Take Me Home | ✔

Chapter Forty

dedicated to WarriorCatFan4ever for her amazing comments and just her lovely support <3 thank you. xx 

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"YOU'RE OUT OF ICE." 

“How can we be out of ice?”

“The dispenser is empty, Tess.”

“Just get anything that’s frozen then!” she called from the dining room.

I sighed, opening the freezer and scanning the premises. There was nothing in here but organic ice cream and frozen cake fondant, but as I rummaged around in the back, my fingers grasped around a lone bag of expired frozen yams. Normally Angie didn’t approve of frozen vegetables, but I guess this was a rare gem that she forgot to throw away. I grabbed the bag and walked into the dining room, where Vienna sat with Tess, her leg propped up on a pillow on top of a chair.

I wordlessly handed Vienna the bag of yams, and she took it with a weak smile. I was well aware of Tess’s observing eyes, and that just made me want to walk out of the room and go upstairs. She was watching us intently with curious and confused eyes, probably wondering why weren’t talking or looking each other in the eye. I would’ve been useless is answering that because I was wondering the same exact thing.

“Here, Vienna, lemme help you,” Tess offered. She placed the bag of yams gently on Vienna’s ankle, asking her repeatedly where it hurt. Vienna winced and shut her eyes in some areas, but she seemed fine for the most part.

“It’s probably just a bruise, or maybe I fell on it the wrong way,” Vienna smiled, and I knew all too well that it was fake. “Really, Tess, I’ll be fine before the big reception.”

Tess hesitated, but nodded reluctantly. She went back to eating her Chinese takeout, picking through the numerous takeout boxes for her moo goo gai pan. Angie normally didn’t like Tess eating any type of meat, considering Angie’s a pretty tough vegetarian, but I guess over the past year, Angie and Tess had smoothed things over. I knew first hand that it was pretty hard on my baby cousin; having her real mom die and being replaced with a new one who completely changed the way her house was run. But Angie wasn’t all too bad; in fact, she was a kind person who just had a stronger love for edible plants.

The three of us were eating takeout for dinner, with the faint hum of the Christmas music pouring out of the living room. Vienna and I sat across from each other on the wide mahogany table, and even though I would normally have had trouble keeping my eyes off of her, I just felt deflated and exhausted. Besides, her phone call was still on my mind.

As much as I wanted it to be true that Eli and Vienna were just friends, I couldn’t help thinking how much the odds were against me.

And as if on cue, Tess asked, “So what did Eli want?”

Vienna stopped chewing, keeping her eyes on her plate. “He was just checking in. Asking if I got here safely, and all that.”

I kept eating, and I found a suddenly new interest in my orange chicken.

Tess waited expectantly. “That’s it?” 

“Oh, and he said to send his best regards to you and your family and Payton,” Vienna added. “He really wishes he could be here for the reception, but he’s got training.”

I stopped chewing.

“Training?” Tess took the question right out of my mouth.

“Yeah. He’s, well," Vienna's voice lowered a bit, "he’s going to join the Navy.”