Take Me There

Flights Home and Europe

Chapter Twenty Nine

 Almost three weeks later, Austin and I finally decided that it was time to head back to California. We had a really long discussion about it, and at first I thought he wasn't going to leave with me. But as soon as I started sobbing about how I couldn't leave without him, he quickly changed his mind and decided that he would go home.

 I absolutely loved everything about Memphis. Hollie had shown me all sorts of things around the entire state that she loved. Austin and I had spent a lot of time together catching up on everything. I'd filled him in on everything with Drew and then went on to tell him everything with Kiptyn (minus the whole losing my virginity thing) and he seemed really pleased that I'd left Drew. He'd told me the entire story about the night that he found out about the adoption and how open Hollie had been whenever he'd made it to Memphis.

 I'd grown to adore Kendall. She was the cutest kid that I'd ever spent time with and she'd really gotten attatched to me over the course of my stay. Half the time she even slept upstairs with me, falling asleep to the sound of me telling her stories about the beaches in California while I played with her hair. We'd spent countless hours perfecting her Barbies outfits and painting pictures for Hollie to put on the fridge. She'd told me about the boy at her daycare that continued to push her off the swing and about her best friend that always had pretty ribbons in her hair.

 So naturally I dropped Kendall off at daycare the next day with a pretty pink ribbon in her hair and had a talk with the little boy that was bullying Kendall. She told me that same afternoon that he apologized to her.

 Ben was an amazing dad and it made me incredibley happy to see how much he loved Hollie and Kendall. I'd only spent a small amount of time with him, but the conversations we did have were always humorous and light-hearted. He never talked about anything too heavy, which I really appreciated because I needed someone to keep me grounded.

 Hollie was the main reason that Austin and I had decided to wait so long until going back home. She was incredible. She was like a super-mom in so many ways and I admired her greatly for it. Not only did she still manage to take care of Kendall, but she worked six days a week and stillI had dinner on the table every night.

 That was one of the things that I would miss the most. Her cooking was to die for. It was so much better than my mom's disgusting hipster food and I couldn't help but grow accustomed to the southern food that she set in front of me every night.

 I'd also miss sitting with her on the back porch every night. For at least thirty minutes, she would sit outside with me and we would do nothing but talk. I'd told her every little thing that I could about myself. I'd gone into detail about the spelling bee that I'd won in the fourth grade, about the time I fell at a football game and broke my ankle while cheering, and about all of the times that Drew was determined the get me to sleep with him.

 I even told her everything about Kiptyn, from start to finish. Of course she thought it was crazy that I'd fallen for him in such a short amount of time, but she also understood, which was something that I needed at the time. It had been so long since I felt like an adult figure actually understood me. 

 The greatest thing about staying with her for so long was that I'd finally figured things out. I'd pieced myself back together and felt like a new person altogether. I'd decided that whenever I did get back home, I was going to give Drew back his ring and tell him that I was sorry for hurting him. I was going to explain everything I'd learned about myself to my parents and pray to God that they would understand. And then I was going to drop the biggest bomb of all on them, one that they would probably never understand or accept.

 "Dallis?"

 My eyes snapped open as my thoughts were interrupted. Austin was staring at me with a somber expression on his face.