Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Effie was loving my old bedroom, which we’d finished decorating, adding a full-size white bed and fluffy pink rug to match the other accessories I’d ordered for her. I loved hanging out in there with her and looking at my favorite cottonwood tree through the window. Sometimes when she was at school, I’d go in there, sit on the bed, and stare outside. Occasionally, Evan would come home for lunch, and I’d greet him from the window. We both laughed at the irony, each and every time.
Evan and I moved into the primary bedroom, and we’d decided to completely redo it, since the previous décor reminded me of when Mom was sick. Some stick-on wallpaper, fresh bedding, and new curtains did the trick.
On this particular evening, the three of us had just finished dinner on a Friday night after a long week. The plan was to watch some old family movies that Evan had recently transferred from VHS to digital format. He hooked up his laptop to the television so we could watch them on a big screen.
Effie and I popped some popcorn and each carried a large bowl into the living room.
The first video Evan pulled up had been taken during the summer. In it, Fawn and I frolicked in the backyard, running through sprinklers and having water balloon fights. It was from the period of time before Evan had moved in. I must’ve been around nine.
“That looks like fun!” Effie giggled. She turned to Evan. “Can we get a Slip N’ Slide?”
He nodded and signaled her to lower her voice.
As we continued to watch the video, you could hear my mother laughing as she shot the footage. I closed my eyes, relishing the sound of her voice for a moment as I escaped back to that place of pure love and innocence. Tears blurred my eyes. At one point in the video, my father came home from work, and I could hear him kiss her on the cheek. My heart swelled. At the time, this had seemed like just an ordinary afternoon to me. I’d had no idea how lucky I was or what watching this would mean to me someday. To think that these videos had just been sitting there for so long, unwatched and collecting dust. It scared me that they could’ve been accidentally discarded in the cleanout process.
The next video we watched was from the first Christmas Evan lived with us. I remembered that Christmas Eve clearly. His mom had been in the hospital at the time, and he’d just returned from visiting her. He’d put on a brave face, but that didn’t hide the sadness in his eyes. I remembered wanting to make it better so badly, but feeling powerless at twelve years old. My family had always done a Secret Santa exchange, and in one part of the video, we announced who had been assigned to whom. You could see me blush when I declared that I’d gotten Evan and nervously walked over to hand him his present—a basket of his favorite energy drinks, candy, and a goofy T-shirt.
“Daddy was so cute!” Effie beamed.
“I definitely used to think that,” I agreed.
Evan then switched to a third video, and after the first few clips, I could see this one was different. It wasn’t one long movie, but rather edited snippets—all of him and me. In every single one, I seemed to be either looking at him or interacting shyly. Clearly, I’d been unaware that someone was filming. Then in some of the shots, I was the one filming. You could hear my commentary as Evan practiced on the field or threw around a football with his friends.
He had to have gone through hours of footage to compile all this. Maybe I should’ve been a bit embarrassed, but I mostly felt empathy for that innocent girl with the relentless crush.
I finally turned to him and laughed. “I get the point.”
“No, you don’t.” Evan smirked. “Watch.”
Effie giggled.
I tickled her side. “Are you in on this?”
She kicked her legs excitedly and shrugged.
Then some captions appeared at the bottom of the screen.
You were always there.
And I was clueless.
Until I wasn’t.
The home movie then switched to footage taken in later years, depicting moments where Evan had been looking at me, ones where I hadn’t noticed. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been oblivious when it came to him. But in these scenes, I seemed to have no clue that his attention was on me.
I laughed when at one point in the video, my mother was calling for Evan in the background, but he didn’t hear her because he was watching me relay a story to my sister. His eyes were on me and only me with a huge smile on his face. After my mother yelled louder, Evan eventually blinked and got up to help her.