Going Home

3. The (un)luckiest day

In the grocery store I take Mia's hand to make sure she stays with me and I won't lose her. We walk down the aisles to make sure we have everything we need for our cookies.

"Kat? Can we also get some M&M's?" she asks with the cutest expression on her face.

I smile at her and can't remember to think back to when I was that age. How I was care free and had absolutely nothing to worry about. "Sure honey, go grab them. I'll be right there with you. I'll just grab the eggs, okay?"

She nods her head and runs off to the aisle that holds all the sweets. It has been three years since I've been her, but I am not surprised to see nothing had changed here. I don't have to look around as I make my way to grab the eggs and then head back to the aisle with the sweets.

I step into the aisle and I look up just in time to the scene playing in front of me. Mia runs up to someone I know all too well and gives him a big bear hug. He replies by picking her up and spinning her around.

The aisle fills itself with the sound of Mia's giggles. "Ian, set me down!" he spins her around one more time and right then and there my eyes lock with Mia's. "Kat! Help me!" she squeals and Ian stopped dead in his tracks.

He sets Mia down and she runs over to me pulling my hand. "Kat, this is Ian. He usually watches me when mommy or daddy can't." She pulls me over to where Ian is standing and stops when I stand right in front of him.

I slightly dare to look up and I see Ian carries the exact same shocked expression on his face as I think mine does. "Well hello there, Katherine. That certainly has been a while. To be honest I never thought I would see you back here in Wade Valley ever again."

His eyes are cold and I have never ever seen them like that, at least, not directed to me. "Well, I'm sure you know my dad is getting married soon. Wouldn't want to miss that." I replied politely, but I can't help but wonder where his cold demeanor comes from.

Of course you know, you left him remember? The voice in my head remembers me.

"Anyways, Mia and I should go. We have some cookies to bake, so if you would excuse us," I say as I grab Mia's hand. "Come on sweetie, let's go home and bake those cookies, shall we?"

She just nods her head and walks with me to the cash register. Somewhere along the way she turns around to wave at Ian before we turn we pay for our groceries and go home.

-

We're sitting on the couch in the living room watching a movie while we wait for the cookies to bake in the oven. I was about to pay a visit to the restroom when the sound of the doorbell rings through the house. So I walk up to the door and open it. I'm not going to lie. I am tempted to close the door immediately when I see who stands there. "What are you doing here?" I hiss at him.

He looks at me with a slightly amused expression. "Funny, I would have thought that after three years you would have changed. Never would I have expected that you're still the same Katherine who I knew back then."

I sigh and lean into the doorframe. "What do you want Ian? I understand you're not happy to see me back here, and trust me. I'm not jumping up and down to be here either. But can we just be grown-ups about it and deal with it?"

He looks inside the house, glancing over my shoulder and sees Mia is still completely sucked into the movie. "Can we at least talk about it all?" he asks and somehow I find myself stepping aside so he can come in. I close the door after he steps in and walk into the kitchen to check on the cookies.

I open the oven and see that the cookies are ready to be removed from the oven. I grab a kitchen towel to prevent my hands from burning and grab the tray where the cookies are lying on. Somehow I lose my balance while reaching for the tray and my hand collides with the edge of the oven.

I quickly take out the cookies and open the water tab to cool my hand. That's going to be a blister. It took me till now to realize Ian is standing next to me. He takes my hand in his to examine it. "That's going to be a nasty burn." He says and places my hand under the water again but not letting go.

"So I take that as a hint that you did go to med school?" I ask, desperate to get the attention away from me. I remember him trying to get into med school, but I haven't been around long enough to actually know if he achieved that goal.

He just nods his head and sits down at the dining table. I decide to sit on the counter while cooling my hand under the water tab. Then a thought crosses my mind. What is it that he wants to talk about? But before I could ask him that question he opens his mouth to speak up.

He looks me directly in the eye as he asks me his question. "Why, Kat? Why did you leave? And more importantly, why didn't you tell me what was going on? We were friends, in fact I believe we were more than that. Or at least I thought we were. And here I stood, knocking on your front door to pick you up and I heard from your dad you and your mom left."

The question took me by surprise and I am glad I was sitting on the counter by now. He thought we were more than friends? He wanted to be more than friends?

I sigh to myself before I give him an answer to his question. "I didn't tell you about what was going on because I didn't know. The one minute everything was fine and the next minute my mom is telling me she and my father are getting divorced. We left for Florida that same night. I graduated there and then moved to New York to study there." There is more to the story but I really don't want to talk about it and I just hope he wouldn't ask about it more.

Of course, with the luck I've had today he decides to continue the matter. "Then why didn't you stay with your dad? You had your life here, your friends, and your school! You had everything here and yet you moved all across the country!"

I close the water tap and hop of the counter to close the door. Mia doesn't have to be a part of this, it is complicated enough as it is already. I turn around to face him again and I am surprised to bump into him. "Why, Kat? Why didn't you stay?"

We're standing really close to each other and it is starting to feel a little awkward so I take a step back. "I didn't stay because I couldn't, okay? Can you please leave it at that? I don't want to talk about it!" I say and step away further from him.

I look up expecting to see him look angry, but instead his face carries an amused smile. "It's good to see that there are things that will never change. Never talk about what's bothering you, right? Never say what you feel. Just so you know Kat? Sometimes change is for the better." He says and without another word he walks out of the kitchen, out of the house.

I sit down at the dining table, rest my elbows and on the tabletop and let my head rest in my hands. Tears stream down my face as the memories I tried so hard to forget, come rushing back like it all happened yesterday.

I am so caught by all the memories that I don't hear Lillian come back in. She comes in through the backdoor that leads straight from the backyard to the kitchen. "Kat, honey? What's wrong? Where's Mia?"

I look up at her and wipe the tears from my face. "Mia's in the living room watching a movie." She looks at me with a worried and caring expression on her face. She then sits down on the chair next to me and starts rubbing my back in a circular motion.

"This is the second time today I see you cry. Is there anything you want to talk about?" she asks careful not to overstep any boundaries. She's aware that she isn't my real mother and I appreciate that. Not that me and my mom are close or anything. We're the contrary.

I just shake my head. "It hurts too much to talk about it." I let out a humorless laugh. Who am I kidding? It hurts enough to just be back here. This was exactly why I didn't visit here once in all those three years.

Lillian takes my hand, a gesture that makes me look up at her immediately. "Honey, please know you can talk to me. It can't be good for you to keep all this hurt and sadness bottled up. And if you can't talk about it to me, talk to you father, a friend. I don't care, but what you're doing now is tearing you up."

I give Lillian a small smile before I take a cookie and walk to the front door. "Can you please tell Mia the cookies are finished? I really need to go somewhere right now."

"Sure, make sure to be home before dinner. There are people coming over tonight." She says and with that I walk out of the front door and walk around town mindless.