“Ms. Mitchell?”
“Yes?” I replied looking over at her.
“You’re needed in the office,” she informed me.
Goddamn Tammy Jones.
Chapter 19
The shock that changes us.
Kenzlee~
It’s funny how you think life is going in one direction, only to find out it’s going in a direction you never imagined.
I really believed I was being called into the office because Tammy Jones wanted my boyfriend, but, oh, God, how wrong was I? I assumed someone saw the confrontation in the hallway and notified the office in an attempt to…I don’t know, stop something from getting out of hand, perhaps.
But that wasn’t it at all.
When I had gotten to the office, the school’s receptionist had directed me to the counselor’s office, and when I had walked in, my Uncle Allen and Aunt Sheri had been sitting inside, and no one in the room looked happy to see me.
My first thought had been that something must be wrong with my transcripts or something, and I wasn’t going to graduate. My second thought had been that my uncle and aunt no longer wanted me, and they made an appointment with the school to figure out what to do with me. It was that second thought that had me dropping in the empty chair next to my uncle.
I could never imagine how wrong I was about everything.
Even now, sitting on the plane heading back home, everything was still kind of fuzzy. I mean, I understood the words, and I could grasp their meaning, but it was still unreal.
I was headed back home to be with my mother because my father had killed himself.
My father had put a bullet through his head yesterday morning and my mother was beside herself.
And it might have been insensitive, but all I could think about was how much of a slave my father must have been to money that he literally couldn’t live without it. But I suppose that made sense; the love of money being the root of all evil and all that.
I knew I wasn’t a huge factor in their lives. I knew I was dismissive just as Kaden had been, but to voluntarily choose to abandon your wife and child rather than live modestly, blew my mind. My father would rather be dead than live in an apartment and drive a Saturn. And, now, the only men in my life who were supposed to love me forever were gone. Kaden died from neglect, and my father from greed.
Sitting on the plane, I couldn’t imagine why my mother called for me. Was she afraid of being alone, now that my father was gone? Was she going to insist I move back home with her? Was I just called back for funeral arrangements and the services? Were there even going to be a service or was she going to cremate him quietly and privately?
After my uncle and aunt broke the news to me, they had walked me to my locker where I got my purse and then followed them to their car. They drove me home to pack some stuff before watching me board a plane to go see my mother. I had no doubt Alexandria would soon know what was going on, so the only text I sent out was to Talon letting him know there’d been a family emergency and I had to fly home. The message had been short and vague, but I hadn’t wanted to call him just yet. I wasn’t sure what the catalyst would be that would eventually cause me to fall apart, but I had a feeling it’d be Talon’s voice that did it. And, feeling this, I didn’t want to fall apart in an airport. I wanted to wait until I was…wherever my mother was with some privacy.
I stared out the window, into the sky, and it didn’t escape me how a few weeks ago I had loathed to leave everything I knew, and I had wanted nothing more than to stay within my new familiarity. I hadn’t wanted to leave my home, my school, my friends, my parents…I had felt so…deposited. And, now, I couldn’t imagine moving back home and going back to Madison Prep.
I had a sister in Alexandria, a friend in Edie, and everything else in Talon. I couldn’t imagine leaving Talon now. My chest jumped at knowing that even if he came with those two nutjobs, Lars and Hunter, I still couldn’t imagine leaving him.
It was too soon, and some of it could be attributed to my severe loneliness and abandonment, but I loved Talon. I believed in what I felt whenever I was with him. I believed in that buzz I only felt whenever I was around him. I believed in every thrust into my body that he felt the same way I did. He’s shown me I matter more in the couple of weeks that I’ve known him than my parents have shown me all my life. So, I prayed that the only reason I was on this plane was to help my mother with funeral arrangements, and not because she wanted me to come home, because I couldn’t do that. I cared what happened to her, but I wasn’t going to upend my life for her again.
Not this time.
My phone buzzed on my lap and I saw it was a quick text from my mother letting me know she’ll be waiting for me at the airport. But as I read it, I notice another text had come through earlier that I must have been too out of it to have noticed.
When r u coming back?
White?
Goddamn it! When r u coming the fuck back, Kenzlee?
I quickly typed back.
Sorry. I just saw this.
