I'm woken up by the smell of plane food. I gag and cover my mouth with my hands. I look around, the windows are pulled up, we are flying on top of a bundle of clouds, I watch the plain as it swoops into a cloud, white streaks of fog like material engulfs the plane. I spent the next hours watching films, before we finally land in Amsterdam. We change planes and be for I know it, we are soaring in the sky again.
At around 5pm, the pilot informs us that we will be landing shortly. I look out my window to see my home town. I warm sensation of home fills my heart. I put my stuff in my bag and fasten my seat belt as we prepare for landing. I grip my seat tightly as we descend to the ground, we hit the road and I'm jerked forwards, banging my head against my tray table. Yay.
We get off the plane and the hot weather immediately hits my skin, we wait a while for our luggage, the minute we get out of baggage claim, I'm pulled into a deathly hug by my aunt Lucy.
"Oh my god! Rachel you grew so much! Wow you became so pretty! It's been so long!" I smile at her politely at her. I'm awkward around people I haven't seen in a while. Deal with it.
Aunt Lucy is my mother's sister, my dad is originally from Nevada, but he moved here with my mom and her family, although grandpa and grandma are both dead. We got their house after they passed, we still own it to this day. I follow my parents who are happily chatting away with aunt Lucy, talking about all the 'fun stuff' that has been happening since we were gone. I push my trolley, switching hands and fingers for fun.
I wonder why my friends aren't here. I wrote to them around a week ago and all of them left me on read. That weird. As aunt Lucy drives home, I take in my surrounding, carefully analyzing all the small differences from the memories engraved in my mind. We pass my school, I look intently, at the building. School starts on the 18th of August, in two days, two days to recover from the flight and to put my life back together.
We pull over, in front of our house, aunt Lucy had already rearranged our furniture and our brand new Volvo and white Mercedes are parked in the driveway. Mom and dad both have different jobs, they leave the house at 7 and usually come home late at night, leaving the house to myself for most of the days. I usually just went to the gym and trained, now, I would have to join a new team.
At home, I go to my room, it looks exactly the same since I left, same posters and same wall colors. I cringe at my lack of taste. First thing I do, is take a shower because, well, god I need it. Then I rip my posters off the light blue walls and start to throw my old useless stuff in a plastic bag. I go downstairs to find my parents still chatting away with my aunt.
"Hey sweetie, we are going to have dinner with your aunt next Sunday." My mothers softly tells me, she must be tired.
"Oh okay, hey I'm going to throw these away, I was wondering if I could go for a run afterwards?" I hold up the bag. My mom nods.
"You run?" The suprise is obvious I'm my aunts voice, I don't blaim her, the last time she saw me I would have rather eaten dirt than do any physical exercise. Don't get me wrong, I still love watching Netflix and eating a year worth of McDonald's food, it's just that sport has also become a big part of my life.
"Yeah, Rachel has started to do sport, she is currently a brown belt in kickboxing." I hear the proudness of my father as I go out of the house. I throw the rubbish away, put on my hoodie, AirPods and start jogging, slowly increasing my speed as I push myself forward. I stare at my feet as I crash into someone, falling on the ground.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I look up at a girl, she has soft green eyes, brown hair and rosy cheeks.
"Don't worry, it's my fault really." I mumble, she smiles at me.
"Are you new here, I don't think I've ever saw you."
"Yeah, well actually not really. I used to live here, but my family moved away 2 years ago." I explain, "and now we're back."
"Oh cool, I'm Sasha." She holds out her hand and I shake it. We smile at each other.
"I'm Rachel."
"Cool, hey what school are you going to." I grin.
"Crestview high" she laughs, of course, every one in this area goes to Crestview high.
"Me too, we should meet up. You seem nice, there aren't a lot of nice people around here anymore." She sighs lost in thought.
"Sure thing." We quickly exchange numbers and head our own ways.
I decide to head home, as I start to feel jet lagged. I look at my phone, it's 19:45, so technically my body thinks it's 4:45am. I enter from the back door, making sure not to make a sound, just in case my parents are sleeping, instead I hear hushed tones, I turn to see my dad on the phone.
"Yes, of course, yeah I'll be there," he chuckles "okay love you too." He hangs up and turns around seeing me stand there.
"Oh hey kiddo, was just talking to mom, she went grocery shopping." I stare at him.
"Oh okay, I'm kind of tired, could I just go to bed?"
"Of course." I hug him good night and make my way to the bed, ignoring the fact that I had just seen mom with aunt Lucy at the park.
YOU ARE READING
no matter what, no matter where
Romance"Don't ever try to get inside my head," he snarls, slamming me against the wall. For several beats we stayed there, his grip crushing my wrists. Finally, his mismatched eyes softened. "It's too dark for you." Rachel O'Connell is a 17 year old senio...
