(A/N): ok an author's note before my chapter is super weird i'm sorry
but this is the last chapter of Hey Monday :((( this will be one of my first novels that I've ever written start to finish so it's pretty special to me. the epilogue will be up very, very soon so don't delete this from your library yet!
"Welcome to Monday!" Noah whooped as we entered the town for the first time.
I stuck my face out of a window, taking in the crisp Maine air. Everything about this place was beautiful- simple and quaint, with brick buildings all crammed together on a street and strangers smiling at each other when they passed. I instantly knew that I was in the right place.
I turned to Logan and gave him a hug, oozing happiness. "Welcome home," I whispered into his ear.
Evelyn was looking out a window, too. "I've never seen anything like this before," she murmured in awe. "It seems so friendly."
Morgan was bouncing on her toes, something I noticed her to do when excited. I ran up and gave her a hug, too; and Evelyn soon joined in.
"I can't believe it," I laughed, shaking my head. "I've dreamed about doing this for so long, and I did it. I'm here. I'm home."
Then, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, I whipped out my phone and dialed a number that I promised myself I'd never have to use again.
My mother.
I couldn't wait to see the look on her face- or rather, tone in her voice- when she heard that I'd actually done this successfully.
I placed the phone on a coffee table and set it to speaker, so that all of my friends could hear the ordeal that was about to go down. Everyone was silent as we waited for my mom to pick up. You could've cut the tension with a knife.
After four rings, someone answered. "Hello? Ellen?"
I recognized the voice instantly and my heart swelled with reminiscence. It wasn't my mom, but my younger brother of ten years, Joey.
"Hey, Joey!" I called happily. "How've you been?"
"Ellen!" he cried. "We were so worried about you!"
I exchanged a glance with Noah, who was looking at me through the rearview mirror.
"Worried?" I asked in disbelief. "Why would you be worried, bud?"
Joey sighed through the phone and took a moment to respond. "Well, Ellen, even though mom doesn't show it, she loves you a lot. After you left, she shut herself in her room and didn't talk to anyone but dad for days."
"Oh," I replied, trying to keep the tone of guilt out of my voice. "I... didn't mean to do that."
"Yeah, well, you did it anyway," Joey replied with a slight tinge of annoyance. "I had to make dinner for the three of us for almost a month. Sometimes I just nibbled on a piece of bread."
"I'm sorry, Joey," I said. "Really. But are you maybe being a bit dramatic with the bread?"
"Okay, maybe a little," he admitted. I could hear him smiling through the phone. "But it still was not cool, Ellen."
"I know. Can you put mom on the phone?"
"We're out to eat right now, she's in the bathroom. Do you wanna talk to dad?"
"Sure."
I heard a rustling sound as my mother's phone was passed from Joey to my father. After a moment, a gruff voice said, "Hello?"
"Dad," I replied. My voice was strained and wavering.
"Where are you?" My dad demanded. He'd always been a bit of a control freak. "When are you coming home?"
"I am home, dad," I replied. "I'm in Maine, we'll be at the house in like five minutes. And I'm never going back to Oregon."
"Do you realize what you've done to this family?" my dad yelled. "What you've put your mother through?"
I smirked and shook my head. "No, but I can only imagine. If you ever want to come visit, I'm not stopping you. But I left that godforsaken place for a reason, and I am never going back."
With that, I hung up the phone. It felt like I'd finally gotten closure on my life back in Oregon- those memories that I made there, both good and bad, didn't matter to me anymore. It was in the past. I couldn't change the fact that I went topless at a house party, I couldn't make my mother love me, I couldn't and I didn't want to. I was ready to focus on my future.
"Ellen?" Noah called quietly. "We're here."
I peered out the window and saw it for the very first time in person. My house.
It was disgusting, if I'm being honest. The house itself was tiny, shabby and run-down, with paint peeling off the walls and wooden steps that sagged down in the window. It was a tired old man, ready to succumb to death.
I saw so much more in the house, though. Noah and I could spend time fixing it up together in the summer, painting it a sky blue color and maybe adding a garden. We could get a dog or a cat, or both. The house was tiny but the property was huge.
"This is it?" Evelyn asked, looking out the window. Her tone was completely neutral, so I couldn't tell if she was pleased or disappointed.
"Yeah," I replied. "This is it."
After a few beats, Noah spoke up and broke our entranced silence. "You guys? We can like, go inside, you know."
I snapped right out of it and ripped open the door of the RV, taking my very first steps in Monday. It was windy that time, so my hair swung right into my face and obscured my view.
The driveway was pretty long, actually, and we didn't have any neighbors for a generous amount in either direction. I walked up the narrow pavement, inhaling deeply. The air here smelled much different than in Oregon.
When I first pushed the door open, a mixture of shock and pleasure washed across my face. The house itself smelled like a musty basement, and it was definitely a bit of a fixer-upper. Furniture came provided, which sort of made me uncomfortable. It was like everything here already had a story.
When you entered the house, it was open and airy. The living room was to the left, complete with a loveseat and overstuffed chair, and the kitchen was to your right. All the appliances were a little outdated, probably from the early 2000's, but I didn't care. It was mine, and that was the only thing that mattered.
There was no dining room, and only two bathrooms. The laundry room was in the basement, which quickly became a fatal task because the stairs were the steepest ones I'd ever seen. Trying to walk down them with a laundry basket piled high with smelly clothes blocking your vision meant certain death.
And the bedrooms- well, that was a long debate. In the end, Logan and Noah roomed together and so did Evelyn and Morgan. I got my own- the smallest one, but still my own- because my winning argument was "I'M PAYING FOR THIS BITCH AND ALL OF YOU CAN BE HOMELESS!"
After we settled the Great Bedroom Debate, we started to unpack. It was a long couple hours of running back and forth from the RV, and everyone asking each other things like "Where does this go? Which bathroom do I put this in? How do I get to the laundry room?"
It was hectic and crazy. Morgan ended up tripping over something and dropping a box full of books, so we all paused to help her pick them up.
After we were done, I was stacking plates in the kitchen when I heard Morgan and Noah talking in a room not far from me, which happened to be a bathroom. Noah's voice was raised and Morgan's was very meek.
"Just tell me what I did, dammit!" he boomed in frustration. My hand, reaching up to place a plate in the cupboard, paused in midair.
"You didn't do anything," Morgan replied softly. I had to strain just to hear her.
Noah sighed. "Then why are you being so cold towards me?"
Morgan's reply was a string of mumbles that I couldn't discern, so I crept closer to the closed door and began eavesdropping. I probably should've given them their privacy and all that, but I couldn't help myself. It was for a good cause.
"That doesn't make sense," Noah pressed in response to whatever Morgan had just said. His voice was tight. "I care about you, Morgan, and this isn't fair! You can't shut me out for no reason!"
"I'm sorry," she replied softly. "I didn't mean to... hurt you."
"Oh, Morgan."
Then, Logan came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder, causing me to gasp and jump a foot in the air.
"Jesus, Logan," I hissed in a hushed tone. "You scared the bejesus out of me."
He laughed and shrugged. "Sorry about that. I was just wondering-"
I covered his mouth with my hand, pressing my ear to the door where Morgan and Noah had fallen silent. "Be fricking quiet," I whispered. "Let's go talk in the kitchen, I have to finish stacking the plates."
As I returned to stacking my plates, Logan leaned against the maple countertop and ran a hand through his curly mop of hair. I raised my eyebrows, as if to tell him to speak.
"I don't really know how to say this," he started hesitantly. "But I think I might want to go to college?"
I stopped with the plates- again- and turned to give him my full attention. "Oh," I replied. "Well, yeah, I don't blame you. Sounds like a good idea someday."
"No, I mean now."
I knit my eyebrows together. "Now? We just got here. Don't you want to settle down for a little while?"
"And do what?" Logan replied. "Get a job bagging groceries? Earn enough money for a car? What then, Ellen? Where would I go, what would I do, my life would lead to nothing-"
"Whoa," I cut him off. "Chill for a second. I fully support you going to college- in fact, I think it's for the best. But don't ever say that life would amount to nothing unless you went, okay?"
Logan shook his head irritably. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to have to wait awhile anyway, nowhere will accept applications now. But I'm going."
"I'm not stopping you."
With that, Logan turned around and disappeared into the house. I shook my head and finished up with the plates, then rounded a corner and headed up the stairs to locate Evelyn.
The three bedrooms were upstairs. The ones that were shared between Morgan, Evelyn, Noah, and Logan were essentially identical, facing each other on opposite ends of the hallway. Mine, however, was tucked into the back corner. I had an excellent view of the woods behind us, which I doubted would ever grow old.
I found Evelyn in the girls' room, tacking photos up on the wall. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail, swinging back and forth as she moved.
"I think this is the first time I've ever seen your hair up," I noted, leaning on the doorframe. "Looks good."
Evelyn turned in surprise. "Oh, thanks, Ellen," she replied with a smile. "I just wanted to, you know, try something new, I guess."
I nodded. "So, what'cha doing?"
She gestured to the wall with a grand sweep of her arm. "I've sort of been doing a little project this whole time," she admitted somewhat shyly. "I took candids of everyone doing things, and then while we were in NYC I got them printed. So no one knew they were being photographed, but I managed to get some pretty good stuff."
My eyes widened as I scanned over the wall. The pictures were amazing- there were some of Noah pressed up to the glass at the aquarium, one of me talking to Kale on our scavenger hunt. There were particularly good ones of all of us at the concert, eyes squeezed shut was we danced to whatever song was on.
"Wow, Ev," I murmured. "These are gorgeous."
"I'm glad you like them," she replied. "But I'm not done yet, I want you to see it when it's finished. So if you don't mind..."
I gave her a final smile as I pulled the door shut and padded down the hallway to my own room. So far, it was pretty empty, but I had great plans for what I was going to do with it. I figured I'd paint the walls a charcoal grey and redo the creaky floorboards, and then I'd spice it up with splashes of color here and there. A flowerpot on the dresser, a framed canvas on the wall, things like that.
The best part about my room by far was the view. The woods outside were absolutely breathtaking. Regal pine trees stood starkly against a sky-blue backdrop. Everything was coated with a layer of white, but I could only imagine catching glimpses of butterflies in the summer or baby rabbits in the spring.
"So this is it huh?," Noah said suddenly, joining me by where I was standing at the window. "The end of our trip, the end of our legacy, the end of one crazy-ass memory."
It wasn't the end, though. It was a whole new beginning.
(A/N): sorry this is so bad omg. I can't wait to edit everything, I'm going to add POC and lots of other stuff, make my cast a lot more diverse. dedicated to @-StarrySky- for being my longest reader. Thanks for reading the last chapter, I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for the epilogue!