Set In Motion

Change of Plans

It was settled. Chelle and I decided to wait until the end of the school year for us to go. It was the beginning of March, and the last day of school is May 2nd. I called Teddy and let him know what we decided, and set in motion getting an apartment set for us, specifically a pet-friendly one for Nyma to join us.

Telling my parents was surprisingly easy. Mom cried a bit in the beginning, and dad had an uncharacteristically stoic expression.

"Deep breaths, Annie, we both knew this was coming," he comforted her, rubbing small circles on her knee, not taking his eyes off me. I shrunk back into the recliner under his gaze, feeling more and more guilty by the second.

Dad took a deep breath and stood, mom now simply sniffling, and walked to me. I couldn't look at him and my heart was hammering. He kneeled down and wrapped his arms around me. I jumped, startled, but returned the gesture, squeezing around his middle.

"Newt," dad began, my long-time nickname, "We're not mad at all. We are so proud of you and what you've done and who you've become. We're sad, yes, but that's because you're our baby, and we will always be sad when you leave, no matter where or how long." Moms cries grew louder again, and she, too, stood and came to join the hug.

"Yes, babygirl, it's sad for us, but we'll be okay. We knew you always wanted to travel for longer than a couple weeks. We were preparing for you to outright move away, honestly. But knowing you'll be with your darling 'Teddy,'" she teases my nickname for the man, "we know you'll be safe and do great things. Just please be safe and call us!"

I cried a bit. I knew they'd be supportive but it still hurt. I am so lucky to be so close with my parents. And so, we all began preparing for my long-term-vacay, short-term-residence? I'm not sure what to call it.

Chelle's mom, though... oh boy, I'm glad I wasn't there for it. Apparently she screamed and yelled and cried and would jump from being supportive to yelling that Chelle was being stupid and back again. Eventually she calmed down. And by that I mean a week and a half.

It's now May 28th. We fly to Japan in a week. My parents, of course, insisted we use their long-flight jet instead of a commercial line. Typically they use it for urgent flights for missions, but they swore they wouldn't need it for at least 3 weeks.

The vast majority of our things were packed for our 6 month stay with Teddy, other than essentials we'd need for the week. Nyma was severely confused as to why the house seemed to be all packed away and empty, but she mostly laid in the sunbeams that came through the windows and having zoomie sprints around the backyard.

I make a press release tomorrow about my leaving for a few months and, honestly, it felt like I was constantly gonna shit myself and constipated at the same time. I hate public speaking. Too many people staring and shouting questions, constant irregular clicks of cameras, flashes of lights of the tv cameras from the sun. It made my skin crawl at the thought and I could feel my fingers twitching.

I let out a stressed yell and flop face first onto my old couch, Nyma licking my face the second I settled. I reached up and ran my fingers over the soft fur around her ears, soothing my burning nerves.

I sat up and pulled out my phone, video calling Chelle. She'd talk me down out of my spiral, she always did. The phone rang once and there was her beaming face. It took less than a second for her smile to slip into a scowl.

"You're panicking yourself and, no, you won't shit yourself."

I snorted and tension left my shoulders immediately. We talked for two hours and I rehearsed my short speech while she rocketed off off-the-wall questions while I answered as calm as I could. I felt much better by the end, and she left with a, "Love you, boo!"