Break In My Heart

54. Tyler and Addi: Minute By Minute

The warmth of Florida was a stark contrast to the coldness that consumed New York. Despite the fact that it was the middle of March, New York was thawing out slower than a frozen chicken, whereas Florida seemed as if "winter" and "cold" were two words that simply didn't exist.

"Are you excited, Addison?" My Papa asked me as he looked at me through the rearview mirror. His voice, however, was low seeing that Azalea, Adryan, and Emerson had just gone to sleep after waking up impossibly early for the plane ride.

"Yeah," I said as I looked out the window. The look on Papa's face told me he didn't 100% believe me, and I couldn't blame him. Of course I was excited to be in Florida. I'd never really been anywhere other than New York and South Carolina, so anything would be a welcomed change of scenery, but I felt a tug of guilt in my chest. Florida was Tyler and I's dream, together. But, I hadn't heard much from him since the court stuff with his mom kicked off. It even got to the point that our "I love you" texts went from nightly texts, to every other day, to barely twice a week. I tried not to take it personally, God, it would be selfish of me if I did, but I couldn't help but feel like we were being pulled apart by the ever-present hands of the universe.

But, since I didn't have the option of going to visit him in Louisiana over spring break, I choose the next best place that would make me feel close to him, especially to celebrate the great news that I'd been accepted into Northwestern, the best school out of all of the schools I'd applied to that released their decisions thus far, with a pretty hefty scholarship.

In an effort to distract myself from the whirlwind of thoughts that were ripping me apart inside, I took in Tampa's beauty. Everything about it felt so familiar yet so foreign. The tall buildings and people walking the streets reminded me of New York, but the beautiful clear sky and tall trees felt oddly... fantastical. It made me want to explore every nook and cranny of the city and make it my own as I had in New York.

Maybe that would be something Tyler and I would do together one day.

Before long, we pulled into the driveway of the house we'd rented for the duration of the break, and my God, it looked luxurious. The outside looked huge, even for a family as big as mine, so I bet the inside looked even bigger. A pleased look flashed across my Padre's face and I couldn't help the grin that tugged on the edge of my lips. My Padre always loved to do the most, and I couldn't fault him for it.

Padre turned to me. "Hey, Addi, wanna explore inside?"

I nodded before I unbuckled my seatbelt, careful not to nudge Azalea who was still very much knocked out. I hopped out of the car with him and we walked inside. He looked at his phone before punching in a code on the keypad next to the door. As soon as we walked in, my breath caught in my throat, causing Padre to chuckle. "You like it?"

I mutely nodded, still in awe. I was right: it was bigger on the inside than on the outside. From the foyer, it seemed like there was an infinite amount of directions I could walk in, so I simply started by walking straight. By the time I was done exploring, I found that there were 8 bedrooms, a whole theater room, two kitchens, a video game room, a living room as big as the kitchen and dining room of our apartment combined, a swimming pool that overlooked the bay, an outdoor entertainment set up, and a treehouse. Though I was grateful that my parents had put in so much work and effort to get us a place this nice as a celebration for my accomplishment, I was floored. Why was it so big? There was no way that the 6 of us alone could fill up all this space.

After I spent about 10 minutes trying to find my way back to the foyer, I made it as my dads were bringing in our bags with my still groggy siblings following closely behind. As soon as Adryan walked in, his eyes lit up, all dreariness absent from his eyes. "This is where we're staying?" He asked, his eyes full of wonder as he looked around.