Alone With Ross

•90•

"Caspian?" My eyes locked with hers, but as I caught sight of the cigarette hanging from her mouth I looked away.

"What, you're just going to stand there? Come in." My aunt Karmen grabbed my arm but I held my ground.

"This is only going to take a second, I have to be on my way back to Indiana anyways." I sighed and she dropped my arm stepping out further in her bathrobe and tweety bird slippers.

"How'd you find me anyways?" She asked leaning against a post on her porch and I shrugged,

"You tend to move to only five different places, you just cycle them around because you're afraid of something new and yet at the same time you get bored with things easily."

"Listen if you came all this way to psycho analyze me, then you can take your happy butt all the way back to New York." She threw her cigarette down and started walking towards her door.

"I wanted to say thank you!" I yelled in frustration. And she paused in the doorway. "Because despite the fact that you gave up on me, you still took care of me for a good chunk of my life as your brother just decided to gallivant around the world."

She turned and crossed her arms across her chest. "So?" She huffed. "We're family you yutz."

"Exactly, in some screwed up way you're the reason why I've been so successful. You gave me this crummy attitude and the need to get what I want, you shipped me off to the nut house and yet look at me now."

"In Oklahoma, your ass covered in dust?" She chuckled and I rolled my eyes.

"I was going to say wealthy and successful." Her smiled dropped and she sighed.

"Oh I see, came to gloat." She looked me up and down. "Make me feel lesser, I get it, I gave you hell and now it's payback, well take your swing sweetheart."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Will you just shut up and let me talk?" Her shocked expression almost made me laugh but I reached into my back pocket to get an envelope. "This is for you, for taking care of me, and for attempting to be here for me when my parents weren't." She took it from my hand skeptically and slowly peeked inside, only to slump on the porch post in shock. Her eyes started to water as she shook her head and stuffed the check back in. "No, no." She waved the envelope back at me. "I-I can't take your money." She cried. "You worked for this."

I shook my head at her. "Actually, this isn't my money." I said quietly. "It's money that my parents left over." I sighed smiling. "But seeing as I am well on my feet and satisfied with all that I've made, I feel that my parents are indebted to you."

My aunt tried to push it towards me once more but I just finally crossed over on her porch and gave her a hug. She took awhile to return it but when she did she was a bumbling mess. "Why are you doing this?" She asked in disbelief. "I don't deserve this."

"You do." I leaned back and mentioned towards the house. "No more circulating and moving around, living with random people." I shook my head. "You can settle. You don't have to run anymore, you don't have to struggle." I wasn't stupid, as a child I always remembered watching her try to make ends meet. From selling her class ring, to taking on three jobs she struggled when she shouldn't have had to. I wasn't her responsibility, she was just in her 20's trying to start her life out.

"Thank you." For the first time in a while I saw her laugh lines put to use as she smiled at me wiping away her tears as quickly as they came. "Enough of this sappy shit, come on in." She laughed and I sighed shaking my head.

"I uh, I have to go back home." I said quietly, but my aunt nodded her head in understanding. "It's alright kiddo. You do what you gotta do." She looked back down at the envelope again in disbelief. "Thanks again."