Blame it on September

Chapter 3 (Leila)

Finally the hour and a half car ride to the Philadelphia airport is finally over with. I can’t believe me and Annabelle are going all the way across the country to California. I’ve only been there once and it was so long ago I can barely remember a thing. Annie is up for leaving her precious car here in Philly while we’re miles away hopefully having the time of our lives.

I am worried about what our parents might say when they wake up and were missing. Will they file a missing child’s report? Because Annabelle is now eighteen and she is legally allowed to be on her own. And I would rather be with her than be with them. I would do anything to stay with my sister. And she would definitely do anything to keep me safe with her.

“We’re going to sleep in the car if that’s alright with you,” Annabelle said, finally breaking the silence that seemed to never end.

“I guess, but what’s the plan for when we get off of the plane?” We discussed this earlier, but I can’t remember I was half asleep. I remember we were going to stay in a hotel for a few nights, buts that was the only thing I can bring back to memory.

“We’re gonna get off the plane in Mountshire County and there is a nice small town called Cumberland Cove right outside of it. I already called and reserved us a room. I figured we would stay there a few nights, and then maybe we could buy an apartment?”

“An apartment? Are you crazy? Are you planning on taking a short vacation or living there? I have school in the fall, and as much as I would like to get out of that stupid town, I’m not ready to up and leave all the people I know,” I know I don’t really care about the people there, but I’m too stubborn to get up and leave everything I knew forever.

“If you don’t want to do this, I will take you back home. But I need to know now because the flight leaves in two hours, and I want to make sure I get back here on time. We have enough money to make it through the summer and most of fall if we use all of our savings. And since I quit my job at the diner, I would be applying for a job in Cumberland,” She did have a point, and the more I think about it, we could make it the rest of the summer at least.

“Okay, I’ll do it. Just promise me one thing,” I hope she is right about all of this, if not, we could be making the worst decision in the world.

“What?”

“If this doesn’t work out, we will never go back home, and we won’t give up on each other,”

“I could never give up on you. I will do everything to keep you safe,” I know she meant it, but I was still terrified of what could happen if we didn’t have enough money. I drifted off to sleep while listening to “Titanium by David Guetta featuring Sia.

***

“Wake up! I must have slept through my alarm! We only have thirty minutes!” Annabelle said jumping out of the car already getting the luggage out of the trunk and running towards the building. I jumped out following right behind her and took our carry-ons.

“You got my purse and my other brown bag right?” Annabelle said with a worried face.

“Yeah that’s all that was left,”

“Okay good. They have the tickets in them.” I was too out of breath from running inside so I just shook my head and caught up to her.

I stopped in the bathroom as Annabelle got our tickets checked and we started making our way to the bag checking area and everything was fine so we made our way to security where they checked our carry-ons. Luckily we made it to the gate with two minutes to spare.

We sat in our seats looked at each other and then laughed. Since we didn’t have time to freshen up before we went inside, we never combed our long blonde hair that was tangled, or put a coat of makeup on. Annabelle and I looked like complete zombies.