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The entire week of Thanksgiving revolved around spending time with family, going places or doing activities as a group, eating together for almost every meal, and telling countless stories of our lives to one another to make conversation and laugh at. It was standard to spend as much time with Caroline, and now Steven, as possible since we only saw her a few times a year, so much so that no one questioned it and simply went with the flow.
Caroline, our mother and I all took a trip to the grocery store on Tuesday to buy what was still needed for the Thanksgiving dinner only two days from then, walking around the brightly lit building filled with food and people frantically buying for the holiday. We dumped everything we would need in the shopping cart that Caroline pushed, struggling to find every ingredient that we necessary. After checking out and paying for the huge amount of cans for the side dishes, the freshly baked pies from the bakery, and of course the turkey which was always the main aspect of the mean, we loaded everything into the car and drove home to put it all away until Thursday arrived and it was time to prepare it all.
Wednesday afternoon Steven proposed that we walk to a park and I suggested one located deep in the suburbs surrounding the house, further away from the ocean and the cold, strong winds coming from it. After bundling up in coats, gloves, and hats, Caroline, Steven, Samuel and I all made the trek down the maze of streets to the large plain area of grass with a large playground covered in dying leaves from the large Maple trees growing around it.
Samuel, being an eleven year old child, enjoyed the constructed play area while the three of us sat on one of the many wooden tables and watched him half heartedly, talking and laughing about anything. I noticed while we were there just how close Caroline and Steven were simply by the way they acted around one another. They had a good relationship filled with happiness, light hearted fun, and love, and I couldn't help but feel happy for them as I thought about it when we made the walk back to the house when the temperature dropped and it looked like it would snow.
Finally Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, arrived and everyone woke up early that morning, either to begin preparing the multitude of dishes and sides that went along with the dinner we would all share hours later, or to watch the Macy's Day Parade in the living room, a tradition that my mother insisted on since were children. My sister and I prepared some of the various types of food while our mother prepared the Turkey after having left it out to thaw yesterday.
It had snowed the night before after all and left the world covered in a thin layer of cold and ice which frosted the windows and made us turn up the heat a few more degrees to avoid the chill it lelt in the house. At last with all the many plates of food set on the dining room table around the Turkey still hot from baking for six hours in the oven, we all sat and began to pass around the many bowls and fill our plates. My mother cut the Turkey once it was cool enough and everyone was given a portion, while Caroline offered to fill cups and walked around with a pitcher of tea filling everyone's glass.
By the time dinner had started it was already almost dark outside due to the early sunset and the recent time change, and the meal must have lasted for an hour in between all the conversations around the table and laughing and telling stories. Steven and my dad, happy to have another man old enough to talk to, discussed the Rose Bowl Football Game that had played hours after the Parade, analyzing the teams and the plays they'd made. Caroline told more stories from her University or about events or occurrences that had happened to her, making everyone laugh at the strange situations she mentioned. We all had a fun time as usual sitting amongst each other enjoying the holiday, and I was happy for the distraction from school work and all the other complications life had brought me.
After the huge meal, and once my father, brother, and Steven with the permission of Caroline had returned to the living room to watch television, my mother, sister and I all cleaned the many plates and silverware from the table and began putting up the food that hadn't been eaten. My mom had filled the sink with hot water and soap to wash dishes while Caroline found bowls to put leftovers in, and I'd been bringing plates from the dining room back to the kitchen to wash when I heard it –a small, almost inaudible thump from upstairs, as if something had hit the carpeted floor. I nearly dropped the dish I was carrying as I halted to a stop in the entrance to the kitchen, looking up at the ceiling and waiting for another sound as my mother gave me a strange look.
"Did you hear something?" She asked finally after waiting a few seconds for me to turn my eyes away from the ceiling, and I glanced to her quickly realizing how strange I was acting. "Um, no I just wanted to go... change into something warmer. Now that it's getting dark, the house is getting colder." I stepped forward and passed her the plate I was holding before racing towards the staircase hearing her replying, "Well, okay..." before I climbed up the stairs quickly.
Once I was upstairs I opened my bedroom door and rushed in, confirming my suspicions by not only feeling the coldness in the room but also seeing no other than Liam lying on his back in the middle of my room with the blankets from my bed pulled down and wrapped around him. Shocked that he was actually here now on Thanksgiving Day when all of my family were in the house. I closed my door and locked it tightly, noticing him stir a little and glance up at me as I hissed in a hushed voice, "Really? Did you really just teleport into my room when all of my family are downstairs for Thanksgiving?!"
He shifted uncomfortably and glanced around realizing he was on my floor as he murmured, "Thanksgiving...? Wasn't it Friday when I was last..." He trailed off and I glared at him hatefully as I stepped past him and to my dresser, pulling out a sweater and quickly putting over the shirt I was wearing so that the story I'd told my mom would add up. "I don't care about how long you've been in the portal!" I spat in a lowered voice, just in case anyone was listening, "You need to leave now, Liam!" I finished pulling over the light sweater and looked in the mirror on top of my dresser to I fix my hair, glaring the entire time before I turned and looked back at Liam to see him fully asleep, shivering lightly and wrapping my blankets around him more.
"Liam!" I yelled in the quietest voice I could, resisting the urge to kick him in order to wake him up. He made no sign of leaving any time soon and I frowned at his sleeping form as I remembered how exhausting it was to travel though the portal, how he was always tired afterwards.
"Eleanor, Caroline needs your help with something!" I heard my mom call soon after and I frantically moved towards my bedroom door before realizing that it sounded like she'd been standing at the base of the stairway, not just outside my room where she could've potentially discovered that my ex boyfriend was asleep on my floor. When I glanced back at Liam I noticed him shift slightly and took it as a sign that he was a least somewhat conscious enough to hear me when I spoke. "Don't make any more noise from up here! I'll let you sleep and recover from the portal, but don't make my family realize you're up here!" After watching him and waiting for some form of understanding which never came, I glared at him a final time before leaving my room, closing the door behind me and walking back down the stairs and to the kitchen.
"Um, you needed my help Caroline...?" I fumbled awkwardly, the anxiety and adrenaline from having Liam sleeping in my room unbeknownst to my whole family causing my voice to come up with an edge of nervousness. My sister turned to look at me for a second before asking if I could get another bowl from the cabinet, pointing at it lazily before she brushed her hair away from her face as it fell out of her ponytail and turned back to whatever she was doing. I nodded, grabbed a random bowl from one of the shelves and handed it to her, assisting after that with various things that either she or my mother needed. Soon enough the cleaning was finished and the three of us filtered into the living room slowly, all sitting down on the large couch to socialize and watch TV until it was time for bed.
I sat next to my brother Samuel for the duration of the time my family spent together, my back straight due to how on edge I felt , waiting for what felt like hours for everyone to go to bed so that I wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding Liam. I fidgeted with my hands and laughed along awkwardly with whatever joke was being told, all the while glancing up at the ceiling or over at the staircase with a pang of fear that he would make some movement and be discovered.
A few hours after everyone settled in the living room, the clock on the wall chimed loudly telling us all that it was ten O'clock. My father announced that he was ready for bed and my mother agreed, saying all the cooking and cleaning had worn her out, and they stood and walked together upstairs to get ready for bed, telling everyone good night. Once they were gone my sister chuckled and said playfully, "They're already going to bed when it's so early? Oh well, now the real party can start."
I laughed awkwardly when she glanced over at me, expecting me to want to stay down here and talk more, and ungracefully declined with a made up excuse, "Maybe for you guys, but I've got to fit some studying in somewhere for my midterm on Monday." I stood from the couch, looking to my left where Caroline sat as she groaned lightly replying, "On Thanksgiving Day? Give yourself a break!"
"Sorry; that test won't ace itself," I insisted as I slowly moved towards the stairs and escaped to my bedroom, having no actual plans to study but to find a way to get Liam out of my house. Caroline along with Steven and Samuel, who was still seated on the couch with them despite the fact that I'm sure he wouldn't be invited to the 'party', said goodnight to me as I made my way up the stairs, reaching my door and pushing through it quickly before closing it behind me.
Liam was still lying asleep on my floor wrapped in my blankets, though he was no longer shivering from the cold of the portal, and I stared down at him for a second silently just thinking and remembering before I snapped out of it and stepped over to where I was beside him. "Okay, it's time to leave now, really," I said in a firm voice as I kneeled down and prodded his face with my finger relentlessly before he woke up, more fully this time around and slowly rose to a sitting position.
"What day is it...Didn't you say it was Thanksgiving...?" He blinked a couple of times before looking over at me with a bit if a daze still in his eyes from only just having woken up. I nodded with a bit of a sarcastic air, trying to save my yelling for when he was not only more awake but when I wasn't keeping the fact that he was here a secret. "That means I've been gone since Friday..." He concluded in a disappointed voice, and I calculated in my head that compared to when he had teleported the second time and only taken four days, he had spent two more days in the portal this time around. He'd been excited about the progress he thought he'd been making, but now he'd taken a step back.
When I made no reply, wishing he would just leave and we could talk later when I wasn't so angry at him, he said, "I guess because I was trying to control where I landed this time... it was only a few inches to the left, but trying not to land in the same place again made me get lost in the portal and spend more time trying to get out." I sighed lightly and glanced over at my bedroom door, the action not going unnoticed by Liam who after a second spoke, "Alright, I'm leaving." I turned back as he stood up and stretched a little, murmuring a relieved "Good" as I rose as well and stood a few feet in front of him, noticing he was walking towards the door before I frantically made him stop.
"Half of my family is still down there!" I explained with quick haste as he turned to look at me, his hand still near the doorknob as he thought for a second and replied, "Your sister? From out of state?" I nodded rapidly as and he shrugged calmly answering, "Cool, I haven't spoken to her in years," before making a move to open the door again and walk downstairs, exposing the fact that not only did I have a boy in my room but that he was my ex boyfriend.
"No!" I all but yelled as I rushed forward and grabbed his arm from reaching the doorknob, blocking my bedroom door with my body in the process. "You are not going down there! What are they going to think if you just waltz out of my room? You can't use the front door!" He looked down at me with a blank expression before pulling his arm from my grasp and taking a step away from me asking, "Well how I am going to go home? Or is this your way of saying you want me to stay?"
"Yea, right!" I retorted immediately to his second question with a hateful glare before sighing and looking around my room then settling on, "I guess you'll just have to leave through my window," with a defeated shrug. "What?" He questioned with a tone of shock as I pushed off my bedroom door and rushed over to my bed, climbing on it and crawling over to my window so I could pull the curtains away and open it, letting in the freezing wind and bits of snow enter as I did. "Your room is on the second floor Nora – and it's snowing! There's no way I can survive this."
"Well then it will work out for me regardless, won't it?" I said with sarcastic happiness as I moved to the side of the bed to grab the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him forcefully until he complied and crawled onto the bed and towards the open window. "Hurry up, you're letting all of the cold in," I pressed as he stepped through the window and onto the shingles of the roof carefully, glaring at me and replying, "Sorry that I'm making your room a little cold while risking my life." Once both of his legs were on the slanted roof just below, he bent his back and ducked out the window, holding onto the window sill once he was fully out of my room.
"Now what?" He asked as he glanced around him and down at the ground then eventually back up at me, his face void of any confidence that he could do this. "Just walk to the end and hang off the side of the house, there's a trellis up against the house you can use as a latter." He nodded and after a second began walking on the slanted roof, gripping my window at first and the two next to mine, slowly progressing as I watched him, thankful that my parents' bedroom was on the other side of the hallway and only had one window on the other side of the house.
Once Liam had successfully climbed down the trellis and had his feet on the snow covered ground, he glanced up at me where I was watching out my window still, saying bye and trekking off in the snow to walk to the front of my house where he could travel down the main street until he came to the seawall where his apartment was located. I frowned, not answering him, and closed my window slowly to prevent more cold from entering, only having a chance to sigh before Caroline opened my door suddenly making me nearly jump out of my skin.
She glanced around for a second before spotting me on my bed and saying, "I thought I heard something... It almost sounded like you were sneaking out of your window or something, so I came to check on you..." She smiled at me playfully and I offered a nervous laugh as I said that I wouldn't do anything like that. After satisfying her curiosity and finding that I was here, Caroline closed the door to my room and I fell back onto my bed letting out an exhausted breath, hardly believing how close I'd come be being caught with Liam in my room.