Vacation

Chapter Nine

It was Friday, the day that Allison and Josh both left Florida and went back to Washington. Allison sat on the sofa in the lobby, gripping the handle of her suitcase tightly. She never wanted to leave Florida. She loved the beach, playing volleyball, hanging out with Josh, the warm weather, the palm trees, not seeing her bullies, and seeing Patty...who wasn't here anymore.

Her dad was checking out of the hotel, with Josh's parents right behind him. Josh spotted Allison on the sofa and came over to her. He sat down next to her.

"I don't want to leave," Allison said quietly.

"I know, neither do I," Josh said, looking around the hotel lobby.

"Patty said to keep in touch," Allison said, pulling a piece of paper and a pen out of her suitcase. She wrote down her phone number, folded the piece of paper, and handed it to Josh.

"Alright," Josh said, stuffing the piece of paper in his bag. "I'll be sure to text you."

When Allison's parents were done checking out, Allison and her family got in the rental car and drove back to the rental car place. They returned the car and walked over to the airport.

"Okay, everybody, time to go back home!" her dad shouted at the airport when it was time to board their plane.

Allison wondered why he sounded happy about that. Maybe it was because he didn't have an entire school of bullies to get back to.

Allison thought about what she would when she went back to school on Monday. She vowed to not let the bullying affect her. She even thought about standing up for herself, as difficult as that sounded.

Allison saw Josh sitting a few rows
behind her. She invited him to sit next to her in the free seat beside her. He come up and sat down next to her. For the rest of he plane ride, they talked about everything: Josh's friends back home, the amount of rain back home, and what to do about Allison's bullies.

"Tell them that you don't care and that they're just a bunch of bird heads," Josh laughed.

Allison shook her head. "I'll just tell them that what they say doesn't matter, because guess what? It doesn't anymore."

Josh smiled. "I'm glad you're believing in yourself. I wish that I could be that confident."

Allison looked at him. "What are you talking about? You are confident."

"No," Josh said. "I'm not confident. Patty told you about it in the more she wrote you. I had been bullied in the past, and in order to avoid that reoccurring, I do whatever my friends want me to. Even if it's being mean to people."

"Don't do that anymore," Allison told him. She was surprised to find herself being the one that was giving out advice. "If you refuse to do mean things for them, and they bully you for that, then they aren't good friends."

Josh thought about it. "That's true. They really aren't good friends. They're mean to other people, and if I wasn't, they'd be mean to me."

Allison and Josh talked about ways to solve both of their problems. Josh advised Allison to believe in herself and stand up for herself, and Allison told Josh that he needed to be nice to everyone, no matter what his friends told him to do.

When the plane landed, Allison and Josh said good bye to each other and went off with their families to go home. Allison was sad to see Josh leave. She liked him, but he lived an hour away from her, so they probably wouldn't be able to see each other often.

Allison and her family drove home. Allison already missed Florida, and everything that it had given her, like her new friend, Josh, and the ability to believe in herself.

When they arrived at their house, Allison brought her suitcase up to her room and unpacked. When she finished, she put her headphones in, laid down in her bed, and fell asleep to her favorite playlist.