Home, Sweet Home

The next morning I had a slight hangover. It was really just a headache but it was a hangover headache. No matter how good of a birthday I have, I still need to have copious amounts of alcohol to make it through. Wow, I kind of sound like an alcoholic.
We didn’t do much that day except go for a ride just to see how everything had changed. While driving we passed a house that brought back so many memories.
“Isn’t that Annabell and Alisha’s house. How are they?” I asked remembering the young girl and her baby sister that Lily used to babysit.
“Um, they moved. You heard about the accident right? Her mom…” said Lily not being able to finish her sentence.
“No, she didn’t… that can’t have been her. Poor Annabell and Alisha.” I said with a feeling of sadness coming over me.
All I could think about is when Lily dragged me along to babysit with her and when we went out back there was ten year old girl doing front flips on the trampoline and her mom smiling at her and holding her baby sister. I couldn’t believe their mom was… gone.
We drove home and then just vegged on the couch for a while. We hooked up my laptop to the TV and binged on Dil videos. I think Lily has fallen in love. Lily and Dil, Dily… I ship it. Shit, I just winked. I really hope Lily didn’t see that. Damn you Daniel and your inappropriate winking. It’s rubbing off on me.
On that note, I turned on my phone. There were so many texts that I had to turn my phone on silent so it didn’t vibrate across the floor. I spent a good twenty minutes replying to Facebook messages from people from high school I never spoke one word to, and a ton of texts from friends.
Something I didn’t expect was a text from Dan.
“happy birthday”
My heart sank. When he and I first became friends, we both made a pact that we would never say happy birthday to each other on our actual birthdays. He knew I hated my birthday because it’s excuse for people to pay attention to you. What could Phil have said to make Dan this mad at me?
I pushed it out of my mind and continued reading though my texts.
Zoe sent me what a happy birthday followed by a ton of purple hearts (my favorite heart emoji). Alfie and Joe both sent a simple happy birthday. Louise sent me a message that was just emojis and then a video of her and Darcy singing happy birthday. Most of the others were along the same lines of Alfie’s. Then there was Phil.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Please don’t be mad at me. I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry. I love you. Don’t kill me. Oh God. PLEASE MAKE ME PANCAKES. I DON’T THINK I CAN LIVE WITHOUT THEM.
If I wasn’t already on the floor, I would have been once reading that text. The sad thing is, I read it in his voice and I could totally see him saying that. I texted him back.
It’s okay. I forgive you. But I don’t know about the pancakes. Maybe that’ll be your punishment…
I laughed evilly when I pushed the send button. I swear people mush think I’m crazy, winking and laughing to myself. Gosh I’m so weird.
I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR THE PANCAKES. WHAT CAN I DO TO EARN THE RIGHT TO PANCAKES BACK????
I got exactly what I figured I would.
I don’t know… Dishes for two weeks starting when I get home.
Done!
I miss you.
Same. It feels wrong without you here. Come home already.
Friday can’t come any sooner.
This is where the conversation ended. I figured Phil went to bed. It was getting late over there. Next I had to call my only living grandmother.
She was put into a nursing home when I was really young. She had dementia and still thinks I’m twelve. I once tried to tell her how old I was and it just stressed her out even more so now I go along with it. At least she remembers my birthday.
“Hi Gramma, its Samantha. I’m sorry I didn’t answer my phone when you tried to call.”
“Oh, Samantha, Happy Birthday. I forgot to send you a present.”
“Don’t worry about that Gramma. I don’t need a present. Just you calling is enough. I gotta go but I just called to tell you thank you for calling and that I love you.”
“I love you too Sammie.”
With that I hung up the phone. I don’t get to talk her very often so it was quite nice to talk to her today.
After we got though all the Sims videos, Lily decided she wanted to watch a few others. We both ended up sleeping on the couch.
The next day we didn’t really leave the house. I felt bad because I never did go and visit Gloria but she saw me at my birthday party so I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. We did on the other hand play music loudly and dance around in Lily’s apartment.
We were equipped with fluffy socks and slippery floors. A dangerous situation for people with good balance. I sadly am not one of those people. There were many almost disasters where I almost fell on my butt. Just when I thought I was going to get away without butt bruises, the incident happened.
Lily slid into me and I lost my balance (big surprise there), I was going to fall on my face but I caught it just in time to hit the slippery bit of floor and I fell on my ass bringing Lily down with me. On top of that Lily kneed me in the stomach.
“Now I have butt bruises.” I said in a pouty sounding voice once I regained my voice.
An evil grin appeared on Lily’s face. I had no time to act before Lily kicked me in the butt.
“Now you have two.” said Lily with the same evil grin.
“What was that for?” I asked annoyed.
“You dragged me down with you. The floor is hard.” She replied.
“But you kneed me on the way down.” I countered
“Yeah but that was your own fault.”
“But you ran into me…”
Lily just shrugged.
“Don’t be in my way and I won’t bump into you.”
There was no point arguing with her. I huffed and leaned against the cupboard and rubbed the sore spot on my butt. I’m a fucking fortune teller. A fortune teller of butt bruises.
I stayed on the floor for a while rubbing my butt. Floors are hard. The knee to the stomach didn’t do anything except knock the wind out of me but it still hurt.



Friday rolled around to everyone’s dismay. Lily and Ian weren’t ready for me to leave yet but I missed the guys and I had to work in a few days.
Friday morning I decided I should probably book my flight home. I was hoping for something tonight or early tomorrow morning. I had told Ian and Lily this the day before but I knew I should have booked it sooner.
There were no available flights until 8:30 am on Tuesday. On top of that, the thing I bought for my phone so that I could use it in the US, ran out today. Therefore my phone was completely useless and it’s not like Lily has Phil or Dan’s number.
I couldn’t call the guys and tell them and when they tried my phone, they wouldn’t get anything. Then on top of that, I can’t find my computer charger anywhere.
You could say that Friday was a bad day.
“They’re going to think I died.” I mumbled in my slumped position on the couch.
I crossed my arms and closed my eyes.
“No they won’t. They’ll just figure you had a hard time getting a flight and that your phone ran out.” said Lily from her seat next to me.
“No, Dan will have a heart attack and think I died after two days plus I can’t give them a heads up that I’m home so I’m pretty much just going to me showing up unannounced. What if I came home and one of them has a girl… nope, never mind, that won’t happen.”
“Well then maybe this whole thing going on with Dan will go away. He’ll think you’re dead and he’ll be so happy that you’re alive that whatever mood he’s in will be forgotten.” said Lily ending the conversation by turning the TV on and turning her attention to that.
I noticed that she had a smirk on her face. She was up to something and definitely didn’t want to know what.
A few minutes later I turned to Lily and asked for her phone.
“Why do you want my phone?” she asked.
“I’m gonna call the guys.” I stated.
“Do you know their numbers?”
“No but they’re in my phone.” I said picking up my phone before remembering that I turned it off to save the battery. If I couldn’t use it to call a taxi when I landed in London, I was screwed.
“Never mind.” I sighed crossing my arms and slouching down into the couch.
Later in the evening there was a knock on Lily’s door. Lily got up to answer it and in walked someone I definitely didn’t expect.
“Ian? What are you doing here?” I asked in awe of seeing my brother in my best friend’s apartment.
“Oh, Sammie? I thought you went home.” He said just as surprised as I was.
“Why do you have a-” I paused to sniff the air. “A Barbeque Chicken pizza and cream soda?”
“Well… I uh, I just thought… Lily, help me here?” said my brother turning to my best friend for help under my suspicious glare.
“We planned that the night you left, we would have a pity party.
“A pity party?” I asked.
“Yeah because we are going to be sad that you were gone and because we… we want you to stay here with us and I know London is home to you but we miss you when you’re gone.” said Lily in a rush of words and she was almost on the verge of tears.
“Lily, I love you and I miss you when I’m gone too, but I just want to make it very clear that London is my home. I would love to stay with you but the only way for that to happen is you to move to London. I know you and you are never going to move to London. Leaving this place was always a secret dream of mine but I thought it would never happen but now that I’m out, I’m never coming back to stay. I’ll visit but I don’t fit here. It’s like I’m a puzzle piece from a different puzzle and someone is trying to fit me into a space that wasn’t made for me when I’m here. When I’m in London my puzzle is complete.”
Lily cried and I cried with her. Ian didn’t know who to comfort so he kind of hugged both of us from the side. His awkwardness almost make me laugh… almost. We finished out our crying session and then we stuffed ourselves with pizza. There was a significant amount of time that Lily was engrossed in her phone but I’m pretty sure she was reading a school related email or something because she looked very serious. We somehow all ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Lily POV[/]

“Okay Mister P, the plan is set in motion. She couldn’t find a flight until Tuesday and I’m hiding her computer and phone charger so she can’t call Dan.”
“Mister P? Lily, I think you’re running out of creative names to call me. Okay, Dan is still in his bad mood but this will totally solve it I think.”
Ever since I started texting Dan, I’ve been texting Phil too. It started out me just wanting to get to know my best friend’s best friends but when it came to Phil, we just kind of hit it off.
Eventually he told me about how Dan likes Sam and he knows Sam likes Dan but he can’t tell either of them because he values his trust. The only thing that held me back from running to Sam right away and rubbing it in her face was the fact that Phil seemed genuinely afraid that Sam and Dan wouldn’t trust him again.
I so badly wanted to tell her but instead he and I started plotting to get the two of them together. There were many plans that were scrapped because they wouldn’t have worked.
When Phil told me about what happened with Dan since Phil told him he was acting really weird, the most ingenious thought came to me. Knowing that Sam and only booked a one way, she was bound to not get a flight on the day she wanted unless she wanted to pay mega bucks for it.
The plan was to cut all contact for Dan and Sam. Dan was already barely talking to Sam, so it would totally work but I knew she would try to contact Phil. This is where my ninja skills had to kick in.
First I unplugged the internet. Then when Sam was on half battery on her laptop, I grabbed her charger and hid it under the bed. I prayed that she didn’t look there and luckily she didn’t.
Then I asked to use her phone. I left as many apps running as possible. When she noticed she was on 25 percent, she went to plug her phone in but she couldn’t find the charger. I hid it in the cardboard tube of a roll of toilet paper and hit in the back of the closet under the other rolls. When she couldn’t find her charger, she turned her phone off to save the battery.
When she asked to borrow my phone, I had a mini panic attack. If she had had the guys numbers memorized I was screwed. I lucked out on that one.
The overall plan was for Dan to be really worried and think she died or something and then when he sees her, he’ll be so overcome with relief that he kisses her. Then Dan and Sam will get married and live happily and awkwardly ever after. Fingers crossed that this works.

Sam POV

The next three days seemed to go by faster than I thought they would. On Saturday Lily, Ian, and I all went to dinner at my parents. My parents upon seeing me thought I was moving back home but they both looked disappointed when I set them straight.
Sunday was spent at the lake. Lily and I got fries and milkshakes like we used to and we laid out in lawn chairs on the dock that the little kids jump off of. Of course we had to swim out there with our lawn chairs so we had no choice but to just talk to each other seeing as bring a book was out of the question. We talked a lot about Dan. She is quite adamant that I need to tell him I like him.
“You love him, don’t lie to yourself. You said it before.” said Lily not looking at me.
“No, it’s just a crush. I won’t let it be more than that. Then I’m going to stamp it out. It was a slip of the tongue. I didn’t mean it.” I said trying to get her to drop the subject.
“I ship you.” said Lily.
“What?” I asked somewhere between shocked that she knew what shipping was and confused as to why she said it.
“I ship you. You and Dan are my… OTP.” said Lily almost with a sense of pride.
“Lily, do you even know what OTP means?” I asked now more on the surprised side.
“I’ve been doing my research. That and I heard it in one of Dan’s videos-what?” she said seeing my shocked, confused and astonished face.
“I had to do some snooping on the guy my best friend is in love with. I need to know what he’s like and if he’s any good for you. I give my approval by the way.”
“I don’t love Dan.” I said.
Oh god I sound like Lily when she’s confronted about Ian.
Monday was filled with packing and making sure I remembered to pack absolutely everything… and then checking again. I didn’t want to leave anything here and have Lily send it to me. It was just a waste of time and money. I had a slight difficulty closing my suitcase once I had everything rounded up.
The next morning Lily and I got up at three. We had to leave at four thirty so I could check in at the airport at six thirty. Lily reminded me of a zombie as she was shuffling off to the bathroom to shower. I laid in the bed staring at the ceiling just thinking about how I am really going to miss Lily and Ian.
While double checking that I had everything while Lily was in the shower, I moved a pile of clothes where I found my phone charger. I was just about to plug my phone in when Lily came out of the shower.
I got in the shower next and when I was done we packed all of my things up into the car. Of course Lily forgot to plug in my phone like she promised. Lily and I then went to pick up Ian. She said she wanted company for the ride home so she didn’t fall asleep. The three of us drove the two hour drive to Portland. Lily and I sang the whole way and Ian glared from the back seat because we wouldn’t let him sleep.
Lily and Ian both came in with me to see me off but they wouldn’t let them past a certain point so we had to saw our goodbyes there.
“I love you. Please don’t die in a fiery plane crash.” said Ian hugging me.
“Wow, way to make me remember my irrational fear of flying. I’ll only be in a state of panic for ten and a half hours. Thanks, you’re a really good brother.” I said hitting his arm lightly.
Next it was Lily’s turn for a hug. I hugged her tighter than I’ve ever hugged anyone before.
“Now remember if you ever want to move to London, I’m totally fine with sharing my bed. It’s definitely big enough for both of us.” I said causing her to laugh.
“And if you ever want to move home you and I can share my bed.” She countered.
“Nah, you’re too much of a bed hog.” I said hugging her even tighter if that was possible.
“See you around Christmas time.” She said.
I could tell that she was holding back tears which made my eyes water a bit but I held the tears back.
I watched their retreating backs until they disappeared then I went to go check in and go through security. It took a little while but I still had time to go to Starbucks for coffee. I sat enjoying one when I pulled out my laptop. It was dead the last three days because the charger somehow got lost. We eventually found it under Lily’s bed after looking there twice. I swear, beds eat everything that gets close.
Great, no Wi-Fi. Plus my plane had no Wi-Fi so I couldn’t check comments on my blog post about going home that I had posted. I took lots of really pretty pictures of one of the trails behind my parent’s house and some at the beach. I even took a few at the lake. One of my favorites from the lake was a picture of the water and the sun reflected off of it just right making it look almost alive.
I also used on of my brother playing volleyball that was really good. I used it in my blog but didn’t mention that it was my brother. My favorite part of the entire post is the last paragraph.
“Going back to the place that you grew up in as someone who is older and more knowledgeable of the world is weird because back then, this one place was your whole world. Now it seems that the world is much bigger than it used to be. It’s so different but at the same time it is exactly the same. Going home is weird, especially when it’s not really your home anymore.”
I know it’s kind of, I don’t want to say depressing but… depressing, but its how I truly felt about the town I grew up in. I don’t know how but I managed to sum up how I felt about that place in words.
I got started on another new post. This one was about another product. Recently I have been wanting to do different things with my blog. Not just reviews or products. I was hoping that if I got good feedback from the going home post, I could start to add in more personal stuff.
I really wanted to write posts about my college experience and the reason I dropped out. I also had a really good idea for a blog post about what it was like going to school in a different country and then eventually staying there. There were so many things I wanted to do but I felt like my blog currently was all beauty.
Just before I got packed up to head over to my gate there was an announcement over the intercom. My flight was delayed due to some sort something I didn’t hear because a baby started to cry making deciphering the words impossible. Delayed for approximately four hours… great. I was already going to get in to London Heathrow really late at night, now I won’t get there until tomorrow morning.
I settled back into my chair at the table and opened a new writing document. I figured I had some time to kill so I could just free write for a while. As the words left my fingertips I no longer remembered what they were. It’s almost like my hands had taken over and my mind just shut down.
When I looked back up, I saw that two hours had passed and I had somehow managed to turn the chaos in my brain into words. To my astonishment, there were actual sentences and proper punctuation. I deserve another coffee for this.
I had just sat down when another announcement came over the intercom. My flight would now be boarding. I grabbed my things and made my way to the gate.
We were all boarded and about to take off at eleven thirty. My excitement at seeing my two best friends overrode the slight terror my brother had instilled in me. I am going to be home in twelve hours. I couldn’t be happier. Well one thing could have made me happier, Violet. If she was here, the flight wouldn’t be as boring. Stupidplanenothavingwifi.