"Okay, so... someone once told me that writing down what's happened to me is a good way to get it all out of my head. Like therapy, without the expensive appointments and being asked 'and how do you feel about that?' countless times. Everyone here thinks it's a good way of keeping my thoughts straight. Because the way my life has gone, a straight line is the last thing I would describe it as. Anyone who knows me will know that I don't have the patience... or the time... to sit and write everything down. So I'm doing this instead. Telling you. See, it all started 12 years ago, when I stepped through an anomaly..."
12 Years ago
The cool breeze blowing through my hair was the first thing I noticed when I stepped out of my car at the Central Metropolitan University. No one was around at the moment as school doesn't start up again for another month the only reason that I was even here right now was because I was meeting up with my one and only friend Stephen Hart. I had recently been fired from my job that I've had since I was fourteen.
I had called him saying I needed to see him that what I had to say couldn't be explained over the phone as I would be in tears and he wouldn't be able to understand anything I was saying. He was confused and worried, I knew that he could hear the urgency in my voice so he told me he was at Nick Cutters office and to just go straight to the university.
Sighing, I closed the car door and locked it before I started making my way towards Professor Nick Cutters office.
Things use to be simpler when I was younger now everything that could go wrong for me does.
Shaking my head, I cleared the thoughts out of my head realising that I was now standing in front of the door to Cutters office.
Knocking on the door, I waited a few seconds before hearing someone moving around trying to get to the door. Suddenly the door opened revealing the one person I was coming to meet.
"Hey Stephen." I smiled, clutching my jacket around me.
Stephen smiled and opened the door more, allowing me to enter the room. Professor Cutters office was much like my own place; books were stacked up on top of chairs; there was paper everywhere, some on the floor, on his desk, on top of the stacks of book, there was even some in the bookshelf.
"Hey Lex, what's wrong? Your quieter than normal." I heard Stephen ask breaking me out of my thoughts. Sighing, I ran a hand through my long strawberry blonde hair. I had tied it up into a high ponytail but when it was loose it hung down to just above my waist.
"Sorry, just got things on my mind is all." I answered, turning around to face him. The thought of my sudden upcoming trip entered my mind. Stephen probably won't like the idea of me being out in the woods alone, he never had. That's the thing with Stephen, you get to know him and everything and then he starts worrying about everything you do.
Taking a deep breath, I finally started explaining why I wanted to meet him so urgently. My voice quivered a lot throughout the explanation and Stephen had to get me to stop and calm down before I had a panic attack before letting me continue on.
After the rushed explanation I was able to calm down. Slowly, I took some deep breaths and finally told him that I was going away for the last few months before my last year of Uni started up again. Hearing that, Stephen went crazy ask all sorts of questions like; why am I running away? Why can't I just stay at home or with him and work things out? Etc. I smiled at his concern for me and explained that I need to get away from all of the stress of study and work and find myself, figure out what I'm going to do now that I don't have a job.
Realising I was right, he calmed down a bit and told me that if I didn't text him every day or at least every second day that he would come looking for me. That made me laugh but I agreed anyway, just to put his mind at ease but also said that I was going to the forest that my parents and I had been going to since I was just a kid.
Looking at the time I realised I had been here for almost half of the day and I still needed to go home and grab everything I was taking with me on my impromptu camping trip.
"I better go. I still need to grab all of my things from home." I said, standing up from my seat.
"Thanks for listening to all that." I grinned shyly.
"No worries." Stephen waved as I left, heading back out to my car. The drive home was a good hour and I spent it lost in thoughts. I tried flicking through the radio but there was only talking, and I didn't feel much like listening to anything anyway.
Pulling up to my house, I smiled to see my parents' cars in the driveway. They probably wouldn't be happy with my idea, less happy than Stephen at least. Still, the thought of just staying home with nothing to do really wound me up. I felt like there was a rubber band in my chest, wound tight around my heart and ready to snap. I needed to get away from everything and everyone, just for a little while. Space to breathe and think was just what I needed.
"I'm home!" I shouted, pushing open the front door. The TV was on to some Coronation Street reruns and I could smell the cup of tea sitting on the coffee table. Mum was curled up in her recliner, glasses on, and reading a book more than watching the telly. No sign of Dad, but it wasn't unusual. They usually spent their afternoons apart. Mum liked reading indoors and Dad was always out mucking around with the old car in his shed. It'd been there longer than I'd been alive and he still hadn't driven it once. But it kept him out of trouble so Mum and I never said anything.
"Hello, honey," Mum called to me, smiling. I leaned over and kissed her head, swiping a biscuit from the plate on her lap. "Alexis!" she scolded, fondly shooing me away. "Did you have a good day, love?"
At that, I felt my mood drop again. "Um," I said, chewing on the biscuit to give me time to think. The cry I'd had with Stephen meant I wasn't going to burst into tears now, but it was a close thing. "Actually... no. Not really. It was... well, it was a little bit shit, frankly."
Mum's face fell into a look of sympathy. "You're not hurt, are you?" she asked, her eyes sweeping me up and down. "Or sick? Should I call someone? Stephen maybe?"
I huffed a laugh. "No, I've already seen him," I said, shaking my head. "I'm fine, physically. It's just... can I tell you both together? It'll be easier."
"Course you can," Mum said gently. She put her book down and the biscuit plate on top, before she was up on her feet. "Get yourself a cuppa, I'll get your father."
I wandered into the kitchen and the still hot kettle. I heard the back door slide open then Mum's voice bellowing down the garden; "HAROLD! COME INDOORS!"
A moment later, Dad's reply; "WHAT FOR?!"
"ALEXIS WANTS TO TALK TO US!"
I tried hard not to laugh, hearing Dad's tools drop to the concrete floor in the shed, and the back door close with a soft 'thud'. Mum came into the kitchen and Dad, his face smeared with grease and his dirty fingers shoved into his pockets, followed her a moment later. "Hello, pumpkin," Dad greeted me with a huge, beaming smile. I'd always loved my Dad's smiles; they crinkled up his eyes and showed his teeth, made him look years younger. He and Mum sat at the table while I sat across from them, wringing my hands and staring at my cup of tea as I spoke. I told them about the cut-backs at work, about how I was deemed 'unnecessary' and laid off for no other reason than budget concerns. How I wanted to get away, just until school started, so I could get rid of all this negative energy in my head and feel a bit more myself.
Mum and Dad swapped looks. Neither of them looked pleased with my decision but they trusted me enough to let me go. "You'll be in the Forest of Dean?" Dad asked.
"In the same place we camped every year," I nodded.
Mum's lips were a thin line. "And you'll call every day?"
"I will," I said, thinking that I'd be spending more time on the phone to her and Stephen than I would be spending elsewhere. "I'll come home if it snows but this late, I shouldn't think it will."
"What about food?" Dad asked, ever practical. "You can't carry enough up the track without making a dozen trips. Why don't I meet you in the car park once a week to restock?"
It was a good idea. And I knew it was his way of checking on me, making sure I was going to be alright. There was something in his tone that told me this wasn't a suggestion, so I nodded. "And Stephen's gonna be on call, he's on campus."
"He's a good boy," Mum said, with a smile. She loved Stephen almost as much as I did. Sometimes I think she'd have happily adopted him, if he had only needed it.
Mum helped me pack my bags. Dad helped me pack the car- he insisted on me taking the Landrover, instead of my little car. The roads in the Forest would still be pretty muddy so it made sense to take the four-wheel-drive. Both of them kissed my cheeks and hugged me tight for far too long before I hopped up into the driver's seat, and waved them goodbye until I couldn't see them anymore.