Torn Asunder

Chapter 2 Dante

I felt kind of bad, watching mom and dad say goodbye and carry on. I know that that was kind of the point behind the waterworks; they wanted me to know that they would love nothing more than if I decided to stay. I could feel a grin spread across my face as I spotted my twin rolling her eyes at the theatricals our parents were putting on. Darrel's parents were bored and snobby looking while Abigal and Tyson's parents were excited to see them off. Only mine were acting like this was the first time I've ever been away from home. Our family has never been rich, so my passport is still barren compared to Darrel's, but I've been out of the country before. Just never to a different continent. It's going to be hellaciously epic.

I swept my twin up into a rib crushing hug. "Work on that project I set to you." I joked and she punched me in the arm. I'd told my twin she had to get laid, make her summer as memorable as mine would be. For some reason she thought that was highly inappropriate. And then she called me a mouth breathing caveman and walked past me to introduce herself to my friends. That wench left me to deal with our dramatic parents alone! Mom threw herself into my arms for another shirt soaking cry hug and I hugged her and kept repeating how I was going to be safe and wasn't my trip to Mexico on Spring Break a great example of how well I can handle myself. Of course Mexico for a week is entirely different than Europe for a summer, but she needed comfort right now. And only my friends and I knew that she was never allowed to learn of ANY of the things I got up to in Mexico or I'd be welded into an iron coffin before any of us could blink. There were things I wasn't even comfortable admitting to Valentine let alone my mom. Though those stories were the best bragging material around for my social life. For some reason just the term menage a trois sky rockets your cool factor amongst law students.

Finally our boarding sequence was called so with one last hug and kiss to my family, I walked towards my destiny. Actually I walked towards a seven and some odd hour flight that would land me in Heathrow, but that was neither here nor there. Darrel had gotten us the best seats on the little plane going to Mexico and those had been decent. These first class seats were something else entirely. I could have played football in the aisle or twister between the seats. Now this was the life. My obscenely comfortable couch reclined back as I sipped on my pop and watched whatever rom com the flight had planned. Tyson was at a diagonal to me and he was glaring at Darrel. Why you may ask, because my brilliant friend was flirting shamelessly with Abigal, Tyson's baby sister. She was a whole nine months younger than him, a fact that made us all view his parents with disgust and admiration, but her status as sister did not protect her from the predatory hunting that Darrel utilized. Actually I spent more of the trip running my own silent commentary about my friends than I did watching the movie.

Discovery Channel of the Dating World. Here's a rare specimen, the jerkus buffonus is displaying his mating colours for the female to see. She's a pretty bird, but his plummage is attracting the wrong attention because here comes a male relative! Oh! that isn't a pretty sight. The jerkus buffoonus has been repelled by the smaller but angry brotherim defendor. Looks like the young prettius girlus will be going home unescorted tonight. I grinned at my friends as Derrel was unceremoniously shoved out of his seat and sent to the one Tyson had vacated to defend his sister's honour. God this was going to be a great trip, especially if we got into as much trouble as I hoped.

Heathrow Airport is even bigger than you'd imagine. It's like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside in a way that defied physics. Tyson took us through quickly, having spent many hours travelling throughout these airports and soon enough we were boarding another airplane. This one was smaller than the ocean jumper we used to get here, and the flight was significantly shorter. I watched the entire flight out the window, stunned by the sharp blues and contrasting greens of the land we flew over. You can see the difference, the sheer age the cities held as we passed them by. Then we were landing and I set foot into France for the first time ever. Oh god the smells! There was the delicious aroma of hot bread and thick butter, the tang of a good red wine and the musky allure of chocolate. I felt stereotypical thinking all that but I was hungry and it's been a long, long day. Even though all we did was sit from Ottawa to Heathrow, then Heathrow to Charles-de-Gaulle, but it still took its toll. I don't think it was jet lag so much as hurry-up and wait syndrome.