URIAH

Rewinding

Chapter 19

25 hours before...

"I'm almost done!"

"Sam," my mom exclaims standing by my doorframe. "Come on we've got to go..." She lets her sentence fade away.

"Why is your room such a mess? Why did you take so many things if you weren't going to pack them?"

When you are about to leave for a trip to Italy for an undetermined amount of time, the obvious thing to do before your departure is packing. For one specific reason, I do not conform to this 'obvious thing'.

When you have just come back from a few months long of a trip around the world, you tend to procrastinate on unpacking. This leaves you with a full duffel bag that you need to lighten by a couple of pounds before taking with you to Italy.

On the night prior to my trip, I was, thus, unpacking.

"I had to get rid of some of stuff I don't need on this trip," I say as I aggressively pull shirts and dirty clothes out of my duffel bag. I go searching for clean clothes out of my still unpacked suitcases.

My mom sets her eyes on my red dress. The one I wore at Cristian's ball.

"I would have loved to see you in this," she almost whispers as she lifts the dress to observe its intricacies.

"It was beautiful. I felt beautiful. We both were. But that was the night we fought. The night I betrayed him for the mission. I'm still ashamed, you know," I then exclaim waving a pair of socks around almost hitting my mom across the face with it.

"I hate that I had to. I wish I didn't. I'm ashamed of not finding a better way to complete the mission. But I'm not ashamed of the action itself. It was a desperate time."

"You sound like you're convincing yourself," she mutters hanging the dress in my closet. I continue shoving clothes in my duffel bag.

"I am. I do, everyday. He might have forgiven me. And I have forgiven myself. But I'd be lying if I said that I had completely forgotten about it. We said bad things to each other."

"Honey, do not worry about that. You fought because you cared, because you love each other. You are going to go on this last mission to the Vatican. You are going to see another part of the world with him, and with your father this time," she says smiling fixing my jean jacket's collar. "And you will come back home and tell me every detail of the past few months."

She kisses me on the cheek. "Now, hurry up! You don't know how late we'll be back home. You have to finish packing."

"Is the whole family going to be there?"

"Yes. Your aunt invited Rosa and the kids too."

I nod. "Nathan told me. I think they were really considering it. Rosa still hadn't decided when we last talked."

"Well, I hope we see them."

Just as I am about to open my mouth, my mom starts speaking.

"Don't worry, honey. I've told everyone not to make a big deal about anything involving Vi. Now, get ready."

22 hours before...

"How is school going?" my uncle asks me.

"I haven't really had much time to think about school. I'm studying a lot in every free moment I have."

As I'm speaking, I notice my dad, from the corner of my eye, texting quickly. I wonder if it's his job or anything else.