"I don't want to wake her..." I hear my mom's voice at the door. My back is to them and one eye pops open as my dad starts to speak.
"Me either, should we just write her a cute goodbye card?" He questions and I can feel my mom rolling her eyes. The dreaded "G" word. I consider it a bad word in my vocabulary.
"We can accidentally be loud?" I hear her whisper and now both my eyes open up.
"I'm awake..." I say and raise my arm up.
"Oh good, we didn't want to wake you." My mom says and they both walk in. I sit up in bed, yawning as I wipe the sleep from my eyes.
"What time is it?" I question.
"Six in the morning." My dad brightly smiles. He's always been an early bird, as for my mom and I, if we could sleep in forever we would.
"We have work tomorrow so we're leaving early. Long drive....But we will be back by the end of summer." My mom whispers, quickly adding in the last part. I nod, my voice too tired to respond, and if I say anything I might cry. My mom takes my hand in hers and she breaths out...here it comes.
"Haven't I taught you anything?" My mom says, her tone snipped. I hold back on rolling my eyes. "You were absolutely rude yesterday, leaving without saying bye..." My mom continues her rant, she's smooth, her wording careful. I look over to dad. He's nodding, agreeing to what she's saying, his eyebrows creased.
She's making a big deal out of nothing, no one noticed I left.
"I know, I know.." I try cutting in but her dagger eyes stop me.
"No. I don't want to hear the excuses." My mom closes her eyes. I actually don't have an excuse I just wanted to leave.
"Can you give me this lecture some other time. I promise I won't do it again." I plead as I'm snapped out of my sleepy state.
"It's rude to leave during dinner." My dad cuts in. All I do is nod.
At this point I think I would have preferred the cute note. My mom probably would have gone off in there too, lecturing me, so the note probably wouldn't have been cute but at least her angry voice would be in my head and not right in front of me.
"Okay, we have to start heading out." She says and looks around the room. I hate saying bye especially when I know they'll be gone for a long period of time. I hate saying bye no matter how long or short a time. I nod and my mom comes in for a hug.
"Be good." She warns and kisses the top of my head. "You're going to apologize to them, Whit will make sure...." my mom whispers harshly into my ear.
Great....
"Have fun, Maeve. And don't get into too much trouble." My dad says as he kisses the top of my head. He slips something into my hand and I look down, a wad of cash.
"The card is for emergencies or if you make friends and they invite you somewhere. Spend the money wisely. I'm sure Whit will teach you a lesson or two." My mom says and I nod once again.
I probably won't end up using it. I'll be spending my days reading and drawing.
"Anything else?" I question. They both stand together looking at me, admiration crossing their features.
"We did good." My mom whispers to my dad and my dad nods. I throw myself back into bed and I hear them both laughing as they walk out.
I breath out, glad that's over with. This is the first year I held myself together, I didn't cry.
I let myself fall asleep for a few more hours and I hear a couple of knocks at my door. I slowly open my eyes and stretch.
"Maeve, lunch is ready.." I hear my uncle call out. I quickly get up, I slept till noon. If my mom ever found out I did that, she would call me lazy.
