I'm Yours (PRN)

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Cold winds whisper through the empty streets of the suburban area. Down on her street is an eerie familiarness that leaves a slight flutter in her heart. Precipitation sprinkles on the windows of her Chanhassen home. Thanksgiving takes place in nearly twenty-four hours and she had no idea what it was that she planned to wear. There stood the near 21-year-old girl standing in the mirror. A twirl to the left and a twirl to the right. She studied herself.

It'd only been roughly about four months since she was last seen in Minnesota. These days, most of her time is spent in Wisconsin. Her senior year had just began in fall and it's quite delightful. Training for the olympics is not easy, she takes life one step at a time. No longer needing a reminder of why she should keep her head on straight, Mature Monica is an pseudonym of the past that she does not associate herself with anymore. In fact, she hasn't since she was fifteen.

A voice calls out from the hallway. It says, "Monica, your mother needs you down stairs."

"Here I come!"

She throws the blouse in her hand onto her bed before jogging down the stairs directly behind her step-father. Monica loved her step-father with all her heart. She loved to gloat about him as he loved to gloat about her and her journey to the olympics. They'd only met four years ago but she loved him. Jorge is the father that she dreamed of her whole life. His son on the other hand?

"Would you look at you," Benny snickers from beside the stairs. It's almost as if he'd been waiting for Monica to come descending down the staircase for this reason alone.

Monica gives him the evil eye. "Can it, Benny. Not everybody can find the inner confidence to be secure with looking like they wear a halloween mask everyday." She aggressively shoves past him and steps into the kitchen.

At the stove is Brenda prepping her meals pretty early. Thanksgiving is to be held in her home this year and she's cooking everything. Knowing the Wells family, she suspected that she would have been cooking for days on days. That is exactly what happened. Brenda doesn't particularly mind. She's satisfied with finally getting to play housewife and business woman all at once. It's a dream come true for her. She wears the title proudly and handles the pressure well. It baffles Monica how her mother does it all. Furthermore, she is still beyond proud of her.

Brenda asks, "Are you in there giving Benny a hard time?"

"Mama, he picks on me. He sits at the bottom of the stairs like the devil waiting for me just to antagonize me," Monica complains. "Jorge is so amazing but out of all of the people you could've married, you chose Benny Flores' dad?"

"You can't help who you fall in love with, Mo."

Monica knew that. She also knows that you can help who you marry. Something else that baffles her is why is Benny always at her house so often. Before graduation, he lived with his mother and only came on weekends. It seems that every since the two have graduated high school, Benny is at Monica's house every time she comes home and it annoys her to the fullest. Benny Flores is the same boy who bullied her for three years before turning around and trying to date her. Can you imagine the frustration? Monica hates it all but she takes it for her mother and Jorge.

"That's not why I called you here, though... I called you to remind you that this year Thanksgiving will be hosted here. I want you on your best behavior."

Monica somberly grumbles, "I take it Anthony won't make it home..."

"I'm not sure, Mo. He hasn't written or called back."

Monica's internal gut begins hopping around her body. "Not this again..." The last time her brother went to war, he'd communicated as much as possible. Then, he abruptly stopped communicating with home. Monica was not informed at the time but toward the end of the war, thousands of soldiers in Vietnam had been captured right before the war ended. It wasn't until two months after the war ended that she had seen Anthony and her mother never, nor her brother, ever spoke on it.