Raleigh Burns bounded up the stairs of her best friend's parent's house. She'd been visiting them since the patriarch of the family had had open heart surgery a few weeks earlier. Since her best friend since about the fourth grade couldn't be home as much as he'd like, Raleigh took it upon herself to stay with his folks for a bit while his dad recuperated. Raleigh, or Rae as most people called her, had made the long trek to Ireland like she'd done so many times before. The first was when her parents had split and she'd pooled all her babysitting money and flown by herself at fourteen. She'd made the trip about twice a year since then.
She and Stephen had "met" in third grade when her class had done a pen pal project with a school in Ireland. It had only lasted a few months through the school year, but since Rae hadn't had anyone to talk to most of her childhood she had asked the teacher if she could keep writing to her pen pal. At first Stephen had been uninterested in keeping up his end of the pen pal situation, but Rae had sent so many letters, and they were so detailed with everything in her life. He soon felt protective of her, like she was his little sister. When she'd called him from the airport in Dublin at fourteen he couldn't wait to finally see her face to face. She'd been balled up in the lobby in tears, the idea of what she'd just done sinking in. His parents had obviously let her stay even though they had originally been mad as hell at the fact that this girl had just flown herself across the world. But once they heard about what was happening at home they couldn't help but feel they had to do something for her. She'd had to go back of course, but the friendship she'd made in Stephen had been cemented that week she was in Ireland. They had written every week since then, and when email came into popularity they talked even more. She learned about his trouble with high school and how he wanted to go into body building but his Mum insisted on getting an education first, and he learned how she'd had to call 911 for the tenth time in a year because her mother was passed out on some binge. Rae was never censored in what she told him, which scared him sometimes because his home life was so different than hers. Where Stephen had a loving supportive family, some might say boring even, Rae had raised herself. Her parent split was the culmination of a childhood of fighting and drugs. Her parents had had her young, being only nineteen and twenty. They'd spent most of the time living in L.A. moving from apartment to shelters to more small apartments. Sometimes Rae didn't think they even remembered having a daughter.
The best day of her life should have been when her dad said he was leaving. He'd gotten clean, he was working steadily. He made the decision to leave his drug addled wife because he knew it wasn't good for him. But at thirty three he didn't want a teenage daughter either. So he had packed up his things and left them. Because her mother, Carmen, didn't work it wasn't long till they were back on the streets. Rae managed to get them into a studio and she worked every day after school to pay the rent. Her mother was gone mostly, getting drugs and making money in ways that Rae didn't even want to imagine. She'd had friends from school but it was only when she sat down the write to Stephen, whether a real letter sitting in the tiny apartment or sending an email from the library, did she feel totally free and able to tell someone everything. Maybe it was because he was so far away, and part of her always thought they'd lose touch that she could be so honest. There was also the fact that as long as she was a minor her mother could be taken from her. If she told a friend at school the real story, they could tell a teacher and Rae might have ended up a ward of the state. She'd seen what happened to those girls and it wasn't any better than her situation growing up. Plus who would take care of Carmen? She'd never been a good mother, or a mother at all but she was still all Rae had for a family. So for the last twenty tumultuous years or so they'd been best friends via correspondence, with twice yearly visits. Stephen had pursued his body building dream and it had led a lucrative career with the WWE as a professional wrestler. He'd moved to Florida a few years back and Rae had relocated there as well. She spent most of her time juggling different waitressing jobs while taking care of her mom, but always made time to hang out with Stephen when he was home. He was her best friend, and always would be.
"Oh Rae, you always take those stairs three at a time, you're going to kill yourself one day!" Stephens dad yelled up from the living room but Rae was already in the guest bedroom putting some of her things back in her suitcases. She'd been staying at the Farrelly house for three weeks now helping his mom while his dad got over his surgery. It was the least she could have done after all they'd done for her. Stephen had been able to come home for the surgery itself but he really couldn't afford to stay home in his line of work. So Rae had come for a long visit. She'd left her mother in the care of a friend for a few weeks and sublet her apartment until she could return. She'd had to quit her waitressing job at a swanky new martini bar, but waitressing gigs in St. Augustine were a dime a dozen, so she wouldn't have trouble picking up another when she got back. She had been taking some classes at the local community college but they were all online so it she could take them from anywhere. She put the last of her bathroom things into the case and zipped it up. She had a return flight for that evening, she was sad to go but Stephens parents were set by themselves now, his dad was even returning to work in a few days.
"You know I'm really going to miss this place, I don't know how Stephen could ever have left." Rae exclaimed jumping back down the steps and taking a spot on the couch opposite his dad.
"Well you make hard decisions when you find what you love." His dad replied, eyes glossing over a little bit. Rae took that moment to head into the kitchen to finishing cleaning up from lunch. She knew that was a kind of hard subject for Ste's dad. He'd missed his son terribly since he'd been gone.
She came into the kitchen to find Ste's mom finishing up putting the dishes away and Rae quickly jumped in to help.
"Oh Dearie you don't have to do that, I've got to get used to cleaning myself now that you'll be leaving." The woman said looking at Rae lovingly.
"Well If you guys would only hire me on full time I could stay" Rae chimed in, a smile creeping on the older woman's face.
"Maybe when you and Stephen finally end up together, then I won't have to hire you on, you'll just be part of the family." She looked over with a wink. That was probably her number one wish for her son apart from success with his wrestling career, that he end up marrying Rae. It was nauseating to Rae since she looked at him like a brother, but his mom still held out hope.
"I'm already apart of the family duh, and that would be too weird, like marrying my brother." Rae said smirking as they put the last of the dishes away. It would be weird indeed.
The flight finally landed at Orlando International Airport at around 11:15am. Raleigh stood at the entrance of her terminal waiting on the taxi she'd called an hour ago. She couldn't help but notice an extremely leggy blonde being assisted into a limo. Must be nice she thought to herself, sitting on her luggage impatiently waiting on a ride. She could have taken Ste up on his offer to have a driver waiting for her, but she hated to spend his money. He'd bought her car a few months earlier and she'd felt forever in debt to him. She kind of wished she'd parked that car here now. Instead it was safely locked away in her garage back home. Finally the yellow cab pulled up in front of her, "Burns?" The man yelled from the window.
"Yes, that's me." She replied loading her things into the back of the cab. She jumped in and they were off, back to her tiny apartment in the center of town. She was never so happy to be seeing it.
The cab pulled up in front of her building and like all nice cab drivers, he sped off as soon as her things were out of his car. Would have been nice to help take them in, but there really aren't any gentlemen left Rae thought to herself as she walked up to the door. She'd called two days before leaving to let the sublet company know she was returning but she was nervous to see what kind of disarray her place was in. she was surprised to find the door already unlocked, and slowly turned the handle.