Falling Slowly

Pt.3|Ch.12

•••••Austyn's Perspective

"Austyn!" Ben shouted from across the house. "Come on!"

"One more second!" I called back, handing Josh a black marker.

Biting his tongue and furrowing his eyebrows in concentration, Josh carefully moved the marked in circular motions as he dragged it downward.

"Okay." He said when he'd finished. "I'm done."

We stepped back to admire our masterpiece.

It had taken twenty minutes to create, omitting the trip to the store to purchase a poster board and a package of Crayola markers, and it was finally completed.

My job had been to outline the letters 'M' 'O' 'M' with black sharpie, which was as easy as you'd expect.
Josh's task was to fill the letters in with aqua blue marker, and to sketch a ten-inch stick figure of Aiden next to them.

It honestly looked better than I'd thought it would.

Josh beamed at his poster. "Do you think she'll like it?"

I nodded. "It's perfect."

"Austyn!" Ben stuck his head through the doorway. " Let's go! Sky is waiting in the car!"

"Sky has been waiting in the car for half an hour!" I shot back, taking the poster from Josh and rolling it up before handing it back to him.

"Do either of you have a rubber band?" He asked as he followed Ben and I towards the front door.

"In my hair," I replied, reluctantly taking my braid out.

I had originally hoped to keep my hair tied up to refrain Ben from messing with it, but sacrifices had to be made for the sake of Josh's poster.

Ben shot me a smirk, seemingly reading my thoughts. "You sure you want to leave it down? We have a long drive to the airport."

"Then at least you'll be entertained." I said, glaring at him playfully as I handed the ponytail holder to Josh.

"Thank you!" He chirped, securing the band around the poster to keep it rolled up.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Sky impatiently tapped his foot against the floorboard as the three of us climbed into the car.

"Seatbelts!" Mrs. Cook demanded, starting the car and backing out of the driveway. "We might be a little late,"

"Over my dead body." Sky mumbled, his foot still tapping at a restless speed.

Ben nudged him. "Sky, speak respectfully to my mother, please."

The angry redhead gave Ben a dirty look before offering an apology. "Sorry, Mama Cook."

"That's alright, Sky." Mrs. Cook smiled, glancing at us in the rear-view mirror.

The drive to the airport wasn't excruciatingly long, but Ben spent the entire time humming absentmindedly and playing with my hair.

Though I knew I'd have to comb the knots out of my hair later, I did welcome him singing under his breath in my right ear to combat Sky's anxious muttering in my left.

He wasn't the only one that was on edge; the entire vehicle was filled with anticipated tension because, after ten long days, Aiden was finally coming home.

The only downside to all of our excitement was that, for some of us, it was accompanied by a slightly abnormal amount of impatience.

Traffic didn't help either.