Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

61. Sarah

Anna had put caution tape across Callie's bedroom door and a sign that said:

'Do Not Enter (That Means You Too, Callie!)

I want to be here when you see it!

Welcome home! I'll be by at 10am tomorrow!

You're going to LOVE it!

Love,

Anna'

"Well," I said to Callie. "You're sleeping on the couch or in the guest room. You pick."

She looked confused at the sign on her door, but also curious. And a little scared. Brendon had told me that Callie told him she'd hidden a knife under her pillow here, too.

"I guess I can sleep on the couch," she said.

"You can sleep in the guest bed, you know," Brendon said. "You are allowed. And it's darker in there. The sun will wake you up if you sleep downstairs."

Callie looked like she was thinking.

"Ok. I'll sleep in the guest room. At least it's close to my bathroom."

I smiled.

She carried her luggage into the guest room for tonight, and then I watched as she took her toothbrush and toiletries to her bathroom. She came out with a grin on her face a second later.

"Anna put a sign on my bathroom door, too. And she locked it."

"I guess she really wants to make sure you don't see it before she has the chance to see you see it." I said.

Callie smiled and shrugged. She closed her bathroom door, and I went down the hall to our room.

There was a timid knocking on the door a little while later and so, checking Brendon at least had boxers on, I opened the door to see Callie standing outside the door holding her old stuffed bear.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm scared," she said.

I bent down to her level and asked what she was scared of.

"It's not my room," she said. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that.

"Do you want me to come sleep with you?  Or do you want to sleep with us?"

Callie looked at me like she was embarrassed or nervous to ask.

"What's going on?" Brendon said coming over.  He'd pulled on a pair of sweatpants to sleep in.

"Callie isn't comfortable in the guest room.  I asked her if she wanted to sleep in here with us or for me to sleep with her in there," I said, and signed.

"Oh," Brendon said, looking at Callie. He then swept her up in his arms and carried her over to our bed.

"You'll just sleep here with us," Brendon said. "And we can protect each other."

Callie smiled shyly. Brendon dropped her on the bed and I heard her unique laugh. We all got into bed and Callie came and snuggled a little closer to me. I knew part of her was still worried about Brendon being upset and probably some slight mistrust still.

Once we were all settled, we said good night, and gave Callie a kiss on the head before we all drifted off to sleep.

Callie had a nightmare but we were able to calm her down pretty quickly and she settled back to sleep.

We were all up early, seeing as we'd been on East Coast time for so long. It was about 6 am when we all woke up.

"Why am I awake at 6?" Brendon mumbled into his pillow.

"Because it's 9 in New York," I reasoned. Callie watched us talking. I smiled at her and brushed some hair out of her face.

"Good morning, sweet girl," I smiled at her. She smiled back. "Hungry?" I asked. She nodded.

"Well," Brendon said. "We have no food. Let's all get dressed quick and we can go out for breakfast."

Brendon picked up his phone to tell Zack we were going out.

"Zack and Kala are going to meet us there," he said.

"Where?" I asked.

"IHOP," he said.

Callie looked confused.

"What's 'I.H.O.P.?'," she asked.

"It's pancakes and waffles. Breakfast food. Have you never been?" I asked. She shook her head. "You'll love it. They have all kinds of different syrups and pancakes."

She nodded.

"Go get dressed," I said, uncovering the two of us.

She got up, and I heard her in her bathroom and then I heard the spare room door close.

The three of us were ready to go within about 15 minutes.

We got to the restaurant, got a table easily - it was only seven in the morning.

Callie looked shocked at the choices of pancakes and waffles.

She made her decision and showed me which one she wanted. She asked if it was good and I told her she'd love them. They were pancakes made with Cream of Wheat. Sounds weird, really good.

Once we were done breakfast, we headed home. Zack and Kala came back with us because they wanted to see Callie's room, too.

We got home around 9:30, so we just sat around. Callie and Sarah and I first grabbed our laundry from our trip and brought it to the laundry room where Sarah threw it in the machine. Callie had her book from her backpack, so she was lying on the couch reading.

Just around 10, the doorbell rang and Callie jumped up and ran to answer the door, expecting it to be Anna. I followed her and she had opened the door to find Mike there with Penny Lane and Bogart. They were jumping all over Callie and licking her. She was smiling.

"They missed you," Mike signed to Callie. She nodded.

"I missed them, too," she signed back. Mike smiled.

"Thanks for taking them," I said to him.

"No problem. I love your dogs," he smiled.

Just as he was coming inside to say hi to Zack, Kala and Brendon, Anna pulled up and Callie clapped her hands together and was jumping up and down.

Anna pulled something out of the back of her car, and came into the house. She hugged Callie and said hello to us.

"Ready?" Anna asked as soon as she'd come in and said hello to everyone.

Callie nodded excitedly. Anna smiled and then led the way upstairs.

She took the caution tape off, and pulled down her note. She looked at Callie and smiled.

"This was one of my most favourite projects," she said. "I loved having the creativity open to bring this to life. So thank you for commissioning me for this. It really was a pleasure to do."

"You're welcome. We're all very excited to see it," I said.

"Okay, Callie," Anna said. "Open the door and check out your room."

Callie looked up at me and Brendon. We smiled and encouraged her to go ahead. She took a deep breath and turned the handle, and pushed open the door.

The room was gorgeous. She'd painted the walls blue and then had painted dolphins and whales. And in the swirls and waves, were music notes. And lyrics.

Towards the top of the wall, the water turned into sky and stars. The whole ceiling was Starry Night.

Callie's hands were covering her mouth. Her eyes were wide and tears were forming. But I could tell she was smiling.

"It's beautiful," Callie signed, then launched herself at me and hugged me tighter than I could remember. I hoped this meant Callie knew she was home for good.