East Of Eden

Chapter 22

The road is smooth. I feel myself detaching from my new life driving back to the old. I keep looking back, literally. I keep thinking that if I look back I'll see Hamdem. It'll look beautiful from here and I'll want to go back. Sometimes now and then I can hear Kaleb's voice calling from Hamdem telling me to come back. Maybe I'm going crazy.

I've been driving for four hours, I still have a few more hours until I'm home. What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? By the time I get there and with the time change in mind it'll be around two hours before school ends for the day. Should I go to school first? Should I go to my house first? Well my parents house now. My real house, my own home is in Hamdem. I smile to myself. I'm going to call my mom and dad and tell them I'm coming first before anything.

"Hello?" My dad answers.
"Hey dad." I say.
"What's up?"
"Well, I'm driving home today and I'll probably be there within a few hours." I reveal.
"What?! We weren't expecting till the end of the week!" He shouts in excitement.
"I know, but I'm coming early."
"Wow, that's great!"
"Yeah, tell mom, but don't tell anyone else." I tell him
"I'll tell her as soon as she gets out of her board meeting." He assures me.
"Okay, great." I grin through the line.
"Love you, be safe, and call me when you're in town. Will you be staying here or a hotel?"
"At the house."
"Good. Good." I can see in my head his mustache moving as he talks.
"Love you, Dad. See you soon."

I hang up the call and dial another number.

"Dallas Six Flags." A women says.
"Hi, I see on your calendar website that you're closed tomorrow."
"Unfortunately."
"Well I know that you sometimes you let people rent out the park for the day."
"Yes we do."
"I'd like to rent out the park tomorrow for around 1,000 guests."
"Well, the rate per 100 guest is $1,000. We like to use the money to pay our employees, operate the roller coasters and amusement park, clean up staff, food and drinks, all of that. The park allows the rent out to be from 11 a.m to 11 p.m." She explains the details.
"That's great, so it would be around $10,000?"
"Yes."
"Okay so do I come down to Six Flags today to settle everything?" I ask
"Yes, you can meet up with our party consultant Jessica Morrison. Just bring your I.D and your payment of your choice." She says.
"Okay, great."

I want to throw a party with my classmates and friends as soon as I get back. Just all the seniors in the graduating class. I have a lot of money to waste, so basically I'm going to throw my own welcome back party. I laugh to myself.

The closer I get home the more anxious and nervous I become. I'm actually going to see Nathan. It feels like a dream. I'm going to see my friends and family and my old house. The thought sends electricity through out me. This is my chance to see how I really feel about Nathan. Who knows? I could see him and say to myself, "No, ew I do not love him. What the hell was I thinking?"

I just want all of this to be over. I want to be home and I already miss Kaleb. I'm going to be there for two weeks and honestly I don't know if I could handle it.

The scenery changes from green, to desert, to rural areas with no houses, then back to desert. The further I drive the more of this detaching feeling enters. I remember sometimes I would think that I was dreaming this whole time. That one day I would just wake up in my old room and none of it happened. I remember Kaleb walking in on me in the kitchen pinching myself to see if I would wake up. He continuously laughed and asked why I was pinching myself, but I never gave him an answer.

"Okay, Holly. How am I going to do this?" I say to myself.

Well I think I should go to my parent's house first, then go to Nathan's? No. Go to my friends house first, then Nathan's. I have no idea why this is so difficult to decide. I want to see Nathan as soon as possible, so I can set my feelings straight for him. Then, I'll go from there. I should just go to Nathan first. If I see him first I don't know what I'm going to do about his mom. Should I mention it to him and tell him the truth? I wonder how he would react to the fact that I ran into his mom. Not only that, but that the reason why she left is...as much as I hate to say, it a really good reason why she left her newborn baby and husband. I wonder if he would forgive her? Knowing Nathan, he'd be open to it. He's very forgiving. My heart flutters.

Not only am I revealing to Nathan about Beth Vanderwaal, but then Will will know. I rub my forehead in stress. How will Will react? Will they want to see her? If they do, will they go to Hamdem to see her? Will she come there? If they go to Hamdem will they see my house? Will Kaleb want to meet Nathan? Will Nathan and Kaleb ever meet? How will one interact with the other? I pull over quickly. When I come to a complete stop on the interstate, I rest my head on the steering wheel and just breathe. There is a billion questions running through my head.

It's funny because when you have questions about the future they'll always be answered in the time that passes. I just have to go through with it and go with the flow and see how everything turns out. Who even knows what will happen? I could walk into my house and my mom could be dead on the floor or the world can explode in an hour.

It's all going to be okay. No matter what happens, I have a perfectly safe landing. I'll go home back to Hamdem with Kaleb and continue to live my perfect life. Nothing that happens at home will change that. It won't affect it.

I just have about an hour left until I get there. The thought of the events to come makes me anxious, nervous, makes my stomach feel empty, and down right scary. I feel a drawn feeling where all my family and friends are. It's this subtle connection that has been holding me back all this time I've been gone and I hadn't realized it until now. Coming back home is going to change a lot for me. It'll bring an end to my paranoia. It'll make the guilt of leaving my friends and family go away. I know that when I leave I'll be set free. Hopefully the connection I feel right now will be broken when I'm driving home to Hamdem and Kaleb in two weeks.

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The familiarity of driving through the streets of my old town is somewhat horrifying and delicious at the same time.

I look at the time and it's almost the end of the school day. Only about an hour left. I decide. I decide I'm going to drive to the school and see Nathan and my friends together. I turn the corner of the street that leads straight down to my old school.

As I pass by the same coffee houses and neighborhoods I always used to drive by, I see papers posted on light poles and mailboxes. I look closely and see "Missing Person" printed on the top in thick red ink with a picture of me from last year's Christmas card. There has to be at least three papers stapled to every light pole on the street.

Who put all of those up?

I don't have time to think about it because I start to pull up into the student parking lot of the school. I swiftly park into one of the open spaces. I stop and take a breath. I open my door and hop out of my truck. I walk towards the front of the school and stop right before the doors. Should I do this? Am I really doing? I just shake my head and push the heavy red double doors open and walk through, back to my old life and my heart starts pound harder then it ever has in my whole entire existence.

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am writing a second book, but will not post it for another couple of weeks! I hope you all enjoyed this book, but the next book 'Back From Eden' is going to be way better, in my opinion! Get ready for so much more. ✌🏻️💖