Meanings of Home

Lucy stood there, willing herself not to cry. She felt her whole world falling to pieces by the man in front of her. Her brother. She was frozen in place, and it seemed as if everything around her had stopped also. From the corner of her eye she could see Josh standing there, and she wanted nothing more than to grab him and runaway.

But Lucy shook that thought from her head. She ran away once, she wasn't going to run away again. Chicago was her home, her favorite place in the world. The place she called home, and the place she wanted to raise her children. Lucy was not about to let her brother ruin that for her, yet again.

"Lucy, thank god! I've missed you so much!" Lucy stepped back as John tried to come to her for a hug.

"Get away from me," she whispered, trying her best not to make a scene at her own art gallery. Why of all nights has John thought to do this to her on the night of her gallery, the event she was looking forward too since she got out of school.

"Lu Lu-" John tried.

"Do not call me Lu Lu. Please, do yourself a favor and leave. You're not wanted here John, so I need you to go. Okay?" Lucy told him warily.

"Lucy don't you want to come home?" John demanded. Lucy laughed bitterly at the question, and turned on her heel. She walked over to Josh and opted to pretend like her brother wasn't in the same place as her.

"Are you okay?" Josh questioned, feeling terrible about the situation. She nodded her head, and attentively listened to what the woman in front of the couple was saying about the photograph.

Lucy wipes the stay tears away starting to feel claustrophobic. No matter how hard she tried to not think about the previous conversation, her mind kept repeating it over and over. She staid by Josh's side the rest of the night, afraid that maybe John hadn't left yet.

Once the last people had left the building, and the owner had talked to Lucy about her next gallery, the couple finally headed home.

"Baby, do you wanna talk about it?" Josh asked as soon as they got in the car. He grabbed his girlfriend's hand, and squeezed it trying his best to comfort her. He knew that at any moment she was going to breakdown, and Josh wanted to stop the storm from coming. Unfortunately he didn't realize that the storm was far from leaving.

"You know, he asked me if I 'wanted to go home'," Lucy told him bitterly, tasting the salty tears on her mouth. Josh was silent, and didn't move the car from the parking spot.

"He acted as if I had been kidnapped or something!" she yelled in frustration. "God! Why is he here!"

Josh turned her towards him, holding her face in his hands and sighed. "Lucy I want you to listen to me okay? John has no idea what you've been though, and how happy you finally are. You need to understand that. And you need to understand that only you can decide what you want to do. If John wants you to go back to your old house it's you're decision. It's not his, it's not mine, it's not anyone but yours. Do not let yourself forget that. Don't let yourself forget where you're real home is." he let go of her, and turned back towards the steering wheel, And turned the key in the ignition.

Josh drove the two home, and Lucy sat in silence contemplating what josh had just told her. When the car was parked in the driveway, the two walked into the apartment expecting quiet. Instead they were greeted by the guys plus to very unwanted people.

Josh could see Lucy starting to breathe harder, knowing fully that was the sign she was about to explode. "Baby don-"

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Lucy demanded, staring at her brother and his best friend. "Didn't I tell you to leave me the fuck alone?"

"Don't you think you're being a bit selfish Lucy? But wait you've been nothing but selfish since the day you left without a goodbye!" John yelled back, annoyance starting to get the best of him.

"Selfish? Me, selfish?! Are you kidding me! You are the selfish one! You are the one that has to have everything be about you! It was always John, this John that. Or look how successful I am Lucy, look how much better I am Lucy!"

"I have never said that! I have never once said I was better than you!" John declared, slowly walking towards her.

"Well you could have fooled me!" Lucy stated.

"I don't know what you're problem is. If anyone should be yelling, it should be me at you for fucking leaving! Do you know how much pain you caused mom and dad, and Shane and Ross, and me?" John questioned.

"Do you have any idea how much pain you and mom and dad and Shane and Ross caused me?" Lucy retorted feeling the tears in her eyes.

"Oh god, here we go again dramatic Lucy. When have any of us ever caused you pain Lucy?"

"How about all of those times no one showed up to my art competitions? Or what about the time everyone forgot my eighteenth birthday because of Shane and Ross's game, and your concert? Or how about the time mom and dad told me they didn't love me, and that I was a disgrace to the family?" Lucy was crying hard at this point, but they were cries of hatred. Hatred for everything thing her so called 'family' had out her through.

"Mom and dad never told you that! And we didn't forget your birthday! And let's be honest Lucy who wanted to go to your art competitions?" John retorted back.

"I don't know John, maybe because it meant something to me? Maybe because I had finally found something I was good at, though no one else seemed to care. And let's get this straight John, mom and dad told me that about fifteen minutes after you announced to the whole fucking neighborhood that I was a lesbian," Lucy whispered. She could barely talk, and she was becoming more and more aware of the fact that all of this yelling and screaming wasn't good for someone who was expecting a kid.

"Well what did you want me to say Lucy? You were making out with your best friend! Who was a fucking girl! Plus you were never that good at-"

"Say one more word John, and I will personally throw you out of this fucking house." Josh spoke up. Tired of the yelling and ridicule. "Lucy, why you go to bed or something, I wanna talk to John."