VIRAGO

absquatulate

absquatulate (v.) - to leave somewhere abruptly

"Why won't your dad let you stay with me? My parents wouldn't mind." Becca asked her one last time as they packed the last box into the moving truck. She gave a sigh as she pulled down the hatch, looking to her best friend with sad eyes.

"You know my dad. He's gotta have eyes on me at all times otherwise I'm up to no good." She told her, and they both sighed, giving each other one last hug before she got into her car to follow the moving truck to make the almost three hour drive up to the small town of Harbor Beach, Michigan.

"Text me when you guys make it up there, alright? Don't be a stranger. I know you're almost two-hundred miles away but I'd be there in a heartbeat." She said, squeezing her tight.

"Love you Bec." She responded, kissing her on the cheek as her father laid on the horn, trying to get her moving. She gave a wave as she got into her car, starting it up and connecting her phone. She had already been up there a couple times to check out the house, so she had an idea where to go, but she set up Apple Maps so she could get around her father and be the speed demon she was all the way up there. She took one last look at her childhood home as she pulled out of the driveway, sighing as she drove away from the years of memories that would be there forever.

Two hours and forty-five minutes passed and she heard Siri chime 'you have arrived' throughout the sound system in her car. She already had a set of keys, and she knew her father and brother were a good ten to twenty minutes behind her, so she went right ahead inside to wait. Luckily they were moving before school school, so her older brother Jason was driving her father's truck with one of his roommates following to take him back to their apartment. They both went to Michigan State University, and they did not go back until August. It was nice to have the extra manpower to help unload. She was still upset about moving, for she was supposed to be spending her senior year with her best friends and playing the sport she loved most - soccer. She had been playing since she was five, and she picked up goalkeeping when she started playing travel soccer when she was twelve. Now she would have to find a new team for the fall and do tryouts in the spring for the girl's soccer team at Harbor Beach High School, home of the Pirates. She would have to make new friends, hope she still had her Division I offers, and ride out her final year of high school.

As predicted, twenty minutes later she saw the U-Haul back into the driveway. She propped the front door open and opened the garage with the opener by the back door. Their new home was about the same size as their previous one, just out in the middle of a cornfield instead of next to other houses. Their closest neighbor was an acre away. Her father got a once in a lifetime job heading the DOW Plant, paying him almost forty dollars an hour. She did not blame him for taking the job - she would love to be getting paid forty an hour to sit in an office and just make sure everything was working properly.

After hours of unloading and putting things away in the main rooms, they all sat on the couch in the air conditioning, chugging water and relieved they were done. She was in charge of her own room, so her boxes were all still sitting in the middle of her floor.

"Thanks for your help Dylan. We really appreciate it." Her father told Jason's roommate, and he shrugged.

"Not a problem Mr. Reed. Hope you're paying me with a case of beer." He responded with a chuckle.

"Deal." Clarke answered, handing him a fifty dollar bill. "Buy a few but be smart."

"Thanks pops. We're gonna get going though because someone has to work tomorrow." Jason groaned, looking at Dylan with a disappointing look in his eye.

"Oh not a problem. We appreciate the help. You gonna make it up one last time before you're back in school?" He asked as Dylan and Jason grabbed their stuff.