I Am Invincible

-*~- Four months later -~*-

The four months that I spent in California were amazing. It was good to be able to spend so much time with Max, seeing as sometimes, I don’t get to see him for several months on end. It was great to just spend my time relaxing and hanging out with my uncle and his friends and it took my mind off a certain someone, for a while at least. All thoughts of Zach came flooding back the day I was driven to the airport by my uncle. It was the day before Escape the Fate went on tour and I was sad to leave Max’s gorgeous house and just the light-hearted, relaxing atmosphere of California.

Craig and Leila came with us to the airport to say goodbye. In the time I’d been in Cali, I’d gotten to know Lei all over again, seeing as I hadn’t seen her in years and years. It was good talking to someone who was closer to my age that had no involvement whatsoever in what was happening with Zach and I. All my friends, whenever I talked to them on the phone, kept nagging me about what I was going to do when I got back home and I was getting a bit fed up with them. Eventually I stopped answering their phone calls. Yeah, I know I was being a bitch, but I hate it when people annoy me.

It was a pretty emotional farewell. Although, funny at the same time. It’s not often that you see two grown men, a twenty-two year old girl and a teenage boy crying all over each other at an airport, but that was the scene as I was waiting for my plane to go back home. I was nervous about going home; I didn’t really know how I would be around my family and friends, after all, I haven’t really seen them for over a year. And also, they kind of remind me of my ‘happy’ life when Zach was still in the picture and when I think of my ‘happy’ life, it makes me sad. Which kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense, but since when do I ever make sense?

Anyway, I really didn’t want to go home, but I knew I’d have to eventually, so I decided that I may as well do it now, to get it over with. And then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all… I don’t know, but I wasn’t really happy about climbing on the plane that would take me back into reality.

With a sigh, I hugged my uncle one more time, and picked up my carry-on bag and trudged over to the line of people waiting to board the plane to Baltimore. As soon as I found my seat, I pulled my fully-charged iPod out of my bag and put the earphones in my ears. Turning to my Recently Added list, I chose to listen to the new Escape the Fate album that hadn’t been released to the public yet. Oh, the benefits of having Max Green as my uncle. I concentrated on Craig’s voice for a while until I fell asleep (I hadn’t slept much the night before) and I was woken up feeling refreshed by the person next to me just when we were about to land. I was too sleepy to panic about our landing and I slowly grabbed my seatbelt and put it on.

The landing was smooth, but I got nervous when I heard the voice over the intercom say thank you to me for flying with whatever airline it was. Stepping off the plane meant stepping back into the real world. I took a deep breath, and walked out of the plane, immediately spotting my parents, brother, best friend, and brother’s girlfriend waiting for me. I walked up to them slowly and I was immediately enveloped in my mother’s arms. Who was I kidding when I said I didn’t want to go back? I did want to go back after all. I missed my family way too much, as I realised when dad and Declan joined the hug. I don’t know when I started crying (I’m such a wuss) but tears were streaming down my face when I untangled myself from my family and hugged Emilie. Even though I was a bitch to her, she still came to welcome me home and I whispered an apology in her ear. She kissed me on the cheek and whispered an ‘it’s okay’ back. I wondered why Declan’s girlfriend Tamsin came along, but I soon found out.

Apparently, as a welcome home thing, I was being forced to go shopping with Dec, Tamsin and Em. Well… not forced, I happen to like shopping, but I didn’t get much choice in the matter; Emilie told me we were going shopping.

So pretty much as soon as we got to my house after collecting my luggage from the carousel and I threw on some nicer clothes, Declan, Tamsin, Emilie and I were back out the door and on our way to the local shopping mall, for a day of shopping (seeing as it was only about 10 o’clock in the morning when my plane landed in Baltimore). It was a nice day and we decided to walk to the mall. Hearing my friends and brother chattering happily amongst themselves, I was glad that I could do something normal with my friends for a change without thinking (or rather, agonising) over my I-don’t-even-know-what-you’d-call-it relationship with Zach. That didn’t last long though…