Clouds That Were (Weathered Hearts) (4 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Tenley

S
aturdays suck. My
alarm clock still goes off at seven, so I can get all my chores done before eight AM. I have to have them done before eight, even though I am not allowed to do anything other than sit in my room for the rest of the day. Today I will be allowed to go outside, but only to do yard work. Winter is much worse. The only time I get to go outside then is if it snows and I have to shovel.

I get up and get dressed, and then I find myself pulled toward the window. I look at Chase’s window to see if, for whatever reason, he is sitting there just waiting for me to look, although of course he is not. However, there is a sign in the window that simply says FRONT DOOR.

I run downstairs as quickly and quietly as I can. On the front door is a small gift-wrapped box. I close the door and head back upstairs. Once I am back in my room, I unwrap it to find a brand new iPhone with a note attached.

Tenley: I hope you don’t mind, but I thought texting might be easier than messages through the window. I already sent a text to your new phone so you have my number. I also set up a passcode for you. When the numbers come up, the code is my birthday 1017. Just type it in. Text me when you get this. If you want to. I will be awake.

Chase

He bought me a cellphone? Who the hell is this guy? I have never had a cellphone before; obviously Queen Control Freak would never in a million years let me have one. Keeping this hidden is going to be a challenge.

I rip open the box and sit and stare at it for a few minutes. I don’t even know how to turn it on. The instructions are in the box so I open them to see where the power button is. I find it and turn it on. A little apple comes on the screen along with a keypad. I tap 1017 to see Chase’s goofy, duck-lipped face as the background, and I giggle. I can feel the heat rising to my cheeks. No one has ever done anything like this for me before, and you have to give the guy credit for being so brave, especially after how I treated him yesterday.

There is a text from him as promised that simply says, “Hi.” Cute. Just like the first message in his window last night.

I read the instructions again on how to text, and I send him a quick one that says: I have to have my chores done before my mom wakes up. I will text you when I am done. I pick up all the paper and the box and slide the phone under my mattress. I take the garbage with me and throw it out in a bag with some other stuff and toss it in the garbage in the garage so that my mother doesn’t see it.

I am absolutely giddy now, walking around the house doing all the crap I have to do. It really isn’t that bad, I guess. I just have to empty the dishwasher, wipe down the kitchen counters, scrub the kitchen floor, clean all three bathrooms, take out the garbage… Okay, maybe it is a lot; but I am used to it, so it really doesn’t take me that long.

Just as I am finishing up my last bathroom, I hear mom coming down the stairs. As expected, she immediately starts criticizing the job I have done. Normally, I would fight back, and we would have a whole big argument, but I am too excited because I want to go check my phone, so I just listen to her complain and then fix all of the problems she has pointed out as fast as I can.

In no time at all, I am done and have even done a few extra projects to keep her out of my hair for a while. Before I go upstairs, I decide maybe I should be a little nicer than normal, just to get some extra points.

“Mom, everything is done the way you asked. I was wondering if you wanted me to mow the lawn and pull the weeds today or wait until tomorrow?”

“I told you yesterday that I wanted it done today. You can pull the weeds this morning, but don’t mow the lawn until after noon. I don’t need you waking up the whole damned neighborhood. And try to do a better job than you did last time; it looked like it was cut with a scissors for Christ sake.”

She did not tell me to do it yesterday, but I smile and respond that I will go out and start with the weeds around noon. And if she thinks I do such a terrible job of mowing, maybe she could get up and do it herself for once. I don’t say that, though. That wouldn’t end well.

Once I am back in my room, I close my door and get all of my homework spread out on my bed so it looks like I am doing it and grab my phone from where I had put it under my mattress. Chase had texted me back.

We texted back and forth a few times, and then I heard my mother coming up the stairs so I quickly hid the phone back under the mattress and make it look like I am doing homework.

She comes and slams the door open. Wonderful.

“What are you doing up here?” she sneers.

Using every ounce of willpower I have not to just scream at her, I respond, “I am just trying to get some homework done before noon so that I can go do all of the outside stuff.”

With that she rips the book and pencil I have out of my hand and starts reading. “I can’t even read this chicken scratching you call handwriting.” She tears the sheets of paper into pieces and throws them on the ground. “Start over. And try to make it at least somewhat legible this time. And clean up this room; you have shit all over the floor.” I swear she is smiling as she turns and leaves the room because she knowingly just tore up two days’ worth of work, and the “shit” she so gracefully referred to is the paper she just threw, nothing else.

It is bad enough that I have to write everything by hand because I am not allowed to use her computer, but now I have to start over. I could kill her. I feel the tears starting to well up in my eyes again, but I remember that I am in the middle of a text conversation with Chase.

I pull the phone back out and eventually the tears subside, and I am grinning from ear to ear. He makes me smile. He is the only person who makes me smile.

We text back and forth for a bit while I try to write down everything I can remember from what I had before, with the pieces on the floor and what was in my head I think I have pretty much everything I had before.

The conversation with Chase ends with his saying he will see me this afternoon, and he won’t, but he says things like that and I believe him, even if it is against my better judgment.

But I have to admit, last night when he said he would fix the paper situation I was thinking maybe he would get me some paper, not a phone! But he came through. My untrusting mind and heart are learning that he follows through. Although I am still guarded about it, somewhere inside of me I feel like I can trust him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Phone – Chase

I
must have fallen
asleep on the couch, but when I wake up at four AM, Tenley’s new phone is sitting in a box on the table. I take it out and get it plugged in to start charging and get it set up.

I snap a picture of myself with the goofiest face I can muster at this hour, and set it as the background, and then grab my phone and quickly send her a text so she will have my number. I think a simple “hi” will do for the first text.

I find some paper and a pen and scribble out a little note to put with the phone. I need to go for my run, so I leave the phone charging.

When I get back from the run, the phone is charged, so I wrap it up with the note and leave it on her front door. As I start to put it back in the box, I realize that I should probably set up a pass code just in case her mom finds it. I quickly set it up with my birthday and put it in the box. I don’t want to be sitting in my window just waiting for her to wake up, so I grab my trusty sketchpad again and put a note in the window that says FRONT DOOR and then run over and set it on her front porch. When I get back home, I jump into the shower so that I will be ready when she finally wakes up.

I usually use my early weekend mornings to sit in the backyard and draw; the light is perfect at this hour, and it’s so peaceful to be outside before the rest of the world is awake. Trying not to look over at her house, I grab my art bag and head downstairs to get some drawing done. I have my phone in my pocket so that when she does get the phone and texts, I will be able to respond immediately. God only knows what she was thinking last night when I just disappeared.

Just as I am starting to think that maybe she was trying to tell me she didn’t want me to call, my phone dings, and I am irritatingly giddy with anticipation. The text says something about how she has to get some stuff done before her mom wakes up and she will text later.

I send a quick text back, so she will see it when she gets back to her phone: Good morning beautiful. Too cheesy?

With that done, I go back to drawing. Within a few minutes I realize that the tree I was drawing suddenly has a beautiful dark-haired girl with chestnut eyes sitting next to it crying. It amazes me the way my brain works and that I can draw her without even realizing I am doing it. And somehow, looking at the drawing, I even drew the sadness into her eyes, not just the tears, but the sadness behind the tears too. This girl is going to be the death of me. Although I have been watching her for a few weeks, I only really just met her yesterday, and already I feel like I can’t breathe when she isn’t around.

My phone dings and it is the happiest sound in the world.

Tenley:
Perfect amount of cheesy. Thank you for the phone. No one has ever done anything like that for me before.

Chase:
Not even your boyfriend?

Tenley:
I’m sure you know I don’t have one, stalker boy.

Chase:
Stalker boy? Ouch.

Tenley:
So why did you get me the phone?

Chase:
I wanted to talk to you.

Tenley:
How did you know I wanted to talk to you?

Chase:
I thought it was worth the risk.

Tenley:
I can’t talk on the phone, though, so only texting.

Chase:
Not a problem.

Tenley:
How do you know so much about me?

Chase:
I pay attention.

Tenley:
Pay attention to what, exactly?

Chase:
You

Tenley:
Meaning what?

Chase:
You are always alone. You never talk to anyone. You never go out. You never have people over. And you told me yesterday that your mom is nuts. So I put that all together.

Tenley:
Maybe I should call you smart stalker boy?

Chase:
Maybe you should.

Tenley:
So why would you want to talk to me if you know I have no friends and that I never go anywhere?

Chase:
Why wouldn’t I want to talk to a beautiful mysterious girl?

Tenley:
I am neither of those things.

Chase:
Your opinion.

Tenley:
Fact.

Chase:
Anyway. Do you have plans today?

Tenley:
I have more chores to do.

Chase:
Is that all you do all day?

Tenley:
It’s all I am allowed to do. That and stay out of her way.

Chase:
So you spend most of your time in your room then?

Tenley:
Yup. It sucks.

Chase:
Does she never let you go anywhere?

Tenley:
Sometimes, but it is so rare that even when she does, I have no one to go anywhere with.

Chase:
I would go somewhere with you.

Tenley:
Like where?

Chase:
How about the next time she lets you go somewhere, you just let me know.

Tenley:
Ok. I will see you when I’m 18.

Chase:
I like talking to you, even if it can only be texting.

Tenley:
I like talking to you, too.

Chase:
Wanna play a game?

Tenley:
Maybe?

Chase:
I will ask you a question. You have to tell the truth, and then you get to ask me one. Deal?

Tenley:
Sure.

Chase:
What is your favorite color?

Tenley:
Whoa… tough one. Black. Yours?

Chase:
Black is not a color; it is the absence of color. Pick again.

Tenley:
Ugh, fine, then blue.

Chase:
Ok, mine is blue as well. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Tenley:
Dead.

Chase:
Whoa, what?

Tenley:
I don’t see myself having a future.

Chase:
You have to pick something else.

Tenley:
Fine, photographer.

Chase:
Nice. Can I see any pictures you have taken?

Tenley:
I don’t have a camera. It’s just a dream.

Chase:
We will talk more about this in person. Your turn.

Tenley:
Where did you move here from and why?

Chase:
You are only allowed one. Choose.

Tenley:
Ok, why?

Chase:
My mom died, and my dad moved here to be closer to his parents. Will you meet me at the park today?

Tenley:
We already talked about how I cannot leave the house.

Chase:
If you could, would you?

Tenley:
Yes.

Chase:
Okay, I will see you this afternoon then. I have to go. I will text you later.

Tenley:
You’re nuts. Bye.