Swayed (A Before You Exit Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine - An Apology

Copyright © 2014 BYEconnort  - All Rights Reserved

The next few days seemed like a blur to me. And much to my pleasure, they passed without incident. I couldn’t deny that I was really excited. And I wasn’t the only one. I think my mom’s even more thrilled with the aspect of me going on tour with the boys. It’s a surprise to me that she’s even helping me pack my things right now instead of spending her time in her office like regular nights. I can’t say I’m not grateful for the help though. I’ve been too lazy the past few days to pack so now I’m rushing it.

For the past hour of so, I’ve been rummaging around my closet for comfy clothes to wear. When I see one I’m relatively okay with, I just throw it in my suitcase. I’ve no time to be picky anyway. The sooner we finish, the better.

“Oh, don’t put that in there, honey,” Mom says. I retrieve the last piece of clothing I threw in the growing pile and examined it.

“Why not?” I ask. The gray hoodie looked pretty decent to me.

“Because,” she exasperates. “You’ve packed too many of those oversized ratty hoodies. You should choose something more fitting. Something cute maybe.”

I burst into laughter. It’s been a long time since I’ve this side of my mother. The one who always wants me to look prim and proper. I guess old habits do die hard. And it’s just so easy to fall right back in.

“Mom, I won’t be there to look cute,” I say, putting quotation marks in the air at the word cute.

“What if you meet a guy then?”

I roll my eyes at her while she wriggles her eyebrows at me. I guess my mom still hasn’t given up on the thought of me getting a boyfriend. She thinks it’ll be an easy ticket to my happiness of something. I’ve been with a few guys already. Most of them she doesn’t even know about. And all of these relationships weren’t serious anyway. So I never bothered to let her meet them. That’s why I don’t really believe a guy could genuinely make me happy. I mean, sure, they do make me happy. But just for a while and not wholly so.

“I don’t think so,” I say firmly and got back to digging around in the pile of clothes around me. “Besides, I’ll working a bit too.”

“Well, if it happens, be sure to tell me stat.”

“Sure, Mom.” There was so much hope in her voice, that all I could do was humor her.

It was another good hour before we were done packing my clothes and some toiletries. In the end, I gave in and let her pack some pretty stuff for me. It was almost midnight and Mom usually slept early so she got up to go.

“Thanks for the help,” I say before she leaves.

“Sure, sweetie,” she gives me a smile before exiting my room.

I surveyed the damage we’d done to my bedroom and sighed deeply. The clothes I weren’t bringing with me were scattered all around. I started cleaning up the mess, and after that, I plugged in and charged the batteries for my camera. I made sure to clear my memory card, and also to pack extras so I wouldn’t run out.

I turned on my laptop to update my editing software. Yeah. I know, I know. I really haven’t done a single preparation until tonight even though we leave tomorrow. I’m beginning to realize what a bad move it really was considering how tired and sleepy I felt as I yawned and stretched. I glanced at the window beside my desk and saw that Riley’s light was still on. I guess he noticed me the same I saw him when he opened his window and waved at me, so I slid mine open too. Our windows were only a few feet away so we could still talk without shouting.