She’s Leaving Home
“Honestly, I’m scared. I’m scared of what I don’t know. I’m scared of being alone.”
“Everyone is alone sometimes.”
She rubbed her tears out of her eyes. “But I want to end up perfectly fine. I don’t want to have to compromise with, like pink underwear or something.”
“That’s all you’re worried about? Pink underwear when you do your laundry wrong?”
“Well, that and running out of money. Having the wrong supplies, not being able to deal with peers. What if I need hydrogen peroxide and don’t have any? Or what if I need another pair of pants? A buggy room? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time? There’s a lot that can go wrong.”
He put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be there.”
“But there’s nothing you can do against all of this. You’re imaginary”
He shook his head. “You’re right; I can just support you and tell you that it’s going to be ok. Sometimes that’s all you need.”
She rubbed her eyes again and sniffed.
“Besides, you’re not going out of state, if the worst happens, you’ll have to wait until the day is done and your parents can fix it. All of these problems you may need a little outside help with, nothing more.”
She leaned over and gave him a hug. “I’m just scared.”
“Of course you are,” he said brushing his hands through her hair, “you’re going somewhere new.”
The radio turned on and she woke up to her mother stumbling through her room.
“Wake up,” her mother said, “today’s the big day!”
She groggily got up and wiped the sleep dust out her eyes with a kleenex. The butterflies in her stomach went wild, but she just suppressed them and got ready to go. Breakfast was difficult, but she managed to swallow a decent amount of food to get her through the day. After grabbing her bags and instrument, she got into the car and took a deep breath.
“Just think of it as a new movie,” she heard him say. “And it’s all scripted. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just relax.”
“Do you want some music on?” her mother asked. She managed to squeak out a yes before focusing as hard as she could on something else.
So that starts my hiatus. I’ll be back on July 28 with a new post and lots of stories to tell. Until then, wish me luck.
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 8:27 am and is filed under End of Childhood, Realistic Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.