Second home / Lannan Eacott

9: central coast

I got a call the next morning from Tannar. Of course I let it ring at first, but after a few moments of thought, I decided to call her back. "Hello, Violet! Just the girl I wanted to hear from!" I could tell she was beaming from the other end.
I let out an apprehensive laugh, "whats up?" I asked, honestly a little curiosity showed in my voice.
With no wait she began her little tangent, "Well, Lannan decided it would be nice for him to go back home for a few days, but he left me here. So I was thinking you would accompany me in my road trip back home!" My silence was evident, was she crazy? She knew what I was thinking too. "Hey, you are my best friend, I want you to meet my family, and you work all the time; you deserve a little break. Anyway, I think the time away from everyone else may give you a clear decision on what to do about Lannan" she said this- much calmer and persuasive this time.
She was definitely my best friend, and unfortunately she knew exactly what to say to me. The whole thing sounded ideal, was this best for Lannan? "Violet, think about yourself for once, you know a vacation is exactly what you need right now." She continued to ramble on the other end, as if she could read my mind, the moment almost convinced me she could.
After a few more seconds of thought, I opened my mouth just slightly, somewhat afraid of what I was about to say, "Fine, let me text Grace." I could imagine the little victory dance she was doing on the other end of the phone, causing me to chuckle.
She begins to yell once again like an excited school girl, "Aye that's my best friend... I'll be there in thirty minutes by the way. Bring 2 days worth of clothes!" The call abruptly came to an end as she didn't want to hear my bickering, I knew she was bad at planning before but this was a whole new level of bad. I sighed lightly but tried to keep an optimistic outlook, I clicked my messenger app and began typing:
'Hey grace, is it alright if I go on a tiny vacation with Tannar? I'll be accessible through text 24/7, and I'll be working while there."
'Lachy, Tannar asked me if I could head home with her for the next few days. I just couldn't turn her down. I'll see you soon, talk to you later?<3'
As soon as I hit the send button, I tossed my phone on to my bed. I took a deep breath in, realizing that this was absolutely crazy, but what hasn't been since I moved? I quickly skipped over to my closet and began pulling clothes off hangers and shoving them in a small suitcase. I grabbed two pairs of pajamas, and three leisure and three fancy outfits. I had always been an over-packer but I thought it was so much fun. Yeah, finding packing fun is probably lame but whatever, I couldn't wait to see more of Australia. I had been stationed in Sydney these past five months, and as much as I loved the city, I needed some fresh air.
I was attempting to shove some makeup in the bag when my phone began to ring, I knew it was Tannar, so I grabbed some last minute things and ran out the door and down the hall. I didn't even bother answering the call. As I reached the ground level, Grace had responded, happy that I was getting some time away. Easily I spotted Tannar in a Jeep, I knew it was a rental car and quite frankly, a tad extra but it made me happy. I gave her a big smile as I reached the door, yanking it open and throwing my bag in the backseat. I was too excited to care really, I turned to grab my seatbelt and finally gave myself a moment to say hello.
I glanced over to her, causing me to laugh, we were both wearing rompers and sneakers. Hers was black in contrast to her blonde hair. She looked over to me and laughed too, my white romper was high neck and had no sleeves accentuating my waist and contrasting my dark brown waves. She giggled while looking at me "wow, we really are similar", the way she pronounced similar made me laugh a little harder. "Are you ready?" she said with one last glance to me, as I nodded softly.
The car ride consisted of a few hours of jamming to music, most of one anothers favorite songs we hadn't heard of because the countries different taste, but I loved that.
I used the more quiet hours after that to do some work. I thought of new ways we could advertise click, and some ways to tweak Cray's social media presence. At the moment he was quite absent and I would love to change that up a little. Then I thought of Lachlan, which left a tiny pit in my stomach that seemed to grow every mile we got closer to Lannan. I just needed to think of promoting his merch, then maybe he'd leave my mind.
After about two hours of that, I checked up on Tannar and asked her a bit about her family. She was glad to tell me about them and what they each had been like. I admired the different scenery as we talked. It was much more suburban, there weren't nearly as many cars on the streets and everything seemed much slower. The sun was beginning to slightly set, causing a golden hour effect.
I appreciated this so much, it felt a little more like home. I missed the Chicago area, I never thought I'd admit it but I missed it's cold winter days and breathtaking fall leaves. I wondered how my mom and sister we're doing, I have barely talked to either of them since I moved here. Indy was just a year younger than me, and she was my mere opposite. After our dad had left, she constantly blamed it on me. All I could do as an older sister was take it, and our relationship had been troubled ever since. She lived with mom, and tried to help her out- which I couldn't be more thankful for but I knew she was jealous I got the chance to live my own life, and I felt so terribly wrong for doing so- but I really did love it here.
An abrupt left turn snapped me out of my own little world, I looked over to Tannar who was slightly smirking, "we're at the central coast now." she announced so happily. I looked ahead, we were surrounded by more massive houses, but they actually had yards in comparison to Sydney. Her apparent joy brought me some myself, I tried to push back the negative feelings that had been consuming me before, as I let myself sympathize her cheerfulness.
Before I knew it, we we're pulling up to a quite large modern home, "this is it!" she shouts while pushing the car door open, eager to get in. I knew I had to follow her, so I got out myself and clung closely to her side. Without a moment of hesitation, she pushed open the front door, causing an arising feeling of suspense and anxiety within me.
-
long overdue!