Who Calls You a Fan?

Chapter 18

Once I stepped into the car, I knew it was going to be a long drive. After five minutes of Jason driving, Ashton called him.

Noel sat up and leaned into my ear.

"Are you going to call Calum?" She asked. I shivered at the question and shook my head.

"No, not today."

I was surprised that she talked to me. I was pretty sure she was still mad at me about the play thing. I shook the problem out of my head and looked out the window. I listened to Jason and Ashton's conversation.

"I can see you right now doing that-"

"You must be busy."

"That's sick!"

The talking went on and on and on it seemed like.

"Yeah sure, hang on a second." Jason took the phone away from his ear and set it on speaker.

"Okay, you're on speaker." Jason said. I heard shuffling.

"Hey, everyone!"

"Hi, Ashton!" Noel called out. I didn't turn my head away from the window.

"Is Mae there, or did you leave her with your parents?" He laughed at the ending.

"No, she's here. Say hi, Mae." Jason said to me. I looked back at the phone and nodded.

"Sup." Was all I could get out.

"Hey!" He said again, but it sounded like more than just one person.

"Luke's here, by the way." Ashton added. I wanted to smile when I heard Luke was there.

He was always there for me.

"Hey," Luke started.

"Call me when you get home, Mae." I nodded, not realizing he couldn't see me.

"She said okay," Jason replied.

"We should get going though, we're stopping at an IHop for breakfast."

"Alright! Talk to you guys later!" Right before Jason hung up, Ashton spoke up.

"Wait! Michael and Cal are here." More shuffling came over the phone.

"Jason, Mae!" I heard Michael say, before Jason's phone died. Jason scrunched his eyebrows, annoyed. 

"Oh well, we were going to hang up anyway." I nodded and faced back to the window. Watching all the trees reminded me of the one time when I was five.

Jason and I were sitting in the back seat of the car. Mom was still pregnant with Noel, and she was almost due. Dad was driving and telling all of us about how one of his co-workers almost published a medication article on the fashion page. My mom was laughing as he described what type of medication it was. I didn't understand a word he was saying, but I didn't care. All I know is that I was too happy to care about anything. 

That was all before my parents got promotions to work all over the US. That is how they met anyway, working. They work for the same magazine publisher, Their Miracle. They became partners and the rest is history. When they first got the promotion, I was thirteen. Mom and Dad came home talking to each other rapidly. They were kissing and hugging over and over again, which surprised me because they usually didn't show affection in front of us.

They sat us all in our living room and told us the news. Noel, who was only eight at the time, jumped for joy and hugged them. Jason and I also were happy, but knew what it meant. We knew there was going to be many business trips and nights where we had to stay up and wait for them to get home. But, we ignored the questions and set them aside in the dark corners of our minds. 

The first business trip was horrible, for all of us. Jason and I just turned fourteen. Noel sobbed her eyes out on Jason. I sat on the couch and watched TV. Even though I could barley hear it because of Noel. When my parents walked out of the house, I silently cried. I didn't want Noel to see me cry, we had to show her everything was going to be okay.

"Mae, Mae?" All I knew is that my elbow rest was gone and I was falling out of the car. I landed with a bugger thud than I expected.

"We're home, we're finally home!" Jason said.

No, no.

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Very short chapter. I'm sorry! I thought this would be a good place to end the chapter. Thanks for reading! Not Proofread

- Elena