Synonym

Chapter 47

I sighed in frustration while leaning back on the hard wood floor in our bedroom. The chill of the wood bled through my T-shirt and up my back, providing comfort to my stressed out mind. I'd much rather be cold than hot. It was immensely less miserable.

I closed my eyes, allowing the silence of the atmosphere to enter my brain in an attempt to relax myself. Emma had gone home for summer leaving me without any girlfriends. Kelsey was back in California with her family and Al was in Connecticut. Sam and her had made the journey from the Baltimore airport last week. Even Owen was taking two weeks to visit his family in Boston before returning to DC. By the time he came back, we would be gone. As a result, I had been left to the confines of Jason and Finn, much like the first few months we spent in Maryland.

One would think that summer break brought on fun and carefree days but that would be grossly misleading for someone in my situation. On the contrary, I was even more agitated.

"What are you doing?" My boyfriend asked upon walking into the bedroom to see me m laying on the floor with my legs sprawled around a suitcase. I recognized that tone, that was the 'What is hell wrong with my girlfriend?' tone. I was quite aquatinted with it actually. Could you believe that I'm not normal?

Neither could I.

"Dying of stress, so if you could please leave me to pass in peace, the would be much appreciated."

"Dramatic much?"

"Nah. Just the right touch of reality in there."

"Get up. We need to go over everything we have packed." Finn said in a definite tone. I groaned but none the less, opened my eyes to take his hand. He easily pulled me up off the hardwood floor and walked into the kitchen. Packing for two months in a foreign country was usually stressful, tack on all the extra gear we were required to bring and that makes it even more stressful.

I plopped myself up on the counter, picking up the list of things we needed off the marble beside me. Tomorrow we had an early flight from DC to NYC. Most things on the list our coach had handed out were checked off. That included all of our equipment which the teams were shipping with other essential things. The lacrosse team was going down two months early to practice. Why? I don't know but it was required. Both of my D-poles and my regular sticks were shipped with all of the balls, spare netting, spare shafts, and so on yesterday. Starters got two sticks, backups got one, and defensive players with D-Poles got three.

Better to be safe than sorry at the Olympics was Coach's motto.

I couldn't argue with being over prepared.

We had been given huge duffle bags, almost the size of me, for our gear. On top of my pads, backup pads, and two helmets, I managed to squeeze in all three practice uniforms and two game uniforms. Everything for the games had to be brand new, hence the need for two helmets. God forbid there was a scratch on it before the first game.

Note the sarcasm.

Oh, don't forget the ungodly amount of cleats. Three pairs per player. For two months. Are we supposed to go through a pair of shoes every two and a half weeks?

Although it must be said that it did make my life a lot easier. I didn't have to worry about multiple suitcases since the team was taking care of all that stuff. Practice times had been moved to the daytime because no one had jobs to work in Tokyo meaning I didn't need that many clothes. Only a few outfits for daytime, two nice outfits, a windbreaker, and a sweatshirt. It made my life very easy actually.

But leave it to me to still stress the fuck out.

Finn plucked the list from the counter after I put it back down. I'd only briefly scanned over it because I honestly didn't want to think about it. Traveling was always a mess. But, I couldn't really procrastinate anymore.