“Yes, Willow. I’m sure. It’s easier this way,” I admitted. I guess she didn’t have much to say after that because she ended the call. I rested my head against the back of the couch and thought about where the past two months have led me.
“You know running away from your problems never solves anything. They only catch up to you later.” My godmother and my aunt’s best friend, Karen, had come into the living room to sit next to me after I hung up with Willow. “I’m sorry I eavesdropped but I couldn’t help but overhear. It sounds to me as if you have people who care about you back home. Are you sure you want to give that up?”
“I don’t think I’m giving it up Aunt Karen. I’m just giving it a break.”
After hearing the news about my parents, I woke up in a hospital for the third time in my life. Apparently I passed out cold from shock and dehydration. They called it a mental meltdown. My aunt didn’t say any more about what I’d heard and I didn’t ask. I wasn’t ready to know what happened.
After the doctor cleared me to go home I started having a panic attack all over again. All I kept thinking was how I couldn’t go back and so my aunt and I came to an agreement that I needed a vacation. We were able to finagle a doctor’s note excusing me from school for a few days. My aunt called up Karen who agreed to watch over me. It was only supposed to be for a few days but every time I thought about going home my anxiety rose.
Keiran had finally done what I think he was always trying to do. He ran me away from home and everyone I loved. He could have Six Forks and the school but he couldn’t have my sanity.
“Well if you ask me I think this boy deserves the kissing end of my nine up his ass.”
“Aunt Karen!”
“Hmmp! What ever happened to the days when a boy simply bought a girl flowers and if she was really special he’d buy her candy before sex too?”
“I think it died in the seventies,” I laughed.
“Shame.”
I’d told Aunt Karen all about Keiran and me the first night I was here. I felt guilty for confiding in her and not my aunt but it just all came out. I knew sooner or later I would have to tell her. It wasn’t fair for her to not know anymore. She took me in when I wouldn’t have had anybody. I owed her so much and I would start by giving her my honesty.
“Have you talked to Carissa yet?”
“No, not yet. I just need some time.”
“Time doesn’t wait for anyone Lake, remember that.”
We sat and talked for hours and before I knew it, night had fallen. Aunt Karen left to go make dinner and as I was watching TV the door opened and Uncle Ben, my godfather, walked in.
“Hey, Lake. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
I laughed. “No, Uncle Bennie. I’m not eight anymore but I do think it’s past yours.” He chuckled and ruffled my hair before rushing off to find his wife. When he entered the kitchen, I heard her giggle like a schoolgirl with a crush and the unmistakable sound of heavy kissing. I always thought they were the most romantic couple I’d ever known.
The three of them had been best friends since college. It had been love at first sight and they have been happily married since their senior year. Their only bad time was when Aunt Karen suffered two miscarriages before her body and the couple gave up on trying. It broke Aunt Karen’s heart that she couldn’t give him the children they always talked about but Uncle Ben said she was all he ever needed. It’s been five years since her last miscarriage and now they were talking about adopting.
I guess happily ever after was only meant for a few.
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