How Long is Forever? Chapter 1/3 Of Chapter 4

Wow, Mom was right. I thought to myself as I stood about 12 feet away from the sand. The view was amazing, the ocean's waters were as blue as the sky, it filled the air with the scent of sea salt. The water was overlapping each other, causing Narcissa's wide variety of boats and yachts to sway up and down, and birds were flying in the horizon, everything was so beautiful. In the far off distance, I saw a tall, white, and wooden lighthouse, and before it was a field of wheat and barley that swayed in the cool breeze. I haven't been to Newport in a while, I think the last time I was here was 11 years ago, when i was just 8. I was standing on the enormous land of grass in Narcissa Belagio's backyard in Newport. We had just arrived 2 hours ago and I was exploring the house, actually it was more like a mansion, Serena ran off with Narcissa's dogs and their groomers because she seemed so fascinated with them as well as with all animals she ever came across with. Caleb was sleeping in one of the guest rooms since the trip took hours and he hadn't gotten to take any of his naps yet, plus, a maid was there at his aid whenever his cry was heard. Mom was talking to Narcissa of course, the last time i left them, they were laughing over the story of Mom's little argument with the florist. The mansion(I'd rather call it that than a house) had 12 rooms, 8 bathrooms, 4 garages, 8 maids, 6 chauffeurs, 2 tennis courts, a large pool, and a maze of bushes on the side of the backyard, complete with a water fall consisting of coy fish in the heart of the maze. The sides of the mansion were outlined with big, bright roses of red, pink, and white. It felt like i was in the set of a movie. All of it took my being upset out of my system for an hour. I was upset because I didn't have time to reply to Blake's message, instead of getting some time for myself before we left, I was stuck having to pick up Serena from Jessica's house. By the time the two of us got home, one of Narcissa's drivers were already in our driveway, waiting for us. It had been a long journey here that I felt frustratedly tired when we got here, I remember seeing Narcissa for the very first time, it went a little something like this;

"Isn't it just wonderful?" Mom held both her hands in front of her as the Cadillac pulled up along the long driveway of Narcissa's house. I didn't really care much, I mean it did look like a mini castle but it was hot and stuffy in the car and I had dealt with Caleb's crying for so long that all I wanted to do was get out of the car.

"Just wonderful Mom." I sighed under my breath, I had been sweating through my white cotton dress for sitting in the car for so long. When we got inside, 3 or 4 maids were there to greet us and take our belongings. As i got inside, I noticed that there were 2 long flight of stairs coming from upstairs that curved into the middle, the gap was the entrance to the formal living room and formal dining room. The marble floors were squeaky clean and spotless, i could see my reflection just by looking down. I followed behind my mother, Serena in hand. Caleb was on my mother's hip. Suddenly I saw a woman's figure, she was tall and slender, her dark hair swiped into an elegant braid and then rolled up into a bun at the lower right side of her skinny face. She was sporting a big, white, Kentucky Derby hat with big, black flowers on them, the hat tilting to the left side of her head. Her black sundress was dotted with white polka dots and her 3 inch sandals made soft thuds as she walked towards us, a small, brown chihuahua cradled in her left arm dressed in a sundress similar to his owner's. Wow, rich people and their dogs, so typical. I thought to myself as she came closer. She looked to be about her mid thirties.

"How is my favorite wedding planner?!" She flashed us a great big smile, revealing a set of perfectly straight, whitened teeth.

"Oh, exhausted, it took us hours from Providence to get here, but you are my favorite client, so you know I made sure that we pulled through." Mom tried responding with as much enthusiasm as Narcissa. Well it's not the first time I heard you say that, Mom. I quietly laughed to myself (if that was even possible) as I thought this.

"Well you know that you and your children are more than welcome to make yourself at home here." She looked at every each and one of us. "And you're absolutely right, Nova! Your children are beautiful, especially you're daughter over here...are you Serena or Destiney?" She looked at me with the most alerting grayish blue eyes I have ever seen.

"That's Destiney, and over here...come on sweetheart, don't be shy...is Serena." Mom beckoned Serena to step out from behind my leg.

"Well both of them are beautiful, especially this little one, he is just so adorable." Narcissa caressed Caleb's rosy cheeks, Caleb instantly smiled at the woman.

"Oh! Well I like him already!" She smiled back, captured by his adorableness.

"Well I see that my son here, already likes you as well." Mom laughed as they both set their gaze on him. Then all of a sudden, she looked over at me.

"Destiney, i was wondering how you get your hair like that? It's so naturally wavy, well as my niece would say it, they're beach waves. When was the last time you cut it? It's so long and full of body. Is there something, well a secret that you have to keep it like that?

I wasn't expecting this, so I tried my best to answer casually. "Um, I don't exactly do anything with it...yea, I have no secrets." I chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you...well the last time I cut it was my freshmen year of high school, I cut it up to my shoulders. But anyway, I guess my hair's just naturally wavy. I'm pretty sure I got it from Mom, this is pretty much what her hair looks like when it's not under toxic gels and hairsprays and sleeked back into ponytails or buns or if it hadn't gone through the flat iron."

She nodded slowly. "Ohhh....ok."

"May I ask why?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh it's just that my niece Audrina would kill for hair like yours. She spends lots of her time trying to get natural waves like yours, she shows me pictures of them and they look a lot like your hair. If she didn't style her hair, well...it would be very, very, very curly, as in bushy curly...I don't know where she gets it, i mean her mother never had curly hair, neither did her father." She said as she shrugged. "The funny thing is though, when you see her, you would find it hard to believe that her hair was that way since she's put her hair through so much. Cutting, coloring, straightening, curling, relaxing...anything you could think of doing to your hair, she's done. Well, except perming it, of course she'd never do that." She said, laughing gently. God, this woman was so poised. I thought to myself yet again.

"Wow...that's..that's, uh, interesting." A girl I have never met and the first thing I find out about her is her ongoing hair habits, how bizarre.

"Yea...I'd introduce you to her but she's still upstairs, asleep. She always sleeps in until the afternoon on Sundays, typical teenager." She said to me, chuckling.

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After standing in the backyard for so long, I went to go look for my mother. I made my way through the huge maze, absorbing things around me...I found myself knelt down over the water fountain, just watching the coy fish swim around. After I finally manage to get up and leave, I headed towards the small little gate that separated the garden from the driveway and saw a big truck, men in suits were unloading things and I saw my mother speaking to one of them, clipboard in hand, showing him the table settings and where each table would go in the backyard. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, Narcissa's wedding was being held here in the backyard since the grass area is huge, plus, the background of the ocean was the most perfect touch to the wedding. Mom looked up at me for a moment and smiled, then got back to explaining the table settings to the man. I walked over to where that stacks of boxes that read "Table Settings" were, watching men roll out big, round tables out of the truck and sat myself on one of the boxes. I sighed out of exhaustion and tiredness and set my elbow on one of the boxes that were stacked a little higher, resting the left side of my face on my hand. I slumped my shoulders and breathed in and out and looked around me, the men and their moving things for the wedding, my Mom and her hand gestures with pen and clipboard in hand with the man standing next to her, nodding at this. I looked over the gate, the ocean just visible between the bushes and the bars of the gate. Suddenly, as I turned to my left slowly, I noticed a guy that looked to be about my age, maybe a year or two older than me walking up the wide and open front lawn. I found my eyes following him as he walked toward Narcissa's house, His jeans low on his waist with a silver chain attached to his belt swaying as he walked. The wind played with his light brown hair, revealing the most striking pair of green eyes I have ever seen in my whole entire life, I was a bit in awe for this was the first time I've seen anyone with green eyes, they weren't very common. He was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt that hugged his lean but not bulky body just right, not too tight and not too loose. A tattoo of God knows what peeked out from under his sleeve with each sway of his arms, then i noticed a bunch of different kinds of leather bracelets covered his right wrist, and on his neck, a chord of thick string rested on it, pendant hiding underneath his white v-neck. He had a pair of what looked to be like drumsticks in his hands and suddenly, he reached into his back pocket and quickly slipped them in there. I inserted every detail of him into my head, my eyes scanning him up and down slowly and automatically. Even as he made his way inside, I still found myself staring at the door, long after he shut it, my neck craned all the way from my eyes following him.

"Destiney!" Mom's voice brought me back to earth all of a sudden.

"Huh, huh, huh?! Wha-what?!" I craned my neck so fast I thought for a second something had snapped in there. "Ow..." I muttered to myself as I bended my neck from side to side, trying to ease the pain.

"Sweetheart, I've called your name like 3 or 4 times now...aren't you listening?" Mom half smiled at me with her hands on her hips, the men were starting to close the truck behind her as the engine started, producing a loud roaring sound.

"Yea...yea, I'm listening, sorry." I smiled at her like something funny had just happened.

"Gotta get up from those boxes honey, those are fragile...these table settings were imported from Italy, they cost a ton." She shook her head at me.

"Oh, yea, right." I quickly got up and straightened out my dress. "I bet they do cost a ton."