Family Is Where Your Heart Is

Kit plopped her books on a park bench then sat down next to them. Sighing she rubbed her temples, trying to relieve a headache. She took a paper out of her pocket and reread it. It was an email from her mother. She growled at it.

You can’t keep running away from your family, Kit. You need to come home and be with the people who love you. You’re legally an adult now, but that doesn’t mean you know what you are doing. We love you dear and only want you to be safe. Please reconsider and come home soon!
Love,
Mom.

The eighteen-year-old growled at the paper. She had tried so hard to hide herself from that leech of a mother of hers, but she ended up finding her, again. She sighed and tore up the paper angrily. Kit leaned her head back and allowed the winter sun to warm her face. As she started drifting into a peaceful state, her pocket vibrated. With a groan, she took her pone out of her pocket and answered it tiredly. “Hello?”

“Kit?” Her blood froze.

“Mother.” She tried to make her voice as icy as possible, but the other woman just brushed it off.

“Kit, baby, you need to come home! Everyone is so worried about you!”

“How did you get this number?” The other woman continued to talk. Kit interrupted her, her voice growing hard. “How did you get my number?”

“Well, what does that matter? We found you! And we were so worried…”

Kit growled into the phone. “Found me?!” She whipped her head around, half expecting her mother to pop out of a bush and drag her away. “Tracy, you signed the paper that released me from your custody, and besides, I’m a legal adult now, you can’t keep emailing me and calling!”

The woman’s voice grew defensive. “I can too, you’re my daughter and you’re missing. Please, I don’t want to have to get the police involved.”

Kit snapped the phone shut, but the number dialed again. She ignored it, but it the number called yet again. Taking a breath she placed the phone down and listened to it vibrate on her text book. Finally it fell silent. The girl sighed in relief and slumped back on the bench. She watched the sun descend the sky and smiled to herself. Suddenly the phone vibrated again. Angrily she grabbed it and answered it. “Stop calling me, damnit! I am an adult and I’m never going back to that hell hole of a home ever again!” she threw the phone as hard as she could, and watched it drop into a large puddle. Breathing heavily, she sat back down. Tears brimmed her eyes, but she fought them back.
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“Hello?” Sonny took the phone away from his head and looked at it quizzically. “Hellooooo?”

“We’re sorry, but your call has been disconnected. Please try again later. Good bye.” The robotic voice floated through the speakers. Sonny closed the phone and shrugged at the awaiting group.

Jesse was a little shocked. “She said she wasn’t ever coming home again!” he had been the one to try and call her, but he had given the phone to Sonny when she had started screaming at him. Tears brimmed his eyes and he had to be comforted by Elsie.

“What does she mean? Kit’s the one that keeps this place in order.” Elsie said, trying to lighten the mood. “I mean, it’s her birthday! She wouldn’t miss that!”

Sonny grabbed his jacket. “I’ll go out and look for her—”

Sean laughed humorlessly. “Good luck. When she doesn’t want to be found, she’s nearly impossible to find.” He knew from experience; He’d pissed her off and they couldn’t find her until she came home the next day.

Sonny tossed a jacket to Sean. “Then help me.” Sean picked the jacked up like it was a poisonous snake. He really didn’t want to try and find her. She would be fine, and playing with fire would definitely not be fun right now. “How about I stay behind in case she comes home?” Sonny rolled his eyes at the bad tempered man. “Fine, suit yourself.”

The three person search party headed out the door, each taking a different direction. Victor started his car and started toward the school, Shay headed toward the library and Sonny made his way to the bakery where she worked. All with the hopes that they could get this whole thing resolved.
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Kit looked at her watch in the dim light. Plopping her hand back down on the books she sighed. “I can’t tell what time it iiiiiiis!” She laughed at herself and gathered her books. When she got to a street light she tried looking at the time again. “I think it’s…six, maybe.” She blinked and facepalmed herself. “Yes, because talking to yourself will resolve this problem.” Kit ended up trying to figure out which way was home. She reached toward her pocket to find her phone, then remembered that she’d thrown it. She cursed herself and started back toward her school, hoping to go from there.

Comically, Kit started tracing her commonly taken paths. She slowly made her way toward her work, shielding her eyes against the bright headlights that blinded her in the dark. She marched through the snow until she found herself in front of the bakery. Kit was surprised to find it closed. “It must be later than I thought…”

“Kit?” the teen jumped. She turned around and pressed herself against the large window of the bakery. Kit relaxed when Sonny stepped forward gently grabbed her, pulling her into a hug. “Is there a reason you didn’t come home, my dear?”

She returned the hug. “I got a little…distracted.”

He chuckled. “We tried calling you,” Kit froze. “Jesse said you didn’t want to come home.” He looked down at her.

“Oh.” She laughed nervously. “I thought it was my mother again.” She shuttered. Sonny decided against asking, knowing better. He pulled his own phone out and informed the little search party that she had been found. Kit cringed. “Did I really cause that much of an uproar?”

He chuckled again and started leading her to the warmth of home. “You had us worried.”
She cuddled against him and away from the cold. “I’m sorry. I’d never want to leave my family. It’s the only thing that’s keeping me from going crazy.”