Fix Me

7.

I whimpered as we pulled up to our new California home. It looked beautiful, but all I could think about was how this was making everything feel so real. Zeva placed a hand over mine and squeezed slightly. I don't think I've ever been more thankful to my mom than when she showed me the plane ticket to give to Zeva. There was no way I could leave her behind.

"I need both of you to carry two boxes into the house, and then the car will be unpacked. Liv, honey?"

I looked at her.

"I gave you the master bedroom, and it has its own bathroom, all of the rooms do actually."

"Okay."

"I'm really sorry to be doing this to you again."

This was how my mom was. Whenever she gave you bad news, she was tough. Didn't show any signs of guilt, but after? She was just as much of a mess as me. All she could do was apologize and she always felt guilty. "It's not your fault, mom."

She gave me a small smile, and then I got out of the car. I grabbed the two boxes that were mine and took the keys from my mom so I could open the front door. As soon as I took a step inside, I almost dropped all of my stuff. The house was so open. From the front door, there was a sitting area to the left, and you could see all the way through the house to the sliding glass doors in the back. I set my boxes down by the stairs that were to the right of the sitting area, and continued walking through the house. There was another sitting room right by the sliding glass doors, and because it was so close to the kitchen, I knew I'd be spending a lot of time using this one. The kitchen was so modern, and it had to be the reason my mom wanted the house. She loves a big kitchen with a lot of room.

"Do you like it?" I heard my mom ask.

"Yeah," I said, while turning around. "It's great Mom."

She sighed with relief and then carried her boxes up the stairs.

"Damn," Zeva said. "I'd hate to know how much money she spent on this house."

"Me too." I looked around one last time and then walked over to my boxes. I carried them upstairs and to the master bedroom. My jaw dropped when I walked in.

The first thing you notice is the wall of windows and door to the balcony. My mom has already placed a couple chairs on it because she knows I'll love to spend some time out there. Then I have a chair off in the corner with a blue blanket and pillow on it. In the center of my room is a massive queen sized bed covered in white with the exception of a couple pillows. I noticed when I walked in, that there was a bathroom right in front, so I went back and went inside. It was huge. A shower, and a bathtub, and a counter big enough for three people to share. I kind of felt guilty for letting my mom give me this room, but there's no way she'd let me give it up now. There was a door at the end of the bathroom and as I walked down I realized it was a huge walk in closet. Everything about this house was big and open, and now that I've seen the closet, there's no way I'm giving this room up.

I walked back out and down the stairs, and saw that Zeva was already at the moving truck to unload more boxes.

"Hey," I said.

She stopped lifting a box and turned to look at me. "Well that's quite the difference."

"What?"

"Before you were all sullen and depressed, what changed?"

"I saw my amazing room."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. It's just... Wow. It's a million times better than the one in Ireland. And ten million times better than the one in Florida."