Through the Eyes of a Storm

Chapter 20

Allison's POV

I stared thoughtfully at my phone and chewed lightly on my lip. For the past few hours since I woke up, this had been all I had been doing; just sitting and staring at my phone, trying to decide whether or not the call would be worth my time, whether or not he'd even care about what I wanted to say - hell, I didn't even know if he would answer in the first place. But this strange ache in my chest was pushing me to make the call anyway, the voice in the back of my mind was attempting to persuade me to pick up my cell and dial the number I knew so well. But I wasn't even sure I would be able to tell him in the first place; I was afraid I would choke on my words and hang up before I could get them out. It would be worse to be so close to saying goodbye and not being able to. 

That wasn't the only reason I was staring at this device as if it would suddenly answer all my problems. No, I was so intently focused on it, for if I looked up, I would see all of my possessions packed away in stacks of cardboard boxes. I couldn't look at them without feeling like I'd burst into tears, and I've cried more than enough since I found out that my parents were sending me away. I refused to let them see how much this was affecting me; after all, they were the ones getting divorced, they had enough to deal with without having to deal with their extremely depressed daughter. Of course, I couldn't deny how angry I was with the both of them for giving up on their marriage, just like that. They never even stopped to think that it could be fixed or what it could possibly do to affect me. They were more worried about settling who gets what. 

I stopped my thoughts in their tracks as tears stung the back of my eyes. I was not going to cry again; not in this house. But I couldn't stop thinking about everything that was crashing down in my life as the tears threatened to spill; so I did the first thing that came to mind to break myself from my thoughts. 

Picking up the phone and immediately dialing his number without a second thought, I waited impatiently as I heard the ring tone buzz monotonously. I was so ready to give up by the third ring, I had nearly taken it away from my ear to hang up as I heard a voice on the other line greet me.

"Allison?" He'd picked up after all. I was shocked, to say the least, and it took me a moment to be able to speak again to respond to him.

"Um, yeah, it's me. Hi," I greeted awkwardly, absentmindedly tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I heard him chuckle breathlessly and I nearly smiled as I wondered what he was up to that had him out of breath. "Look, Gryffin, I need to tell you something. I wasn't sure whether I should or not, but then boxes happened and my parents are pissing me off and my phone won our staring contest and you actually picked up and....hi." I knew I had a habit of rambling and not making sense when I was nervous, but even I didn't understand half of what I was talking about. I facepalmed and sighed, surprised when I didn't hear Gryffin laugh at my horrible speech. I remember Hunter always laughed at me when I did that, but when I thought back to when we were kids, Gryffin had always been the one to focus on the meaning behind the words rather than the words themselves; he always knew when to joke around and when to be serious, a trait I had always wished that Hunter had as well.

"What's wrong, Allison?" he asked, as serious and to the point as I knew he'd be. I swallowed and started fidgeting with the wrinkles in the sheets on my bed. I really hadn't thought this through, I should have known that I would be too nervous to say it out loud, too nervous to face the facts. I was grateful that he didn't push me to say it, that he was giving me all the time I needed to get it off of my chest. The sound of his soft, patient breathing on the other end of the line soothed me, made my nerves settle down to the point where I was able to speak the words.

"I'm leaving, Gryffin, I'm saying goodbye."

As soon as the words had slid off my tongue, I wish I had never called. He didn't need this, he probably didn't even care that I was leaving. After all, he was the one that had wanted me to leave him alone in the first place; I'd thought that he didn't really mean it, that he actually wanted me to stay with him anyway, but maybe he'd just meant exactly what he'd said. Maybe, I should have just let him go.