Above Water ✔️

33 - au revoir

Emotions were high in the house.

While I was solemnly packing up my carry-on, others were hitting every range of end-of-summer feelings imaginable. For example, Caitlyn and Ben were fighting all morning, angry packing the last of their things last minute while Ben nursed a gnarly hangover. Frasier seemed happier than ever to get out of the house, making me wonder why he didn't do so sooner. Erick and Phoebe were comforting a crying Aubrey because she didn't want to go home to their "regular house."

Dallas was unreadable. He was shoving all of his strewn about clothes into his suitcase and not saying a word. I tried to strike conversation a few times, feeling a high of sorts after our wonderful night together.

I wasn't happy to be leaving. But I was glad I came.

It ended on a high note, one for the books. Now, I was pretty sure at that point that I would have done anything if Dallas asked me to up and move to Clearwater with him. That's how down bad I was. I was in love with the dick, what could I say? But he didn't ask, not even jokingly. So I had to pretend like I was okay with the whole thing.

How was I supposed to go back to my normal life after the best three months of my life? Looking back, I was truly living a mundane existence, other than my beautiful Nelly Furtado waiting for me.

"When are you coming back here?" I asked.

"I'll probably rent a truck to bring all my stuff down in a week or two," Dallas said, sniffing a T-shirt he picked up off the floor. When he decided it wasn't too ripe to wear on the plane, he pulled it over his head. "I gotta talk to Garrett and pack up and all that."

"Right," I said plainly. In my hands was the stuffed dog that he won for me at the arcade. I smiled to myself, tucking it into my carry-on carefully. "Maybe I'll come visit."

He looked up at me, his eyes lighting up for the first time since we woke up this morning. "Really?"

I watched his figure relax a bit. His blonde hair was still drying from the shower he took not too long ago, his skin clean and fresh. I could smell his cologne from across the room and I wished to steal it, tuck it into my bag when he wasn't looking so I wouldn't forget the smell.

"After Christmas," I said, offering a small smile.

"Of course," he said and returned it.

Soon we were piled into Scott's minivan, Dallas and me smushed in the third row with our luggage, behind the two car seats in the middle. I was trying to get some kind of reaction out of him, feathering my fingers through his hair and swinging a leg over his. He just smiled at me, not saying anything.

It was uncharacteristic for him to be the quiet one and for me to be begging for his attention. The roles reversed and I was beginning to think something was off.

I deflated, removing my hands and starting to slide my leg off of him but he put his hands on my thigh and held them there. I stayed put. We drove to the airport in a silence, listening to Grace's son recite the alphabet incorrectly over and over with his baby sister sleeping beside him.

"Do you guys need help with your bags?" Scott asked when we pulled up to the curb. We both said no and exited the car, taking all of our things with us.

I had about three hours before my flight boarded, Dallas only two, so we went straight to through airport security to get a head start on the madness that was the end of summer rush. At one point, I lost Dallas in the crowds but we found each other once we both had our shoes back on and were ready to sit and wait awhile.

My flight had one stop in Detroit while Dallas's had one in Fort Lauderdale. We found where our terminals were and found a quiet spot to sit near his, since he'd be boarding first. The amount of people bustling around us was insane and I felt a bit constricted.