Chlaughan

Thank you.

Vaughan

Thursday, 9:16am

"If we don't leave in .2 seconds for the airport I'm going to disown all of you and start a new life in California with a family that is able to be on time for things," my dad jokes, although I'm not sure he's really joking at all.

"Harsh," my mom says, looking through her carry-on bag to make sure she brought everything she needs.

"Our Uber is literally waiting outside for us and you're sitting here, in the lobby of this hotel, looking through the bag you've checked a million times," he says.

"Okay, so when we finally land in Cali after a six hour flight and a three hour drive to our house, and I tell you that I left my wallet at the hotel...you're not going to be angry?" she fires, half sarcastically, half seriously.

"Lets just go," he gives up. 

"That's what I thought," My mom sneaks in, always needing the last word.

Ella and I start walking out the door side-by-side, hoping our parents follow.

"They don't sound stressed at all!" I kid. Ella nudges me.

The drive to the airport goes fast. Ella spends most of the time on Pinterest and TikTok, as per usual. I spend the time on my phone playing games, watching shows, and texting Liam. His family's on the same flight as us so I'd been making sure we got there at the same time so that I'm not bored out of my mind sitting at the gate. Without Liam, Ella would talk my ear off telling me about the new magazine cover Austin Butler was most recently on and every single detail of his outfit, even though I'm sure he wouldn't be wearing much anyway.

By the time we get through security, we have about an hour until we board. We would've had more time, but Ella got picked randomly to be triple-checked. The rest of us stood off to the side, watching Ella roll her eyes as they patted her down. After that whole debacle, the four of us head to our gate where I immediately spot Liam with his family. I feel myself blush just looking at him, hiding my face with a fake cough. Liam laughs under his breath noticing my not-so-subtle cover up as we walk to sit with them.

"You made it on time! Who would've guessed," Liam says, motioning for me to sit in the seat next to him.

"Surprisingly," I reply, sitting down. "Mom had to look through all of her things multiple times just in case. It drove my dad crazy."

"Makes sense. How was saying goodbye to the Mazza's? They stopped by early this morning to say goodbye to us."

"Fine actually. A few tears all around but not as many as I expected. I don't know, I think we've gotten to the point of just being okay with it after all of this anxiety the past few months. Although, I'm still not sure why they decided at the last minute not to say goodbye at the airport like they planned."

"Yeah that confused me too, but I'm sure there's a reason that explains it."

I nod and look down at my phone, hoping there's any message from Chiara at all. Our goodbye was...normal, a little bit awkward even. I love Liam. I think I always have, but I can't stop thinking about Chiara. I know that's been causing the weirdness between us. She doesn't have feelings for me. If anything, she likes that kid from the thrift store she told me about. The guy who was holding the Lemonade Mouth CD. Whatever. I can get down to "Determinate" at any time if I really wanted to.

I sit there talking to Liam for a few minutes, when he suggests we walk around for a bit while we wait for our flight. We stop first in the bookstore as if I'm ever going to willingly read a book. Then, we decide to walk by as many gates as we can, making up life stories about the random people sitting alone.