Coming To Terms

Chapter 3

A week had passed by, and things felt uplifting. Dad had his vacation time approved the next day he had went into work. Of course, he contemplated on it a few times. I made sure to remind him he needed to just relax. "Dad, I promise you that they will be fine at work. And, you are leaving your laptop here at the house too when we leave for the trip" Dad knew I would say that, so he just took it a step further and left it at work in his office. Probably so he wouldn't be tempted. It was the night before we were leaving, and we were loading things up so that we could just take off first thing in the morning. "So, you gonna try to fish while we are there?" I looked up at my dad, who was standing beside me in the garage with the Yeti cooler we were taking. "I'll try it out, I don't think I've held a fishing pole since I was about 10" Dad laughed in response, sitting the cooler down beside me as I made room to put it in the back trunk. "You'll be fine kiddo, just gotta remember your patience with it" That's true, sometimes I had little to not patience depending on what was happening around me. Or more like who was around me. "Well, I think that's everything" I shut the trunk shut, proud of everything being fit in without any issue. "Alright well then I guess we should get a good nights rest and all that before morning. You sure about driving the whole way there?" I nodded towards my dad as we headed back inside the house. What Dad doesn't know is that with me driving us there, there's no chance he can change his mind or try to make us "lost" for us to end up coming back home. Not gonna happen on my watch. "I think I'll go ahead and head up to bed kiddo" He gave me a side hug and a kiss on my head. "Okay, make sure you have your alarm set!" I yelled as he jogged up the stairs. I stood and looked around the living room. A whole week vacation, just me and dad. Ugh, I can only imagine how many times he's gonna try to hint about The Academy to me. I grabbed a water from the fridge, and turned out the lights behind me to head up to my room. I walked into my bathroom and decided to run a warm bath. I had showered this morning so I could just wait til we get to the cabin tomorrow to wash my hair again. I closed the door behind me as the tub started to fill up. I looked under my skin and found one of those bath bombs you put in that's suppose to help you sleep. It had lavender and oatmeal extract in it? Didn't pay too much attention to it, just tossed it in as the water filled. The fizzing sound started and in a few seconds I could smell the lavender aroma in the bathroom. Hopefully this gets me a good nights sleep and I can relax before morning. I undressed and slowly slid into the warm bath water. I laid back and closed my eyes, letting the lavender and oatmeal smells fill my nose. This wasn't half bad at all. I reached up to turn off my bath water and leaned back again to fully relax. I sorta felt weird and girly doing this but oh well, once in a while doing this isn't bad. Then I slowly relaxed my body, and the next thing I know I drifted off to sleep.

I felt warm and relaxed. Like I was wrapped up in a big, comfy blanket. I lifted my head up to see I was in my bedroom. Confused, I looked around and tried to find my phone. Did I oversleep? Or forget to set my alarms? It was still dark in my room, with only a little moonlight shinning in through my window. I listened to see if maybe Dad was up, but nothing. I sighed and just decided to go back to sleep. "Hello" I jumped up at the sound of a sudden voice in my room. I quickly grabbed my taser from my night stand, ready in hand to attack whoever was here. "Who's there?" I called out. Suddenly my light flipped on in my room, my eyes squinted and that's when I saw him. "What the fuck? How the hell did you get in my room?!" I stood up out of my bed, pointing my taser at the person. It was...the Andrew guy...from my old dream? "Hold on now, I'm not here to hurt you" He stood with his hands up to me. I noticed he was in a different outfit. White t-shirt, darker blue jeans, cowboy boots and of course his cowboy hat. No sunglasses, so..he was dressed like someone who'd sneak in to kill me? "You need to get out..now" I slowly walked towards him but once I was in front of him, he put his hands back down. "Look Joey we need to talk. I-" "Hell no, I don't know anything about you or what the fuck you think sneaking into my room-" He suddenly started laughing, walking over towards my bed where he sat down on the edge of it. "You really are something, you sure are cute with that taser too" I swallowed a little in my throat, started to feel my body heat up with anger...or was I nervous? "Go ahead. Use it on me" He suddenly pointed at his chest, expecting me to come after him. "I want you to leave so..." I stormed to my window, pushing up expecting it to slide up but it didn't move. It's not..unlocked? I looked back at Andrew who was just looking over at me, looking confused too. "Did you lock it back when you came in here?" "No? I never said I came in through there" I looked towards my door to see it was still locked. What? I looked back at the window to make sure I wasn't just making a mistake. "Then how-" I look back over towards my bed, and Andrew was no longer there. I froze in place, scanning my room to see where he could have went. Both of my doors were shut and of course I only had my one window in my room. I slowly walked towards my bed, looking at both sides of the floor. Then under my bed too. Nothing, he literally just vanished out of thin air? I sighed, getting myself back up off the floor. "Holy fuck!" I yelled as I seen him leaning up against the window. "Gotcha, pretty cool huh?" I went to pull out my taser again, but it was gone. I looked and seen Andrew had it in his hand. "Do you think this is a joke?" "Not really but it is enjoyable seeing you confused and nervous" "I am NOT nervous, just agitated and annoyed" He smirked then crossed his arms across his chest. I never noticed before but he was pretty ripped. Well, not extremely but you can tell he works out. Wait, why am I trailing off with my thinking? "Just tell me what you want so you can leave already" He looked towards me, then down at his feet. "Well, first off I thought for sure you would have forgotten my name by now..." He walked towards me slowly, examining my taser. "Also, second off you owe me from the diner" "I what? I don't think so, you are the one that violated my privacy in the bathroom" He stopped in his tracks, now only about two feet from me. "That was a moment of me coming to your possible rescue. So sorry for that" He stuck his hand out with the taser, offering it towards me. I looked at his hand, then back up to his face. "Oh no keep it, I insist" I mocked at him which made him smirk at me. "Oh how kind, now I'll surely be safe wherever I go" I rolled my eyes. I sat down in my desk chair, crossing my legs and arms at his reply. "So what is it you want? Money? My soul?" "Soul? What do you think I am, the grim reaper?" I laughed. "At this point, yeah I'll just assume that's who you are" "Well don't you think that's hard to believe? Considering how I look?" I shrugged my shoulders, could be just a disguise for all I know. That's when he tossed the taser onto my bed, and quickly walked towards me. Standing right in front of me, he now looked down towards me in my chair. My body was starting to feel a little warm. We locked eyes for a moment, I wasn't backing down. In case he was trying to intimidate me. "Why are you popping up in my dreams?" He had a surprised look on his face. "Well, this is YOUR dream" He was right. I sat and waited, expecting him to explain himself but of course he didn't. I suddenly shut my eyes, and started to flick my wrist. Wake up, wake up please! My wrist was grabbed suddenly, making me stop. "That's not going to work Joey" I looked up at Andrew, starting to get irritated. He could tell by the look on my face I was too, then dropped his grip on me. "I can stay away in your dreams, if you'd like me to" I sighed a little bit. But then he gently cupped my chin making me look up at him. "But then that means you'll have to deal with me in person, when you're awake" I threw my head back laughing. "Yeah right, like that would ever happen" He looked at me, not showing any emotions. Hm, fine. "Alright, I declare that you no longer visit me in my dreams" I threw my arms up, waving them at him. He smirked a little then leaned down towards my face. I sucked in air, with him being so close to me suddenly. "Oh honey, I'll gladly do so. Just remember, you are the one who didn't take me serious" I pressed my lips together tight, not showing a reaction to what he said. He took his fingers, lightly tucking my hair behind my ear. Then he leaned in his lips to my ear, whispering "Wake up".

I flew up in my bed, suddenly being woke up to my obnoxiously loud alarm from my phone. I sat for a moment, feeling around my bed and grabbing it from under my pillow. Jesus, I was sweating. But what the hell? I don't remember falling asleep in bed? I jumped up, throwing the covers off me going into the bathroom. My tub was complete empty and dry. There was no towel on the floor, but it was hanging up? I sighed, rubbing my eyes and looking into my mirror. This was crazy, I was going crazy wasn't I? I shook my head, just starting to get dressed. I pulled my hair back up into a high ponytail, and throwing on an old Wrangler Baseball hat. I pulled my ponytail through the back, then picked up my pace with grabbing my phone and charger for the road. My plain grey oversized T-Shirt & dark blue skinny jeans would have to work. I swung open my door, and could already hear Dad walking down the stairs. "Hey! There you are. We should hit the road, we can stop for breakfast on the way" I smiled a little, shutting the door behind me and going downstairs. The sun was just barely starting to come up as we loaded up. As I climbed in and shut my door, Dad was typing away on his phone. Probably work related I imagine. I got my phone out and set the GPS. We should get to the cabin in about an hour and a half right now, so of course that means there's already traffic or construction. As I backed out of our driveway, I sighed with some relief. We were officially off on vacation.

With stopping to eat breakfast, we made it to the cabin. As we pulled in, Dad's face lit up seeing the lake and the scenery around us. "Well kiddo, let's get to unpacking and setting up" I looked at him as he jumped out of the door, with his sudden burst of energy as I parked. "Want me to go in and check out the place first?" He looked up from opening the trunk, nodding his head and tossing me the keys. I walked up to the door, unlocking it and swinging it open. It looked identical to the pictures online. I slowly walked around inside, noticing the smell of pine. Not my first choice of smell, but it'll work. We are kinda out in the woods after all. I looked over my shoulder, seeing Dad carry our duffel bags in and tossing them towards the living room. "I'll get all the stuff inside, you just check the water and AC stuff. Gotta make sure it works right or I'll have to call to get someone out here if not" I gave him a thumbs up and headed off into the kitchen. I turned on the sink, running the water for a minute. The pressure wasn't the best but it heated up pretty good. And I could tell the AC was on, I looked at the thermostat in the living room and it was set to 70. It worked for me since me and Dad kept it the same back home. I decided to grab my duffel bag and head upstairs to claim one of the rooms. Dad had planned on us going out later to get some twigs and stuff to make a small fire for tonight. I told him he could go out this afternoon and enjoy some fishing time by himself and I would just hang around here and catch up on some reading. As I walked into one of the rooms, I could tell that they had the same pine smell lingering. I looked over by the window, seeing a plug in freshener. I walked over, turned it all the way down. It's a no for me to have the smell in the room I was gonna be sleeping in. "Alright everything's inside now" I heard Dad yelling from downstairs. I walked out the bedroom, looking down the stairs and notice Dad putting the cooler stuff away into the fridge. "Waters fine, and so is the AC" I said to him, walking down the stairs. "Good deal, I can send them a message letting them know. By the way, the owner said him and his son might come out later on today. Said something about the sliding back door needing work?" "I'm fine with that, can't say much about it anyways. We do have the whole entire week here" I grabbed a bottled water from the cooler, throwing it back and forth in my hands looking around the cabin more. "I'll head back up in the room and unpack Dad" I walked back upstairs, hearing the sounds of him in the fridge. "Okay kiddo, you know where to find me!" I shut the door behind me, and unzipped my duffel bag. I was keeping track of how long it'll be before work tries to call Dad in. I know someone will slip and forget about him being on vacation. I sighed, grabbing a few pairs of pants and sitting them in the top shelf of the dresser in my room. I don't know if I should even think about leaving to go to college or anything of the sort because, what will Dad do then? He will honestly be alone, except for working. I know he would say it doesn't matter to him but I know at the end of the day, it would. But I guess before I even worry about that, I have to worry about what IM going to do. I shook my head a little, stopping myself from getting too far in my thoughts. This is our vacation, we just need to relax and enjoy this time we have now. I have the whole summer anyways...which is about three months I suppose. Every summer flies by for me though no matter what. This is the busy season for well, everything. Even though Dad would say that's Christmas time. Would I even be here for Christmas?

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