Days of Smiles

Chapter 12- Our Mother

Rae's POV

"What does it mean?" Ava asks.

"I don't know, I've never seen it before, and haven't heard the date either." I run my fingers over the picture, throughout the years spent at the orphanage, the nights spent crying as I held this same picture in my hands, I never once noticed such a big and important detail.

"I think it's the date the picture was taken, they usually print the date along with it." Ava explains as she studies the picture carefully, probably looking for more clues.

"Oh...then I guess it's nothing...a date can't really help me." I sigh, falling back on my bed, and using my hands to cover my face. I hear a few shuffles and I peek through my hands watching as Ava places the photo into the diary and closes it, placing it in a drawer. She gives me a skeptical look.

"What do you mean by that?" I look away from her. I don't know if I trust her enough to tell her my plans, I'm scared she'll go tell Elena or someone else. I decide to tell her, she seems good at spotting little details, something I'm not as good at as it seems.

I release a puff of air, sitting up to look her in the eye.

"I don't know how to put this but...I'm on a mission to find my mother..." She tries to speak but I shut her up immediately.

"It's not that I'm not grateful to Elena and thankful for all she's done for me, but..."

"It's not the same as having your real mother, and you feel like you can make things right by finding her."

"Exactly."

She sighs.

"Although I think you should talk to Elena about this, I won't tell her and I'll help you." She gives a shrug at the last part. I immediately stretch my arms out, giving her a hug.

"Thank you." She chuckles a bit.

"You're welcome."

I hug her for a while, a goofy smile on my face, appreciating the fact that I made a wise decision by becoming friends with her.

"Um...Rae?"

"Mhm?"

"This hug is nice and all, but I believe we have a party to go to, and we haven't gotten ready yet."

"Oh...sorry." I release my grip on her and back away.

She picks up a black dress from the pile of clothes she'd gathered from my closet.

"Now...where were we?"

*****

I look around the dimly lit room as sweaty bodies move about, sliding against each other, dancing to the loud music playing. The atmosphere is filled with the strong smell of alcohol and sweat.

The room, which I'm assuming to be the living room is quite spacious, I'm guessing Jake's parents are not in town. It's been a while since we got here and not much has happened. I haven't seen any sign of Trevor or his friends, including Tyler, though I'm unsure if Tyler's here. We haven't really talked since the incident. Sometimes I feel like he's avoiding me, but I refuse to dwell on that as he needs some space to recover.

"I'm going to get us some drinks, what do you want?" Ava yells over the loud music.

"Anything you're getting." She nods and walks off, leaving me alone. I look around, feeling a bit uncomfortable. I'm not used to such things, growing up in an orphanage didn't quite give a person a lot of experiences, especially if you were anti-social.

I sigh.

I've been doing that a lot lately.

I wait for some minutes but get worried when there's still no sign of Ava. I get worried and begin searching for her.