Chapter 24. Evie and I spent the rest of that Sunday just as we had planned, on our couch stuffing our faces with popcorn and candy as if we were at an actual theater

Evie and I spent the rest of that Sunday just as we had planned, on our couch stuffing our faces with popcorn and candy as if we were at an actual theater. I welcomed the refuge from my thoughts about my own life that were getting more and more complicated.

Later that evening, my mom called inquiring about my plans for Thanksgiving. I wondered aloud if she was serious, where else was I going to go? She then proceeded to tell me how I wasn’t the daughter that she raised, how she couldn’t believe that I could be so rude and unappreciative to the people who sacrificed everything for me… that was about the point I tuned her out. I wasn’t in the mood to really get into it with her so I just let her rant, and when she finished, I just said, “Okay, mom, you’re right. I’ll be there the day before and leave the day after. I gotta go study, see you then,” and hung up. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it forty two hours in her house. Yes, I had counted the hours. As far as I was concerned, it was going to be as close to torture than anything I had ever faced. I was depending heavily on my grandparents and my brother and his family to act as a buffer while I was there. I figured if things got too bad, I could always retreat to Evie’s house. For the first time since I had stood up to my parents, I began to second guess my actions. When I had envisioned the whole confrontation, there was much less yelling and much more understanding on their part. But since that wasn’t the way it happened, I was faced with these awkward family moments that I had never considered before.

After hanging up on her, I picked up my guitar and immersed myself in my music, reveling in the sweet release. It didn’t escape me that I had spent most of the day engaged in activities that kept me from focusing on questions I needed to answer about what I was doing and what I wanted. But I wasn’t quite ready to have that talk with myself, so I opted for more music and less thinking. I literally played until my fingers hurt, and then I showered and got ready for bed. I checked my phone one last time before laying my head on the pillow… nothing.

The next several days passed quickly with classes and time spent working on a History project I had due the following week. When I woke up Monday morning, I had a text from Ash waiting for me, wishing me a good morning and telling me that he had finally got the timing down for a song he had been working on. We had a quick exchange of messages, and miraculously, everything seemed to be back to normal with us, or back to pre-Friday since I really wasn’t sure what we were was really normal. Mason made my Tuesday by texting the following morning when I was in class, and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I later re-read our conversation.