Disasterpiece

I sat on the couch with my right foot in my hands, massaging it while trying to take slow, deep breaths. My toes throbbed against my finger tips from having come painfully in contact with the coffee table as I had tried to dodge the hundreds of boxes and random scattered objects that lay just about everywhere around our house. See, Josie thought it would be a good idea that since she was packing a suitcase that would have to last her a few months she might as well have a complete clean up and re-organisation of her belongings. Needless to say, she had more junk in her room alone than should humanely possible to fit.

I let my foot drop back to the floor with a wince and sighed, looking over to the opposing wall which had a huge whiteboard covered in writing and doodles – another of Josie’s ‘let’s get ready to go away’ schemes. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to go away, but I didn’t need to buy a huge whiteboard to write my packing list and every thought on. And then there was the fact that I hadn’t really seen much of Joey over the last few weeks since the ‘almost-kiss’ and when I did he seemed to be trying to be overtly polite and spend as short amount of time talking to me as he could.

“I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it!” Josie sung as she twirled her way into the lounge room. I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh come on Vixen we’re leaving today and you’re still not bouncing off the walls!” she said in exasperation, with her hands on her hips and a pout to match.

“Forgive me for being a little more reserved than you,” I apologised sarcastically as I got to my feet and stretched, though I knew that if I wasn’t worried about Joey I probably would have at least joined in with her karaoke moment. “What are we going to do with that when we get back anyway?” I asked her, pointing at the whiteboard.

“Get it framed so we can remember everything!” she exclaimed happily in reply, running over to the whiteboard she picked up the marker and drew a smiley face in the only gap left.

“Why would you get a whiteboard framed...” I asked her. She turned around and gave me a look that said ‘are you serious?’.

“If we don’t get it framed then people can just come up and wipe away all our memories with their fingers,” she replied with a roll of her eyes. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair stressfully; she already had 2 cameras in her bag just in case one broke, and about 10 memory cards so she never ran out of space and I knew the photos she took would most probably be going in a huge collage and framed too.

Before I could point out how much it would cost to frame a huge white board but, the front door opened. I turned around and was greeted with the warm, smiling face of Uncle Frank.

“Whose ready for a world wind adventure?” he boomed happily across the room, I grinned widely and made my way over to him for a hug – Josie singing “me, me, me” in the background.

“I would be so much more ready if I knew that you would be alright,” I said to him as he wrapped his arms around me, I smiled sadly as his belly was pushed into my face, my heart dropped at little when I realised this would be one of our last hugs for months. I loved his hugs; they had made me feel safe all my life, even when Corey was around.

“Now don’t treat me like a geriatric old fool, I can stand on my own two feet just fine,” he replied gruffly as he pulled out of the hug, though I could tell in his eyes that he was chuffed that I was worried. “So what were you two up too?” he asked, changing the subject. I turned around and pointed at the whiteboard which Josie was adding the last few touches too.

“Would you ever get a whiteboard framed?” I asked him.

“Then you can’t write on it,” he said, looking puzzled. I smiled smugly and looked over at Josie.

“Yes but what if you didn’t want to write on it?” Josie asked, capping the marker she put it into her jeans pocket.

“Then I would get it framed I suppose,” he replied with a half confused shrug. Josie beamed and pointed at me.

“Ha, see!” she exclaimed as she did a little victory jig. “I was right, ha-ha-haha-ha,” she continued as she leapt down the hallway most probably to double check her suitcase was all in order.

“At least she’s getting over Daniel then,” Uncle Frank said, I bit my lip and stared down the hall after her. Sure she was putting on this exuberantly happy face, but I couldn’t help but feel that this tour had just become a distraction for her so she didn’t have to think about Daniel and the fact that he’s no longer in her life.

“I really don’t know if she’s thought about him enough to concede that it’s over,” I replied grimly, Uncle Frank smiled sadly, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Well I guess you better make sure you’re there for her when she finally does,” he said, I took a deep breath and nodded, that day would be one of the biggest tests on our friendship ever. “But none the less, are you packed and ready to go?” he asked on a brighter note, rubbing his hands together.

“We are!” Josie cried out as she rounded the hallway, lugging two suitcases behind her.

“Lock up and we’ll hit the road then,” said Uncle Frank.

The drive to Des Moines International Airport was fairly uninteresting, mainly Josie talking about how excited she was and Uncle Frank telling her she better enjoy herself otherwise she’ll have quit her job for no reason (it was the only way she could get time off). I sat in the back of the car staring out the window wondering if I had made the right decision, but then as we pulled into the car park and I saw Corey and Griffin’s smiling faces I knew I couldn’t loose what we had now, and not going had the potentials to do just that.

“Aunty V!” Griffin screeched in excitement, pulling his hand out of Corey’s he ran over to me and jumped up, wrapping his arms around my neck.

“Hey tiger how you going?” I asked, squeezing him as tight as I could without hurting him. He wriggled around, laughing and trying to get out of my grip.

“Look!” he demanded as he stuck his hand out and pouted; I looked down at his hand and saw that the transformers tattoo had faded completely.

“Oh it’s gone, well that’s a bummer,” I said, mimicking his pout. He nodded seriously and jumped out of my grip so he could say hello to Josie and Uncle Frank, and most probably show them the faded tattoo. I walked around to the boot to get my suitcase out as Corey popped up next to me.

“Excited?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows stupidly.

“Spending a few months with nine complete goofballs, how could I not be?” I answered jokingly, nudging his shoulder. Corey put a hand over his heart dramatically and feinted being hurt by my comment. I laughed and pulled my suitcase out of the boot whilst shaking my head; pretty sure he just proved my point. Corey grabbed Josie’s suitcase and closed the boot so he could lean on it casually.

“How’s Griffin getting home?” I asked him as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

“His Mum, she’s probably waiting inside already actually,” he answered, taking a drag. I leaned on the boot beside him and bit the inside of my lip; it must be really hard for Corey to see his ex what with the wounds still being fresh. But I guess he loves his kid enough to put up with the few minutes of internal agony.

“Does Griffin always come and say goodbye to you?” I asked, glancing over at Griffin who was doing his best dinosaur impression for Uncle Frank and Josie. Corey’s eyes followed mine and he grinned.

“I think it’s important to him to see me leave, like it’s not so bad because that plane I just got on will turn around soon enough and bring me back to him,” Corey explained, I nodded in understanding and stood up as the others headed over to us; if it was important to Griffin than it was important to Corey, and anyways if Griffin wanted to do something bad enough there was no stopping him so you might as well just go along with it.

“I’ve been on the plane with Daddy before, did you know that?” Griffin was telling Josie when they reached us.

“I didn’t, but you should definitely tell me more,” Josie replied as she grabbed her suitcase and headed towards the airport entrance with Griffin who was now telling her a minute-by-minute recall of his experience.

“Ready?” Uncle Frank asked as he grabbed my suitcase, I replied with a half-hearted nod. Turning around I waited for Corey to grab his suitcase before we followed the other two, through the glass walkway that went over the taxi ranks and into the check in foyer. We went through the check in and customs process and left our bags with the attendant before heading to the VIP lounge to wait for the plane to board.

Upon stepping into the lounge we were bombarded with yells of ‘over here’, I looked to the left and saw the rest of the band standing around, Paul was yelling and waving happily at us. We walked towards the group, Josie and Sid were bent down entertaining Griffin, Paul was standing facing us with a welcoming grin and Mick, James and Craig were having one conversation while Shaun, Chris and Joey had another. Paul pulled me into a bone crushing hug when we reached him.

“Are you excited?!” he asked...excitedly. I sighed and pulled away from the hug.

“I’m excited for when people will stop asking me if I’m excited,” I replied, he winked and nudged me with his elbow.

“So you are excited then,” he said, I rolled my eyes and slapped him playfully on the arm as he turned and greeted Corey. I pivoted a little to the side and chanced a quick look at Joey, accidently making short lived eye contact as we both quickly looked away again – heart beating rapidly in my chest.

“Mummy!” Griffin suddenly yelled, I followed his voice in curiosity just in time to see him running towards a blond haired women bending down to receive his hug. I was going to take a hugely wild guess and assume this was Corey’s ex. I quickly looked to Corey to gage his reaction, but he seemed to be ignoring her presence at least for now.

“Vixen over here!” Josie called; I look over to see her beckoning me towards her. I started making my way to her before I realised that she was standing with Sid and Joey, I almost stopped in my tracks as I swallowed hard, not wanting to be forced into a situation with Joey. I cautiously crept to the edge of the circle and saw they all had their boarding passes out.

“We were just comparing seat numbers and wanted to know what you had?” Josie asked me. I fumbled with my handbag momentarily before pulling out my pass, doing all I could to resist looking at Joey.

“Um...3A,” I responded, looking down at my pass. Josie’s eyes widened and she giggled. “What?” I snapped in confusion. She bent down to my ear and whispered.

“Joey’s got 3B.”