Junebug - (On Hold)

Ch. 1 - The Promotion

The ring of the bell was sweet music to my ears. It's about time, I thought to myself. This year had sucked. My mom has been so busy with her work at the advertising agency that she has barely had any time to spend with me, mix that with the fact that my best friend moved away last summer and all my older brothers are away at college and you get a pretty lonely year. I grew up with three older brothers constantly pestering me, so once Finn left for college the house began to feel pretty empty. But, now it is summertime, and my mom has promised to take a bunch of time off to make up for all the evenings I had to spend alone while she worked overtime these last few months. We are finally going to have the chance to have some quality girl time now that we don't have a bunch of guys we have to watch out for. I mean, yeah, I'm their little sister, but let's be honest here...some dudes need all the help they can get.

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I was sitting on the couch, watching a movie and attempting to twist my hair up into braids, when mom got home from work. I tried to untangle my fingers from the knots I inevitably tied my hair into so I could go find her. How do girls do this? Alexander has always been the one to braid my hair if I needed it. For such a big guy, he has got some pretty nimble fingers. I heard the jingle of mom's keys as she set them on the counter and rushed into the kitchen to greet her.

"Hey Mama! I am finally free from that prison for a couple of months. Hallelujah! I am so excited for our summer plans! I was thinking of getting my hair cut this summer. That way if I ever think about braiding it I won't even be able to which would be good because we all know how bad I am at it. Remember that time I tried to braid my hair and knotted it so bad that Miles just chopped a bunch off? Oh man that was horrible. You were mad. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah! Our super spectacular summer of daughter-mother bonding time. We are going to have so. Much. Fun. Anyway, how was your -"

The look on her face cut me out of my excited ramblings. Probably a good thing since I hadn't taken a breath for a good three minutes. It was easy to tell she had something to say, and I probably wasn't going to like it. Well crap.

"Hi sweetheart. I'm glad your last day went so well, but I do have some news."

Uh oh. News never meant anything good. News meant daddy is sick in the hospital. News meant Auntie Hilda got laid off and is coming to live with us for a couple months. News meant Finn broke his ankle at baseball practice. News meant dad isn't ever coming home.

Mom must have realized the panic I was feeling because she immediately began to backtrack.

"No, no, no. Juniper, this is good news. Well, mostly good news. I got offered a promotion! I've always wanted to get a higher position at the agency, you know that, and this is finally my chance. But, in order to secure it I have to go on a little business trip."

The relief I felt in that moment was almost overwhelming. Nobody is hurt, everything is fine, mom is just going to have to go away for a couple of days.

"I will have to leave in a day or two, and I won't get back until sometime in early September."

Oh. That is more than a couple of days.

"But what about all of our plans? Our super spectacular mother-daughter bonding experience? Remember that, mom? I made a name for it and everything. You promised!"

As soon as it was out of my mouth I realized how unfair it was of me to get upset with her. This was her shot at her dream job, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't need the money. Still though, I felt like the one good thing I had been looking forward to during this crap year was being ripped away.

"I know. I am so sorry Juniper, but I feel like if I let this promotion slip I may regret it for the rest of my life. Besides, this means you get to spend all summer at the boy's apartment! I know how much you have been missing them, especially since Finn graduated. It'll be good for you all to get in a little sibling bonding time."

I just shrugged at her words. I had been missing my brothers, and I hadn't even gotten the chance to visit their new apartment yet. All of them go to the same university, so they all pitch in rent and share an apartment near campus. I can't imagine what it looks like in there, probably like a pig sty. Probably smells like one too.

Resigned to my fate, I made my way upstairs so I could pack for the months that stretched ahead of me. Turns out this summer was going to be a little bit different than I planned.