ALEXIS MAXWELL
It's now Friday night. I finished my classes a while ago and am now about to board a plane to New York. Like I had discussed with Andrew I am going to go back to New York for tonight and tomorrow and I will be back in California tomorrow at some point.
We have already talked about it and he said that he'll pick me up from the airport and then from the airport we will go back to his parent's house.
I am still not the biggest fan of going to his family's house for Christmas but I get along with all of his family so hopefully everyone that is there won't mind my presence.
"Last call for anyone boarding flight nine-hundred-and-sixteen, anyone boarding flight nine-hundred-and-sixteen please make your way to gate forty-two." The typical airport announcer says.
I grab my small bag and make my way to gate number forty-two. Walking through the gate I walk through the metal detector and once I'm clear I make my way outside to the plane. I step up and keep walking until I get to my seat 'fourteen A.' I'm sitting on the aisle seat because of my claustrophobia.
I was pretty early to board is there are a lot of people coming on after I did. As the other two people in my row get in I stand up for them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. If you haven't already done so, please stow your carry-on luggage in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you. Please take your seatbelt and fasten it. Also, please make sure that your seats and food trays are all of the way up.
If you are seated next to an emergency exit please read the special instructions card located by your seat. If you do not wish to perform these during the event of an emergency exit please ask a flight attendant to reseat you.
We would like to remind you that this is a non-smoking flight Smoking is prohibited on the entire aircraft, including the laboratories. Tampering with, disabling, or destroying supplied smoke detectors is prohibited by law.
If you have any questions about your flight today, please don't hesitate to ask one of your flight attendants. Thank you and enjoy your flight."
Once the flight attendant finishes her typical speech that they make before take-off it's about twenty-five minutes until we leave the ground.
I pull a book out of my bag. I'm currently rereading 'a fault in our stars. I get to about chapter seventeen when I decided to take a short nap.
I feel myself being shaken awake and forget where I am for a minute. I look at who was shaking me awake and see an older woman sitting next to me.
"We're about to leave the plane, dear." She says and I give her a soft smile and say "thank you." I grab my small suitcase from the overhead bin and start pushing it in front of me as we exit the plane.
Almost as soon as I step off of the plane I then text one of my step-brothers, the one that I am staying with, Daniel.
—
Alexis: Hey, I just landed. Let me know when you get here.
Daniel: I'm already here, are you by the doors to come out?
Alexis: Yeah, I'll find your car. About where are you parked?
Daniel: I am in lot 28. I'll look for you.
—
I spot Daniels's car almost right away and walk over to it. I walk over and see him getting out of the car.
He pulls me into a hug and I hug him back. "Come on, we'll talk when we get to my house." He tells me as we get into his car. His house is less than ten minutes away from the airport so that would be pretty soon.
About fifteen minutes I'm sitting in Daniels's living room with him, his wife Leana. They also have three children who are sitting on the floor playing with their toys. The kids are Elijah who is ten, William who is seven, and Thomas who is six.
"How have you been sweetheart?" Leana asks me. "I've been a lot better. I'm still extremely sorry for what I did right after dad and your mom died. To this day I have been having an extremely hard time with everything." I try to explain myself to the two people sitting across from me.
"I know this doesn't accept what I did. But I'm still really sorry about everything." I tell them. This of course does not excuse what I did but I feel really bad about everything.
"We understand. All of us do. You are only twenty years old. You lost your last living parent and even your mom-mom who was a very important mother figure in your life." Daniel tells me. It makes me happy that even though I messed up they forgave me for my mistakes.
"This didn't have too much to do with me, but I still want to say something. When you left the guys weren't mad that you left. They were upset that you have to go through this without any family, and on the other side of the country." Leana says to me. I love all of them and all of their wives.
"Are you hungry?" Do you want to eat something for dinner? We have leftovers from earlier." Leana asks me, probably trying to change the conversation to something that isn't so sad.
We walked into the kitchen and me and Leana are sitting at the dining room table while Daniel was getting me a little bit of food.
I had offered to do it but both of them said that I am the guest so I shouldn't have to do it.
Daniel comes over holding a white glass plate and placed it down on the table in front of me. "Thank you." I smile and nod at him and he smiles back before leaving. After Daniel left to check on his kids it was just me and Leana in the kitchen.
I would not say that we are close friends, but we have each other on social media and everything. "So, who is this Andrew guy?" Leana asks me with a raised eyebrow, making me blush.
"Andrew is my boyfriend." I tell her. There's no point in lying about it because it's true, and it's not like I'm embarrassed about being with him.
"How long have the two of you been together?" Leana asks me, putting her hand onto her chin in a thinking motion.
"Not too long. He asked me out over thanksgiving break and then he asked me to be his girlfriend about a week later." I tell her, thinking back to that day.
"You guys are so cute together, ah young love." She says making a chef's kiss motion at the end. "Seriously? Morally less than ten years older than me." I say. She always makes me sound so much younger than her in when I'm reality I'm not.
"How did you meet him?" She asks me, seeming interested. "Well, I know that you have met my two friends, Alexis and Ariana," I say, starting on how we met and she nods at what I had said.
"Well both of them are dating their boyfriends, Xavier and Oliver. Andrew is Xavier and Oliver's best friend.
For the longest time Ariana and Amelia, although mostly Ariana had been trying to get me to go out with him. Eventually, we randomly got paired up Andrew was forced to do a project together. After that, a lot of hanging out with the group leads us to where we are now." I tell her the rest of the story with a soft smile.
"That's so cute. Ah, college romance. Does he play any sports?" She asks me. She is probably asking because we always both read romance novels and she tries to figure out what people's lives would be like as a romance novel.
"Yeah, he plays basketball." I simply tell her.
"So, right here with you and lover boy, you have a college and sports romance." She says making some shake my head with laughter.
"I'm sorry, you have a boyfriend?" Daniels walks- or stomps back into the kitchen and asks me.
"Yeah?" I say although it comes out sounding like more of a question. "No way. You are way too young to have a boyfriend." Daniel says to me as if he didn't have his first kid when he was twenty-two.
"Are you serious? When you were my age you were already with Leana. You had a kid like two years later and were engaged already.
I've had a boyfriend for like two weeks and suddenly that's the end of the world?" I angrily question him while walking out of his and Leana's house.
--
I never liked walking through a graveyard. It's always been creepy and I have always hated doing it, but I never had to.
Now, I have to face my fears because my dad was here and I needed to talk to him. Walking up to his and my step-moms gravestone I sit down next to his, leaning my back against it.
"I'm sorry that it took me so long to come and visit you. It's been hard for me, but I miss you so much.
If your up there, down there, wherever you could be that you hear me I hope that you are doing okay.
I hope that you and mom got reunited. I miss you so much and I can't help but think if your death is always going to be this painful for me.
I met a guy named Andrew. He is my boyfriend now. I love him more than I could have thought I would ever love someone. I wish that you could have met him before you died, or just not died at all. He treats me wonderfully and I can see myself being with him for the rest of my life.
I love you, dad. I will come back and visit again." I finish talking to him and stand up. I wipe any of the dirt that could have gotten on my butt off of me and start heading towards the parking lot. Too bad it can't always be empty.
It's now Saturday. After I yelled at Daniel yesterday I went for a walk around the neighborhood that he and his family live in before returning. We made up like we always do, and then I hung out with his family.
This morning I went out to breakfast with Daniela, Leana, and their kids. It was a very pleasant morning.
After we all ate breakfast I came down to the cemetery and talked to dad. My bag is already packed and ready to head back to California. I feel so much worse being in New York knowing that I'm only miles away from where my parents took their last breaths.
I take an Uber to the airport and pay the driver before heading inside. I have a little while to kill and decide to grab some Starbucks before heading onto the plane in a little bit. Walking up to the counter I smile at the cashier.
"Hi darling, what can I get for you?" The cashier asks me in a flirty tone. Ew. "Hi, can I just get a venti iced passion tango tea lemonade?" I ask the cashier who nods and types my order into the computer.
"Of course, that'll be seven-fifty-four." He says and I put my debit card into the chip reader. "Your drink will be at the other counter." He tells me with a smile and when he hands me my receipt he also handed me a napkin with a number on it.
Does he just keep these here for girls? Because I would have seen if he just wrote his number on it. I just roll my eyes and throw it away when being by the garbage can to throw away my receipt anyway.
Waiting a few minutes I hear someone put down a drink and see my name on it. I grab my tea and head to the terminal. While I was waiting for my drink to be made I heard the first call for my flight and decide that I will just head there now instead of waiting around doing nothing.
Once I'm all situated on the plane I called Andrew and told him that I was boarding now and would text him when I landed. I have been texting him the whole time that I've been in New York to let him know that I am okay.
After a while of waiting the typical flight attendant comes into the front of the plane and gives the speech that they always do.
After that is over its about twenty-five minutes until we are up into the air. I can't wait to be back home with Andrew.
I decided to read the other book that I brought since I finished the fault in our stars last night. I'm reading a mafia romance called 'bloodied hands' by Adelaide Forrest. So far it seems good.
After a while of reading that I fell asleep because the next thing I know I'm waking up to a wobbling landing on the runway.
I let out a small yawn and rub the sleep out of my eyes. I pull my suitcase down from the overhead pin and push out the wheels. I place it on the floor in front of me and walk towards the front of the plane. While walking down the steps I hold onto the railing and pull my phone out of my pocket once I'm inside of the airport.
I press Andrew's contact number to tell him that I'm inside.
"Hey, baby, are you inside yet?" He sweetly asks me as soon as I pick up the phone. "Yeah, I'm going to come to find you," I tell him, and after a little bit more of conversing we hang up the phone so that I can hang up the phone and make my way outside to look for him in the parking lot.
I find his car after walking around for a few minutes and head over. He was standing outside of the car on his phone- texting me I'm assuming because when he saw me he put his phone back in his pocket.
I walked up to him and stopped so I was standing right in front of him and pulled him down to me for a peck on the lips.
"I don't think so, baby. I haven't seen you in two days if you think I'm only getting a peck out of you then you are sadly mistaken." He said with a chuckle and pulled me down to him for another kiss.
We eventually get inside his car and make our way back to my dorm room. While I'm packing a suitcase, one that is a lot bigger than my one for thanksgiving I have him leave so that I can get ready. Before I get ready I grab the gifts that I got for him, his mom, and his dad. I then head into my bathroom to shower quickly and put on a pair of white tights with a cream-colored dress and some cream-colored boots.
After I'm dressed I tell him that he can come back in. For makeup, all I wore was some mascara with concealer and powder. After I finish that I straighten my hair and put it in a bun.
Shortly after I get ready and have everything packed we start making our way to his parent's house. I've been here before a few times so I knew about how far it was from campus. I was here when we told his mom that I was officially his girlfriend, and also for the Halloween party that he threw at his parent's house.
When we pull up in front of his parent's house I then realized how long I was zoned out for. We both step out of the car and he grabbed one of my bags for me.
"It's okay babe, I got it," I tell him while trying to grab my other bag out of his hand.
"It's okay, baby. I got it, let's head inside." He tells me and we go in. His parents and his oldest brother's family are the only ones already here and they went out, so until they get back it is only me and Andrew in the entire house right now.
"Do you want a guest room?" Andrew asks me. I'm surprised that he even asked me, knowing that we both sleep in one of our dorms most of the time.
"If you want me to sleep in one that's fine. I don't care though." I shrug. I can sleep with pr without him so to me it's not that big of a deal.
"Okay, you can stay in my room then." He tells me as we start walking to his room. I already knew where it was because we were hanging out in there the last time I was here before I went to the hospital.
"How are you feeling after visiting your dad this morning?" Andrew asks me and pulls me down so I'm laying with my head in his lap. He strokes my hair gently as I answer.
"I miss him so much. Talking to his grave, even though I don't particularly believe in heaven and hell, I think that he can hear me. So that helped me." I tell him and he nods sweetly at me.
"I think it's good that you were able to talk to him again." He tells me as we lay down, cuddling together.