Fallacies

Chapter 5

Most of my thoughts are still thrown around in my mind when my parents come out in about an hour to check up on me, bringing me inside for actual breakfast. I devour my tomato and bacon Panini within a few minutes and spend the rest of the afternoon inside. The sun shifts a little to the side, peering in through the living room window and the first street lights decide to kick on hours too early to shine a path for passing cars. Time passes quickly and as I glance out the window every once in a while, I can see traffic starting to settle down. Thinking that I hear a motor roar, I leave my spot on the couch, hurry out into the entrance hall, and peek out of the window beside the door. A set of headlights crawl up to the house, belonging to the sports car that drove away this morning. The engine turns off and a minute later, the driver's door opens. Wanting to know where he's been all day, I step out of the front door and descend half of the steps to meet him. Sean climbs out of the car, his hair just as messy as this morning, and sets the alarm with a loud beep, before walking over to the steps of the house. I expect him to walk past me inside with how our last conversation went, but he just stands here, his eyes linked with mine. There is no sign of frustration anymore, but he does look at me accusingly, clearly remembering this morning just fine. It doesn't help that I feel guilty about it, mainly because I managed to make him leave. I come down those last few steps to stand in front of him, looking up at his face.

"I'm sorry," I say sincerely. After a few seconds, my eyes move down from his face, ready for him to say nothing. To my surprise, he exhales in resignation and puts his arms around me in an embrace. I close my eyes, my mind coming into focus. I can't contemplate why he's hugging me, but the sensation of his arms wrapped around me is incredibly comforting.

"Are you ready to go?" he asks, taking a step back from me and grabbing his cell phone out of a pocket from his uniform jacket, turning on the screen lock to show me the time.

"Umm," I say, still adjusting to what happened. "Yeah. I just have to grab a couple last things and I'm set." The time is already 4:15 and if check-in is at 5, then I doubt that either my parents or I will make it on time.

"I'll start moving your things to the car. Where are your bags?"

I point to the house. "By the stairs, where we left them before."

"And do they include anything other than clothes?" he questions skeptically, starting to catch on to the fact that I did nothing all day.

I give him two thumbs up and rush to get inside, organizing a list of everything I have to grab before he gets a chance to get through the three bags on the floor.

"Toothbrush," I rattle off to myself out loud, going straight for the bathroom. "Hairbrush, toothpaste, perfume, shampoo..."

Finding everything is easy, but seeing as I forgot a bag to carry it all in, I have to balance it on the way back.

"Mom!" I yell as I reach the top of the steps, careful to go down.

She doesn't answer, making me that much more flustered at the deadline. By the time I reach the end of the stairs, two of my three bags are already gone and the door is opening, presumably Sean coming back for the last one. I run for the living room before he can spot me, accidentally dropping my hairbrush in the threshold in the process. It thuds loudly a couple of times, but I ignore it and keep going, thinking that it will be a lot easier to pick up when I don't have all of this stuff to carry. I dash into the kitchen and dump all of my things on the counter, raiding the bottom cabinet of the sink for plastic grocery bags to stuff everything into. For the first time, none are there and so I straighten up to go find my mom when Sean walks into the kitchen, arms crossed and eyeing my stuff on the counter. I catch sight of my hairbrush in his left hand. He's grasping it like he just found an incriminating piece of evidence against me.