Free: A Jc Caylen Sequel

Chapter Thirty Two

I paid the cab driver and stood in the driveway while he drove off into the distance. I knew if Aunt Marsha knew I had taken a cab instead of calling her she would be beyond mad, I'd never hear the end of it. I walked toward the door slowly, dragging my feet across the pavement. I stopped in my tracks to look up at the sky. It was the perfect combination of pinks and oranges that only a sunset will give you. I glanced to the door, Marsha hadn't noticed I was home yet, I plopped down in the grass. Laying back and staring up at the sky, that was starting to add a bit of purple to the mix. 

"Skylar?" Aunt Marsha said startling me.

"Yes?" I said nervous that she had seen the cab.

"What are you doing out here? When did you get home?"

"Like a half an hour ago, Jenn and Andrea dropped me off." I lied.

"What are you doing?" she questioned again.

"Sit down and lay back, look up at the sky and take it in," I said pulling her arm in hopes that she would.

"Your mom used to love the sunsets, she always said the best part about being stuck in Franklin, Tennessee was when you could look up and forget you were there." She laughed. "You got your sense of adventure and wonder from her I can guarantee it."

"I like to think so," I said softly.

"But you definitely have your dad's sense of humor! Your mother couldn't take a joke for nothing! I remember once when they were dating your dad took post its and covered your moms room, every inch of the room with pink post its. She was so pissed! She didn't talk to him for two days and when she finally did it was only because she collected all of the post its and filled his car with them as payback." she laughed hard, I laughed too.

"Yeah I remember he taped the kitchen sink hose so it would spray her and she didn't talk to him for almost a week and the only reason she did was because he brought her home flowers!" I laughed remembering mom's face as she stood shirt soaked and face dripping in the middle of the kitchen yelling.

"Yeah they were something," she said softly wiping her eyes. I knew it was hard for her to talk about them, my parents had been together since high school, so Aunt Marsha had watched most of their relationship grow. She had always said that she had hoped to have something special like them one day, but she never did catch a man. Though dad always told her that art was her something special, mom said she knew that she wanted a someone deep down.

"I miss them," I said softly after a moment of silence.

"Me too," Marsha said grabbing my hand. "Noah too of course, boy could light up a room with a single laugh."

"Always," I laughed, thinking of his cheeky child laugh.

"Skylar, I think I need to tell you something."

"Yes?" I said confused, my heart starting to beat faster.

"I was offered a deal to do a pretty important gallery next week. It's something that I have wanted to do since I was a child, this will be an entire gallery of my work! People will walk through the doors and have no choice but to see what I can do!" Her eyes glew with excited as she spoke, "I have to fly to New York."

"I'm so happy for you! You will have a gallery all to yourself! This is everything you have been working for!" I said trying to mask my disappointment at the words New York.

"Sky, I have to leave for New York in the morning" she wiped her eyes again.

"Oh," I was at a loss for words.

"What do you want to do?" she said slowly, "I can buy you a plane ticket if there's somewhere you want to go, you're more than welcome to stay here alone."

"Marsha," I paused for a moment thinking about what I was going to say next and if I truly wanted to speak those words.

"Yes, baby whatever you want, where ever you want to go."

"I want to go home."

"Home?"

"I wanna go to Franklin."

"Are you sure you can handle that alone?" she said grabbing my hand again.

"I wanna see my family." I said as tears fell from my cheeks.

"I'll get you the next flight out."