Painted Love

New York Is Home Now

Riley

Today is the day. It's 7:30 am and my flight leaves at 10:00 am I put most of my belongings in my suitcases. Mother is upset, her only child is going away to college, she said and I quote "I'm going to be alone now thanks Riley" tears filled her hazel eyes. I can't stand to see my mother cry it feels like my heart shatters into a thousand pieces.

       I finish packing, I bring all of my suitcases into the kitchen. Mom is standing over the sink, she gazes out of the window in front of her. The house phone is in her left hand. I slowly make my way behind her, she jumps as my right-hand touches her shoulder. Quickly she turns around wiping tears from underneath her eyes. "Sorry I didn't see you, Riley," she says placing the house phone onto the counter. "It's okay" I pause. I smile before continuing. "It's okay mom it's just college I'll be back for the holidays I promise" I place my hands in hers. She smiles slightly. "I know but it's just until then I'll be alone, and that's not the full reason why I'm crying" she sniffles. "What is it then?" I ask. She's hesitant on answering I can tell in her eyes.

      Mom removes her hands from mine and turns back towards the kitchen window. Her body is tense. She sighs loudly before opening her mouth to speak. "Riley" she pauses. I Raise my eyebrows; she continues. "Umm... I know that you're going to college and all but something bad has happened and I don't what you to be upset" She turns slightly. "You know James right?" I furrow my eyebrows. "Yeah, dad?" She nods. "Yeah him. Um... well... Riley, he had passed away last night, apparently, he had cancer and only his wife knew."

Suddenly my heart sank. I could physically feel my heart in my stomach. Without hesitation, I push that terrible feeling away. "Okay, um, when's the funeral?" I ask making sure she doesn't hear the extreme sadness in my voice. She turns around quickly, concerned that I hadn't shown any emotion towards the bad news. "Next month, Alexus wants to save up so the funeral is how your dad wanted it," she answers while staring at me. I mentally sigh while grabbing tight onto my suitcase. "Okay." I pause. "I don't think I'll be able to go.. um.. just tell Alexus and everyone that I am sorry that I couldn't attend and that I'm sorry for their loss" without saying anything else I hug Mom before grabbing my keys off the table and jumping into my car. She runs out of the house waving in my direction; I wave back.

Knowing that my father had died put a damper on my trip to New York. The entire flight there I couldn't stop thinking about how I never said goodbye. Even though my father never spent any time with me, I still loved him. I rest my head against the airplane window, I made sure I had gotten the window seat. A heavy-built man sits beside me, which I don't mind because he never tried to interact with me. During the flight, I would look over across from me to see an old man and guy that looks around my age. I've noticed every 3 minutes the guy would look at me, and of course, I would look back wondering what he was staring at. He would glance in my direction before turning his head quickly. The man sitting next to me shifts in his seat, uncomfortable that I decided to use his leg to push myself forward to try and get a good look at the other guy's face. "Um.. miss" a lady with short blonde hair wearing a flight attendants uniform approaches me. Quickly I look up noticing she looks very impatient and upset. "Please remove your hand from this man's leg." The man looks down at me angrily. I smile before removing my hand. "Thank you," The flight attendant says before walking off.

Five hours into the flight we finally land in New York. I get butterflies in my stomach as I enter the airport. I receive my luggage and call a taxi to come to pick me up. Dragging my bags behind me I sit on a bench outside waiting for a taxi to show. Snow slowly falls from the sky and people shuffle about trying to find their rides, I've forgotten that it snows here during the winter, where I'm from we rarely see snow and if we do it's less than an inch or we just get straight ice. I pull the hood of my coat over my head to protect it from the cold. As the snow continues to fall I watch as tiny snowflakes hit the ground, the snow has so much beauty it's so crisp and pure looking, it's like Mother Nature spilled gallons of white paint on the earth creating artwork and it seems as if nobody but myself admires it. "It's beautiful isn't it?" A masculine voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I hadn't realized that I was staring at the ground watching as the snow stuck. My gaze moves up as the man sits on the bench beside me. I look over, "Yeah it is," I say unsure why this stranger is speaking to me. "It's rare that you see another person actually admiring the beauty in which snow is," he pauses. "Most people, especially here hate it probably because it's so cold." The man turns in my direction facing me and laughs. I examine his features as he spoke, all I can see is the bottom half of his face, he's wearing a turtle neck and a big black puffy coat with the hood over his head and sunglasses over his eyes the only thing I can actually get a decent look at is his smile, which is super cute in all honesty. "I actually love the cold, I feel like it's super underrated if you ask me. I'd rather be cold than super hot you know?" I say with a smile. "Exactly! It's much easier to get warm then it is to cool off, with the cold you can layer up but when it's hot there only is so much you can remove to keep yourself cool." His smile deepens. "Wow never have I ever met someone who agrees with me on this!" Before he could reply his ride pulls up, "It was nice talking to you, I didn't catch your name" he says before standing up. "I didn't throw it" I chuckle. Am I actually flirting with this man? "Well, the coffee shop inside messed up on my order and gave me a free cup if you want it" he hands me the cup that I didn't even notice he was holding, probably because I was so focused on examining his face. "Thank you," I say taking it out of his hands. "No problem, stay warm Snowflake" with that he makes his way towards his ride. My ride pulls up behind.