Change Your Ticket

After our initial conversation things got pretty heated until I ended up halting them, again. Instead of brushing it under the rug like it was no big deal I actually decided to tell Parker what was bothering me. Unfortunately the thoughts of Matt were still hidden in the depths of my mind and were hindering my relationship. Thankfully Parker understood, I knew he would I was just scared.

With everything out in the open we were able to enjoy our one night together before I had to fly back home. I guess it was a good thing we were so used to having these types of confrontations since it only took us a few hours to fully make up.

Parker was helping me get my bags out of the taxi. My flight left in a couple hours but I wanted to be early to make sure I didn’t miss it. The last thing I needed was for the money Max and Ava to have gone to waste because Parker and I couldn’t keep track of time.

“Make sure you text me when you pass security.”

“I will. I’ll call you when I land too.”

“I wish I was going home with you,” he mumbled into my hair, leaving a kiss to my head only moments before.

“I wish you were going with me too, at least then I’d have someone’s hand to squeeze on the plane ride.”

“Oh so you only want me for comfort,” he joked.

“Duh! Why else would I want a gross boy following me around.”

“You’re such a dork.”

“And I’m all yours,” I said smiling.

Parker pulled me close, his lips meeting mine. We tried to savor the moment both of us knowing this wasn’t going to happen for at least another months. When he finally pulled away it was time for him to leave, the taxi driver going impatient.

“I’ll see you in a month.”

One month. That wasn’t too bad. We could do one month no problem, right?

“I love you,” I said, picking up my bags and heading for the doors.

“I love you too Jos.”



Surprisingly my parents were still home when I arrived later on that day. I didn’t think they were flying back to Massachusetts after having to fly to New York only days early to see Jayden. And yet here they were, standing at the front door welcoming me home. Even Cassadee and Trevor thought it was odd, meaning they didn’t know about it either.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, in the least rudest way possible.

“Can we not come visit are two gorgeous daughters and our granddaughter?”

“I think what Josylne means is that its really unexpected,” Cass said saving my ass.

“We just thought we’d after a Thanksgiving dinner with the other half of our family.”

“On the day after Thanksgiving?” I asked.

I felt like I was in a twilight zone. We hardly even celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual holiday and now they wanted to celebrate it the day after. Something was up, especially since my mother was cooking. Cass and I exchanged confused looks before shrugging it off and entering our house. One night with our parents wasn’t going to kill us. At least I hope it wasn’t but mom was cooking so you never know.

While dinner was being handled I retreated to my room, eager to get as far away from the kitchen as possible. I did not feel like prepping a turkey after being on a flight. All I wanted to do was call Parker and and take a nap. Just as my eyes were fluttering shut, my bedroom door opened revealing a slightly panicked Cassadee.

“Sorry I didn’t think you were sleeping,” she said, taking a seat at the edge of my bed.

“I wasn’t really,” I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes. “What’s up?”

Cassadee hesitated, focusing her attention on her nail beds like I had done with Parker less than twenty four hours ago. She nervously bit her lip before looking up at me.

“So I have something to say but I don’t know how mom and dad are going to react and I really wanted you to know first anyway,” she paused. “I’m pregnant.”

It took a moment for her words to register with me. Cassadee was pregnant. The pregnancy test I found two months ago was her. Miranda wasn’t pregnant, Cass was.

“Oh thank god!” I exclaimed without meaning to. Cass gave me a weird look at my outburst. “I found a pregnancy test in October and I thought it was Miranda’s! I’m so happy it was yours! Cass you’re going to be a mom again! Lex is gonna be a big sister!”

“I know I’m excited,” she said smiling. “I’m only two months along so I really don’t want to say anything but mom’s like a detective and she was such a pain in my ass when I had Lex.”

“You were younger then. You’re married, you live in a nice house, Lex is going to start school soon she’s got nothing to complain about.”

“This is mom we’re talking about, it’s always something with her.”

Cassadee was right. The first thing our mother did when dinner was served was pour Cassadee a glass of wine. My mother hated when Cassadee drank something about it being unlady like and yet here she was pouring her a glass of wine.

As soon as Cass declined the drink our mother went on a tirade of how irresponsible it was for her to pregnant again. She kept rambling about how it was stupid of her to think that Trevor could maintain a family of four on his salary. She even went as far as saying that Cass should learn to keep her legs closed. This was her own daughter she was talking about! She was no princess herself, my mom had all of us young too. At least Cassadee stuck around to raise not only her child but her siblings. My mother barely lifted a finger after I turned four.

Even worse, our father didn’t do anything to stop mom from talking. He just let her drone on, taking sips of his wine and coughing uncomfortably. As if subtle hints to tell my mother to shut up ever worked before, it was pathetic.

“Mom stop!”

“Don’t you start with me too. I have every right to ground you for ditching your family for Parker on Thanksgiving.”

“Seriously mom? Since when has Thanksgiving ever been a big deal in this family? It’s just an excuse for you guys to take us all on vacation so you can scout out that year’s biggest competition.”

“Josylne Grace,” my father scolded.

“This family is so fucked up,” I said, before storming back to my room.

I was beyond pissed. I loved my parents I really did but lately everything they did was getting on my nerves. They made me feel like they only had kids because that’s what they were supposed to do. It was like they had this master list of things that would make them successful and having kids was a checkmark on the list. I guess they didn’t get the memo that you also had to raise those children.

It wasn’t long before Miranda appeared in my room. She hadn’t ventured down to “Thanksgiving” dinner tonight. She probably had enough of my parents over the last two days with Jayden. Not that I blamed her at all.

“I heard lots of yelling, what happened?”

“My mother is being impossible again, nothing knew.”

“She was like that with Jayden too. Saying something like he’s better than how he’s playing.”

“That’s my mom.”



When school started back on Monday it was back to my painful reality. I was still unable to play football. One of the biggest games of the season was this Friday and we were no where near ready which was bad considering there were only a few more games until playoffs. Not to mention now that December was almost here everyone was talking about college more and more.

“I just finished all my apps for the New York schools,” Miranda announced at lunch later that day. She had been diligently working on her apps for over two months at this point. Nothing was going to stop her from in the same state as Jayden next year.

“I think there’s a few recruiters coming out to the game on Friday,” Max added.

“Doesn’t that make you nervous?” Asher, our resident freshman asked.

“Not really. I mean it is what it is. If I get recruited for a big school that’s great if I stay in Mass, I get to play with some of the old guys plus I’ll still be close to Avs,” he said, winking at Ava.

Miranda and I collectively cooed while the boys gagged. One day they’d understand what love was. Asher was going to be just like Jason, when it hit it was going to hit hard.

“What about you Jos? Are you going to try and head out to California to be with lover boy?” Asher joked.

“Honestly I haven’t really thought about it.”

I hadn’t thought about college much and now that the first semester was coming to an end I realized I probably should have been thinking about it more seriously. I knew that I had until January to get all my applications in but the thought of procrastinating that long didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, though. I guess I had to figure it out soon though.

Add that to the list of things I need to think about it, as if I didn’t have enough on my plate already.