"Are you having fun?" Carrie asked, almost immediately after picking up the phone.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she nodded as if her mom could see her. "Yeah, I'm having a good time."' She assured, eyes glued on the hardwood floor.
She didn't know what to say and what not to say... She might have been young, but Vivian knew there was more to the story than she could possibly understand.
"What did you do yesterday?" She wondered in a soft tone of voice. "You didn't even call me." She added, almost offended...
"I'm sorry, mom." Vivian sighed softly, creasing a brow.
"It's fine, Vivian." Carrie let out a dry chuckle, shaking her head lightly. "What did you do yesterday?" She repeated, more curious about that than anything else.
She was trying to be okay with everything... She really was, but it wasn't working well.
She didn't like Vivian being all the way across the country without her... She'd never been that far from home, and certainly not with a group of people she didn't even know. But no matter what, deep down, even though she hated to admire it, Carrie knew that Vivian was safe.
She might not have been a huge Stevie fan anymore, but she knew that she was a good woman and she wouldn't go out of her way to make Vivian feel bad, or out of place. In fact, she'd do the exact opposite- it was just who Stevie was.
Biting down on the inside of her cheek, she paused for a second before she replied. "We went shopping..." she lingered, eyes traveling to the bags on the dresser.
"Oh..." Carrie raised a brow, trying hard not to roll her eyes. "Well, I'm really glad all is going well." It tasted terrible leaving her mouth, but she said it anyway.
The truth was- Carrie might have been a little jealous.
She didn't even want Vivian to contact Stevie and Lindsey to begin with... In fact, she begged her not to. She felt like since she'd done it all alone for almost nineteen years, it wasn't fair for them to just step in and take over, which she knew would happen, immediately.
So she wasn't all that thrilled about them being in the picture, but she also wanted what was best for Vivian... It was hard, that's for certain.
"I miss-"
"Listen, I have to go." Her mother cut her off mid- sentence, already sounding a bit distracted. "But call me later, okay?" She added.
Nodding her head, the teenager sank down slowly. "Bye, mom." She half whispered right before the phone call ended.
~~~
Two hours later, just a little past six in the evening, they all gathered around the long kitchen table, eating pizza that had been delivered and salad that Stevie insisted they needed to offset it.
"What day are you heading for the city?" Lindsey was sitting at one end of the table, his wife at the other end, while their children filled in all the seats in between.
Clancy nodded her head, taking a sip of red wine before she replied. "We going to plan to leave on Thursday morning." She announced, which caused an immediate sigh from the older woman at the head.
"It's already Monday..." she lingered, eyes wandering towards Lindsey and then back to her daughter. "Can't you wait until Friday...?" Stevie creased a brow, secretly knowing she was really reaching, but hoping she'd pull on Clancy's heartstrings just a little... She wanted more time with all of them, together.
