three. you know where to find me !
real life & letter...

DOROTHEA TOOK ONLY ABOUT FIVE minutes to accomplish the walk back to her grandma's house. and the entire time she was desperately trying to repress every thought of matt that tried to make its way into her head. she wasn't going to deal with that right now, and hopefully not for the rest of her visit. though, everything that just happened was just so hard for her to ignore. how did they let themselves get to that point? they've never talked back and forth like that before.

once she was back inside, she walked over to where her grandma was still sitting in the recliner. "here, grammy," dorothea said as she handed her the loaf of banana bread. 

"oh, it looks so delicious! johanna does such a good job. would you be a dear and cut us both a slice?" her grandma looked so excited to get to try the freshly cut banana bread, especially with her granddaughter.

"of course." she took the loaf back, and over to the kitchen, continuing their conversation by saying, "jo gave it to you. she wouldn't take my money." dorothea made it seem like she hated the fact.

her grandma knew exactly how she felt, getting her money shoved back into her hands as if she had anywhere else to spend it all. "sounds like someone i know..." she looked dorothea right in the eyes with a knowing look signifying that she was that someone.

"stop it! that's different." she tried to defend herself, knowing that her grandma was completely right.

"it's really not, dear," she said as she was handed her own little plate with a piece of banana bread.

"i guess." she shrugged, not being able to say much more on the topic. which lead to a decent amount of silence between the two as they finished off their delicious treat.

her grandma was the one to break the silence by suggesting, "why don't you check out your room. we kept it the same just for you."

"oh, okay." dorothea shuddered at the thought of walking back into her old room, especially if her grandma was telling the truth and it had been left untouched. she couldn't think of any reason as to why it would have been messed up under any circumstance.

she gave her grandma a quick hug before heading up the creaky stairs, and to the second door on the right. as she opened the door, it was like she was opening a time capsule. everything being exactly how she remembered it the night she left. boxes of things she meant to take were still sitting next to the bed. two zip-ups, one grey and one blue, were laid upon a rocking chair. which she could only guess she was choosing between the two, and by the looks of it, neither were chosen.

she opened up one of the boxes by her bed, finding things that she wished she could just put away, but her curiosity got the best of her. she grabbed the first thing she saw and it just happened to be a small framed polaroid of her and matt the night they met. he had his arm around her and she had the biggest smile on her face, like he just said the most hilarious thing ever. the writing at the bottom was written by dorothea, saying "matt & doro", meaning it was before he started calling her thea.

she felt a tear weld up in her eye because the girl that she saw in the photo didn't know what was in front of her. she didn't know about her new life in chicago. even the fact that she moved out of town would have been enough to stun the younger her. and the most obvious one, the boy in that photo was going to mean a lot more to her than just some guy at a party.

not wanting to go any farther down that rabbit hole, she shoved the frame back down the side of the box, closing it back up without a second thought.

dorothea took a quick look at the digital clock that sat on her nightstand. she couldn't believe it still worked, unless her mother had recently fixed it. the glowing red numbers read, "6:54". it wasn't late, but it felt late. she felt as though it wouldn't hurt to lay down on her bed and close her eyes for a few seconds. she needed it after all.

the only problem with that was seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours. and before she knew it, she slept in until the next morning.

✰

WHEN DOROTHEA WOKE UP, SHE noticed that she wasn't sprawled out on her twin sized bed like she last remembered. her head was placed nicely on her pillow, and her covers were pulled just below her shoulders. this could only have been the work of her mother.

turning her head slightly, she was able to check the clock once again on her nightstand. this time the red numbers read, "8:47". meaning she slept for over twelve hours last night. instead of feeling refreshed like you would think, she only felt more tired than she did yesterday. yet every time she tried to fall back asleep, nothing would happen.

out of frustration, she sat up and made her way downstairs. from what she remembered her mother and grandmother were both early risers, so they should both be up already. her thoughts were only proven correct when she saw her grandma sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee in her hand as she completed the crossword on the newspaper in front of her. her mother was standing by the kitchen counter arranging a bouquet of flowers into a vase.

"who's the lucky man?" dorothea asked, very intrigued with who her mother could possibly be with. dorothea knew almost everyone here so she was bound to be shocked with whatever answer she gave her.

"i don't know," she simply responded.

dorothea felt at least some kind of shock, she was expecting some answer like the guy she was seeing before dorothea left, or the other one that lived down the street and her mother wouldn't shut up about how hot he was. she realized that she really wanted to know these kinds of things about her mother.

"what do you mean you don't know?" dorothea's face was full with confusion.

"they're yours." the two words were enough for her to know exactly who the flowers were from. better yet, she should have known by the assortment of lilies her mother was messing with at the moment. lilies were her favorite flowers then and still were now, of course he'd remember that.

"they came with this note." her mother handed her a card with nothing on the front of it.

before dorothea could open it, she saw that it was already ripped. she assumed her mother was the one to open it already, "did you read it?"

she wasn't mad about it, it actually would make her less scared about reading the card if she knew she wasn't the first one reading it. she trusted her mom, and knew she wouldn't make her read something she didn't want to. and it wasn't like she didn't know who it was from, so she knows what she's getting into if she opened the card.

"yes, and you should too." dorothea felt a hand on her shoulder as her mother said the words, she really wanted her to read it.

she took the envelope and opened the flap, pulling out the card to go along with it, and taking a deep breath before she looked at what it said.

dorothea sat there rereading the card over and over again because she didn't know what to think. it was weird because her heart wanted to go, but her head was telling her it would be better if she didn't. she was entirely conflicted with her own self.

"you should go." her grandma said after a couple minutes of silence. apparently she read it too? dorothea knew that her mother loved when she was with matt, but her grandma was a different story. it was probably because everytime matt was around, dorothea had to keep him away from her grandpa. he wasn't at all a fan of boyfriends, of any kind, in the house, and that went for her mother as well.

"but i don't know if i can," she said putting the card back down on the counter right next to the fresh flowers.

her mother stepped in, "sure you can, you have nothing to do all day," reminding dorothea that she wasn't going to be having jam packed days everyday like she did back in chicago. when she thought for a second about what she was going to do today, nothing came to mind. she really didn't have anything to do.

it took a few minutes but eventually, dorothea decided that it would probably be best to go and fix what had happened between them yesterday. like she said, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if that was the last conversation they had. but if she wanted to go, she had to get herself together. she couldn't go out to meet him in her airport outfit.

after she started to make her way out of the kitchen, and back to her room, she was stopped by her mother. "where do you think you're going, young lady?"

"to my room to get ready." the answer clearly didn't satisfy her mother enough, so she added, "i can't go looking like this, can i?"

✰
nat's notes !

i'm just pumping out these chapters omg...
but i'm so happy with how this is turning out!
i just dk when or how to add in the murder plot??