Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize from the book is mine.

Alone

I don't know what on Earth possessed me to do what I did. It was stupid, but I was feeling lonely and sad. I'd always felt a slight sense of abandonment (my mother had sent me to live with her psychiatrist, after all), but it had gotten worse since Bookman had vanished. It was as if the feeling of abandonment had taken a life of it's own since I'd last seen Neil Bookman, and now it refused to stop growing. It was probably this - the feeling of abandonment intertwined with sadness and loneliness - that had caused my phone call earlier that day. I felt as if I had nobody - my mother was crazy, Hope was working, I didn't know where Natalie was, and I wasn't about to talk to Dr. Finch. I was utterly alone.

All of a sudden I heard the front door open and then bang shut. Natalie entered the living room, wearing her McDonalds uniform. She plopped down on the couch next to me and asked,

"What's the matter with you?"

"I called my father," I offered as an explanation for my long face.

"Oh," Natalie paused, "What happened?"

"The usual," I replied, "He didn't accept my collect call."

"That sucks," Natalie remarked bluntly. She looked unsure of what to say. The sympathy department was definitely not Natalie's forte; god help us all if she ever ended up working for Hallmark.

The two of us sat in silence for a few moments. It wasn't so much an awkward silence as much as simply a lull in our conversation. Natalie and I didn't have awkward silences.

"Augusten?" Natalie spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Fuck this," she continued, "Forget about your lame ass father. Let's take a trip."

"What?"

"You heard me: let's go somewhere. You're depressed, and I hate this crazy house. We both need a change of scenery, and I've got some money saved."

"Okay," I said slowly, open to the possibility, "Where should we go?"

"I don't know yet," she replied, "but my father's got some travel guides lying around somewhere. C'mon, we'll find someplace nice."

I followed her, and reflected on the fact that the girl whom I had initially distrusted so much was now my best friend and could cheer my up better than any member of my biological family could. Perhaps I wasn't quite as alone as I had had thought I was.