"Oh, c'mon mom, please let me take her with us! You let Michael and Sam take their most prized possessions, please please let me take Bonnie, I promise you that I will keep her clean and I will never, ever, leave her out in the way of the car." whined a young girl with deep chocolate brown hair that hung in soft, loose curls down her spine, her plump lips set into a deep pout as she half way lie upon a dirty purple and black motorcycle.
It was her absolute most prized possession, just like she had said, she so desperately did not wish to leave it behind in the move. Lord knew what her father and that awful woman would do with it once they were out of sight, she dreaded the thought and quickly shook it from her mind, her brown eyes looking up at her mother imploringly.
Lucy shook her head, a sad look marring her delicate features, she knew that the bike had sentimental value for her middle child, her only daughter, but they simply had no more room for it, not to mention she hadn't really enjoyed the fact that her little girl preferred to ride a motorcycle over a regular - not to mention, safe - bicycle.
"Celeste, sweetie, you know we don't have any more room. I'm so sorry, but we have to leave your bike here in Phoenix with your dad and Elizabeth," she hated more than anything to break her little girls heart, and it showed that she had done just that as soon as the first words slipped passed her light pink glossed lips.
"But, mom."
"I'm sorry, but we just can't, you'll have to leave your bike. I wish I could change it, but you know that I can't. Please, don't make this any more difficult for me than it already is?" her soft voice was dripping with sincere desperation for Celeste to understand what it was that she was saying, what she was trying to tell the teenager without having to actually use words that would just further hurt her daughter, as well as herself, in the long run.
Tears began their slow journey swelling between the young girls lids, her eyes already beginning to turn red from the strain of keeping those traitorous saltwater tears from leaking from her delicate eyes. Her breathing labored ever more as a sob broke out from betwixt her dark pink lips, her teeth coming out to clamp down upon the bottom petal.
Sam and Michael watched their mother and sister from the back of the car, both boys mirroring the other with one arm lain across the back of the seat, their heads turned and their un-matching eyes staring, the knew how hard it was for their mother to be saying these words to Celeste, and yet, they couldn't help but wish that the words were different than what they actually were. Hell, they even had begun feeling a little guilt, she was absolutely right, they got to bring their most prized possessions and yet, she wasn't able to bring her own, it wasn't fair to her and they both knew it deep within their beings.
Their hearts ached for her, out of everyone, it seemed that the divorce, as well as the move, was the hardest on her, next being Sam whom had had the same friends since he had first begun going to school, four years after the eldest of the Emerson siblings and two years after the only teen-aged girl in their entire family.
The tears only grew harder and harder to hold back as Celeste's eyes were fixated upon her bike, her feet felt as if they were being tied down with a ten ton weight shackled to her ankles, each step getting harder and harder on her delicate body, that bike, that stupid old bike, was more important to her and the entirety of her worldly possessions. Her father and her grandfather had found that thing for her, Michael had helped her fix it up so that it would actually run and her mother and Sam both helped her paint it the perfect shade of purple and the glossiest of blacks that they could possibly find. The entire family, even her grandmother, God rest her soul, had had a hand in bringing it back from the dead and now, now she had to leave it behind just because her father had been unable to keep it in his pants and cheated on her mother.
That wretched woman was now moving in, her belly swollen with the forbidden child procreated by her scandalous father and that damned floozy, Elizabeth, and they were forced to move out and away from their long time home in Phoenix, Arizona to her grandfather's old home in Santa Carla, California. It wasn't fair.
A deep sigh blew out from Lucy's lips, her golden head hanging low against her chest before she turned on her heal, following her middle child to the car jam packed with their belongings, she watched as the young girl dragged her feet against the ground, her own eyes unable to look away from her beloved motorbike before the were lost upon the Originator of their line as she ducked into the back seat with her brothers. The older woman couldn't blame her for not wishing to sit up in front, after all, she had just had her heart shattered to pieces with a few simple words.
As she finally climbed into the drivers seat, her slim fingers wrapping around the steering wheel until the skin across her knuckled pulled tightly across the bone, causing her very lightly tanned flesh to pale to a bone matching white, she let out yet another deep breathe before turning the ignition and setting out of her old driveway and off to live with her father miles away from where her heart laid. Her clear ocean blue eyes flickered from the never ending road in front of her, to her three children, both of her boys were on either side of her daughter, their arms wrapped tightly around one another in a show of support.
Celeste's warm chocolate brown eyes continued to leak saline, the occasional sniffle being the only noise, apart from Nanook's incessant panting, to cut through the silence like a knife through warmed butter; all three of her children had their heads pressed together, all of their lids closed and yet, she knew that they were still awake, it just appeared as though the were praying even though she knew that was the farthest thing from the truth.
It was hours before they stopped to use the restroom and to grab a few snacks and refreshing big gulps of their most favorite of beverages, Lucy being the only of the foursome with water and Celeste the only one with cherry lemonade, as well as making sure to potty Nanook and give him is own little metal bowl of water.
Finally, the young girls tears had dried and a smile had finally taken its place upon her tanned features as her and Michael jested with one another, both of them taking turns in throwing out silly little insults at one another that had very little meaning and were simply meant to make the other laugh or smile or simply shove playfully at the other. Eventually, Sam followed in their footsteps, slipping in his own little taunts before his two elder siblings shared a secretive look, causing Sam's eyes to widen in fear before being pounced on by the rambunctious duo. It brought a smile to Lucy's face to see her three children laughing and teasing each other, it made her believe, without a doubt that no matter what, her family would get through this. One way or another.