Chapter Fifteen: 3AM Visit
After working out for hours, I went back to my apartment to take a shower. I had salad for dinner and now I'm sitting on the couch flipping through the channels, still completely pissed off.
I'm not going to be disrespected like that.
Stressed, I get up and walk to the kitchen.
Although I want some red wine, I decide to settle for beer.
I pop off the tab with the edge of the counter and sit down back on the couch, flipping through the channels until I start going through the Netflix guide.
I settle on White Collar, and drink the entire beer, watching the show until well after three in the morning.
I probably just won't sleep tonight.
I rest my head against the couch pillow and pull the blanket over me, and my eyes start to get heavy so I pause the show, and right before I drift off, somebody knocks on my apartment door.
I force my eyes open, blinking a few times.
It was probably the TV.
But somebody knocks again.
"What the hell?" I grumble.
I push the blankets off of me and walk over to the door. I unlock the deadbolt and pull the door open.
The dim light in the hallway illuminates the faces of my visitors.
I blink a few times to make sure I'm seeing them correctly.
It's my eighteen year old brother and sixteen year old sister.
"What on earth-do Mom and Dad know you're here?"
"No." Liam says, and then he walks into my apartment, his eyes wandering around. "I don't want you to leave the family. You're my sister."
"Yeah well, that sucks." I sigh. "You guys realize is Mom and Dad find out-"
"You're twenty three, not thirteen." Claire says. "We're with our grown ass sister, who is more successful than our parents."
"Okay, but you are underage." I say. "I'm not getting in trouble for the shit you two are pulling." I shoot back. "I love you guys, but Mom and Dad are going to think I fucking kidnapped you."
"I'm texting Mom." Liam says. "I'll tell her we're staying here."
"I work in like, six hours, alright? You guys need to just go back to Grandma's."
"No, not until you agree to join the family again." Claire says.
I run my hands through my messy blonde hair.
"You guys don't get it." I say. "And you probably never will. It's too complicated. Everyone there thinks that I'm still doing drugs. I don't want that kind of negative energy in my life. I'm finally in a really good, really healthy place, and I don't need them asking me who I'm talking to every single day. What I do with my phone and my life is my business, it's not anybody elses."
"I get that." Liam says. "But Mom and Dad aren't trying to be that way, they love you and they're concerned."
"Well, until they prove it, I just..." I trail off. "I just don't know what to tell you."
"Cutting off the family means cutting off us." Claire says quietly. "Maybe not both of us, but me, at least until I turn eighteen."
I look down.
"I don't want that, but they want me to move to Utah. I'm not going back there. Why can't you just FaceTime me until you can come visit?"
"Even when I turn eighteen, I won't be able to afford to come visit."
"I'll pay for you." I say. "And I know it's going to be hard, but if you guys care about me at all, you'll try to understand."
"Fine." Claire whispers. "So I won't see you for two years."
I sigh.
"But I want you to promise me something."
I pause.
"What is it?"
"If you meet somebody and he's great and the only thing holding you back from giving into him is your past, let yourself go. Give in. Give yourself a chance to be happy. Love is a risk, but it's one worth taking."
I sigh slowly.
It hurts me that everyone I know is holding on to the hope that I'm going to find love.
But they don't understand.
I don't want love. I enjoy being alone.
_____
So this chapter was a little bit on the shorter side, sorry for that.
Another time skip next chapter, I'm sorry that there are so many, but good things are coming :)
~Sam