who I thought you were // pickdaisy

1.

~Corinne~

It was a quarter 'til three, and my mom, Sasha, had us sit down for another family meeting. April, my sister, had just come home for summer break from Laguna college of art and design; she was studying and experimenting different mediums for her sculptures. I looked up to her immensely seeing as she was the reason that I started pottery, my most time-consuming hobby.

"Are you girls ready to listen or am I going to have to take away your phones," my mother interrupted my thoughts. As a woman in her mid-40's, she had blonde hair that hid the graying strands remarkably, as well as a small, athletic stature. She seemed ageless, the definition of grace, beauty, and warmth.

"Oh whatever. You can't take away my phone, I need it...for stuff?" April states more as a question.

"Stuff? The most you do on your phone is call or text Eric, with maybe the music streams you use for our drives." I said snickering. I was always a little sassy with her, it was our way of being... us. Although, I sometimes can't say anything bad about her. April was perhaps, if not definitely, the sweetest, most down to earth person I have ever met. Her boyfriend, Eric, was just as creative and perfect as she was.

April, like my mother, had the most beautiful combination of blonde hair and hazel eyes; however, my sister towered over mom and I, just shy of 5'9. She ended up getting her height from my father, whereas I got most everything else. I had darker, brown hair with green eyes, a spitting image of him. I was an average 5'6", just tall enough to ride the big kid rides at theme parks. My dad had lived out in Utah ever since I was 13, and I, now four years older and a not that much wiser, am packing up to go live with him.

He and mom use to work together building apartment complexes in the area, with her being a killer architect and him, well, liking to build models with legos. In all fairness, he was known to be the best contractor on the west coast. Well, until he wasn't on the west coast anymore.

My mother and father were a true workaholic couple, leaving their little free time outside the office with either April or I's various extracurricular activities. After they realized that neither of them were ever going to completely and entirely satisfied, which is hard for anyone like them to be, they thought it best to separate and focus on their individual careers. What I admired about them, however, was there support and love for each other. They did what they thought was right by them, by their family, and above all else, by each other. In fact, we have family calls every Monday night in order to keep track of whose building collapsed or which company had to stop construction from "absolutely horrendous" weather conditions. It was a show, but at the end of the day, it was family.

"Am I even really voluntarily going? What's the real reason that you're shipping me off?" I started, "Is it because you don't want me anymore? Because I can be a real hoot if you'd give me a second chance. Is it because there is a man? Am I getting a new stepdad? Because I'm not really in the mood for one at the moment." I went on and on sarcastically and, quite frankly, out of breath. I loved being an idiot to try and make her laugh, she really needed it sometimes. Because my time here was almost at an end, perhaps I needed a laugh, too. 

"Ha Ha, Corinne" She faked a dry laugh, "No, there is no man that you aren't privy too... yet" She said with a wink.

"Ew. Gross gross gross, Mom," I grimaced at the thought of some strange man standing where we were now. Looking over, I noticed April had the same face of disgust and discomfort.

"Oh grow up. Anyways, you know that your father needs help, and we both thought it would be a good idea for you to gain some business experience if you were to ever join either of our companies. More importantly, he would like to spend more time with you." She explained. I could tell by her voice that she was genuine and caring with each word said. I just wish I could tell if that's what he really wanted, or if she was just saying that.

"What if the Andrew Morgan decides I'm not up to par with his actual, qualified employees?" I shot back nervously. I didn't get spooked by many things, but failing or being a burden were definitely high on my list.

"Cor, you'll be fine. I don't think you know how much he truly loves you, how much both of us do. You won't be some burden to him, even if you can't do jack squat with power tools. I'm sure that he will find something for you to excel in. You always find a way anyways, so I don't understand why this is so stressful for you." She said, almost as if she knew exactly what I was feeling. She's always been my rock, along with my sister, helping me through my tougher moments. I really am going to miss them.

"Yeah tiny, we'll only be 6 hours away if you really need us." My sister chimed in with a smile, using her nickname for me to poke fun at my short stature.

"...and if all else fails, and you absolutely hate it there, we can take you back at the end of the Summer. This isn't some mission to make you miserable, just so you can gain new experiences." Mom comforted me with a hug and multiple kisses to my head, "Alright, enough sap, let's get these boxes out of your room and onto the truck!"

~

It was already 8:00, and the three of us had just finished dinner. Since it was my last family dinner for at least a couple months, mom had whipped out the big guns. My favorite: shepherd's pie, with lemon bars for dessert. As I sat there hunched over from the tireless day of planning, packing, and promising to call and/or write once every week, I began to say:

"Guys, I'm really gonna miss our dinners, and even our just dance parties with Eric. I'll miss my friends and Caleb, basically everything south of Thousand Oaks." I blubbered, just shy off tears falling.

Not even a second passed by, until I was held by both of my rocks, silently dreading tomorrow.