.oO Home Oo.
"Oh, darling! You are the most precious thing I have ever seen!" Renee says as she smothers me in what would be a bone crushing grip. I pull away and see the questions that burn in her eyes. She knows better than to ask.
"Did you like your trip?" Charlie said hugging me with more caution. Of course he tried to keep the questions out of his mind altogether, but the way his eye brows furrowed the tiniest bit every time he saw me was impossible to disregard. He tried so hard to remain ignorant, he didn't want to know.
"Yes, it was a lot of fun and I got to learn a lot!" Was that how a fifteen year old sounded? I was trying to pass for fifteen.
I spent the next couple of hours in Charlie's home, telling him and Renee about the parts they had missed out on. Speaking was a bit overrated in my opinion, it felt almost unnatural for me to use my voice, but it was necessary.
"Oh, and Ben let me see the inside of the pyramids and tombs!" I let slip in my excitement.
"Inside?" Charlie said raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, that must have cost a fortune." Renee said turning to my mom and dad. Dad shrugged his shoulders casually.
"Ben doesn't care much for money." He said, probably in response to Renee's assumptions of Ben being a tour guide. "But even if he had asked for pay, we would have in a heart beat."
"Edward spoils her like she was his own." My mom said with a smile and placed a gentle hand on his leg.
Finally, it came down to distributing gifts, and that was another hour.
"Gee, thanks Ness." Charlie said after I handed him an unnamed object.
"It's a coconut pot from Indonesia." I flashed a huge smile with closed eyes. I had developed this smile for them, in my attempts not to dazzle them to oblivion. "You can use it as a cookie jar or decoration."
"It's lovely Carlie." Renee knew how mom felt about Nessie and she adored my middle name.
"Yours is a coconut turtle box, but you can use it like a cookie jar too if you want." I said handing her hers.
"Gosh, I am going to have to mail some of this back home, I don't think it will all fit in my suit case." Renee said glancing around at everything we had brought back for her. It only took one suit case. One, large suit case.
"Oh, and this," I said plucking a pile of assorted clothes. "-is for Sue." I said handing it to Charlie.
"Thanks." He said, a bit overwhelmed I had picked up the pile with such ease. Of course, even a normal teenager could handle such a load of clothing, so I hoped it wasn't too surprising. I took an equally large pile and handed it to Renee, but almost hesitated my movements when I saw the subtle sour look on her face.
"They are from all the different countries." I began watching her eye the pile of clothes in Charlie's hands. "Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Iran, Cambodia, Korea..." I feigned forgetting what other places the shirts were from. "I tried to get the native wear, so they aren't t-shirts, they are what the indigenous people actually wear."
"Thank you so much sweetie." Renee said hugging her pile.
"I'm sure Sue will appreciate them." Charlie said placing the pile gently on the couch. He glanced out the window and checked his wrist watch. "You guys must be exhausted." Charlie said, his tone suggesting other wise. Still, my parents stretched and falsely suggested they were tired.
"I'm not too tired." I said before my body betrayed me and I yawned.
"No, you should go home and rest, we'll be here in the morning." Renee insisted, most of the pretense was for her sake, it was only proper that she fell for it.
"We'll be here for lunch." Mom said standing and letting her eyes droop a little.
"Really honey, you should take care of yourself." Renee held my Mom's cheek in her hand. "You both look like you haven't slept in weeks." She said glancing worriedly at the dark circles under my parents eyes.
"We'll be find after a good nights rest." Dad reassured her with a soft smile.
We said our goodbyes and I felt something in the air when Renee turned to eye Charlie as we shut the front door. Maybe it wasn't a brilliant idea letting her stay the four nights with him.
I got into the back seat of the car and waited patiently for our return to the house, where Jake promised me he would not look into the bag filled with his souvenirs. But my mind began to dissipate and the black blur of the landscape was causing me to fall asleep.
I blinked when I spotted the white house in the distance and shook my head awake. As my dad parked the car, I heard a bit of a ruckus.
"Can't you wait at the cottage?" I heard Auntie screech as we got closer.
"Do you know how much pain I've been in Mrs. Ice Queen?" I heard Jake roar back. The sound terrified me, I had never heard him like that ever.
"Fuck Rose! Have you ever died more than once? Every time I woke up, It felt like my heart was being torn out- I waited by the phone like some depressed teenage girl! She's finally back, and I have to wait patiently so she can see Charlie and Renee- I get that. But you are going to have to fuckin deal with the stench right now cause if I have to wait any longer-"
I couldn't hold myself, I flew through the door and tackled him. He had to take a step back to absorb my blow, but he was quiet and wrapped his warm arms around me. He dropped to the ground and sat with his legs crossed and held me in his lap.
We sat like that for a long while, the peace was absolute. I hadn't realized how much it bothered me to be away from him. I hadn't understood I was missing a part of myself, the phone calls and video chats were not enough. Nothing could ever substitute the complete feeling I had in my heart when I was with him.
I didn't realize how tired I was, and I hated myself for falling asleep.