𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter one hundred one

The plane ride back to California was filled with awful jokes, lots of candy eating and short naps, but they made it back safely. Claudia didn't want to leave London, but she had to come back to her mom at some point. Ben had agreed to bring her back sometime during his dad's birthday, which was in April.

"I think I left my favorite socks in your room," Claudia remembered. Her and Ben were currently driving back to her house in his car.

"The fluffy red ones?" Claudia nodded. "I'll buy you more, then when you go to London, you'll have a pair there and here. Problem solved."

"Using money to make your problems go away, never would've thought about that," Claudia grabbed her phone from her purse and noticed all the missed calls from Edward, Layna and Janis. "shit. What happened now?" She kept looking through her missed calls as Ben suddenly stopped the car causing her phone to slip out of her hands and drop to the car floor.

"Claudia . . ." She heard Ben say so she looked up and saw her mom sitting on the small steps that lead to her home. Except, she also saw movers carrying a bed frame and boxes filled with her belongings.

"Fuck." Claudia dropped her stuffed and opened the car door, ignoring Ben's voice. She ran to her mom and looked around only to find her home halfway empty. "What happened, mom? Hey, I'm here." She took Janis' hand into her own.

"I'm so sorry," Janis cried out and hugged her daughter.

"It's okay-"

"No it's not! I did something stupid, but I had to. Anne came here and told me you could go back to teaching if I gave up the house. And I did. I'm sorry." Janis explained, looking down at her shoes since she didn't have the courage to look at her daughter.

Claudia felt like her world had fallen apart. She had her job back, but now her mom didn't have a home.

"We're going to be okay, I promise," Claudia wrapped her arms around her mom as she quietly sobbed. "We're okay, you still have me."

For how long? Janis thought.

Claudia guided a crying Janis back to Ben's car and helped her inside. Ben didn't want to ask questions so he remained quiet until Claudia asked him to drive away. She didn't know where they would spend the night, but she knew she wasn't going to let her mom spend the night on the streets or in a car.

Ben offered for them to stay at his apartment, but Claudia refused. She didn't want to bother him with anymore of her problems. Eventually, she found a cheap, but nice hotel they could spend the night or however many nights they needed.

Once Janis fell asleep on a nice warm bed, Claudia took her phone out and called Nate. When he didn't answer, she called Lara, who did answer.

"Hey-"

"Where's Nate? Why isn't he answering and does he know his mother took away my mom's house?"

Lara didn't know what was going on, but she felt like she needed to pay a visit to the Stratford's home. "She did what?"

"Mom told me Anne offered to give me my job back, but only if mom gave up the house so she did." Claudia explained. She kept a close eye on Janis, who looked too tired at the moment.

"Shit, I'll see if I can get ahold of Nate. I haven't seen him in hours. Where are you staying?"

"Some hotel, I'll text you the address. If you find Nate, tell him I need to talk to him."

An: here have these