It had been amazing to go home, and finally get to see my family again.
Aside from that, though, I was also thankful for the fact that an opportunity to be at home meant that I got some free space away from my frantic studying, of literary classics, and historical authors.
As much as I enjoyed learning about all of these topics, I also enjoyed spending time with my family, the people that mattered most to me, a whole lot more.
It was also just great to be able to see my cat, Gail, again. She was a ginger tabby and she was absolutely adorable. Nobody could change my mind on such matters and they would never be able to, and I stood by that.
It had also been awesome to spend some time with my sister, too, but I had yet to mention the whole Lily debacle to her.
I was just curious as to whether the girl liked me or not.
She gave a lot of mixed signals at times.
I supposed that was just how she liked to keep things interesting.
However, it confused the hell out of me.
Either way, I was glad to have my family around.
It meant that I could have more of Steven's amazing Greek cooking, which I was always incredibly thankful for, of course.
I was convinced that my father should have just switched his occupation to being a chef, but he didn't appear to think the same.
He did earn good money in his business job, though, so I supposed he didn't want to give that up.
"What's up, scrub?" Violet asked me, as she wandered into my room and began to look through my wardrobe.
I just looked towards her, with an incredulous expression.
"What are you doing?" I asked her, rubbing at my still partially sleepy eyes.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going out later today. I want that black crop top," she stated, then.
"Vi...it's like nine degrees outside," I stated.
"So?" she asked, widening her eyes at me.
"Okay, okay," I said, exhaling in subtle irritation.
The things I do for this girl.
I looked through the wardrobe, and eventually took the top out to pass it to her.
"Thank you. You're great," she told me.
"Just don't get...anything on it, okay?" I asked her.
"Sure!" Violet stated.
She was a notoriously messy eater, and given that painting was one of her hobbies, I didn't hold out much hope on this one.
"You know, you can rely on me, right? It sort of offends me that you don't think you can," she replied, "So sensitive."
"I'm not sensitive," I replied, then.
Sensitive to the emotions of others, maybe.
"Oh please, Selina. You totally are," she told me.
I just gave a dramatic roll of my eyes in response to that.
"Do you need anything else?" I inquired.
"Nope. This should be all for now. Thanks again, Sel! You're the best!" she told me, and then proceeded to head out of my room.
I just pinched the bridge of my nose, and proceeded to clean up the mess of clothes on the floor that had occurred when Violet had been sifting through my things.
Once I was done, I headed downstairs to find my mother, with a mug of coffee.
"Hey mum," I greeted her.
She turned to me and smiled.
"Hi, Selina!" she said.
"It's good to see you in a good mood," I told her.
"Yeah! It's probably the meds," she stated, "I think we finally got my dosage right," she stated.
I gave a nod in agreement with that.
"That's good, mum," I stated, as I hugged her briefly, making sure not to accidentally lead her to spilling the coffee on either one of us.
"I thought so too," Jacqueline replied.
"So, how's things been going?" I asked her.
She smirked.
"Well, I've started looking for jobs again," she said.
My mother hadn't been working in some time, due to mental health reasons, but it was good to see that she was getting back on her feet.
I had been slightly anxious to come and see my family again, given that my mother's mood could be very unpredictable at times, but it had been a blessing to come home and find that she was doing a little better.
Aside from that, she had been incredibly supportive of the whole university thing.
"That's cool, mum! I'm proud of you," I told her, with a sincere expression.
"And I, you, honey," she told me, as she placed the mug down for a moment, probably because her drink was still hot, and then kissed my forehead.
I felt my eyes flutter closed for a second, just embracing this moment in time.
I met my mother's green eyes and noticed the warmth in them, as I tucked some hair behind my ear, and proceeded to go and get myself some bread to make toast with.
"You know...I know we weren't doing great, Selina, and I'm happy now more than ever that we're talking again- that we're on good terms again," she stated.
I turned to her then with an appreciative expression.
"Me too, mum," I told her, "I'm really glad."
She just smiled back at me, again.
I felt the shift in the air, as though it had become a little brighter and warmer because my mother was doing better.
I'm sure that my father was probably pleased with this, too.
When my mother's mental health had gotten to a fairly low point, he had single-handed tried to help her as much as possible, because Violet and I had been on a family vacation, and come home to witness our mother had been checked into a psych ward.
It had been a dark time for all of us, but especially my mother, which was why it was now such a relief to be in the knowledge of a much happier version of her. I was thankful that I got to see that, too.
"I love you, Sel," my mother stated then, and I noticed that her eyes had glossed over a little, as she ran a hand through her dark brown hair.
"Hey, mama. I love you too," I told her, as I just wrapped my arms around her, for a second, feeling happier in the moment.
I really did miss her back at university.
I hoped that my mother and I would be able to build our relationship back up to how strong it had been.
It looked as though we were getting off to a good start, though.
Steven then wandered into the room to join the both of us, with a sweet smile upon his face, and a warmth in those deep brown eyes of his.
"How are my two favourite girls doing?" he asked us.
"Don't let Violet hear you say that," I chuckled.
My dad just smirked.
"She knows I'm just kidding. I love all of you," he stated, before wandering over to grab me into a quick hug.
Soon enough my toast popped out, and I began to spread some Nutella on it.
Nutella was honestly a gift from the gods, and no you could not change my mind on this one.
"I love you too, dad," I said, as he placed a finger in the Nutella and dabbed some on my nose.
I sighed.
"Even when you do things like that," I stated, grabbing a tissue and wiping it off.
"You looked cute, then," Jacqueline said, then.
"Just then?" I replied.
She smiled, with amusement lighting up her eyes.
"With the Nutella on your nose, you looked like a kitten or something," Jacqueline stated.
I just released a soft laugh.
"You're weird. Both of you," I stated.
My dad just shrugged.
"It's why you love us," he stated.
I raised an eyebrow at him, as he pinched my cheek.
"Sure," I replied, folding my arms in front of my chest.
"You know you do," he said.
He was right, of course.
I began to eat up my toast and just savoured the perfect taste of the Nutella for a moment, before placing the bread back in the fridge, and the Nutella back into the cupboard.
"I think I'm going to go and do some gardening for a bit," Jacqueline stated, then, and began to head outside into our beautiful garden.
My father, Violet and I had planted some flowers, back in the summer, in an attempt to cheer my mother up, and I assumed that it had worked, because she now seemed to adore that garden, and wanted to take care of it whenever the opportunity to do so cropped up.
Violet soon wandered into the kitchen, now with my crop top on and dark denim jeans, too.
"Hey losers," she said, "Kidding, dad," she stated quickly.
"Hi lovely sister. How are you doing?" I asked her.
She smiled.
"Pretty well, I suppose," she stated, "I'm going to go and study with a girl at the library later, but first- dad, is there anything that needs doing around the house?"
"What's this I see here? Violet actually being productive and helpful?" I inquired.
She narrowed her eyes, and simply mimicked my question.
"You could join me, punk," she stated, "I want to start looking at holidays later, too," she said.
"Ooh! I can help with that," I said.
"Me too!" Steven chipped in, cheerfully.
My father was always supportive of whatever Violet and I wanted to do.
It was one of his best qualities, and one of my favourite things about him.
"Sounds good," Violet stated then, as an appreciative grin became apparent on her face.
"Well, you're welcome," I said to her.
She just stuck her tongue out at me in response to that.
Violet headed away, to go and get started on her studying.
In the meantime, with my father and I together for some time, he invited me out to help work on his new car.
My dad had decided to start up his own business, making and selling cars for people, and just fixing them up, too.
So far, it was going fairly well, but he still wanted to increase his customer margin.
"Maybe you should drop out and come join me? We can be the Cooper family business," dad suggested.
I just smirked at him.
"There's an idea," I stated, as I began to get some car polish out, and moved it over the red surface of the car, in order for it to become incredibly shiny, as the sun beamed down upon it.
"It's a weird day," my dad said, as he glanced up at the sky.
"Any chance of an alien invasion?" I asked him.
That had always been one of our favourite games to play with each other. I would ask my dad if there was a chance of an alien invasion, and he would start mimicking one, like, "What do you mean? The aliens have always been here."
"I wouldn't say so today. I'm sort of wondering about your sister, though," he stated.
I released a gentle laugh.
"Hey, I don't know what happened with Violet, honestly. You're quite happy to come and help me fix up cars while..." he trailed off.
"We've been over this, dad. Violet would much rather fix up her nails, and that's okay," I stated.
Steven chuckled.
"I suppose you're right," he said then.
I smiled towards him.
"It's good to have you back home, kid," he told me.
"And it's good to be back, dad," I replied, with a sincere smile.
It really was.