Never too far from a beautiful mystery

No more excuses

Andrew's Pov

A smile plasters on my face when I see my parents excited to see me. My mom gives me a big hug, "Boy did we miss you, me and your father are so happy for you."

"Thanks mom, it's great to be home."  My dad pats my shoulder, "We are so proud of you son."  I yawn, my mom says "You should take a nap, I bet it was a long ride."

I laugh, "that  doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'll be back down in an hour."

I walked up to my room and shut the door, this was the first time I've seen the room clean since I've lived here. Sitting beside my bed I started thinking, I'm actually home. Emily isn't here, Thomas isn't either. Emily was still stomping through my mind, I missed everything about her. What I miss most of all was the feeling of our lips finally meeting.

I tried to message her on my way back home but there was no answer. I sat there staring at my phone, hoping for a message to pop up, out of nowhere. I guess I dozed off for awhile after that, my mom woke me and asked, "Why are you sleeping on the floor? You have a comfortable bed."

I rub my eye, "I just dozed off while I was waiting for a message from Emily."  My mom grins, "Is that your friend from rehab?"  I stretch my arms and grunt, "Yeah but she hasn't wrote, I just hope she made it home ok."  Mom rubs my shoulder, "I'm sure she'll call later, she's probably unpacking. Which by the way you haven't done, get to it so we can eat dinner."

My mom went downstairs and I unpacked my clothes, all I did was take out of the suitcase and threw it in the hamper. I went downstairs shortly after and sat at the dinner table. My mom was serving the food in the kitchen and my dad was sitting next to me reading a news paper.

The food smelled good, just by the smell of the sauce, I could tell it was my mom's famous spaghetti. The sauce was what really made the dish, the meatballs that had a little taste of parmigiano cheese. It made my stomach growl, my dad laughs "Looks like somebody is hungry."

I shake my head and laugh, "Mom's spaghetti would do that to anyone."
My dad turns the newspaper page and glances over at the kitchen, "Yeah but her meatloaf is uglier than the mutants from the wrong turn."

My mom hits his arm, "Oh stop it's not that terrible, my food is gourmet, so be grateful." She served us all dinner and sits, "Frank, isn't it nice having Andrew back?" He peaks over the news paper, "Yeah....haven't seen much of him, he's been in his room all day." My mom gives my dad the look. He says in his defense, "hey I'm just saying he should go and hang out with his friends, don't give me that look Samantha."

My mom says in my defense, "He was just getting some rest, it was a long ride, right Andrew?"  I swallow the spaghetti that was in my mouth, "Yeah it was, I might go the movies in a couple of days with Stephanie and Marcus." My mom looked up at me, "Wow it's been a long time since you've hanged out with her."

My dad takes a sip of his diet coke, "so you're third wheeling it son, sounds fun."  My mom gives him that seriously look, "really Frank, that sounds very fun Andrew." I scrape the rest of the spaghetti into my mouth, as I pick up the plate to clean it I say, "Actually I might bring a date, no third wheeling it for me dad."

I washed my plate and went out to my front lawn like old times. The grass still felt the same, prickly on my back. I sunk into the grass like if it was a water bed. I laid there eating a chocolate chip cookie I stole from the fridge. "Hey Andrew, may we join you?"  I look up and Stephanie and Marcus were waiting for my answer. I pat the grass, inviting them to lay and watch the night sky with me.

They sit next to me, Marcus says, "Hey man I'm really....."  I interrupt him, "It's cool man, that shit is in the past, we're cool bro." He smiled and shakes my hand, "thanks man."  As we lay there looking up at the stars I ask, "So what movie are we going to watch?"