Freebird

He walked carefully through the front door as her father held it open. He twisted sideways to avoid hitting her head and waking her up. He crossed the threshold and abandoned the multicolored stone steps and the humid, chilly Long Island summer air, not even bothering to kick off his shoes. He treaded gracefully over the stark white carpets of her parent’s living room without even worrying about leaving footprints; her father looked on disapprovingly. He trailed slowly up the stairs, gently tucking her into her double bed. He slipped her head onto the purple pillowcase and covered her with the lavender sheet and white down comforter.
“Where’d they find her this time?” her father crowed. He simply didn’t understand that she would just get further and further away until it was too far for him to go.
“Some café in Brooklyn,” he responded with a sigh. “Passed out at her table. I was the last call in her phone. Again.” He crossed the room quietly, trying to avoid waking her as his leather jacket continued to squeak with his every movement.
“Any alcohol?” her father demanded. The boy shook his head ‘no’ and slipped her favorite stuffed animal into her arms. Didn’t he know by now that Avery didn’t drink? His daughter was seventeen and had yet to attend any party that served alcohol. She’d made a pledge back in middle school and she may have been the only one to continue to stick to it.
“Is there ever?” he sighed reaching back to scratch his neck. “She just wants to get away; it’s further every night.” He pushed a piece of light brown hair out of her face and traced the freckles on her warm slightly flushed cheek.
“Why would she want to leave?” he asked, truly not knowing why his daughter needed a break; not understanding why she was itching to get away so badly. The boy shrugged—a lie—and walked toward her bedroom door slowly, reluctantly. “You’re a good kid Ethan. Y’know there aren’t many good young men left out there. You’re one of the few.” He nodded slowly and stood at the top of the stairs, her father soon to join him.
“Thank you Mr. Collins,” he smiled. They reached the bottom of the stairs, Ethan dimming the lights in the stair well until they were off. Had he just turned them off all at once it would have woken Avery. This was something he’d learned years ago.
“How many times do I have to tell you; it’s Ray.” The boy nodded and turned around to face the middle aged man in front of him. Ray Collins was not a man whose bad side you wanted to be on, so Ethan inhaled sharply before vocalizing his thought.
“Maybe, Ray, maybe she just needs a break,” he paused. “What about a road trip or something? We both have our licenses. We have all summer. We could go out to California—you know she’s always wanted to see the Pacific. You know she’s always wanted to see San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. She’s wanted to travel cross country since we were in elementary school.” He saw the speculation and the disapproving look that Ray gave him
“You’re a good kid but that doesn’t mean I trust you in a car all summer alone with my only daughter.” Ethan nodded—a quiet acknowledgement that Ray’s statement was totally fair game. He had every right to worry about Avery spending her entire summer alone with a guy—she was gorgeous and any guy who didn’t fall for her incredible combination of looks and personality was out of their mind.
“I know,” he whispered. “I know you don’t think you should trust me and that’s only fair. I’m a seventeen year old boy, I only think about one thing, right?” he smirked. “But it’s different with Avery. She’s my best friend. I would never do anything she didn’t want. You should know by now that I’d take care of her.” He saw the smile cross her father’s features and the small laugh cross his lips.
“Y’know kid, you just might be one of a kind,” he chuckled. “You just might have a shot with a girl like her.”
“I’m not looking for a shot with her sir. I’m just looking to help her.” He looked down at his shoes and ran his fingers through his dark hair. “That’s all I’ve ever tried to do.”

Avery Rae Collins staggered down the staircase around eleven the next morning to find her father and Ethan standing silently in the living room. “Morning,” she chirped heading toward the kitchen to search for the Lucky Charms. She was slightly alarmed by Ethan’s presence—he never showed his face around here this early—or late depending on how you timed it. Not to mention things between Ethan and her father were far too quiet—they generally talked nonstop. Her father loved him and he was just happy to be accepted so graciously. She grabbed the carefully closed box of cereal and undid the tie wrap on the bag. Lucky Charms with whole milk—the fact that she still fit into her pants from freshman year was miraculous. She didn’t exactly watch what she ate and exercise wasn’t exactly her idea of a goodtime. She was chewing on and savoring the sweetness of a green four leaf clover marshmallow when her father pulled her out of her own little world.
“Avery,” her father began slowly, “after you finish your cereal, go upstairs and pack a bag.” Her heart began pounding and she nearly choked on her cereal. What had she done to have him send her away? And was Ethan in on it? Of course he was. Ethan at her house before noon couldn’t mean anything good. But what exactly had she done?
“What? Why? What have I done?” she panicked. “Dad, if this is about me going out every night, I swear I’ll change. Don’t send me to some institution.” Her voice made it sound as if she were bordering on hysteria. “Daddy, please, what have I done wrong? I swear I haven’t done anything reckless.” She looked as if she were about to cry, but her father stopped her. He shook his head and assured her she wasn’t being sent away to fix whatever problem he may have thought she had. Ethan let out a small chuckle and pulled his black framed Ray Banz over his dark blue-green eyes.
“It’s not an institution. We’re going on a road trip Ave. We’re gonna go all the way out to the west coast.” He smiled and the room lit up like someone had placed a trillion watt light bulb in every socket of the chandelier. “We’ll take route sixty-six for part of it. We’ll go through all of California. You’ll get to see San Francisco and we’ll go down to L.A.”
“You’re serious?” she laughed, her bright blue eyes bulging out of her head. “Dad?” she asked, “You’re really going to let me go on a road trip alone with Ethan?” Her father nodded slowly and reluctantly. “Oh my god,” she screamed excitedly. “Thank you!” she shouted running over and throwing her arms around her father’s neck.
“Now go get packing,” he laughed. She took off toward the stairs in her ratty old t-shirt and Aeropostale pajama shorts. She stood at the bottom of the stairs and turned back slowly to look at them and smiled brightly before running up the stairs.
“Ethan Carter get up here now!” she yelled excitedly. He looked down at his shoes with a laugh, dropped his duffel bag on the floor in front of her father and ran up the old wooden stair case. He smiled at her as she attacked him in a hug. “You do know you are the most amazing best friend ever, right?” she laughed. He smirked and nodded.
“Now come on, let’s get you packed and ready. We don’t want to waste today.” She smiled and pulled her old camp duffel out of her closet. She was like a little kid on Christmas morning she was so excited.
“How’d you convince him to let you take me away from Long Island all summer?” she laughed turning around to change. He watched as she pulled off the t-shirt to reveal her bare freckled back and as she struggled to close the clasp on her bra. “Could you?” she asked as she gave up.
“It actually didn’t take much convincing,” he laughed as he crossed her carpet to close the clasp on the teal colored B-cup bra from Victoria’s Secret.
“Really?” she asked surprised spinning back around to face him, still searching for a shirt. “My father didn’t have a problem with it?” He started pulling clothes out of her drawers and piling them in her duffel—he knew what she would want and what she would want to leave behind.
“I really think he trusts me, crazy as it sounds.” She laughed and pulled on a light tank top from her closet and then found an old ratty denim skirt and braided belt to wear on the bottom. “He was a little iffy at first, but I think I convinced him otherwise.”
“How’d you swing that one?” she questioned striding into her bathroom to brush her teeth. She flipped on the light switch illuminating the dull bathroom that probably hadn’t been redone since nineteen seventy-six—just how she liked it.
“Well, actually,” he laughed, “I’m still not so sure myself.” She laughed as she rinsed and packed her toothbrush and splashed her face with cool water.
“Well, what matters is that you convinced him. And now, for an entire summer, I, Avery Rae Nicolette Collins can shake the dust of this crummy town off of my heels and I can be free.”
“Free as a bird.” She smiled at his witty reply and his trillion watt smile.
“Free as a bird. You and me. Free as birds.”

“Bye Daddy,” she whispered giving her father a final hug and kiss goodbye. He didn’t want to let her leave and he was making it quite obvious—as if one more goodbye would make her stay. Unfortunately, even her old man knew that she wouldn’t stay, and she couldn’t. She needed to get out of that place; she needed a break.
“Remember Ave, just behave yourself, alright?” She nodded slowly and trekked toward the car. “Be careful,” Ray shouted as she climbed into the convertible and turned on the radio. Her bags were already in the trunk and Ethan had already made himself comfortable in the driver’s seat. She tuned the radio to the transmitter for her iPod and let her favorite music play softly in the background as they pulled out of her driveway.
“How appropriate,” Ethan smiled. She smiled back and pulled her brown Ray Banz over her eyes and put her head back. “Freebird?” She nodded and let her hair out of the ponytail holder so that it could blow out behind her.
“I’m as free as a bird now,” she trilled. She laughed melodically and smiled brilliantly and truly for the first time in months. For the first time in a long time she was truly happy, and she was setting off on the best summer of her life. “So where to first?” she asked quickly. He shook his head and laughed at her driving quickly out of Suffolk County.
“Let’s get off the island first, alright?” he laughed and she sighed. “I promise it won’t be a long time before we hit the main land.” She let out another sigh and changed the song on her iPod. “You’re truly something,” he chuckled at her.
“And that’s why you love me. You keep me around because I’m unique.”
“Oh, you’re unique alright, Avery. Let me tell you.”