Charlie Ever After

52

Charlie

The few days that we got to spend with my dad and Carlos went by way too quickly, and I had to admit that I was more than a little bit sad to be leaving them and going back to the real world.

The situation with Gavin was still weighing pretty heavily on my mind and it was definitely the cause for the bit of tension between Tanner and I.

In the morning before leaving, we all sat down and had one last big family breakfast. It was all I had ever wanted in life, a normal meal together with the group of people that I loved the most. No fighting, no drunk slurring, just love and banter between people who loved each other.

Afterwards we said our goodbyes after loading up the camper with all of our belongings. I tried to hold back my tears the best that I could, but as soon as my dad hugged me and called me Charlie Girl, I fucking lost it. Me and my father both cried, Carlos eventually joined in on our sob fest, and I could've swear I even saw Collin wiping away a few stray tears.

When I returned to Tanner's side, he looked at me with a sad smile. "You okay?" He asked as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms before pulling me in for a hug.

I relaxed into him and sighed. "No, but I will be."

He hugged me tighter before hesitantly pulling away before we climbed into the camper and started off towards Arizona.

The closer we got to home, the worse my anxiety got. About halfway through the trip, my phone vibrated in my lap and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Tanner over at me with concern written all over his face.

I hesitantly looked down at my phone screen and as soon as I saw it wasn't him, I let out a sigh of relief, looking over at Tanner and showing him the stupid promotional text from Starbucks. He let out a relieved chuckle before rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to the road.

The drive home wasn't nearly as easy as the trip to my dad's house. We sat in so much traffic on the way home that it added nearly three hours onto the drive. By the time we reached the Arizona state line and traffic thinned out, we were all a bit cranky and we still had over three hours left of our trip.

A little more than halfway through the trip, Tanner and I switched places, and I took over driving for him. The poor man was exhausted, he had already been driving for six hours and we still had at least two and a half left. Within minutes, Tanner was passed out in the passenger seat and when I glanced into the back, half of my friends were passed out, leaving only Isaac and Jace up who were having some sort of profound discussion about conspiracy theories they have read on Reddit. I chuckled at a few of the things they said, before turning up the music slightly.

Before long, I expertly pulled the camper into the driveway and shut off the engine. I turned around in my seat. "We're home." I sang.

Everyone roused, taking their sweet time waking up before they finally realized that we were home. Groans of appreciation rang throughout the RV as everyone scrambled to their feet, racing each other into the house and fighting over who was going to use the bathrooms first.

We were all practically walking zombies as we unwound from the trip and gorged ourselves with pizza and garlic knots. We were all pretty silent as we ate, even Collin, which was completely unheard of.

"Thanks for bringing all of us along." Collin finally spoke up, motioning to our group of friends. I knew his silence could only last so long.

I couldn't contain the smile that broke out on my face at his words.

Everyone else nodded and said their thanks before eventually going back to stuffing their faces. However, I was left with such a warm and comforting feeling that I was practically floating out of my seat, no longer caring about the pizza in front of me.