Ode to my Family, Chapter 4
I awoke early this morning, a very rare occurrence for me at the weekend, unless it happened to be Christmas.
I had packed mine and Antony's bags the previous evening, so now all that remained for me to do was shower and make Antony breakfast. I decided to start with the latter. Being a boy, Antony was always more awake and alert in a full stomach.
I flinched as my feet made contact cold floorboards of my bedroom and I hastily shoved them into my old, scruffy slippers. Making my way through the living room and into the kitchen, I glanced at the clock on the phone, and seeing that it wasn't even half past seven yet, I curled up on the sofa and switched on the news.
Half an hour and some pointless human interest story later, I began to make breakfast. Nothing fancy, my lack of salary had never provided enough to buy expensive cooking ingredients. Today, Antony's breakfast consisted of a bowl of PriceRite brand cereal, and I, again, would be going without. After putting the cereal bowl on the kitchen table, I headed to Antony's room to wake him.
I sat at the end of his bed and tickled his feet. He squirmed around, still comatose, before slowly sitting up. "Good morning sweetie." I said as he looked around, his eyes slowly adjusting to the sunlight.
"Morning Mommy." He mumbled.
"Go get dressed baby, your cereals getting soggy." I told him before leaving his room and making my way to mine.
I grabbed today's choice of clothing from my dresser, there wasn't much choice anyway, but today owing to the fact most of my 'wearable' items were in a tiny, beaten suitcase; I pulled underwear, slacks and a black turtle neck jumper out of my dresser. and went to get a shower.
After my quick, horribly cold shower, I dressed quickly, not wanting to linger in the icy air of my apartment then went to check on Antony. He had finished his breakfast, his bowl was still on the table, and was sitting in front of the TV.
"You almost ready to go baby?" I called out, waking him from his cartoon induced trance.
"Yes mommy, I just gotta go brush my teeth." He replied.
I smiled at him. "Well, hurry up then, or mommy's gonna get on the plane without you!"
He jumped up and ran to the bathroom immediately, I turned off the TV.
Seen as both our bags were packed, I washed up Antony's cereal bowl, threw away the rest of the milk, and then walked round the apartment, unplugging all our electrical appliances so that I wouldn't get a hefty electricity bill upon my return. Once I was done, I went to brush my own teeth, and tied back my hair into a high ponytail.
"Antony sweetie, go get your coat and shoes on please." I called as I grabbed my suitcase, handbag and Antony's back pack from my bedroom floor. Meeting him by the coat hook, I tied his laces for him before shoving my arms into my own coat and putting on my shoes. I pulled our scarves, hats and gloves off the hook and put them into the bag. "Why do we need scarves mommy, its not winter yet?" Antony asked me as I opened the apartment door.
"It's a lot colder in Washington than it is here kiddo." I said as I exited, locking the door behind me.
An hour and thirty minuets later, the bus finally pulled up outside terminal 5 of JFK airport. During the trip, the number of butterflies in my stomach had increased tenfold, by the time our flight landed in Seattle this afternoon, I'd probably be having a panic attack. After clumsily getting off the bus, I put Antony's backpack on him, hoisted my handbag onto my shoulder, picked up my suitcase and held on to Antony's hand. "Stay by Mommy now, okay?" I told him, he merely nodded in reply.
The lines for both check-in and security were relatively short, meaning our wait in the departure lounge would be at least an hour. I passed some of the time by standing by the glass windows with Antony, watching the airplanes taking off and landing, and dreading the fact that very, very soon, I'd be on one.
I made sure to buy 2 bottles of water before our flight was called, drinks on flights were usually overpriced, and I wasn't planning on spending anything over a dollar in the next 5 or so hours. Finally, after a wait that I was sure lasted a week and not an hour- our flight was called.
"You excited baby?" I asked Antony as we stood, waiting for the air hostess to check our tickets.
"Yes! We get to go on a plane!" He squealed.
"I know sweetheart, you know what?"
"What?"
"You go so high up, that the clouds are underneath you."
The look of amazement on his face was so cute, but before I had chance to tell him anything else, we were walking down the claustrophobic tunnel that lead to the plane.
Antony continued to gaze round in amazement as we boarded the plane and made our way to our seats. Typically, we were on the very back row, with a window seat and the middle chair, I told Antony to sit by the window, that way whoever was to sit in the seat next to us would possibly be less annoyed. As I busied myself, strapping Antony into the seat belt and putting my carry on underneath the seat in front of me, I felt somebody take a seat next to me. I looking round, taking a sneaky glance at my neighbor and froze.
"Mike Newton!" The sound escaped my lips in an uncontrollable gasp, of all the people that could have sat next to me, I never in a million years would've expected it to be my high school prom date. Ever.
"Bella, Bella Swan?" He questioned, as if he didn't quite believe it either. "Oh my god, Bella, how've you been? God, I haven't seen you since you left for college. When was that, like eight years ago?"
"Yeah, I've been you know, getting by. How bout you?" I replied, trying to gauge what to say when he asked what id done since graduating.
"I've been great, thanks for asking. I got a degree in architecture, can you believe it?" He said, the same smile id seen all those years ago, waiting at the bottom of my stairs flashed across his face.
"Wow, that's great Mike." I said sincerely, architecture, seriously, I'd have thought mike would have studied like, physical fitness. How come everyone elses lives were going brilliantly but mine.
"So Bella, what about you? What'd you major in?" He asked. I gulped.
"Haven't you heard?" He looked blankly at me. "So, I dropped out of college in my second year, because I was pregnant, I barely get any financial support from the government, I just got fired from my crappy job at Wal-Mart and am starting a job as a coffee-fetching assistant for some company big-shot in like 2 weeks time."
"Woah, Bella. Are you okay?" He asked, seeming genuinely concerned.
I took a deep breath, feeling the pain flooding my face, I replied. "No, not really Mike. But thanks for asking. Being broke sucks."
Mike looked at me solemnly. "Bella, if your broke, then why are you on a plane to Seattle?"
"Well, you know, if my Dad wont help my with my rent then he can at least look after his grandson for a while, right? If I know Charlie as well as I used to, he wont be able to leave a six year old kid on the streets of Forks over night." It felt good to reveal my scheming plan to someone. I don't have many friends, the only person who knew I was here was my landlady, and she didn't really care where I was going as long as I paid the rent.
"Wow Bella, when did you such a bad-ass?" Mike asked jokily.
I looked over at Antony before replying. "I really don't know."
"Mommy, the plane is moving!" Antony squealed from next to me, he'd been so quiet since we had boarded that I'd almost forgotten he was there.
"That's cos we're about to take off now sweetie." I told him as he continued to gaze out of the tiny window. I turned to face Mike once more.
"So, that your kid?" He asked, nodding towards Antony.
"Yep." I replied curtly.
"Where's his dad?" Mike asked with genuine interest.
"I left him. Six years ago." I told him, spitting the sentences out as fast as possible.
Then Mike asked the question that everyone always asks me, but never really understands the answer to,"Why?"
"Well, we just didn't work." I took a breath. "We were a one night stand but he just wouldn't leave me alone, and then I found out I was pregnant and he started talking about marriage; and I just remember thinking 'this isn't where I want my life to go', so, I just upped and left."
I turned to Mike, wanting to gauge his reaction; and what then came out of his mouth was the last thing I'd ever have expected - "I understand."
After that, our conversation hit no more awkward patches, and I found myself relaxing in Mike's presence. In many ways he was still the Mike I knew in high school, my last link to the old me. I mad sure to get his digits, so that we could meet up for coffee in Forks. The flight passed pretty quickly, Antony fell asleep about an hour in, and didn't wake up until the plane had touched down in Seattle.
Just as we were leaving the plane Mike turned to me and asked, "Hey Bella, how you getting from Seattle to Forks?"
I turned to him, "I was gonna get a bus in the morning, why?"
"Well, I'm going that way, and I know that you aren't exactly rolling in money at the moment so, you want a lift to Charlie's?" He replied, a familiar puppy-like smile flashing across his face.
"Really, Mike, that would be great, oh my god, thank you." I said, controlling my urge to hug him.
"It's no problem Bella, seriously. Besides, after what happened at senior prom, I kinda owe you." He admitted.
I laughed. He did owe me.
We got through baggage claim pretty quickly and before I knew it, were sitting in Mike's car, speeding towards Forks. At some point during the journey I fell asleep and the next thing I knew we were just outside the Forks city limits.
"Hey Bella, your awake." Mike exclaimed as I looked round the car's interior yawning.
"Morning." I joked as I turned in my seat to glance at Antony, who, after his nap on the plane was still wide awake. "Hey baby, you been good for Mike while momma's been asleep?" I asked him.
He nodded "Yes mommy. We went on a boat, in the car, it was soo cool!"
"We did, guess I really was sleepy." I replied, turning back round as I noticed just how familiar the scenery around me was becoming.
The car turned one last corner, and I saw a building that hadn't changed, despite the fact that so many years had passed since I last stepped through its door.
"Well Mike, thanks again for the lift." I smiled at him, "I seriously am in your debt now."
"No Bella, it's no sweat, you want me to wait here just in case your plan doesn't quite go, to plan?" He offered.
"No thanks Mike, I'm pretty sure I got this." I flashed him one last smile and stepped out of the car, getting both my suitcase and son out of the back seat as I did. After shutting the door, I waved at Mike as he drove slowly down the street before taking hold of Antony's hand, and walking to Charlie's front door. This is it Bella, I told myself, no turning back now.