10: Heading . . . Home?

Kelly had her arms wrapped around me in a goodbye embrace. As happy as I was to leave the weekend behind me, I had to admit I was going to miss spending time with this family. And this, more than likely, would be the last time I would see them.  I pulled away from her and looked into her eyes, she knew as well this would be the last time. "Take care of yourself."
   
"I will, I'll miss you Kelly."

"I'll miss you too Veronica."

I waved goodbye to the rest of the family and climbed into the passenger seat of the car where Mike and Brooks were patiently awaiting me. "So we have to get Mike to the Vancouver airport within the next six hours. So no stopping!" Brooks explained and I nodded my head and he pulled away from the roller coaster of a weekend.

"So wait, when do you fly back?" I turned to ask Brooks.

"The 9th."

"What? How come you didn't tell me you'd be staying around for two weeks?"

"I just changed my flight. There are some people in Seattle I want to visit, like my old billets. I also wanted to spend more time with you before the season starts back up again."

"Oh, okay."

The drive was long and boring, nothing like our drive up. Mike was asleep in the back, Brooks was quiet, and I still felt drunk. That's probably why Brooks insisted on driving. I was grateful for the silence though, I don't think I could handle discussing what happened.




I wrapped my arms around Mike's neck outside of Vancouver International Airport and stuck out my bottom lip looking up at him.

"Oh stop," he laughed as he leaned down and kissed me, pulling my body into his.

"I'll miss you," I whispered against his lips and he mumbled a 'mm-hmm' against mine.

"Greener, your flight leaves in forty minutes," Brooks called out and we reluctantly pulled away from one another.

"I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay, bye Mike."

"Bye Veronica." I stood on the curb and watched as he walked away, slowly fading into the crowd that was bustling around the airport.

"Ready babe?" Brooks asked from his position leaning against my car.

"Don't call me babe," I smiled at him and shoved him with my shoulder to climb back in the passenger seat.

I offered to drive, knowing he had already been behind the wheel for five hours, and we still had another two or three to go, but he declined. Instead, he just rolled all the windows down and turned the music up as loud as it would go without blowing my speakers out.

"You know if you're tired I can drive!!" I yelled to him once we were a few miles away from the border. I watched as his jaw clenched and he pulled off at the next exit. We swapped seats quietly and the second I pulled back onto the highway, his eyes were shut and the chair was leaned all the way back. The poor guy. The crap he had to put up with this weekend, and it's all my fault. I knew I shouldn't have gone. Sure it would have pissed Brooks off for me to back out, but a weekend at home was better than what I had just gone through. And what I had just put him through. Brooks hates drama, it's a well-known fact, and all this weekend was, was drama. I glanced over at him once I stopped in line for the border. A small smile was playing on his lips and his right hand was smashed between his thighs. He sure was an image.

Once we arrived in Bellingham, a hippy college town just south of the border, I pulled into the town’s only T-Mobile store. I looked over at Brooks, who was still in a deep sleep. The border patrol officer had asked me to wake him up, but all Brooks did was mumble a few choice curse words, and the officer waved us through. I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook him around until he woke up.

"Are we home already?"

"No, you owe me a new cell phone," I smiled to him and got out of the car.

We walked into T-Mobile side by side and was greeted by a kid, no older than eighteen, in black slacks, polo T-Mobile shirt and bright pink skater shoes. Brooks immediately started laughing upon seeing them. "How can I help you today?"

"This big guy over here threw my cell phone out the window on the freeway, so he'll be buying me a new one," I explained to the kid who then looked at Brooks with a shocked expression on his face.

"What? We were on vacation. No cell phones while on vacation!" Brooks defended himself and I just laughed as the salesman brought us up to the counter and Brooks dished over the four-hundred dollars for my phone.

"Happy now?" Brooks asked as we left the store and he reclaimed his spot in the passenger seat.

"You know I can't fully survive without my cell phone. I wasn't even able to Twitter that you threw my cell phone out the car window at 70 fucking miles per hour!"

"You did not just say Twitter."

"What? It's entertaining."

Once we got out of Bellingham and hit the straight-aways of Skagit county, it felt like no time before I was parking outside of my apartment.

"Do you work tomorrow?" Brooks asked as he carried both of our suitcases up to my third floor apartment.

"I do," I grumbled as I opened my door and held it open for him. I would love to take another day off just to unwind, but it was hard enough getting days off as it was. I wouldn't dare ask for one more day.

"I'm going to take a nap. Make yourself at home," I smiled to him as I grabbed my suitcase and dragged it behind me into my room.

"Hey, can I use your computer? I have to print something out real quick." He asked me before I reached my room. I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him.

"Of course."





When I woke up from my nap, I quickly realized it was just past 5:30 the next morning. I sat up in bed and stretched my arms up over my head. I looked next to me to see the other side of the bed disrupted, but Brooks was no where to be found. I stumbled out of bed and swung the door open to peak into the living room, he wasn't there, but the smell of sausage filled my nose.

I walked into the kitchen to find him cooking in just his boxers. "Hey, why are you awake so early?" I asked him as I took a seat at my small kitchen table.

"It's a big day for you, so I wanted to cook breakfast."

"Why is it a big day? I'm just going to work."

I watched as he walked over to my purse and plucked out a white envelope and handed it over to me. I was confused, but he just turned back to the stove to continue cooking. I pulled a folded white piece of paper out of the envelope and began to read it.

Dear Dr. Robert Larson,
Please accept this letter as my two-weeks notice of resignation. My last day of work will be August 7th. While I have been very satisfied at Larson Family Dental, I have decided to make this move to advance my career. I have enjoyed working with you and appreciate the opportunities I have been given here.

"This sounds like you copied it off the internet."

"I did."

I laughed and then it hit me. "What?! Why did you do this?!"

"I'm not leaving Seattle without you. We have a flight booked for the 9th, now I don't have to be back in DC till the beginning of September, so I can easily change the flights to a later date, but I'd rather not."

I held the letter in front of me, starring at the blank space where my signature should be. Thinking about everything Seattle was to me, I felt myself begin to cry. I loved this city, it just didn't love me back. Brooks set a plate down in front of me, and then kneeled down next to me. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm scared," I admitted.

"Don't be scared. This is a good thing for you Niko. Would it make you feel better if I was doing this more for me than for you?"

"What?" I sobbed out lifting my hand up to my face to wipe away my tears. He grabbed my free hand, and held it tightly in his.

"I just need you with me. This is going to be a rough year on me, I'm not that rookie kid no one knows about anymore. There are rumors flying around that I'll be captain, more than likely not this year, but that's a lot of pressure on me. I need my Niko there for support. Besides, I thought now that you and Mike were an item you would be more open to the move."

"If you need me there so badly . . . then okay."

"Okay? Just like that."

"Yeah. Well, I guess. You're right Brooks, I don't have anything here."

"Mike is going to be one happy guy."

"We're not an item by the way. We're dating. No titles."

"So it's nothing official between you two?"

I shook my head from side to side and could see the smile he was fighting to hold back. He stood up and quickly kissed me on the forehead before retuning to the kitchen. When he returned to the table with his own plate, he handed me a pen and I quickly signed my name in the blank spot on the document, officially sealing my future.

I was moving to DC.