Animal Attraction

I had to go home, but I didn’t want to. I was safe in Paul’s embrace. I liked the sound of his heartbeat. It made me go to sleep. I dreamt about Paul and how wonderful our life would be. It was so perfect, I didn’t want to wake up, but alas, I woke up to the sound of my phone. I opened my eyes and realized it was night time. I grabbed my phone and checked that it was my mom.

I groaned and hit the ignore button. Paul was already awake.

“You have to go home,” he murmured in my ear. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“I’m not the one in trouble, she is,” I muttered.

“Why? What’s wrong?” he asked.

I sighed. “I walked in on her and Landon almost kissing.”

Paul frowned. “Almost?”

“Yeah, I stopped them. It’s wrong, right? I mean, I always wished my parents would be together, but he has a family that is living with us and Maggie… she is nice.”

“Aw, you care about them, remember when you used to hate them?” he chuckled.

“I didn’t hate them. I disliked them with a fiery passion, big difference,” I corrected him.

“Right, still you have to go home.”

We got up and dressed, but before we left Paul’s mom talked to us for a couple of minutes. It was so nice to talk to her about Paul. She told me the most embarrassing stories. She told me that once when he was five, he came back from school and said he had met an angel by the name of Erin Stone. Yeah, me.

“He was so smitten, it was so adorable,” his mom cooed.

“Mom,” Paul whined, “enough of embarrassing stories.”

“I find them very entertaining, Paul,” I grabbed his arm and rested my head on his shoulder. “I didn’t know you had a crush on me since you were five, and that you used to dance along to Barbie World.”

Paul’s face went pale, well, as pale as his russet skin let him.

“We’re leaving,” he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. “Say bye, mom.”

“See you soon, Erin,” his mom called out before Paul carried me outside his home.

The ride home was me making fun of him… a lot. I didn’t stop until we were outside of my house.

“All right, My Lady, I believe this is your stop.”

“Hmm, wrong house,” I muttered. “Onward!” I pointed forward. “We shall go to far, far, far away land.”

Paul laughed. “You’re so cute, I love you.”

“I love you too, so are you going to send me to the pit of the wolves?”

“I’m afraid so,” he shrugged one shoulder.

I pouted. “Fine, but if I’m not alive, then you can blame yourself.”

He laughed. “Okay, okay. See you tomorrow, sweetie.”

“Good night, dream about me,” I leaned over and kissed him. I ran my tongue along his bottom lip. He opened his mouth without a thought, it was automatic. Our tongues danced together. When I pulled away, he groaned like he was in pain. “That’s for sending me into the pit of the wolves.”

I got out of his car and headed home. Paul didn’t leave until I was inside. Surprisingly, everyone was still awake, it was already ten at night. Sean wasn’t watching TV, for once, actually it was just my mother in the living room.

I walked inside and she looked up from the TV.

“You’re finally home,” she sighed like she could breathe again.

“Yeah, where is everybody?” I asked as I sat down.

“Upstairs… packing,” my mother said.

My eyes widened. “Packing? But… don’t they have a week or two left?”

“Landon’s mother had a heart attack, and they need to go back home as soon as possible,” my mom explained.

“Landon’s mother,” I repeated to myself. The grandmother that didn’t like us. “I hope she’s okay.”

“She is, but we thought it’d be best if they… you know… went back,” she said and sat down next to me. “Erin, I want you to know that… I would’ve stopped that kiss.”

“Sure, mom,” I nodded and smiled convincingly.

She smiled too. “You should go upstairs and say goodbye. They’re taking the redeye.”

“They’re leaving, right now?” I asked, shocked.

She nodded.

I pressed my lips together and headed upstairs. I heard the commotion now. Maggie was on the phone ordering the tickets, Angie was yelling about where her favorite shoes were, and Sean was just yelling at Angie that he didn’t know.

“Hey,” Landon’s voice came from behind me.

I turned around and saw him with a sad look, an exhausted look as well.

“Hi, uh, sorry to hear about your mom, I hope she’s okay.”

He sighed. “She’s fine, she’s a fighter,” he smiled. “I think in time she would love you like I do.”

That made my heart tug.

“I am so proud of you, Erin,” he continued to say words that made me… feel. “You made my absence your reason to be strong.”

“Strong?” I asked. “I’m not. I’ve… done bad things, Landon, behind my mom’s back, of course.”

He chuckled. “So have I when I was your age.”

“So, you’re leaving tonight,” I gulped away the lump on my throat.

He nodded.

“You know,” I started as I leaned back on the wall, “when you first arrived, I was set dead on hating you. I think at one point I did hate you, but it was because… you were a father to them and never to me.”

His eyes held so much sorrow. “Erin, you were always on my mind. I wish I could’ve done things differently.”

“Me too, I should’ve gotten to know you better,” I admitted, “dad.”

There were tears in his eyes and I felt them on mine too.

He hugged me tightly and I hugged him back too.

“It was worth the wait,” he chuckled. “I love you so much, Erin.”

“I love you too, dad,” I said it again. Whoa, it was so damn easy. It was so damn natural.

“I wish you could come with us,” he said and pulled from our hug. “Do you want to?”

“Um, maybe next summer or on winter break. I have people here that care for me.”

“Your mom and Paul.”

“Yeah, I can’t just leave them.”

“Of course not, but from now on there’ll be more than just money and a birthday card,” he wiped away his tears. “I’ll call once a day, and visit more often.”

I smiled.

“Will you come for my graduation? You know, if I make it?”

We both laughed.

He nodded. “Of course, I’ll be here, buttercup.”

A nickname. I liked it.

An hour later, I was saying good bye to them. I hugged Maggie tightly. She told me she wanted to talk to me more often. Angie and I… well, we hugged. That was a much better improvement than from the beginning.

Sean and I… we were buddies now. We did the whole fist bump with the explosion at the end. We hugged each other and exchanged phone numbers. He said he wanted to continue talking.

I agreed.

Finally, Lan--my dad was last. We hugged yet again. He kissed the top of my head and whispered sweet things to me. My mom and he hugged and gave each other a peck on the kiss, it was a friendly one.

They whispered something to each other, and then parted ways. My dad got inside of the rental car. He waved at us and we waved back. I watched as the car disappeared in the darkness of the night. My mom hugged me with a single arm and kissed my head.

“Well, it was certainly an interesting summer. You met your father and his family, you got together with Paul, I think the biggest shocker of all,” she joked.

I laughed and hugged her with both of my arms.

“I know, I think the same thing. Damn… I miss them already, even Angie’s whining.”

We laughed together and walked back inside of the house.

Things were looking up.