Love Hurts, Doesn't It? ✔️

Chapter 6

I was jolted awake when the wheels of the plane made impact with the runway and for a minute I felt dazed and confused but that was soon replaced with excitement.

We're here!

I couldn't help myself from jumping and turning in my seat, in less than an hour I was going to see my Nana! I've missed her so much I'm sure I would most likely cry once I see her.

No harm in that though!

I looked out the window and I could see the far stretch of my little hometown and a wave of nostalgia flooded right through me and it felt so good to be back home. My real home, I turned around in my seat to get Ian's reaction but the halfwit was still asleep.

"Aye, plonker! Wake the fuck up! We're here", I said while throwing my handkerchief in his face.

He jerked at that and looked around to find what hit him before giving me a chilling look. I just smiled sweetly at him before turning back in my seat just when he was about hitting me back with my handkerchief.

My mum was reading some romance novel throughout the entire flight and she put the book away when the plane was getting ready to stop.

I felt so giddy and restless while counting down the minutes till the plane would come to a halt and as soon as it did I wanted to jump over my dad so I could get my backpack from the over head compartment and dash out the plane but my dad grabbed me before I could even move.

"Whoa there tiger, relax okay? We still gotta go through checkout and airport officials remember?", I grunted at what he said and slumped back in my seat with a pout on my face.

It was then that I realized that they hadn't even given passengers the signal to get up so I guess I was a bit impatient, a few minutes later everyone got up and got their respective carry-ons and headed towards the main exit of the plane. The line looked like it was going to take forever but that was just me being restless.

Time flew by and the next thing I knew we'd gotten our bags from the baggage reclaim and we were headed towards the arrivals point where I saw a man, who looked to be a chauffeur, holding a tab with the name 'Matthews' on it.

I was almost convinced that there was another family called Matthews he was there to pick up until he started walking towards my dad and shook hands with him, before he directed us towards one of the exits of the Airport.

In my opinion I thought we were cabbing it to our family house but trust my dad to always want us riding in style, I mean we flew first class for Pete's sake.

As soon as we stepped out of the airport I was hit by the scorching rays of the Fresno sun, I had almost forgotten how hot the weather could get during the summer.

Sure enough Ian, being the baby he was, started grumbling about how hot it was and how it was going to mess up his perfect tan. I just rolled my eyes at him and tried to ignore his mumblings as we approached the car, we loaded our stuff in the amazing black SUV which Ian and I were totally drooling over and just like that we were on our way to my Grandparents.

I know I haven't mentioned much about my Grandad and it's not because I don't want to but because he isn't here with us anymore. Ever since he passed away a few years ago things haven't really been the same with our family, it was like a hole was left behind after his passing that no addition could ever fill.

I know he doesn't like talking about it but I believe one of the reasons my dad moved away was because of the death of his father, amongst all of us he took it hardest the most. It was the first time I ever saw my dad cry.

I looked over at him from where he was sitting in the passenger seat and he had on these thick dark sunglasses and his lips were tightly shut in a thin line while his hands were clenched into tight fists. It's really hard for him being back here which made me wonder why he decided for us to spend summer here if he wasn't ready to come back.

I looked away from him and just laid my head on Ian's shoulder who looked down at me wanting to know what's wrong but I just shook my head in response.

At that moment I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Reneé calling me, I felt Ian stiffen beneath my head and I knew he'd seen the caller ID so I silenced the call along with my phone and put it back in my pocket with a mental reminder to call her back once I got to the house.

"You should have answered her call, she's going to be really mad that you didn't", he said.

"I know", I simply replied looking up at him, giving him a reassuring smile.

Through the entire ride my mum was literally talking our ears off. She kept going on about her friend who had an accident the day before and how irresponsible she was to her complaining about how much weight Ian had lost to trying to convince all of us to put on sunblock so we won't get 'heat bites' which is what she calls sunburns. I had to politely remind her that we were all black and literally can't turn red like she would.

My mum is African-American, her dad was black and he was from Los Angeles CA and her mum was white and she was from Chicago Illinois, she took more to her moms complexion than all her siblings.

Though her parents are dead and I didn't get to know much about them, my mum made sure memories she had of them were passed on to Ian and I and from all the stories she told me, they sounded like they would've been pretty cool.

Time passed by and we were pulling into my Nana's house in Hoover, Fresno. I've always loved this neighborhood, it was one of the most quiet and calm neighborhoods in Fresno with the fact that it was away from the city and not to mention that the safety rate here is sixty percent higher than any neighborhood around.

Guaranteed Fresno has higher crime rates than all of California but it's still one of the cutest places to live in.

We parked in Nana's driveway and all I wanted to do was race through the front door and pounce on my Nana but I knew she beat me to it when I saw her walk out of the house as I was getting out of the car.

There standing at the front door of her house with her arms stretched out and a glowing smile on her face revealing her beautiful pearly whites was Mrs. Leah Eleanor Matthews.

I gasped upon seeing her and covered my mouth to stop the wails that were about to fall from my lips, on seeing that she also started tearing up and I ran into her arms careful not to tip her over or crush her in my tight embrace.

I hugged her like I was scared to let her go, my head was on her shoulder and I just let my tears run.

"I missed you so much", I whispered with a cracked voice.

She just rubbed my back in response in an effort to soothe me. I dug my head deeper into the crook of her neck and breathed in her familiar scent.

Lavender!

I smiled at that and I was thankful my favorite person hadn't changed one bit.

I broke away from the hug and looked at her face, it was covered in tears and her eyes were red from emotion which probably mirrored what I was looking like.

She lifted her frail hands to my face and started wiping at my tears, I chuckled at her and nuzzled my face into her warm and soft palms. I breathed a sigh of relief and content, this was home.

"Welcome home Mi Amor", she said, I just smiled at her and hugged her again.

I felt the presence of someone watching us so I opened my eyes and saw a boy who was about my age or older in the opposite house of ours staring directly at me through the upper window.

I lifted my head up from my Nana's shoulder and wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining things but before I could get a closer look at him, he disappeared behind the curtains and I was left wondering if I had just imagined it or that he was really there.

I shook it off when Ian called on me to help him with the bags and I settled on it being a figment of my imagination.

Boy was I wrong.