Haven Harbor • a.i. •

Chapter 37

The moment I had walked through the doorway of my own house I felt like the world had been returned to normal.

Ashton's mom had been so sweet as to drop Ender and I off at the ferry this morning, giving us tight hugs goodbye. When we had arrived at Haven Harbour, I'd called Mrs. Rodriguez to pick us up since we didn't have our bikes, and she took us straight to the marina.

We picked up Bear from the Riley's house and assured them I was fine before finally making it home.

The sofa looked so inviting and I threw myself on it, letting out a dramatic sigh.

It felt so absolutely relieving to be back in the presence of my own house and my own town.

Everything looked exactly like it had when I had left on the boat, my phone on the counter included.

Forcing myself off of my sofa I made my way upstairs, checking in Ender's room where he was pulling folders and colouring books Ann had brought him out of his back pack, and then continuing to the bathroom.

I took a hot shower, still feeing the hospital grime on me, and used almost an entire bottle of body wash. My skin was red when I got out but I felt much better.

When I got to my room, yellow towel wrapped around me, I figured out quickly that I had no clothes. In my absence I hadn't been home to do laundry so all of my tee shirt, shorts, and pyjamas were dirty.

"Seriously?" I whined and was about to just go for the dirty tee on the top of my clothes hamper when I got an idea.

Bending down I opened the drawer that I had cleaned out a couple weeks ago for Ashton to keep his stuff in when he was here. He had left a tee shirt and pair of basketball shorts on one of his trips and somehow they had gotten mixed into my laundry and I discovered it when I went to fold my clothes.

I had placed them in the drawer and was planning on suggesting the idea when he came back this weekend, but I was in desperate need of clothing so I went for it and put them on, making a note to wash them and put them back before he got back.

The black tee shirt with two of what I assumed were intentionally cut holes by the collar smelled like his cologne and when I put in on it almost felt as if he was holding me.

Putting my hair up into a high ponytail I jogged downstairs to start the mile high pile of laundry.

In my absence a lot of things that needed to be done were obviously not so I knew this next week would be super busy.

"Hey End, I need to go into town real quick, wanna come?" I called up the stairs and he came running down a few seconds later.

"Yeah." He said and I grabbed my shoes before going out to the bikes.

I made sure to lock Bear in the house so he couldn't run off and then mounted my bike.

First on my list was going to the bank so I could withdraw the money from my car savings account so I could then go to the mortgage office down the street and pay off last months house payment.

After that I stopped by the post office to retrieve the mountain on envelopes that had gathered throughout the week and after that the grocery store.

When Ender and I finally made it home we had someone waiting for us.

Ari was leaning against the wall outside the house, a strange look on her face.

"Hey." I said when we arrived and she gave me a quick smile.

"Hi, how are you feeling?"

"I'm great." I answered truthfully and unlocked the door, Bear jumping up from where he was laying and coming over to say hi.

Ender helped me bring in our groceries and mail and I began to clean out the fridge.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked Ari and she perched herself on an empty space on the counter.

"I have something to show you." She said weirdly, biting her lip.

"Why does that not sound good?" I asked, leaning back against the opposite counter and crossing my arms across my stomach.

"Because, I don't know if you'll want to see it or not." She shrugged.

"Is it that bad?"

"Well it's not great."

"Show me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay." She sighed and pulled her phone from her pocket. She took a few seconds to find what she was looking for before tossing me her phone.

I glanced down at the screen and my stomach dropped, my eyes widening and jaw falling open.

"Is this for real?" I snapped my head up to Ari, who nodded her head yes.

"Oh my god." I whispered, looking down at the nauseating sight before me.

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Wow okay I know this chapter was short but I'm posting another one in like 5 minutes so don't be angry with me and it's longer than this one I swear!!