Across the Pond

Chapter 53

The girls and I are back in America; so far, it feels no different. We walk slowly towards the ate where we'll meet our families. I spot Kira hanging into the gate and as soon as she sees me, she starts jumping up and down, squealing. Te biggest, genuine smile overrides my sadness and I start to job towards the gate.

As soon as I make it through the little pathway, Kira jumps into my arms, closely followed by my parents, Liz, and Brandon.

"Oh my God, you have no idea how much I've missed you!" Liz squeals.

"I've missed you more!" I shriek.

"Woah, was that an accent? Did you become British while you were there?!" she asks excitedly.

"No.. maybe a few words or phrases, but I'm still me". She hugs me again and I find so much comfort in her embrace, I never want to let go.

"Ah, it's so nice to touch you again. Like, you're still real" she laughs, verbalizing what I was just thinking.

I hug Katie, Lexi, and Amanda one last time before we each leave with our families. "Love you girls, see you next week" Amanda chimes and rejoins her family and boyfriend.

Brandon takes some of my bags for me and I hold Kira's hand on our way out. "What are you doing out of school little missy?" I ruffle her hair.

"It's a holiday. We all had off" she beams.

"And what holiday would that be?"

"My sissy's return from across the pond!" she giggles and hugs me sideways. I just chuckle and hug her back. "Hey, Tori, where is Harry anyways"

I freeze for a second, then keep walking, "Umm... he's not here." The sadness is starting to claw it's way into me again.

"Well when is he coming? He'll be here for your graduation, right?" She is so innocent, so naive, so simple.

"No-- no, he's not coming, Kira." Mom gives me a confused look but just let's it blow off for now.

On the way back home, I watch out the window to see how much has changed since I've been gone. Not much, really just a lot of the trees are overgrown and there are a few new buildings near the neighborhood.

I grab my last bag from the trunk and struggle to get the top down. I finally get it and when I turn around, I see my neighbor jogging over to me. "Tori! You're back!" he hugs me tight.

"Hey, Dimitre. How are you?" my tone is relatively flat but he nods enthusiastically.

"Good, good. You? How was your trip? It's been weird not seeing you around for so long."

How was my trip? oh you mean aside from falling in love with a completely unattainable, yet incredible attractive guy who never actually loved me, getting my heart shredded, while running an entire 6th grade class basically on my own and trying to keep up a social life? Fantastic!

I just go with the terse and rehearsed answer for now, "Great! Yea, I learned a lot." I better get used to having to answer this question a million times in the next couple of weeks.

"I gotta go. I'm really tired from the trip and I have a lot of unpacking to do." I try to end this conversation because I really can't deal with people right now.

"Okay! See you around" he crips and gives me another quick hug before heading back to his house next door.

Don't get me wrong, Dimitre is a great friend; we've been close since middle school. He's a couple of years younger than I, but we still always had so much fun together-- and with his younger sister too.