Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

3.Create a Home

By the end of the summer, my mom found a cute three-bedroom condo that was about seventeen minutes away from my school. We were going to be living in a duplex penthouse in Manhattan, and that was probably one of the most exciting things that happened during Summer. Otherwise, my summer vacation was more like my summer depression.

It was my first day attending a university and it was extremely frightening. No lie, I felt like a lost birdy without a mommy. There were different buildings with different names and numbers; it was so confusing. I had ten minutes before my next class and the black and gray map the counselor had printed for me was not making it any easier to find the classroom. Suddenly, I felt a delicate tap on my shoulder.

"Are you new?" A girl with luscious dark brown hair asked.

I laughed nervously. "It's that obvious?"

She had warm brown eyes, like sweet syrup, that crinkled in amusement. "Just a little bit." She gestured with two of her fingers signaling a small amount. "Hi, I'm Stephanie, and you are?"

"Mackenzie. Pleased to meet you, Stephanie."

"Let me see your schedule and I'll tell you where to go."

As she stared at the paper, I asked her a question. "How many semesters have you been here for?"

Her brown eyes lifted to mine. "Oh this is my first semester too, but my mom is part of the staff, so I've known my way around here for a couple of years now."

"That's really cool," I said.

She wrinkled her nose and moved her hand in a way that meant it was so-and-so. "Oh look we have the same English class, sweet! Let's get going or we will be late!" We walked and jogged to class and made it in the nick of time.

We had to sit at the front of the class because all the other seats were taken up already. Our teacher was a gorgeous man with a deep voice. He looked to be in his late forties, but was very attractive nonetheless. He immediately began to discuss the expectations for the class and I sat and listened attentively. It became nine o'clock, so we stood to leave.

I had twenty minutes before my next class, and Stephanie had thirty, so we went to go have breakfast. We sat down in a table for two and compared our schedules again. We found that we had Art Appreciation and Chemistry together too, but those were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She explained in detail how to look at the university's map, so I could find my way to my other classes. The first day went by slowly and I only had three classes. By one o'clock I was being picked up by mom, since we had not gotten around choosing a car for me.

But I honestly did not care very much if I had a car or not; I was tired, so I was glad that I did not have to drive, and I did not recognize the streets very well... or anything for that matter.

The previous night, my mom and I had slept on a mattress together with no real bed. The furniture we had bought was not being dropped of until a day after we had moved our clothes and things of that nature. For the whole month of July, my mom and I had stayed at a hotel near the museum she had started working at, so she wouldn't have to wake up incredibly early and drive all the way from my aunt's to the museum. My aunt was not too pleased that we were going to be staying at the hotel, so the only way we made her stop resisting was by the condition that we had to stay at her house at least once a week. In effect, every Saturday night we would spend the night and leave on Sunday evening to start the week. I could have stayed at Joy's the whole time, but I did not want to leave my mom by herself at such a rough time in her life. We needed each other.

We made it to our condo, and thirty minutes later, big burly men were bringing in couches, beds, tables, dressers, and a television. The thing that excited me most was the TV if I had to be honest. Later that evening, someone would be coming over to install our internet and cable—my most precious babies. My mom asked me to go grocery shopping with her after the cable guy left.