I'm New York City

twenty three

I woke up to the sun shining through the living room windows. It was Saturday and I could hear all of the early city noise from outside. Ivy and I had fallen asleep here last night after having a movie marathon. I had fallen asleep on the couch while Ivy was on the ground, lying on top of only one thin blanket and a pillow on top of her head.

When I checked my phone, it was only 7 AM, even Dad wasn't awake yet. Mom is supposed to be coming home tomorrow and I was more than excited. This whole period she has been gone has actually been relaxing for me. I got to focus on myself, bond with Dad and Ivy more.

I laughed thinking about how Dad got irritated at her a couple days ago and Ivy ran to my side, crying into my shirt. All I could do was laugh because I expected her to get in trouble, but it was heartwarming.

"Sageeee," Ivy croaked out in her raspy morning voice. I leaned down, see her rolling around on the ground.

"I'm hungry," she groaned.

"Go get yourself something to eat, crazy," I told her, pointing to the kitchen.

"Do you think Mom and Dad would get mad if I ordered food?" she asked, staring at the ceiling.

"Girl, why are you going to order something this early in the morning? And yes, they will get mad," I said, knowing how much they hate it when we order food; at least when we try to do it on our own. Mom said we have people that can do it for us, but that alone is actually too much work.

I turned on the T.V. again, resuming the movie from last night. Soon after, we heard noise coming from the door and Ivy and I stared at each other. No one should be here, this early.

"Mom!" Ivy yelled, as Mom walked through the door with her suitcase. I smiled, sitting up from the couch.

"Oh, my girl. I missed you guys so much!" Mom said, hugging Ivy. She handed Ivy a bag, letting her run off into the kitchen.

"Come here, baby," Mom said, walking over to me. I stood up, letting myself melt into her arms as she swayed us.

"How have you been?" she asked in a soft tone as she missed my head.

"I've been good, why are you back early?" I asked, surprised she was actually here.

She laughed, putting all of her stuff down. "Well, we finished early and I was bored, didn't have much left to do there, so I flew right back when I could," she smiled.

Ivy came back into the room holding onto a croissant, clearly content that she got food. Mom went upstairs, while Ivy and I cleaned up the mess in the living room. We had pillows and blankets scattered around along with board games in each corner.

Later, Mom and Dad came down holding hands. Dad began explaining the plans of fall break which Ivy was super excited about. We had one more week before break and we would be going to Nashville for a whole week. We haven't been able to spend a lot of time in our house there, only if we were in the area. Even so, we would either be crashing the night at our Grandparents or flying right back to California.

Ivy was excited to finally see the cats after along time, they don't live with us because she's allergic, but only Benjamin is there now and he stays with our Grandparents the whole time. Ivy usually has no choice but to just deal with it since she loves playing with him, and then she has to go to the emergency room afterwards.