In a lifetime

Chapter 65: Eli Bennet

It's a long drive to get back home so we decided to take a plane instead to cut down the time.

It was the middle of the night when Joseph texted which was weird and he wasn't explicit with what he was talking about.

All he said was "meet at the Oxen hotel that is a town away from home, we need to talk about Laurel" which wasn't ominous at all.

It's been four months since any of us talked to each other, after we went our separate ways we really went our separate ways.

If he finally found a way to take back our home I'll do anything to get to our destination.

As the plane touches down I wake up Tristan to let him know that we arrived. Granted we still have to drive a little to get there, we're at least closer to home. 

We impatiently get our luggage and get our car. We start driving to the hotel Joseph said.

The drive there was full of mixed feelings, I'm excited to see everyone but I'm also nervous.

It's two hours away so that means two hours with my thoughts. 

I wonder what everyone's been up to since everything has happened.

Once we get there I quickly get out of the car to stretch my legs and get some air.

Leaving our luggage in the car we go in and talk to the people in the front.

"Hey, I think my friend Joseph Flores got rooms here?" I say and the lady tells me to wait as she looks at her computer.

While waiting I hear, "Eli is that you?" And I can tell that's Veronica.

I turn around and watch her and Nessa walk up to the front desk waiting with me, telling the lady that they are also with Joseph. 

Nessa says, "how have you two been" she and Veronica take turns hugging each of us.

I tell them we've been doing well and they say the same thing. 

The lady gives us our key cards and we begin to walk to our rooms before we're stopped.

"Are you guys really just going to leave without saying hello?" Joseph says as we turn around.

I can feel my smile grow bigger and we all do a big group hug.

We head up to our rooms and meet in Joseph's room.

I ask him how he and Daniel have been and he tells us everything that they've done since they left.

He's lucky that he was able to travel internationally but I try to one-up him with my life in Seattle.

Veronica chimes in also trying to one-up us while adding the cherry on top, "I got a boyfriend" she says and we look at her shocked.

She punches us on the shoulder and we all laugh, it feels like we never left each other.

Nessa tries to get us to focus and we do, letting Joseph take the floor.

"Okay so I brought everyone here to discuss the situation back home, my Abuela came to see me and she helped me to finally come up with a solution to stop Laurel and get our home back but also end this curse," he says and I can see we're all speechless.

We knew that he would eventually come up with something to get our home back but to end the curse, shit he must've had an epiphany or something.

I can see that Veronica is filled with determination as she says, "what can we do to help?" And Joseph clears his throat.

"Well we need to come up with a plan so I'll astral project into town to see what's going on but the big factor is that if I'm going to end this I'm going to have to provoke Laurel into giving me her magic which will most likely involve me fighting her," he says looking at Ness and she nods in understanding giving him the okay to do what he needs to do.

He sits on the bed and closes his eyes and after a few minutes, we assume that he's astral projecting.

Me and Veronica volunteered to get food so we leave everyone to watch over Joseph.

When we get to my car we start driving to the closest pizza shop.

"So was life in Seattle better or worse than life at home?" Veronica asks and I laugh while saying, "it had its ups and downs but I much prefer home than Seattle, you?" She nods and gives the same answer.

Once we got the pizzas we head back. As soon as we walk into Joseph's room he wakes up to tell us that he's got a plan.

Taking the pizza boxes from my hands he says, "I know we're all eager to go home but we're all tired, I can see that so we're all going to get a night's rest and I'll share the plan tomorrow morning and we will take back our home tomorrow as well"

I hate to admit but he's right.

We all agree, a few groan in a complaint but they move on.

After we finish the pizzas we all say good night to each other and head to our rooms.

In my room, we have two beds but I give Tristan the offer to sleep with me and he takes it.

Snuggling up with each other we fall asleep in each other's arms but it takes me a while to fall asleep because I'm nervous about how tomorrow might turn out.

We could either win this or we could all die but whatever happens I know that we will all be together.

In my book that counts for something bigger than what it actually is.

I let my worries and concerns drift away as I snuggle closer to Tristan finally falling asleep.