Away With Him

02 - Flying Solo

I woke up to Hozier's gentle voice singing the opening bars of Take Me To Church. Don't judge me, I just need a quiet song to help me wake up. I reached out my arm and felt around until I found my phone and turned the alarm off. Ugh... I would consider myself a morning person usually but 4:30 was a bit too early, even for me. I rose from bed and slowly made my way across my room to the clothes I had left out last night. There was no use in opening the curtains because it was still pitch black outside. As I slid my phone into my sweat pants pocket I squinted my eyes and scanned the dark room one final time, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Content that I had everything, I left my bedroom and crept down the hall trying not to wake up my sisters. The quiet hum of the fridge was the only thing audible as I entered the kitchen. We didn't have much in terms of food so a granola bar would have to suffice until I got to the airport. I grabbed my keys from the counter and unlocked the front door.

"Are you ready to go?" my mother's voice came out of nowhere.

"Yeah," I answered, as my heart calmed down from the surprise. "I didn't expect you to be up." She raised her hand and pushed the door closed in front of me.

"Well I have to drive you to the airport," she stated matter of factly.

"I can drive myself," I protested. But she raised her eyebrows at me and that face told me that I was never going to win this argument. "Fine," I sighed in defeat, picking up my suitcase from beside the door and wheeling it outside to the car. I had desperately wanted to go for one last drive in my car. I wouldn't be able to drive in France because the driving age is 18. But I guess Mom just wanted to spend a bit more time with me. It was the right thing to do. As the car pulled out of the driveway I took one final look back. It would be a long time before I saw my house again.

The drive to the airport was only 20 minutes. There's not much traffic on the roads that early in the morning. Other than Mom asking me if I had packed everything, it was a silent car ride. It wasn't like I was going to say anything. I just wanted the drive to be over. When we arrived at the airport I wanted Mom to drop me off at the front but she insisted that she would park the car and walk with me into the terminal building.

"I can be independent. I can do things myself," I explained as we were walking away from the car. "I'm going to France by myself. Were you this protective over Sienna and Autumn?"

"I know that you'll be fine on the trip but that doesn't stop me from worrying," she uttered, with tears starting to form in her eyes. "You're going to be gone for four months so I want to spend as much time with you as possible before you leave." I stopped in my tracks and turned to face my mother. I let out a long exhale and hung my head. She was right, as much as I hated to admit it. I wrapped my arms around her and nuzzled my neck into her shoulder.

"Thank you for worrying about me and thank you for taking care of me," I whispered into her ear. We stood there for a few minutes in each others embrace all while we blocked the walkway towards the airport and other people had to walk around us. They grunted and tutted about us but we didn't care. I could hear fast footsteps approaching us and I looked over Mom's shoulder to see a man running full speed towards us. I pulled away from my mother and grabbed hold of my suitcase behind me and prepared to start walking again until I saw the face of the man sprinting at us.

"Dad!" I managed to say utterly shocked.

"I'm so glad I caught you before you left. I didn't think I would make it," he gasped as he bent over trying to catch his breath. Now we had made even more of a scene and people were giving us confused looks.

"Oh my God! I don't know what to say," I voiced with a huge smile on my face as I approached my father. I actually could not believe that he was standing in front of me. I had assumed that today would have been like so many other important events that he missed. But no. He was here. And I was thrilled. When he had caught his breath he turned to face me.