Try-State Area

Runaway

Max watched fixedly while Emily furiously threw toiletries and shoes into her weekend bag. He batted his little white paw at the comb as it flew by and then jumped into the tote chasing after her deodorant. She removed him from the bottom of the bag, and was putting her makeup case in his place instead, when she received a message from Samantha.

She read it aloud to the cat.

John told me you're coming this weekend :-0 So happy :-) Kelly seems pretty happy about it too ;-) Did you tell Evan yet :-p He had his game face on when I saw him before so I didn't talk to him :-/

She wrote Samantha back.

I didn't tell Evan. I thought it would be fun to surprise him. Don't spoil it if you see him again. Okay? Anything going on this weekend that I need to pack appropriately for?

Sam's response was swift.

Actually, my parents will be out of town for my sister's dance competition this weekend. So I figured "PARTY TIME" at my place tonight!!!

Emily stared into her nearly empty drawers and cursed the fact that she hadn't done laundry yet this week. She pulled out the few clean things she wanted to take and then dug through her dirty laundry.

There was the Pearl Jam shirt. She sniffed it to see if it still held Kelly's scent. But it mostly smelled like the chlorine from her bathing suit that it had been balled up with. Still it made her smile thinking about her first conversation with him in the pool. And then when he gave her the shirt after their first kiss.

I don't have a lot of time to pack... It'll be quicker to take my entire laundry bag with me... Might as well make use of that laundry room while I have access to it...

She gave Max a parting scratch behind the ear, then struggled out of the door with the laundry bag, her backpack, and the tote of toiletries and shoes. It was already time to meet her father on the stoop.