Fateful Hindrance

2. Why Yes, I Am Emotionally Unstable At The Moment

Chapter 2

Why Yes, I Am Emotionally Unstable At The Moment

 

 

When my hand didn’t curl around my keys in my bag, I quickly realized in the bitter cold that I didn’t have them.  How could I, when they’d been left back at school before being shipped back home, where they were probably sitting up in my room?  I was sure my parents wouldn’t mind me waking them up so early to open the door.  They would just be excited to see me. 

Dragging my luggage up the steps and stopping at the door, I lifted my finger and pressed down on the doorbell.  The chiming sounded through the door and it took a few moments before I finally heard someone walking down the stairs inside.  Maybe I hadn’t woken them up since I was expecting to wait a little longer than I did. 

I was looking down at my feet when the door swung open, but when I lifted my head, I saw Mom standing there in her red bathrobe, staring at me with wide eyes. 

“Emmy?  Sweetie, what are you doing here?” she laughed, reaching forward to pull me inside and into her arms.  “Oh, honey, you don’t know how much we’ve missed you around here.”

“I missed you so much,” I whispered, burying my face into her shoulder.

“What are we doing, standing here with the door wide open?  Let’s get inside,” she grinned, oblivious to the tears that had welled in my eyes.  She passed me to grab one of my bags, dragging it inside, and I quickly wiped under my eyes to get rid of the evidence and got the other. 

“So where’s Dad?” I asked, following her to the kitchen once we put my bags at the foot of the stairs.  “He’s usually up this early, not you.”

“He’s been on a business trip for the past two and a half weeks.  The Louvre, actually.  He’s coming back this morning.  His plan just landed actually, so he should be here within the hour,” she smiled as she started making coffee.  I pulled out one of the chairs by the counter and sat, resting my elbows on it and propping my head in one hand.  “He’s going to be so excited to see you.  And Jason.  He’ll probably be sleeping until noon, but he will be, too.  And, of course, Drake will also.  We’ve all missed you around here.  We just keep pretending that you’re back at school…though you would have called when you were there.”

I grimaced, realizing that I hadn’t called like I said I would.  I was a little too preoccupied, though, so hopefully I wasn’t in too much trouble.  “Sorry, we had…a lot going on.”

“Do I even want to know?” she asked, raising an eyebrow teasingly in my direction.  “I probably don’t…since I could have sworn it was you in a picture that they showed on the news all the time since the attack at the White House a few days ago.”  Unlike a normal parent, she gave me a sly smile.  “Beautiful dress, by the way.”

I laughed for the first time in what felt like years.  Leave it to my crazy mother…  “It was, wasn’t it?  Stella picked it out.”

“How is Stella?” she asked, taking the seat beside me.  She was letting that little side subject go, though I could see just how much it was taking her to hold her questions in.

I grimaced, looking down at the counter and started tracing patterns. 

At the wedding reception, I’d acted as normally as I could under the circumstances.  I hadn’t told her or Ren about my leaving, though I was sure Ren figured after our conversation a few nights before.  I wouldn’t have been surprised if Stella was completely pissed at me for not telling her goodbye.  She was one of my best friends and if our situations were reversed, I would have definitely been.