Frenemies ✔

Chapter 18

Mom drove me to the Myrtle Beach airport early Friday morning. She thought it would be better if I were to spend the rest of Friday afternoon, Saturday, and part of Sunday with Aunt Jo. Rather than spend just Saturday with her. My departure date was sometime this upcoming Sunday. Mom scheduled it for the late afternoon, which I really didn't care. Because it gave me time to hang out with Aunt Jo. It was a beautiful South Carolina day. It had already warmed up outside, probably to seventy-eight degrees or so. The blue sky was clear and beautiful, completely cloudless.

I was going to wear my jeans and a long-sleeved tee, at first. But since it was already hot out, I decided to wear something airier. I wore my yellow sundress with a pair of matching yellow Converses. It was something comfy yet simple.

As Mom parked the Camry in the parking lot of the airport. Both of us walked inside and came to the boarding area to wait for my flight.

"Ava, sweetie. You know that you're not forced to do this, right? You don't have to go if you don't want to," Mom said, squeezing my hand.

Her grip was so tight that my fingers went cold. Not to mention it felt numb. She was cutting off my blood circulation.

"I know, Mom, but I think you were right about visiting Aunt Jo. I should go visit her. I need that weekend to clear my mind. Besides, it's not like I'm staying over for two weeks. I'll come back home on Sunday," I replied.

"All right, honey. Aunt Jo will be so happy having you over." I smiled.

I was sure she would, too. I haven't seen her since I was nine...I think. Back then, I really didn't see her much. She ran into some problems and moved around everywhere. But now she found a house to live in for a great price. Buried in the thickness of the woods, of course.

Ten minutes later, we heard the intercom announce that the plane was about to take off in the next twenty minutes and that they were ready to board passengers. Mom and I stood up at the same time. She walked me to the waiting line. We hugged each other, hers feeling tighter than mine. For a minute, I thought I was gonna faint.

"Tell Aunt Jo I said hi," Mom whispered in my ear.

"I will," I nodded.

"See you Sunday, sweetness."

"Yup. Love you," I said, giving the guy my plane ticket.

"Love you, too."

The guy handed back my ticket. "You're all set."

"Okay, thank you," I replied.

I looked back as I walked into the tunnel. Mom was gone already.

Once I entered the plane, I found my seat and sat down.

The flight from the Myrtle Beach International Airport to the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport didn't take that long. Only a good, solid one hour and fifteen minutes. Flying really doesn't bother me all that much. I liked looking down from my window, watching cars moving at a slow rate (even though they weren't). The one thing that worried me quite a bit though was the drive with Aunt Jo. It's not that I hated talking to her or anything, but sometimes when she talks to you, she's like one of those people who doesn't know when to shut up. And sometimes, even though she doesn't mean it, certain topics leak out. Especially a certain topic I really didn't wanna hear about because Mom had already given me that talk two years ago.

But, aside from her talking too much, she was really nice and elated about the whole me coming to visit her for the weekend trip thing. In fact, she already planned to do a lot of things with me on Saturday, apparently. Believe me, I was happy, too.