Hello, Goodbye

Chapter Three

Emersyn woke up twelve hours later feeling viciously hungry but having nothing in the house to eat. She vowed to go to the grocery store first thing in the morning. And then she headed back to her room, where she slept for another six hours before finally feeling well rested. It was so early in the morning, and now she was ravenous. She got up and began searching through her grandma's old cabinets, hoping that there was something edible in them four years later. She found a can of chicken soup that had a sell by date of next year, so she popped the lid open and began heating it up on the stove.

While she was waiting for the soup to heat up, she searched for her phone and found it still in her sweater pocket from earlier. She pulled it out and found ten missed calls from her mom, four voicemails, and five texts. She checked the texts first, and saw that Kiel had called the water and electric companies to have them turn power and water back on at her grandma's house. Now her house. She shook her head at the thought. It was still strange to her that the house was hers now, even though she'd read the words on the folded piece of paper in her pocket probably a million times.

She went back to the soup, and the smell was so good that she made a mental note to thank Kiel for turning on the power for her. She hadn't even thought to do that, having been so tired when she first got home. While she was stirring the soup, she read the other messages, all from her mom. First one was a simple, "Where are you?" Second was, "Are you kidding me?" Third was, "Answer the phone, Emersyn." And the fourth was a long paragraph about how she couldn't believe she would just leave and not answer any of her calls. This got the blood in Emersyn's veins boiling. She knew she should listen to her voicemails too, but she decided against it and deleted all the ones from her mom. They would talk later, but on her terms. Right now, Emersyn wanted to just enjoy being home again.

She ate the soup like it was her last meal, and then headed back upstairs and began unpacking. It felt weird to be putting all of her things back in her drawers. It wasn't that long ago that she'd taken them all out. She remembered that day, even though for years she'd tried to forget it. Funny how memories you want to keep slip away, but the dark ones cling on like gum to the bottom of a shoe. Her grandma had been slipping away for a while, but after having a breakdown on the highway with Emersyn in the car, Kiel had done the only thing he could think to do. He called her mother. So at fifteen years old, she'd had to pack everything she'd known and leave the island that had been her only home to move to the big city.

A few times she'd begged her mom to let her come back, but it was like her mom wanted nothing to do with the place where she herself had grown up. Even though they were just a small distance away, Emersyn never came to visit. The only time she'd come back was during her grandma's wake a year ago, and even then her mom hadn't come. She'd been too busy with work and her new boyfriend to pay her respects. That was when things started to change. When Emersyn's feelings had shifted from wanting to gain her mom's approval, to hurt and rage at her mom for caring so little about the life she'd once had that she couldn't even be there when she was needed most.

The sun had completely risen by the time she'd finished setting up her easel and art supplies by her bedroom window. She checked the time on her phone and saw that it was 8am. Perfect time to run to the store and get groceries. She gathered up some clothes and toiletries from her bedroom and headed to the bathroom, hoping that a nice hot shower would help wash away the resentment she was holding onto. But after a couple minutes in the water it turned ice cold. She screamed and hopped out, almost slipping on the old bathroom rug in her hurry to be in the warmth again.

Reminding herself to tell Kiel about this later, she gave up on the shower and began blow drying her hair. Then she did her makeup, threw on a pair of ripped jean shorts, a green patterned tube top, and a fringed denim jacket with short sleeves. She threw her hair back in a long ponytail and grabbed a golden and green turban style headband to wear on top of her head. Then she slid on a pair of boots, some bangles, and headed to the garage, where she knew her old bike was waiting for her.