Swish

.36

"Is she going to be okay? She's shaking."

"She'll be fine. She just needs to warm up, isn't that right, Virginia? Hey, can you hear me?"

I shoved Jared's hand out of my face.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Where are we going?"

I gazed out of the car window, only able to see two feet in front of us in the spitting rain.

"Back to our-well, your house, I guess."

"Why? I was paying my respects to my mom. I wasn't ready to leave yet," I started to argue, but Sara beat me to the punch, still somehow looking immaculate with her blonde hair pulled back into a coiffed bun and pearl earrings and necklace shining brightly against her neck, even in the shadowed lighting of the car in a thunderstorm.

I was seated in the back of Sara's car, much like I was an errant child and her and my ex boyfriend were my parents. What a fucked up visual that gave me, not to mention the last time I was in the back seat of a car and two parents were in the front seat...

"It can be your house. You want it? I sure as hell don't."

"You...don't want the house? At all? But we grew up there! My mom-"

"I didn't grow up there, not really."

I grew up in the back of a car, much like the one I had just been shoved into. I didn't want to be there, I didn't want anything to do with this 'family' of mine, nor her nosy boyfriend that kept shooting worried glances back at me like he had any right to be concerned over my wellbeing anymore. None of them did.

Maybe I was being petty, or difficult, or both, but did I give a single fuck in that moment? Not a one.

"You can drop me off at the airport. I don't want to be here anymore."

"But-Virginia, I am so sorry what happened to your father, but-"

"I'm not. He dug his own grave."

Literally. In more ways than one.

"You can't mean that. He was your father, and he was like one to me. I can't believe that he's really gone. My mom is a total wreck, and I don't know where we're going to live. He left everything to you."

"You can have the house. I don't want that place. Have someone draw up the papers and I'll have my lawyers look them over and I'll sign it over to you. I already told you, I don't want it."

"You'd...you'd really do that? Even after how horrible I--we were to you?"

"I don't make it a habit of reliving the past. You all leave me alone, you get the house. Sound good?"

Jared made a move to turn onto the highway back towards the airport, or so I was hoping, and Sara looked at him incredulously.

"Are you serious? She probably has all her stuff at a hotel somewhere. We should be taking her back there."

"Actually, that's a good idea. I can get a car service to the airport when the storm blows over. Plus, I have to sign some stuff with lawyers in a few hours anyway. My hand is going to fall off with how much shit they're making me sign."

Was it normal to feel this...numb? I had a sudden urge to write. And then an idea struck me.

"Hey, did my--Mike ever mention anything about my old music stuff? Like old journals with songs in them, or my monitor and recording equipment? I know he hid a bunch of it from me, but there are some of my favorite songs I've ever written in there, and I don't want to lose them," I asked Sara.