Izan and Mist

Chapter 9 (Mist): I Quit

"What does that mean?" I asked him. "You made everything right?"

"It means exactly what I said, Mist. Got my head out of my ass, stopped trying to keep everyone happy and realized the only person whose happiness I need to concern myself with is you. Put family and friends on notice about the way things were going to be. And one of those things was we wouldn't be around if Yvette was and my sisters needed to straighten themselves out, otherwise, I was walking."

"You said that before. Or something like that."

"I know. And I didn't keep that promise and I lied to you about it. That won't be happening ever again. You freaked me out when you said you wanted me to leave forever and that made me take a hard look at how I'd been treating you."

"What about when Yvette calls? You don't think you'll go running back to her?"

"No, I know I won't be. I'd show you that she's blocked, but I deleted her contact."

"Someone like Yvette will find a way to get through to you, no problem."

"She can try, but I'm not going to respond."

"And how are you going to avoid her on family trips to Sevilla?"

"You and I will go by ourselves at a different time. Or we can travel to other places that we'd both like to see. I don't much care what we do as long as you're with me."

"You're just going to give up your family? Just like that?"

"If I have you, I'm not giving up my family. And I know you're talking about my parents and brothers and sisters, but if it means keeping you in my life, then yes, I'll give up everyone else in my life, whatever it fucking takes."

"Izan, I don't know how realistic that is. I know how much you love your family, and I can't see you just walking away from them."

"I can. I'm not saying it would be easy, Mist. Not at all, but compared to what my life would be like without you in it? I couldn't take that because I know you're the woman I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with, and I won't let anything interfere with that. You bore the brunt of it when I was trying to play on both Team Mist and Team Family -- it was a total clusterfuck. Now, I'm completely, one hundred percent on your team, as I should have been all along. If my family wants to see us, they'll start rooting for our team. Yours and mine."

"You can understand why I'm having trouble with this sudden turnaround, right?"

"Of course. You aren't in my head, so you don't fully understand the why behind it all and that makes it hard for you to believe what I'm telling you. That just means I need to work at proving I'm going to keep my word. Well, I'm not going anywhere and you'll believe in time."

"I want to believe," I said softly. "But you're right. It's going to take a while before I can know it's not just lip service and pretty lies."

That new song that had rocketed to the top of the charts had become my anthem in the last few days, and I'd been belting it out right along with the singer.

"That's more than fair, Mist."

A soft whirr behind me alerted me to my dad and Light pulling up in the electric golf cart. Just about every family on the commune had one because it made getting around easier.

"Heard you were here, Izan," Dad said when we both turned to him. "And I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're kind of in a time crunch. Don't know if there's any way you can help out, but Philo needs a brake job on the truck he uses to haul the livestock trailer for the rescues. He needs to pick up eight Highland calves first thing tomorrow morning for your grandmother, and he was expecting to have the weekend to work on the truck."