Daisy Chains || Ranboo (SLOW UPDATES)

34 || Amie

"Yes! Yes, yes!!" Amie shrieks loudly, pumping a fist in the air. She spins in her soft gaming chair and grins fiercely, not regretting the fact that she's woken up the entire house. She's finally going to see Reese again. And finally, all the bottled-up feelings are off her chest. He feels the same, and they'll surely figure everything out when she gets there. "When is as soon as possible?"

The sound of keyboard clicks come from the other side of the call. "Monday you can get a ticket, if that works," Reese says, his wide smile practically audible. "Oh my god, I can, like, sense that you're doing a happy dance."

Amie is, in fact, practically two-stepping around her room in excitement, and she affirms Ranboo's guess. The boy has some sort of a sixth sense for her, and it's hilarious.

"Soulmate arc confirmed! I'm filing for a divorce so you can get married," Toby shouts with a laugh. When it's been a few seconds and neither of them have denied it like they usually do, he seems to get mildly suspicious. "Wait... is that what's going on?"

Reese stutters a bit and swallows, then recovers himself. "Um...no?" He says, clearly unsure of what he's supposed to say.

Amie tilts her head and makes a face, also not sure of what to disclose. Toby can be trusted. "Maybe?"

The unspoken rule about the conversation between Reese and Amie is simply that they'll figure everything out when she gets to the UK. And that can't come soon enough.

His next words aren't heard, because at the sudden creak of her bedroom door, she whirls around in surprise to see a frustrated, bed-headed Joel in pajama pants. She winces at the eye bags, they're almost comically emboldened. When's the last time this man slept?

"God damn, can you please go to sleep? It's one in the morning," he mumbles, his voice rough. He glares at her and then the iphone in her hand. "Quit talking to whoever that is, get in your bed, and turn out the damn lights, kid."

He shuffles back down the hall and Amie snickers at him, his moodiness not ruining her elation. "Sorry, Toby, what? Joel came in and grumped at me."

Both boys on the call are laughing. Reese chuckles, "Amie, we can hear everything going on in your house through the phone." She frowns and looks at the screen. When had she put him on speakerphone? Whatever.

"So, Monday night?" Toby asks, trying to help make a date for the plane tickets. "That's tomorrow."

"I know how the calendar works," she jokes. "So if that's as soon as possible, then yes. tomorrow night it is."

Reese cheers in excitement again, and she can hear a third voice in the room on the phone. "What's going on?" Tom questions, "why is everyone so damn happy?"

They relay the plan to him, and he groans sarcastically. "Another American? C'mon, guys, you can do better." Toby cackles, and Tom seems to give up. "So basically I have no say in it?"

Amie laughs. "Nope. The decision has already been made."

This time, it's Cait who enters the room, looking absolutely pissed in her fuzzy slippers and robe. "Give me the phone. Now." Amie glares at her mother.

"No."

Cait looks incredulous. "Excuse me?"

Amie sighs in frustration and lies through her teeth. "Five minutes, please, I need to finish doing my homework with Lulu." Luckily, the three boys on the phone have have enough sense to shut up for a minute. Cait doesn't budge from the doorway. "Mom. I'm not giving you the phone."

"We'll talk about this in the morning, young lady," the woman snaps. "Joel already came up here half an hour ago.You're grounded. No leaving the house after school, you can stay here and do your homework and go to sleep early. And no more phones at night, either."

Amie rolls her eyes and turns back around in her chair, her mom slamming the door behind her as she leaves. She waits a few seconds and hears Cait going down the stairs, then breaks out in giggles. "Can't ground me if I'm in another country."

Reese seems worried. "So you expect to be able to leave the house easily tomorrow? Even after that?"

"Eh, I'll stay up and pack and figure it out from there," she snorts. "I do need to go deal with my shit now if I ever really want to get out of this place." Ten minutes later, they all eventually hang up the phone call and Amie stretches in her chair, yawning wide. She doesn't know how long she'll be away, they hadn't even decided yet.

She considers brewing coffee but realizes it'll wake up the rest of the house again, and she doesn't want to get caught still awake. Amie flicks off the light switch and leaves her golden-yellow LED's on instead, so that the light from her room will be less visible from the outside.

The plan she's making in her head is oddly elaborate. She'll stay up and pack her stuff to leave, since any bags and clothes she needs are already in her room. She'll sneak down the hall and pack any extra toiletries from the bathroom... her family can live without the extra unopened toothpaste in the drawer, right? And Cait buys an obscene amount of feminine products, which she'll gladly borrow most of for the trip. Living with three boys is going to be a little bit of a nightmare in that regard.

When all of that is done, it's around four in the morning. Each and every blink of her eyes feels longer and sleepier. Amie considers napping the few hours until she absolutely has to leave, around seven, but she decides she'll sleep through an alarm at this rate.

She remembers that Joel and Cait will leave early for work, like they did every Monday. They'd be getting up in thirty minutes to get dressed and eat, and if she left any later than that there was no way she'd leave easily. Amie yawns for the millionth time that night (or, that morning), pulling two of her packed backpacks up into her arms, and nudges the door open softly with her foot. She tiptoes down the hallway past the twins' room and down the stairs, out the creaky front door and to the white Volvo parked a few feet from the house.

Amie unlocks the car and tosses her bags into the trunk, as well as setting her phone and charger on the driver's seat. She feels like she's about to pass out from exhaustion, but the excitement keeps her going.

She continues the process for the last carry-on bag, pausing to write a note to her mom and Joel, and leave it on the pillow of her neatly made bed. Her room looks so oddly empty, perfectly cleaned and drawers finally pushed all the way in with no clothes hanging unfolded out of them.

Amie takes a last look at the bedroom, scanning for anything she'd missed, and walks down the hall to the twins' room. She pushes open the door and pads over to Nora's bed, shaking the little girl's shoulder a bit to try and wake her. Her throat burns at the thought of leaving her younger siblings behind. Shouldn't she do something about the two kids? It's too late at this point.

The tiny figure of Oliver shifts in the other bed across the room. "Amie?" He mumbles, "why are you awake?"

She swallows, crossing the room. "I'm going to leave for a while, okay, bud?" He frowns, not understanding. "I'm going on a little trip." Amie hugs him and plants a kiss on his forehead, turning to leave. "Tell Nora I'm not going to be here for a bit, she's really sleeping well."

Amie kisses her other sibling as well and leaves the room, shutting the door again behind her. She slips down the stairs and out the door, grabbing a last pair of shoes to put on and her raincoat on the way out of the mudroom.

She looks back at her house with no regrets; and steps softly on the gas pedal, pointing the car in the direction of the airport two hours away with a tired but wide grin.

Pls vote, lovely people, this chapter took me like a year and a half 😭