Let's Go Home

2|The man

Chapter 2 | The man

It is a sign. It is the first thing that alerts her. This man she met on the plane know her mother and herself. It is an emblem representing nothing is the same. Everything is about to change. She knows that but decides not to focus on it. She knows that if she dwells on it she'll have to accept the fact that maybe staying away for so long wasn't such a good idea after all. She'll have to accept that maybe just maybe, people around here's lives didn't stop when she left, and that the town was fine without her. That her parents were fine without her.

      "Oh honey, I see you've met Brian. He's our neighbour and his mom just asked me to pick him up," her mom, Rhoda explains merrily.

She looks up and smiles acutely aware pot her words she manages to say, "Hi Brian."

     "Nice to finally meet you Arial," he says politely and Arial can't help but notice that when he smiles a small barely noticeable indent in his cheek.

That just made Brian that much more attractive to her. She probably would've pursued something between them if she hadn't sworn off men completely for the time being. She was focusing on building her fashion empire and men were just a distraction.

Every Christmas for the past five years she had been working on her spring designs so that she could send it to her investors and advisors from college. A large company in New York is sponsoring her to sell her clothes in her very successful boutiques across the state. This year their goal was to get her clothes on the runway. They're also looking to extend her boutique locations to New York. It was great.

She looked up from her daydream and realises where she is. Reality catches up with her and she tries to catch up with whatever conversation her mom and Brian were having. Studying the two she finds that there's never a lapse in their conversation. It's as if Brian is her mother's child and she's the outsider catching a lift from the airport.

She fixes her attention on her mother again. She looks happy, like really happy. She's not sure if it's because she's home or because Brian is. For some reason she feels it's neither. Her mother is basically glowing as she swerves onto the highway.

     "Arial?" Her trance is broken but the two people waiting for her response.

     "Huh, uhm. Could you repeat what you said," she asks.

     "Oh. I was just saying how excited everyone is to see you," her mother explains.

Everyone? Who's eveyone?

She voices her thoughts.

     "Oh you know, your father, Jess, Michael and Brian's mother is excited to meet you," her mother explains nonchalantly.

Jess and Michael are my cousins, the last time I saw them they were thirteen. They are seniors in high school now or so she had heard in one of her monthly calls with her mom.

Then it comes to the topic of her father. That was one of the reasons she never visited. Her parents could never agree on anything, not even getting divorced. While she was studying she would always hear their arguments down the hall, even when they tried to keep it on the down low. She didn't like being the child of an unhappy home. Sometimes she felt guilty, believing that the only reason they were still together was because  they didn't want her to have divorced parents. Seeing as her mother was happy, she guesses that having her out of the house helped them resolve their issues. She smiled to herself.

At least my absence resulted in one good thing happening.

     "I'm really excited to see them as well," she responded to her mother.