✔︎ | Part of Me (Trilogy)

38 | coming home

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38 | coming home

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My brother is the first to move to Seattle. Mom still has to work until the end of August, so she and Dad are still back in Cali, and Jamie and I, as well as Gabby, Tasha and Jem are helping Will move. Jamie and Will are the only one's really doing any work. The rest of us are just way too excited to do anything but sit around and wait, or unpackaged a few dishes and watch out for Will's toddlers. 

Today isn't just moving day. It's already July, and Axel gets released today. 

I asked everyone if they'd mind if I went alone to pick him up, and to my surprise, nobody, not even Jem, argued with me. So I get to be the first to see him, to hold him, to kiss him — although I better be the only one doing the last one. 

"Earth to Avi," Tasha says, snapping her fingers in front of my face. 

I glance at her in confusion. 

Gabby chuckles. "Someone was in a daze," she teases. "You thinking about what you're gonna do to your boyfriend when you guys get back home?"

Tasha snickers too, winking, and I shush them both cautiously, in case Jem watching Netflix with the girls on my laptop is listening. I do not need her questioning me about what I do with her brother. She's six, for God's sake. 

"What were we talking about?" I ask the girls again, sighing, brushing my hair away from my face and pretending I wasn't totally just thinking about what Gabby accused me of. 

"Coffee," Tasha says, "Will asked if we could grab he and Jamie one as they set up the furniture in here to get the girls away. You can grab one for Axel too. You're picking him up in a half hour, girl. Or have you lost track of time?" 

"Oh trust me," I say, standing up. "I have not forgotten. I've literally been counting down the seconds." 

"I'm excited to see Ax," Jem tells me, standing at my side. "Do you think he has changed?"

I shrug. "I don't know hunny, I guess we'll just have to wait to see," I tell her, squeezing her cheek, but her question worries me. What if Axel has changed while in prison? I mean, prison isn't fun for anyone, and if the situation was really bad for Axel, maybe it did something to him. Maybe he did change. I wouldn't know, because they never gave him visitation hours, which led me to calling and angrily yelling at some officials, but it changed nothing. 

Tasha notices that I'm thinking about it, and rubs my arm. "He'll still be Axel," she tells Jem and I, "probably with a beard." She laughs, slapping my arm, reminding me of the time Axel was still alone in Seattle and had grown a beard, and I said I didn't like it, and Tasha called him a hot criminal. I guess there's a lot of truth to that now. "I bet you ten bucks he grew a beard."