Love You Forever

Chapter 5: Decisions

I slept for 14 hours. I don't usually do that. By the time I woke up, it was 1:00. PM. My parents were hanging around the house when I rolled into the kitchen, looking disheveled, my hair looking like an afro. "Dang it," I thought "it's Saturday." I just hoped that they wouldn't ask too many questions.

My parents knew all about my bullying situation. The problem was, all my bullies had parents who were either locked up or couldn't be found, like, disappeared off the map, so I we had no hope of getting ahold of them to tell them what was going on. It's not like their parents would've told their kids to stop, anyways.

But what my parents didn't know was that I had been holding a crush on Keon since 7th grade. So they would probably figure I had just endured another regular day of insults and was so fed up with it I crashed. As in, fell asleep to forget my problems. They didn't know my heart had just been stomped on. I can't even describe the feeling I felt as I saw those fateful words: "From- Keon Mitchell" It pretty much felt like my heart had been incinerated and I was a hollow shell.

My parents and I had a brunch that consisted of German pancakes, sometimes called Dutch babies, (so racist) hash browns, omelets, and a delicious strawberry-banana smoothie. I didn't talk all through the meal, and my parents kept on flashing concerned glances back and forth. My mom finally cleared her throat to speak. "Kaitlin, we thought that for your birthday, you could fly to Arizona. After all, it's been so long and we know you love it there. We know it's been hard living away from family, and not having all the friends you used to, but we thought It might be a relief from what you've had to.... you know, go through."

My body seized up. Me, go to Arizona? I desperately wanted to! Living here in Pennsylvania was okay, but I missed my home. The place where I was born. Of course I wanted to go! I thought about all the places I'd see, childhood memories I'd remember, friends I'd visit.

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Kaitlin's Note:

I guess I should explain about Arizona. My family had moved when I was 9 years old, because my dad got a new job opportunity. I was pretty sad to leave, and the outcome wasn't good. I didn't have any bullying problems in Arizona!

But anyways, I lived in a small town called Gilbert, just southeast of the capital, Phoenix. It was where I was born, raised, and where pretty much all my family was. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to visit at all since we moved here to Pittsburgh. And I missed the place.

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I pushed back my chair and leaned back on the legs. "Of course I'd like to go, " I started hesitantly, "but do you think my friends will still remember me?" My mother smiled. "Of course they will. After all, you were all friends since birth." "That was true," I thought. I remembered Leah, Abby, Kenna, Nathan, and all my dear friends that I missed so much. There was no doubt in my now. "Okay, " I said, "I'm going. But it's not too much, right?" My mother smiled reassuringly. "Anything for you, sweetie."

Two weeks later I was all packed up and ready to go, standing at the front door and waiting for my dad to just hurry up.