The Boxer And The Blossom (GxG Cheryl Blossom)

Part 16. The Journey Home

Cheryl stays in the kitchen as she takes her call, she's gone for at least 15 minutes.

I use this time to clean up around my room. Making the bed and folding up our clothes from the night before that had been quickly torn off and thrown to the floor.

I see to my stitches and clean up my face, it's healing well and may not even scar. Cheryl re-enters my bedroom and her eyes are glassy.

"I have to go home. As in, to my family's home." Cheryl rubs her forehead with her hand, as if that quarter of an hour conversation was enough to give her a headache.

"So where is home?" I realise she is yet to ever tell me where 'home' is.

"Near Seattle. I'm gonna call a cab." Cheryl hardly looks up from her phone, scrolling and typing frantically.

"That's like 5 hours away? It will cost you hundreds of dollars, let me drive you. My car is just around the block." I offer without thinking, what if she doesn't want you to drive her to her family home? I sometimes hate my lack of filter before speaking.

Cheryl looks up from her phone and stares at me for a few moments. It's times like these I wish I could tell what she was thinking behind those beautiful eyes.

"You don't have to do that for me." Cheryl doesn't break our eye contact.

I wish I could photograph how she looks right now, wearing nothing but a large t-shirt that comes to her thighs. Her hair is slightly messy from last night's activities and her face just looks soft, vulnerable for once.

"I want to do it for you." I respond with sincerity which Cheryl seems to think I lack.

"I've told you, my family are complicated. They're eccentric and unconventional. There's so much you don't know about me and where I come from." Cheryl throws her phone onto the bed and comes closer to me.

"Well we have 5 hours for you to tell me about it all, don't we?" I smile to try and soften the tone.

The dimples on Cheryl's  cheeks appear and I feel her take a step closer into trusting me.

Cheryl agrees, she leaves to pack a bag and tells me she'll be back in 20 minutes. I do the same and pack a rucksack of clothes, not knowing how long I'll be gone for, or what to expect. I pack my laptop so I can continue my studies whilst I'm there.

Within half an hour we are in my car, our bags in the back seat. Mine, a black and white checked rucksack and Cheryl's, a bright red holdall that couldn't be more girly, or more Cheryl, if it tried.

"What's so urgent that you need to go home then?" I finally ask, after pondering about it since the phone call.

"My father, he's in bad health. We've been expecting this for a long time but mother finally thinks it's time." Cheryl replies in a monotonous tone.

"Hold on, we're going to see your dad die?" I look over at her for a moment before my eyes switch back onto the road ahead.

I know she said eccentric and unconventional but I wasn't aware I was signing up for a family death trip.

"Most probably. The family business will get passed down to me and there will be hundreds of papers to sign and lots of trivial people to please." Cheryl admires her nails and pulls out a nail file from her purse to correct whatever imperfection she's noticed.

"What sort of family business do you have?" I got the impression Cheryl came from old money.

The designers she wears are discreet and far from flashy, they're classic and classy to suit her style down to a T. The way she pays for everything on her black unbranded credit card, of which I don't believe I've ever seen something similar to before. The constant blow-drys and nail salon trips, and the willingness to spend at least $700 on a cab. They all point towards a successful trust fund.

"My father invests in all sorts of businesses as of late, but it all started with our maple syrup farms. You must have had Blossom maple before?" Cheryl says it unceremoniously, having never mentioned it before this moment I'm surprised to say the least.

"I have indeed. I never knew it was your family's. So, you'll get one hell of an inheritance." It may sound insensitive but I've never been one to not speak my mind.

"The inheritance comes with the curse. A life time of unhappiness and unfulfilling relationships." Cheryl truly isn't holding back on our journey to her family home, though I wanted to know more, it's her lack of warning before speaking such heavy words.

"My family have done bad things. My parents, my grandparents, it goes on for generations. In return, they have hellish lives, affairs, scandals, deaths. The small town I'm from, where I grew up, where you're driving us to, it's a strange place. Bad things seem to lurk around every corner. That's why I moved away a year ago and I haven't been back." Cheryl sighs and looks out of the window.

After 10 minutes of admiring the views I hear heavy breathing from my passenger seat. Cheryl is asleep with her head against the window. I drive for hours in silence, thinking about everything, all the possibilities surrounding this trip.

As the time on the sat-nav drops down from hours to just minutes, the weather becomes more overcast.

Clouds that hadn't been visible when I started my day now gather in the distance and turn the sky grey, with caution.

A small bump in the road awakens the red head next to me and she takes a huge sip of water from her bottle before saying anything.

"Oh fuck, we're here." Cheryl rubs her eyes and looks out of the window.

The directions bring me to a gated area. I stop at the grand gates and look at Cheryl who side-eyes me, with her lips pushed awkwardly together to form a straight line. She gets out of the car, rain begins to fall from the sky, and walks over to a keypad beside the gates, as she enters a code and runs back to my car, the gates open.

"Maple syrup money, who'd have thought?" I say under my breath but feel Cheryl roll her eyes next to me.

The drive up to the house is intense. Tall oak trees stand either side of the path that I drive down and it appears as if the acres of land go on forever.

When we finally reach the Blossom home I turn off my engine and it feels like the only sound for miles is of the rain coming down harder and harder onto my windscreen.

"Anything you should tell me before we go in?" I reach behind and grab our bags, feeling like I'm about to walk into something completely unknown.

"Probably best not to mention anything regarding.. homosexuality." Cheryl looks at me with a questioning face.

"Homosexuality. As in the thing that we both are. As in you've brought a tattooed lesbian home with you and you want me to pretend to be straight." I have no words.

"Well no. You don't need to hide who you are. They just don't accept my ways." Cheryl ends our eye contact as she speaks the last sentence.

Being lucky enough to not experience homophobic parents is something I'm yet to feel privileged over but I can see it's clearly had a huge effect on Cheryl.

I put my hand on her thigh and she places her hand over the top of mine.

"I really appreciate you doing this for me." She looks up at me with her long, dark eyelashes that could convince me to do absolutely anything in the world.

We leave my car and run to the huge wooden front doors, trying to avoid the rain, Cheryl knocks 3 times and steps backwards to stand next to me as we wait for the doors to swing open.