I Will Always Write Back✔️

My Great Lake State (Part 1)

-September 30-

Alice had left September 15, but I stayed. I'm happy I did decide to stay. I went out with Archie, Jared, Via and Juliette almost every other day. We still had our family bonding outings every few days, even if it was just spending a few hours by the beach. As much as I liked Florida now, there was no place like home, and that's all I could think about as I sat on the flight home. I got off the plane and took my one bag. I went outside and I felt them all before I even saw them. I was tackled from behind by arms.

"Geez, you've gotten uglier." Minho laughed.

"You're home! You're home! You're home!" Michael, Mike and Macy all shouted as they danced around. Alice just smiled at me, with Max's arm wrapped around her. Melody was standing next to Alice, not saying a word. I went up to her and just hugged her. I picked her up slightly, and hugged her tighter than before. I hadn't seen her in more than a month, I hadn't seen my best friend.

"I missed you." I whispered to her. I didn't give her a chance to reply before setting her down and releasing her from my wrapped arms.

"And that'll be a great video to hold against you both in a few years." Minho said. Both Melody and I turned redder than a tomato, but nether of us said anything, knowing that we would just make it worse. Max came up and hugged me too, before he announced that we should be on our way. He grabbed my suitcase and we all hurried out of the airport. We all went home and crowded in the kitchen, looking for food.

"I'll make pasta and salad, and after we all eat we'll go and watch a movie. The Reeds and Thomas are coming over too." Alice announced.

"Come one lets go." Melody told me as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me out the back door.

"To Ibaleterm?" I asked her.

"Where else?" She asked me, and that answered everything. We ran straight into our kingdom. Nether of us said a word as we walked down the path that I had made what seemed ages ago. I just looked around, remembering everything that had happened everywhere. How we had build everything and painted everything all my hand. All by the hand of fourteen year olds.

"I didn't even know how much I had missed this place." I told her once we reached our main treehouse, our castle.

"It's impossible not to miss this place." She told me.

"You still came here." I stated.

"How did you know?" She asked me.

"Minho told me he saw you running in here a few times." I told her honestly.

"I couldn't stay away for a full month, now could I?" Melody asked me.

"As soon as December passes, everything will be back to the way it was." I told her.

"Everything?" She asked me.

"Everything." I stated, but by the look on her face, I didn't say the right thing.

"We better go inside, they're probably all waiting." Melody said.

"It's only been like ten minutes." I insisted.

"How long does pasta take to make?" Melody asked.

"Like twenty to thirty minutes if you do it right." I told her.

"We can eat salad." She said.

"We're not going to just sit at table eating leaves until the pasta is done." I told her.

"Why not?" She insisted. This was pointless, completely pointless. She was making an argument out of nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.