Leave the Lights On

Chapter 4

The closer your get to the weekend, the more excited you get. A Friday off and a weekend away with your new best friend sounds perfect to you. Especially a weekend away in a large city. You miss cities.

You had fun watching Summer on Tuesday after school. You picked her up and took her back to her house where you ate popcorn and watched movies until Brittany got home. It was really way easier than you thought it would be. Summer is a very low maintenance child. She's also a very nosey one, asking you many questions about your personal life. You just chalked it up to a curious mind and answered her questions as honestly as you could.

Brittany's mom dropped by halfway into Finding Nemo to drop off a hammer that she borrowed from Brittany, but you feel like she was more checking up on you than returning the tool. She was really nice though and you talked to her for about twenty minutes about medicine and your family and work until you figure she decided to like you enough to leave you alone with her grandchild.

When you tell Brittany about her mom stopping by, she rolls her eyes and apologizes. You stay long enough for Brittany to show you what she bought and have a cup of hot tea on the front porch bench. Brittany leans into you like she did that one night in front of the fire and you can't help, but move in any way you can to accommodate that. As she talked about shopping with her friend, Sugar, who she met in college, a man walked by with his dog. He was an older overweight man who you're sure is a steak away from a heart attack.

However as he walks by with his small dog, he looks up at you and Brittany. When he finds you both on the porch, he scowls and Brittany sits up and looks away, not touching you. You scowl back at the man, probably harder than he did.

Even after he's gone, Brittany won't lean on you again and she's grown quiet. You don't know what happened, but you don't like it. Finally she excuses herself to go inside and check on Summer and you sense that she's ready for you to leave so you say goodbye, missing the hug that you're so used to getting from her when you leave.

Finally, after a week of sick kids, Friday morning arrived. You both decided that you'll pick Brittany up from her house after she drops Summer off at school. When you pull up to her house, the door opens and Brittany walks out with her bag over her shoulder.

You don't even have to get out of the car because she locks the door and walks out to the car with a huge smile. Once she's settled in the passenger's seat, you take off. She seems really excited.

She's a little nervous on the plane ride out of the Lima and looks awestruck as you walk about the Cleveland airport for your connection flight. "Nervous?" you ask as you take your seat on the huge plane to Philadelphia.

"A little," she takes a deep breath. "I've only ever flown to Arizona for my cousin's wedding. I was ten."

You think about that for a moment. Your parents haven't always been the best parents, but they took you all over the world with them. You used to think that every summer, everyone's family got on a plane and flew out of the country.

You look over at the nervous girl in the seat next to you and take her hand. Your fingers lace through hers on their own, but she doesn't move to stop it. She holds tight to your hand as the pilot announces that it's almost time to take off.

Once you're in the air, she relaxes a little bit. You gave her the window seat so that she could see whatever she wanted. You hate to have to work, but you do have to. You have some things to take care of so you pull out your laptop and start working, leaving Brittany to enjoy the view and listen to the music on her MP3 player.

When you're told to put your laptop up, Brittany takes your hand, her fingers between yours. You smile over at her and she nervously smiles back. Landing is smooth, but Brittany is ready to get off of the plane so you hop out of your seat and let her out so you're among the first to get off.