Bea & the Broken Record

Chapter 28: Goodbye's Suck

I wanted to tell at myself. How was I supposed to fix everything? How could I deal with so much pressure and have the expectations of not going completely insane?

Bea hadn't talked to me in over a week. I slept on that thought every night and every night I regretted not calling or going to her that day. I called her - no answer. It was the same thing as not even trying.

Now, laying in my bed, I slept quietly but not peacefully. The ringer on my phone that lay next to my bed woke me right up. I wanted to think it was Bea calling me and telling me we were okay. We both had something to say and I wished she would just yell it at me. I sat up in bed and reached for my phone, ignoring the caller I.D and pressing answer.

"Hello?" I answered hopefully. My hopes sunk when I heard my dad's voice on the other end.

"It's about time you answered the phone. I've been calling for an hour," Dad exclaimed at me. I fell back in my bed and dropped my hand over my eyes to shield me from the world.

"Hey to you too, Dad," I sighed sleepily.

"How's it going, son?" He chuckled and I heard the phone move around meaning he was keeping busy.

"It's going," I mumbled. "We're leaving for New York in -" I peeked a look at my phone and saw it was close to the time to leave. "a few short hours."

"That sounds good. You're cutting it a little close, aren't you?" Dad chuckled and just shook my head. "You need to be careful, son. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." In most situations, I would be laughing because I knew my dad was crazy and would do just about anything. But, I wasn't. Because my dad was serious when he said that. He was always the good guy; the one that made sense of everything.

Don't get me wrong, the guy could have fun. But he had so much wisdom. He was the best teacher I could've ever had.

"I won't Dad, I promise," I told him as I sat in the edge of my bed, leaning into my elbows that rested on my knees.

"Now, I didn't call just to nag you and tell you to be careful. I called to tell you about your mom." His words woke me up more than I had been. What was going on with my mother?

"What? Is something wrong?" I immediately started to panic. How much could change over a few weeks? She was fine the last time I saw her...

"No, nothing is wrong. It's something good," he started. "She's pulling around, Ash. She's acting more normal ever since we got back. It's just little things she used to do when you and Brody were little, but I recognize them. The doctors wouldn't have been able to notice the things I have over the past few weeks. I think she' going to be okay." I could hear the emotion in his voice as he told me and I felt my heart beat faster at the happiness for my mom's recovery. It made me excited.

"That's the best news I've heard all week," I told him honestly. "Its so great, Dad."

"I can't wait for her to see you guys," he replied. "Well, I have to call your brother and tell him the good news, lay down some rules. I'll talk to you later, I love you." I could practically hear his smile.

"I love you too, Dad. Bye." I hung up the phone and tossed it behind me onto the bed.

It took me ten minutes to take a shower. I never really took long showers like that because I had other things to do. But now? I didn't want to leave a place with so many good memories and only a few bad ones. I would never find another place like that. With the same people.

After making myself smell good and look presentable for the plane we had to catch in over an hour, I made my way into my bedroom and looked at all the things I had packed up and ready to go. We didn't pack up absolutely everything since we'd most likely be coming back to get the rest.