Overcome [n.m]

Twenty-Three

Visions of Nick and his beautiful necklace clouded my dreams. His warm hands touching my neck, his soft breath hovering over my shoulders, giving me goosebumps while his hands trailed up my thighs. I didn't know what was worse, having nightmares about Thomas, or Nick seducing me in my dreams. I loved seeing Nick in my dreams, but I would much rather have him here with me in person. I wanted to touch him, I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to feel his soft lips caress mine while we played with each other. I wish I would have taken more advantage of him last night and showed him what he really meant to me. After all, he is my boyfriend now.

The next morning, I woke up and packed some clothes for my trip back to Texas. Our flight was supposed to leave at four in the afternoon.

After I finished packing for a few days, I went downstairs and sat down with some cereal. "Have you made an appointment for my ankle yet?" I asked my mother when she walked through the kitchen rolling her suitcase. I realized that I was depending on her way too much.

"Yes, the doctor said he can see you Monday," she answered. We probably wouldn't be back this week regardless, so I guess Monday was good. The pain had subsided since the news of Thomas's death anyway. Addie came over and ate breakfast with me before she left for school. As hard as it was to type, I had already emailed my professors that I would be missing the rest of the week without going into too much detail, it was none of their business anyway.

Addie complimented me on my necklace and told me that he did a good job picking it out. She told me that she was so happy for me after finding out that Nick had asked me to be his girlfriend. Talking about Nick raised my mood a little. I texted Nick "Good morning."

He replied with a "Good morning" as well and wished me luck on my plane ride.

We got to the airport two hours early, only because Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport was pretty big. It took a minute to get through the TSA and find our gate. The airport back in Texas was a bit smaller.

We sat down at our gate and Bryce went to get us some snacks from the vending machine before we boarded. There was quite a bit of food places surrounding us, but nothing we wanted. I just wanted some snacks for the flight. The plane ride would only be around two hours and thirty minutes anyway. Just a few hours.

I remember one time, me and Thomas took an unexpected trip to the beach. We drove down to Florida and spent the weekend in the sun. It felt so good to stick our toes in the sand, to feel the saltiness in the air trickle on our faces. The tides were high, and the water was cold, but the hotness of the sun counteracted it perfectly. We were only seventeen at the time, but we went with Thomas's brother and his friends. The people we were with and Thomas's brother were in their twenties. We had a fun trip. We were so in love, of course this was back before things went south with the two of us; back before he died.

I can't quite pinpoint the exact time that things started to go south. I didn't want to think about it right now. Even though the plane ride was only a few hours, it felt like forever. I felt sad. I wanted to visit Texas again, but not under these circumstances.

We exited the plane and got a taxi to our hotel. The air in Texas was dry and stale compared to breezy in Atlanta. I checked my phone for new messages. I had a few from Addie. One read "Text me when you land," The other was the banquet schedule. Nick had sent me a few, I didn't feel up to holding a conversation with anyone, not even him. I messaged Addie and Nick that I had arrived and shut my phone off.

"Do you want to go visit Thomas's family tonight? Or would you just like to wait until the viewing tomorrow?" My mother asked me while we checked into our hotel.

"I think I'll just wait till tomorrow." I wanted to give them as much time to themselves as they could have. I knew in the back of my mind that a few of our close friends from high school would probably be there as well. I should've invited Addie.