Payton called Matt that night.

“Hi Matt.”

“Hey babe.”

“Matt, I have to tell you something.”

“What?”

“Well, since you’ve been sick, I’ve been thinking.....”

“And....” Matt asked sharply.

“And I don’t want to go out with you anymore.”

“Oh, this couldn’t have come at a worse time! First, I get really sick and have to stay in the hospital for two days and you didn’t even visit me, then I get back and you won’t even kiss me, ‘because I dont want to get sick’” he mocked her, “now you’re breaking up with me after I just got a call that my aunt and cousin died in a car crash! WELL ISN’T THIS THE BEST WEEK! YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON’T NEED YOU YOU FUCKING WHORE!!!” He yelled at Payton and hung up. Payton silently cried as she listened to the dial tone. It began to thunder outside and then the rain poured down. Payton decided to call Alex and see if talking helped any.

“Alex, be home, please be home.”

“Hey, this is Alex, looks like I’m not here right now, sorry, leave a message at the beep and I’ll get back to you. Thanks, bye. *beep*”

“Alex, its Payton. I really need someone to talk to right now, please call me as soon as possible. I love ya, bye.” Payton hung up the phone wondering where Alex was, she was always home at six. She ritually listened to the Top Six at Six on her favorite radio station, 107.9 KROK. She was a little worried.

“Wow, that was so much fun! Thanks Josh.” After their little moment, when Alex walked Josh to class, she asked him if he wanted to go with her to The Racing Ring, a local hangout that had the little race cars.

“Yeah, that was really cool of Kevin to take us.”

“Well, he was going with Christy anyway. I’m sure he didn’t mind. OH CRAP!”

“What?”

“I forgot to call Payton and ask her if she wanted to go! Awww...she gonna be so mad at me, I always take her when I go, she loves it there.” Alex slapped her hand over her mouth. She motioned for Josh to follow her into the house. “MA?” she yelled.

“Yes Alex?” her mom walked into the hallway. She was drying a pan and looking down at it when she walked in.

“Mom.” Alex got her attention so she’d look up. Well, Joey looked up, saw Alex, saw Josh and then dropped the pan she was drying. Her face got pale and her mouth hung opened. “Mom, are you okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“I-I,” she stammered, “I think I just have.” Joey began to cry.

“Um, Josh, I’ll call you, okay? I gotta find out whats wrong with my mom.” Alex ushered him out as her mom dropped to the floor, crying hysterically. “Sorry to rush you out.”

“No,” Josh was pushed out the door, it slammed in his face and locked, “problem.” Josh began to walk home, wondering if there was something wrong with him. Maybe her mom already didn’t like him. He was confused and wondered the whole way home.

“Mom, whats wrong? WHAT HAPPENED!” Alex lightly shook her.

“I-I’m sorry honey, I didn’t mean to do that.” The crying had now slowed down a bit. “Its just...” she trailed off.

“It’s just what?”

“He looked so much like your father when he was young. When I met him.” She sniffled.

“Josh looks like dad? How come I’ve never seen pictures of dad? How come you never tell me about dad? Everytime I ask, especially what his last name was, you just look at me funny and blow me off.”

“I know, I just can’t face you. Its so hard for me to talk about him.”

“I’m just curious about dad. I don’t know whats so hard about telling me!” Alex stormed up the stairs to her room. She slammed the door and heard beeping, her answering machine.

“Hey Alex, this is Carrie, there’s a party at Kim’s tomorrow, I’ve already called Payton, I hope you guys can make it.” *beep*

“Alex, you cutie you, it’s Jimmy, I know that you will be at Katie’s party on Saturday, thats only a couple days away, we’re gonna get drunk....oh, I told Payton, so you guys both are welcome, and bring a couple of friends. Bye.” *beep*

“Alex, its Peter, I’m having a party on Monday, thats a week from today. Hope to see you and Payton there. Catch you later.” *beep*

“Hey charming, its Kelly, I’m going to Katie’s party on Saturday, I want to talk you into it. It will be awesome, she’ll have a live band there. Please come. See ya.” *beep* Alex rolled her eyes.

“Alex, its Payton. I really need someone to talk to right now, please call me as soon as possible. I love ya, bye.” Alex immediately picked up the phone and dialed her number. I knew I should have stayed home!!

“Hello?” Payton sniffled.

“It’s Alex, whats wrong?”

“EVERYTHING! I’M SO MAD AT MATT, but I feel terrible!”

“What’d he do? I’ll kick his ass!”

“Well, I decided to break up with him, and he put this HUGE guilt trip on me, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE THOSE! He said that I called at the worst time, he just got out of the hospital and that I wouldn’t kiss him and that he just got word his aunt and cousin died.....I feel so bad!!” Payton broke down.

“I’ll be right over. I need someone to talk to as well.”

“No, I need to get out of my house, I’ll come over.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

“I can’t believe he’s doing that! What a jerk!” Alex squealed.

“I can’t believe your mom won’t tell you who your father was, except that his name was Taylor. And she said that wasn’t even his first name. Why won’t she even tell you who your aunts and uncles are?”

“I don’t know, but you’d think they’d go for the yearly anniversary, even though it took place 16 years ago next anniversary. That will be May, yeah.” Alex looked around the room. “You know what I’m going to do spontaniously?”

“What?”

“Well, help me and I’ll show you!” Alex walked out of her room and pulled the door to the attic opened. “I’m going to root through the attic and see what I can find to hang in my room, my room is bland!” Despite the stuff covering the walls, Alex found her room boring and she had just suddenly been hit by the idea. Her Aunt Tara use to decorate her room like that, she’d go in the attic and decorate the room, and then put the old stuff in the attic. It was almost like a recycling process. “I can’t believe I’ve never thought of this before, my Aunt Tara use to do this, she called it recycling the goods. Every 2 years or so, she went up to the attic and took a bunch of stuff down, then she decorated her room. Then she would take all the stuff off her walls and put it back into the attic, I think she still does it. It’s such a cool idea. I have no idea why I thought of it, but I’m glad it did, maybe we’ll find something cool.” Alex smiled. Payton figured it would be fun probably. “When my grandma and grampa owned this house, this was my mom’s room, but when they moved out and mom stayed here, she put all the stuff from the attic back in here, so there should be some really old stuff in here too. Stuff from the sixties and sevendies maybe.”

“That was only 30 years ago.” Payton pointed out as Alex turned the light on. The big room was filled by boxes and things. It was a pretty big room and right now, it was a little dusty. Payton began to sneeze. “I’m allergic to dust.”

“I’m sorry. There’s some tissues in the bathroom downstairs. You could go get them and come back,” Alex suggested. Payton nodded as she headed back towards the stairs and continued to sneeze two more times.

Alex, not wanting to wait and have to think about their problems began to look through the boxes. She pulled out some old clothes out of one box and smiled at the styles of them. They were 90’s clothes and seemed so tacky compared to the new styles. Alex was holding up a slip-dress when Payton walked in.

“Hey, are there any 80’s clothes in there?” Payton asked curiously. The eighties had come back in style securing the fact that all styles come back 20 years later.

“Nah. Mom was born in 83, remember? She was only 7 when the era ended, so... She has a lot of 90’s clothes though,” Alex showed Payton the slip dress.

“You know, in ten years, these clothes will be coming back in style,” Payton pointed out, grabbing a tank top.

“Scary thought, isn’t it?”

“Definitely.”

“Hey, what’s this box?” Alex wondered aloud as she spotted a box that was labeled “The End.”

“I don’t know. Open it. Probably has a lot of good stuff since it’s so big,” Payton suggested. Alex began to, but then she heard her mother coming up the stairs.

“Alex, whatcha doing up here?” Alex heard her call. She got away from the box and returned the the clothes. She knew there was probably something in there that was secret, seeing how it was taped many times over.

“Just joking about your lack of taste as a child,” Alex laughed, holding up a pair of leather pants.

“Hey, it was the style. And plus, those weren’t mine,” she sighed, looking kind of sad at the sight of the brown leather.

“Who’s are they?”

“An old boyfriend,” she remarked simply. “Dinner is ready if you want some. It’s Ravioli.”

“Okay, we’ll be down in a minute after we wash up.” Alex assured her tired mother before she went back down the stairs. “Payton,” she looked at her after her mother was out of sight, “help me take this box downstairs. I want to look through it for some stuff to put on my walls tonight, and Mom’ll get suspicious if I come back up here.”

“Okay,” she agreed. They grabbed both sides of the slightly heavy box and began to carry it down the stairs. They made sure to stash it away in her room before hurrying off to the bathroom to ready for dinner.

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