Chapter Thirteen: On Her Way Back
"Well?" Anne demanded.
"Well what?" Sonia demanded. "You don't think I'm going back, do you?"
"Uh," Anne said. "Yeah."
Sonia sighed. She could see that Anne had no intention of making this easy. "You go back to Tulsa this instant."
"Not without you."
"I'll come. In about two weeks."
Anne's eyes bugged. "Two weeks?" she shrieked. "That's too late!"
"That's the earliest I can come, if you're here to bring me back permanently," Sonia said acidly.
"I am. But why?"
"I have to get my stuff in order. Transcripts, quit my job, tell the social workers, etcetera and so forth. Oh yeah, and beg Seamus and Hannah to take me back."
Anne huffed. "Call them now," she urged.
"That's a good idea," Sonia said. "They don't know where you are, do they?"
"Sure they do," Anne lied through her teeth. "No need to mention me."
Sonia smirked at Anne, already dialing. "What do you think I am, stupid? They wouldn't have let you come up here by yourself."
Damn, Anne thought as Sonia called her house. She leapt forward and, grabbing the phone from Sonia's hand, clanged it down on the receiver.
"On second thought," she said hurriedly, "let's surprise them."
"I'll have to come back if I go with you now," Sonia reminded her. "To—"
"Yeah, yeah," Anne said. "Let's go."
"That's going to be a lot more difficult than if I just come in a couple of weeks."
"Yeah, I know," Anne said, ignoring Sonia's pointed tone. "Let's go. The bus leaves in ten minutes."
"Wait for me to get my stuff!" Sonia exclaimed, wringing free of Anne's urging hand pulling her towards the door.
Anne fidgeted impatiently as Sonia threw a few clothes into a bag and called in sick. "Can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered once they were on the bus. "How I got talked into this…lost my feeble mind…"
Anne ignored her and settled back to stare out the window at the countryside whipping by as they left the city way behind. She was glad she had persuaded Sonia to come. Admittedly, it had been easier than she had thought.
It's really not fair to Sonia, she thought. Dragging her back and forth like this.
And it wasn't, really. But Anne didn't think she could stand another minute of Ponyboy talking about how miserable Soda was. She liked Ponyboy and all, but she was sick of listening to him harp.
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Eh. Just a chapter to get back into writing this story, after all this time.