Mackie, May I?

Mackie, May I? Chapter 12

A/N--I know this ends in kind of a weird spot, but if let the chapter go on it would've been WAYYYY too long.  So the next half of this chapter will be out next week :) 

Thanksgiving comes and goes, and it’s one of those days I think will forever be etched into my mind.  Not because of it being so wonderful or anything, but just because it felt right.  My mom and grandma argued over how much cornbread to put into the stuffing while the guys all shouted at the football game on the TV.  I chased Charlie and Maddie around the house, grabbing and tickling them and laughing wildly.

It wasn’t anything I imagined it to be, and I’m eternally grateful for that.

By the time Sunday afternoon rolls around and it’s time for me to head back to the dorms, I can tell that no one really wants to say bye.  Sean and Maria already left yesterday morning, as it was the one flight heading to Boston that wouldn’t put them rushing around for the Monday bustle of work and school, and saying bye to them was definitely harder than I imagined it to be.

And now I’m looking at my parents as they stand in front of me in the driveway, and my mom has tears in her eyes and my dad is hitching an arm over her shoulder in comfort.  Never in a million years did I think they’d be sad to see their notoriously shameful child leave, and noticing that they are makes me feel quite good.

My mom pulls me into her arms and says, “Be good.  I’ll call you soon.”

I wrap my arms around her dainty shoulders and take a whiff of her expensive perfume, telling her, “I will.  Promise.”

I move over to my dad and then bury my face into his warm chest, loving how safe and sound I feel in his embrace.  He wraps his arms around my waist and tells me loud enough for my mom to hear that he loves me, and then he whispers just to me, “If any of those boys show up again, call me.  That second.  Okay?”

“Okay,” I whisper back, leaning away from his embrace and then planting a kiss on his cheek.

Five minutes later I’m snug into the front seat of my car, backing out of the driveway and waving my goodbyes to them and feeling extremely surprised at the emotion building in my chest that’s sad to see them go.  Sure they’ve never been the greatest parents, but I’ve never had to question whether or not they love me.  And seeing that love so easily expressed is such a nice change.

The drive back to campus is a long one, and it’s spent thinking over the past week and how much closer I feel to my family now.  I’m sure that we won’t automatically become the best family in the world or anything, but for the first time since high school I feel like I haven’t been tossed out into the wind.

I’m about ten minutes from campus when my phone starts to blare beside me, and if it’d been ten minutes ago when I was jamming out to the newest Disney movie soundtrack, I wouldn’t have heard it.  But luckily I do hear it, and when I answer it I hear my best friend scream into the phone, “Where are you?!  I have so much to tell you!”

I laugh at her and say, “Ten minutes, I’ll be there in ten minutes!”

She hangs up after a shout of “You better be!”

The minute I step foot into the dorm room, my bags tossed over my shoulder and digging deeper and deeper into the flesh with every passing second, my best friend leaps from where she’d been sitting on her dresser and doing her makeup and bounds over to me.  I get a quick flash of an excited grin before she pulls me into her arms, playfully reprimanding me by saying, “You can never stay away from me for that long again!”

I laugh, having missed her being so over-the-top and energetic.  Sure we constantly texted over the break, and even once she got so enthused by something she had to call, but still…once you’ve gotten so used to living with someone and seeing them all of the time, you can’t just drop them for an entire week.