Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

I love it when my space is freshly cleaned. It feels so calm and serene.

BetaTestAccount23: Scrubbing toilets makes you feel serene?

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: Maybe not while I’m doing it, but after, yes. It does.

BetaTestAccount23: Okay, so there are two memories that come to mind, but now that I think about it, they’re quite similar.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: I’m all ears. Eyes? Anyway, go ahead.

BetaTestAccount23: The first one is from when I was little, maybe 7 or 8. I have two older siblings, a sister 7 years older than me and a brother 8 years older. So they would’ve been maybe 14 and 15. Something like that.

BetaTestAccount23: I remember it was a Saturday in June and things were bad at home. Our parents were fighting a lot and things were tense. So they took me and my younger brothers, who would’ve been maybe 6 and 4 at the time, to Coney Island for the day.

BetaTestAccount23: I remember spending what felt like hours building a sandcastle (that my younger brother destroyed) and walking down the boardwalk where we played those dumb carnival games and ate hot dogs and ice cream. Then they took us to a baseball game and I fell asleep on my brother’s lap on the subway on the way home.

BetaTestAccount23: It was just a really great day, and our parents never did anything like that with us. But it was like it mattered to my brother and sister that we were happy and cared for. Thinking back, they were just kids too, but they tried to make sure we had fun.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: That’s a really nice memory! And you’re still close with your siblings now, right?

BetaTestAccount23: I am. They’re spread across the country now and I miss them.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: What was the other memory that came to mind?

BetaTestAccount23: When I was 15 I was still overweight. I hadn’t started working out or eating properly yet, and I got picked on a lot for it. For a while, my nickname was Meatball.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: That’s awful. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that.

BetaTestAccount23: My older brother knew about the bullying and one day, he came to pick me up from school. He would’ve been 22 then, and he had this awesome sports car. He asked me who was picking on me and literally drove at him. He almost ran him down, chasing him with his car across the school lawn. Then he stopped, rolled down his window and told the kid “leave my brother the fuck alone or next time I’ll actually try to hit you.”

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: Wow. That’s…he sounds like kind of a badass.

BetaTestAccount23: He is. And you know what? They left me alone after that. I think they were scared of him.

BetaTestAccount23: But I realized, as I was typing all of this out, that the common thread is that both times I felt cared for. I felt loved and safe and worth something, because of my siblings. I didn’t have much of that from my parents, so I guess that’s why those moments stick out to me.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: That’s really sweet. I’m so glad you have that relationship with them now.

BetaTestAccount23: Me too. So, what’s your favorite memory?

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: My birthday is in December, close to Christmas, which kind of sucks, but when I was 5 my mom started this tradition of taking me to see the Nutcracker every year for my birthday. We’d get manicures and get all dolled up with dresses and perfume and then go to the matinee. Then she’d take me for hot chocolate after and it was always the loveliest day. And it just made my birthday feel special because not everyone gets to watch the Nutcracker for their birthday, you know?

BetaTestAccount23: Do you still go?

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: No, we haven’t gone since I was in college. And that’s okay. She and my dad are both retired and travel a lot. Their lives are their own now, and I get that.

BetaTestAccount23: Tell you what. If we’re still friends in December, I’ll take you to see the Nutcracker. Deal?

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: Deal.