The Long Way Back

2.5 Reeve Wilmot

Someone's stupid phone is ringing. Who even makes phone calls this early in the morning? I mean seriously.

Someone groans in the living room but I'm still half asleep so I don't know who it is.

There's shuffling then someone says, "Hello?"

There's a pause then someone kicks me in the side and I yell, "Fuck!"

Carter pushes the phone into my hand, "It's for you."

Groggily I take the phone and mumble, "Yeah, who's this?"

I didn't even check the caller ID so I could just be talking to spam. "Reeve Francesca Wilmot!"

Of course, it's my mother. I sigh leaning my head deeper into wherever it is on, "Mom."

"Don't mom me. I've called you twice already. Why haven't you been answering? She shrieks from the other line.

My mom always calls, to make sure I'm eating, to make sure I'm sleeping, mostly to make sure I'm a functioning piece of society. "I was asleep. Sorry."

"Oh, well I have fantastic news for you! I just couldn't wait to call you." She pauses and there's shuffling on the other line. My mother and I have very different ideas of fantastic. "Aunt Peggy called. She got promoted!"

I roll my eyes, she called me for this. "I would have found out soon, can I go back to sleep now?"

"Reeve, she got promoted and her promotion makes her head of their France unit. She's moving to France. That's amazing." Mom squeals.

My heart rate picks up and a frown finds its place on my lips, "I'm not moving to France."

She laughs, "Of course you aren't silly."

I let out a breath of relief, "Well that's good. Toby might let me move back in, I'm never there anyways. Or I can stay with Ginny, her mom says I'm welcome to stay with them whenever. I even have a place in her closet there."

My mom sighs from her line and a ball of anxiety knots in my stomach, "Reeve."

Just the way she says my name lets me know this won't be good. "You're coming back home."

The tears well in my eyes, "No no no, I am home. This is my home. All my friends are here, my life is here, everything is here."

"This is your home, Reeve. You were born here, your family is here. Me, your mother, is here." She counters.

That causes rage to boil inside me, "Yet you never bothered to visit me. And I could care less where I was born. That town is full of a bunch of snobby people. I don't want to go back anyways. I'm staying here."

She sighs. My mother has never been one to lose her calm. Her voice is steady when she says, "I am your mother, you're not eighteen yet so you are coming back home. I've already paid for your plane ticket. You leave in two days."

Warm tears greet my lips like a long lost friend. I haven't cried in a long time. There's been nothing to cry about. I'm happy now.

I hang up the phone and let the sobs rack my body.

I can't go back.

I can't.

Mols takes my hand in hers, she woke up sometime during the conversation. She squeezes my hand and wipes the tears off my face, "We'll figure something out."