Turbulence - (18+)

52.

GATE C47 SHAY

Pittsburgh (PIT)-> Salt Lake City (SLC)

Another interview came to an end, another stack of books quickly signed, and another bouquet of flowers were placed into my hands three days later. This time though, I didn't sit in the green room to kill time. I headed straight to a waiting town car, prepared to sleep more thoughts of Justin away.

As soon as I slipped into the backseat, my phone rang. My mother.

"Yeah?" I answered, not bothering to say hello.

"Did any of this come about because we didn't give you enough attention, Shay?" My mother's voice came over the line as I stepped into the green room. "Is that why you felt the need to lie to us about quitting your job and hiding this novel business?"

"It was never about any of you," I said flatly. "Everything can't always be about you, you know."

"If you'd gone to MIT, I wonder if any of this would've happened."

I bit my lip, trying to hold in my anger. To my surprise, my family were stunned by the release of the book, but not in a good way. It didn't matter that I'd accomplished something none of them had done. It was "mindless writing, words that could've been put to better use in a research setting." It still wasn't good enough. I still wasn't good enough.

"Your father and I are going to fly up to see you for lunch next month. We want to discuss the best way to attack this head on. We need to figure out a way to field questions our colleagues have about your...Your book."

"You know what?" I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Don't bother coming to visit me. Ever. Until you and everyone else in the family gets your heads out of your asses. I published two books. Two. And instead of having relatives who say, "Congratulations, we're proud of you." You still manage to make me feel like a disappointment."

"Shay, I'm impressed with all you've done, I'm just trying to make a connection with you."

"I'll send you my signing schedule. If you want to see me, buy a ticket...Since none of you have even bought a book yet, that would be nice, I think." I hung up before she could say anything else.

My phone immediately vibrated and I saw that she'd sent me a text.

Mom: I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you...Not at a signing though. One on one. So I can apologize in person. So we **all** can apologize in person...

I started to text her "No thanks," but another text from her came through. A series of pictures of my sisters, my brother, and she and my father holding my book.

I stared at the pictures for several minutes, failing to hold back tears because I didn't want to believe that the pictures were real.

Me: I would like that very much...