that.”
“You look like you have the flu.”
She rolls her eyes. “Fine, maybe you don’t see it, but I do, and I think you should do something about it.”
I shrug and decide to eat my corn dog first while it’s hot. Chloe shoves a handful of gummy bears in her mouth. I notice that she has a sparkly bracelet on her right wrist that I haven’t seen before.
“Hey, when did you get that?” I ask, pointing to it and flicking one of the charms dangling from it. It looks like a dolphin.
“Oh, my dad got it for me.” She says quickly and then shoves another handful of candy in her mouth.
I squint at her because it’s not her birthday.
I know the reason why her parents usually get her a present when it is a random day.
It’s because they argued with each other in front of Chloe.
Chloe hates when they argue. I’ve never seen them argue, but I don’t really see them often.
When we hang out, I never go to her place.
My mom always takes us to places, or we have sleepovers at my house.
Chloe’s dad drives us to school, but that’s just because it’s on his way to work.
I think her parents don’t get along very well.
My parents argue sometimes, but they always end their arguments laughing or talking normally.
One time last year, my mom got a phone call, and my dad went to Chloe’s house to pick her up.
Chloe stayed at our house for two days that summer.
It was so fun to have her basically living with us, but I did think it was weird.
I asked my mom about it after, and she said Chloe’s parents weren’t getting along and needed to work things out.
I still don’t know why my dad went and got Chloe, though.
“Chloe?” I try to make my voice a bit more serious, so she stops inhaling candy. She freezes and looks at me. “Why did your dad get you a bracelet?”
Her eyes start to get watery, and she blinks the tears away. “Oh, he left for a couple of days. My mom was upset at him about something, and he left. But he’s back now, and he brought me back this bracelet,” she says, holding up her wrist and dangling the charms side to side.
I want to ask her more, but it makes me uncomfortable. I just want Chloe to be happy, and whenever we talk about her family, she gets sad. Besides, the movie is about to start.
The movie is just as awful as we both thought it would be, but we sit at the bench outside the theater, waiting for my mom to pick us up while debating who is the hottest character.
“Definitely, Jake the Mermaid is the best one,” Chloe says.
I wince back. “Jake? The fish? Ew, no way, my favorite is Lucian.”
“Lucian was the bad vampire! He kept trying to kill Freddie and his vampire family.”
“I like the villains. I feel like nobody roots for them.”
“That’s because they are the bad guys.”
I shrug and see a light shine on my face. I realize the sun reflected off a charm on Chloe’s bracelet, which reminds me of what we talked about earlier.
“If you need to stay at my house, I’m pretty sure my parents would be cool with it,” I say to her.
She scrunches her eyebrows. “Why would I need to stay at your house?”
“If… you know.” I point to her bracelet. “If your parents argue, you can stay at my house.”
Her eyebrows knit together, and she looks down at her bracelet. She covers it with her other hand pressing it hard into her wrist. I don’t know why she’s doing that, but it looks like it hurts.
“Hey, Chloe, stop! That looks like it hurts you.” She pulls her hand away from her wrist, and I notice the charms left indents on her skin. Her eyes are glassy again.
“My dad didn’t come back home,” she says quietly to me. “I lied.”
I don’t say anything. I don’t really know what to say, so I just stay quiet.
“My mom got me this bracelet because she said my dad probably won’t come back for a while.”
My only thought is, who is going to drive us to school? But I don’t think that’s the right thing to say. Instead, I reach my arm around her shoulders and bring her close to me.
“I-I don’t-that really sucks,” I finally say, which makes Chloe laugh and lean into my shoulder. I don’t know why she’s laughing, but I start laughing too.
“It sucks a lot. I miss my dad.” She sniffles. I think she’s crying. “Can I sleep over at your house tonight?”
“Always,” I say as she pulls away, wiping her tears.
“Promise you won’t leave me,” she says to me with the saddest look on her face. As if she actually thinks I’ll ever leave her. She’s my best friend for life, I’ll never leave her, and she better not leave me.
“I promise. You promise you won’t leave me,” I say back.
“I promise.” She smiles and pulls me in for a hug, nearly choking me with the force of her love.
My mom pulls up a few minutes later, and I ask if Chloe can stay the night, which she easily agrees to as if she knew I would ask, anyway. I feel bad that Chloe’s parents aren’t like mine, but I’m happy they treat her like she’s part of the family.