Forever Yours

Chapter One

The rusted up Ford moved along the small highway, trees rushing by as Penelope Mavros drove. She wasn't speaking to her daughter, which was fine; because her daughter wasn't speaking to her either. Makaria just didn't understand why they had to move from the city to some off the wall town, in some god-forsaken state. She was in her senior year of high school, she was going to be graduating soon. Makaria should have been hanging out with her friends, talking about prom or whose part time jobs were the worse, but instead she was in their little beat up Ford, driving to Michigan with a mother who refused to speak to her.

Why wasn't she speaking to Mak, may you ask? Could be the fact that for the last two months once she'd found out they were moving for some career change, Mak been nothing but a royal pain in the butt? Or perhaps it could be that the last night they were in New York, Mak was a with a guy in her room and they were getting to know one another, like really getting to know one another when Penelope walked in and caught them?

Makaria figured that was the last straw for her mom. She threw the guy out, after threating to call the police before going all Mother Dearest on the teen. She took the laptop and phone away (before giving that particular item back, stating that it was to be use only for emergencies and to call her), grounded her until after graduation and took the girl's driver's license away. Makaria didn't understand why she got all huffy, it's not like they'd had sex or anything; he just had his hand down her pants.

Penelope tried to convince her that the move would be good for them, help them to bond. However, Makaria wasn't having any of it. "Bond over what? Beaches and pizza? Because that's what Michigan is known for: beaches and pizza. I looked it up," Makaria had screamed three days before they left for the state shaped like a mitten. She hadn't spoken to her mother since.

Makaria didn't want to leave New York, didn't want to leave all her friends and the life she was going to have. Not for some job that wasn't even hers. She most definitely did not want to live in the same house as her grandparents, the same grandparents Makaria hadn't even know about. But that's what happens when you start a new job in a different state from the one you're living in-- You move to some god forsaken state to live with people you don't even know.

Feeling the car start to slow down, Makaria was forced out of her thoughts and to the present. Looking out the window, she saw that they were outside of a little gas station/restaurant. Pulling up to the nearest pump, Penelope turned off the car and sighed.

Taking the opportunity to look around at their surroundings, she noticed that there wasn't much out in the middle of nowhere. Trees mostly, large pine trees with snow on their branches surrounded the large lot. The loud growl from her stomach reminded Makaria that it'd been awhile since they stopped for food, and the food that was being advertised on the windows of the restaurant looked delicious.

"Makaria, go inside and get us something to eat while I get gas," Penelope said softly, her light grey eyes focused forward. Her hands gripped the steering wheel, knuckles almost white.

"..... Okay? What did you want?" Makaria asked as she opened the passenger door. "And I'll need some money, too."

Penelope shifted in her seat, her hands finally leaving the steering wheel as she picked up her purse from the floorboard and rummaged around inside for her wallet. Finding it, she pulled out three twenty dollar bills. "Forty for gas, the other twenty is for our food," she said as she handed over the crisp bills.

"You still haven't told me what you want, Mom," Makaria reminded her mother.

"Get whatever, Makaria!" she shouted at the young girl.

Makaria flinched, moving one foot out the door. Seeing her mother visibility sigh, her shoulders sagging before she ran a hand through her dark brown hair, Makaria could feel some of the tension of the last few days roll off her mother. "I'm sorry. Uh... get me a chicken sandwich and some fries, okay?"