Paper Airplane [s.m]

Forty-One

The door opens revealing my little brother, Henry. He smiles wide and pulls me into a hug. We don't have a very close relationship, especially with the move but I missed him so much.

"Mom! Dad!" He yells into the apartment. My mom comes running down the hall and jumps at me.

I catch her torso in my arms and she lays her head on my shoulder.

"I missed you so much." She says, her words muffled by my hair.

"I missed you too mom." I tell her with a smile.

"Veronica?" My Dad seems surprised as he comes into view.

"Shawn's on tour and I figured I'd stop by." I smile at them.

"Oh that's great, Look this is Roni's rockstar boyfriend." My Dad says to my mom while pointing at Shawn.

"He's better than her douche ex boyfriend." Henry says under his breath. My dad, Shawn and I laugh while my mother scolds him.

"How do you like Tokyo?" My mom asks and hands me a cup of tea as we take a seat on the couch.

"It's so great. Everything is so busy and colorful. Everybody fits in no matter what they look like or who they are. The crazier, the better." I smile. I've always loved the aspect of being unique. I usually don't care what others thought about me. I like being different.

"I thought you'd love it. Why don't you move in with us?" My mom suggests.

"Mom." I sigh. She knows I've just been excepted into NYU but she still wants me to live here with her. "You know I can't." I shake my head.

"I know it was worth a shot though." She says with a tight lipped smile.

"Enough about Veronica, more about Shawn." My Dad says and puts his chin in his hand.

"I think you're more in love with him than I am." I roll my eyes at my father. My dads a big tough guy and he's obsessed with his daughters boyfriend.

"That's probably true." My Dad nods. You'd think Shawn would be uncomfortable but he laughs and blows my dad a kiss. My dad catches the invisible kiss and puts it in his shirt pocket. He winks at Shawn and Shawn returns the wink.

"Oh my god. Why is everyone I know such a weirdo?" I question.

"Who knows." My mom shrugs like she's agreeing with my question.

"How long are you staying?" Henry asks, jumping into the conversation.

"Only a week, then we head to Shanghai and then we go home." I say and lean my shoulder into Shawn. He responds with an arm around my waist.

"If you're staying for a whole week, why don't you go get settled, we'll talk at dinner time." My mom tells us with a smile.

We walk into the guest room and I see some of my stuff that I couldn't take to New York. A few of my stuffed animals I had as a child are placed along the dresser. My old bed spread with my pillows are on the bed. Even my old clothes are in the drawers.

It breaks my heart to see all of this. She wanted me to live with her in Tokyo and I was so selfish. I still won't live with her but I have a life in New York. I have college, I can't throw all that away to live with my lonely mother. She has Henry, and now my dad. She should be fine.

"Let's call the squad." Shawn says and pulls out his laptop.

We've gotten used to calling them the squad.

He opens Skype and starts to call all of them. Collin and Alex don't pick up but everyone else is on our screen in a few seconds.

After a while of talking, a question pops into my head. I've never thought about it before.

"Where are you guys going to college?"

"I'm going to a college in Washington state because my grandparents live there. My parents want to move there to take care of them so I assumed college would be easier if it was close by." Thalia explains.

"I'm going to the same college." Reggie blushes.

"I'm going to NYU with you, girl." Jade says pointing at the camera.

"Yay! Someone I know!" I do a mini celebration. I had no idea Jade got excepted into NYU.

"I'm not going to college right now?" Aaron says as if he's saying it for the first time.

"Why what happened?" Thalia asks with furrowed eyebrows. If we had to pick a smartest person in the group, it would be Aaron.

"The college I wanted to go to almost excepted me, but they found out I was gay and didn't 'Approve my choice in life style'." Aaron rolls his eyes.

"That's fucked up." Jade shakes her head.

"Wow." Shawn whispers. I forgot he was even here with me.

"Let's change the subject." Reggie says not so subtle.

"Where's Collin?" I ask Aaron. Aaron looks down and takes a deep breath before looking up at the camera again.

"He's mad at me." Aaron rolls his eyes to make it seem like he's annoyed but you can tell he's only upset.

"Why?" Shawn questions.

"He thinks I cheated on him..." Aaron starts, "with a girl."

"Well did you?" I ask.

"No! She's my cousins Girlfriend. I wouldn't do that." He says with a frown.

"Well why does he think you cheated on him with her?" Shawn asks. Everybody else in the chat is silent, listening to the story.

"I went to Central Park with my cousin, her and her friend. I guess I was getting 'close and personal' with her." Aaron rolls his eyes.

"I didn't do anything! He makes me so angry sometimes, I don't know why he just assumed." Aaron says.

"You should explain that to him." Thalia says.

"I tried, he won't listen." Aaron shook his head.

We change the subject again and start talking about Prom. I missed Senior prom but we never got to talk about it.

"You know that girl in our AP Chem class? I think her name was Dianne?" Jade asks me.

"Yeah." I nod.

"Well she let her inner hoe out." Jade laughs. Everyone nods in agreement and laughs.