On Saturday Sawyer wasn't crying because all of Vince's stuff was being packed into dad's bronco, she was crying because she couldn't pull on my braids anymore. Still, as Dad texted Mom about meeting her at the school and Vince struggled to close the trunk Sawyer seemed to be the embodiment of all our sadness about Vince leaving. As if he was doing a bid at Pelican Bay. Tara held her and tried to give her her favorite build a bear but her tears didn't stop and she continued to reach out her hand opening it and closing it. Maybe she waddled into Vince's room and sensed the emptiness, or maybe she saw me and my dad's uneasiness, however it was, she knew something in the Price family was changing. Dad kissed her on the top of her head and seemed to calm down a bit but her face stayed in my brain as Vince, dad, and I struggled to get into the car.
I watched Vince watch our apartment and Sawyer and Tara become smaller as we drove away. Seeing his somber expression I realized this was going to be one of the last moments we were going to be in the car together. It made me think of when we were younger and we would have Mcdonalds and dad would sneak our fries as Vince and I sat in the backseat waiting for our happy meal.
Vince was going to UC irvine which was about an hour away from us, but I wanted the drive to last longer as possible. I wanted us to stop at every fast-food resturant we went to after Vince's games, to pass our old schools, and just bask in every moment. But the car seemed to be driving fast even in Los Angeles traffic. There was no time to capture moments and point to the old places that colored in the masterpiece of our childhood. Looking at Vince I worried that Vicki had already dropped the bad news, but knowing Vicki I realized that she would never drop such news on a momentous day like Vince's college move in day.
Last night when Vince came into room to bring back my lotion I asked, "Hows Vicki?" and gave me a shrug which was one of his usual responses. If he didn't have the words to say what he wanted to best believe he was going to shrug. I believed if Vicki broke up with him he would've told me, or he would at least have something to say that I could piggy back on and ask him about.
As we sat in the backseat I looked for hints of something, some silent signal about what was happening with his love life, but I found nothing. Vince just like me kept looking out the window watching the cars pass us by seeing our neighborhood get father away.
When we arrived at the school Vince seemed to become more excited smiling as dad talkd to the secuiruty guard who gave us directions.
"Yo gone turn on your left, and then your right, and then your left, my man," the guard said.
"Thank you brother," my dad said and they nodded at eachother. I could tell then if there wasn't a line of cars behind us the guard and my dad would've had a long conversation probably about sports or something.
Dad followed the directions with guidance from Vince who had a picture of his residence hall on his phone. Thomas Hall. When we reached the hall the first thing I saw wasn't the tall building, or other peers with moving carts, but my mom's mazda which held the other half of Vince's things. I felt an icky pull in my stomach knowing I forgot about her, and was just picturing this move in with Vince, me, and dad. The only people with the Price last name. Seeing her step out of the car I also rembered all that had happened that past week. I got posted on a gossip page, I had gotten in my first and hopefully last fight, I was now volunteering at the elementary school, and I had tried to fix my brother's relationship. So much shit, and she knew nothing about it, and come to think of it if I did stay at her place more I don't think I would tell her what was going on. I could've texted her all week, but I didn't and she didn't text me either. Dad also didn't feel the need to tell her about the fight considering we were barely calling it a fight. So there she was in front of Thomas Hall and Vince's new life.
