Our Pointless Fights

Chapter 6: Leaving

-Megan-

"Megan! Where are you?" Naomi hollered. "The food's getting cold."

"Just a second, I think I dropped an earring," I replied, reaching under the couch, where one of the pieces of the papers had slid under.

I had to retrieve those papers before Naomi saw they had been torn, and I had to do it fast. Sneaking out of the kitchen while she was preparing food, I quickly gathered the evidence. I just needed that last damn pap…

Yes! Finally, I retrieved it and stood up, looking around, unsure what to do with them now. I spotted a book on one of the bookshelves, opened it, stuffed the papers between pages, and swiftly replaced it on the shelf.

"Megan!"

"Coming!" I called out.

Just then, I noticed someone in the doorway leading to the hallway. I glanced over my shoulder, checking to see if my sister was coming to look for me, before approaching Nathan, who wore a smile on his lips.

"What are you doing?" I whispered urgently.

He didn't answer and instead placed his hands on the sides of my neck, giving me a quick kiss. "See you soon, baby. Don't forget our little deal."

I stared at him in shock, watching his smile widen before he quickly vanished again.

"Megan?" I turned to see my sister standing there.

"Uh..." I swallowed hard, trying to compose myself. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?" she inquired.

"N-Nothing. Is the food ready? Let's go eat," I said, walking over to her and grabbing her arm, leading her back into the kitchen. We collected the food and proceeded to the dining room, where we sat down and began to eat.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Naomi inquired.

"I'm good," I assured her, twirling some spaghetti around the fork.

"You're acting weird."

"I told you why," I muttered.

"I know, but you took a huge step today. You freed yourself from him. Be proud!"

I forced a smile onto my lips and nodded. Proud? Nathan had torn the papers and then bargained with me, demanding I come back for a month. What the hell did I tell my sister?

"Um, Naomi?" My sister smiled at me, waiting for me to continue. "You know I've been thinking a lot about what you said this morning."

"Oh?"

I was a terrible liar, but I knew what she would think about my deal with Nathan. She would never accept it. She had made up her mind about him, and there was no changing that. So, I had to come up with something that wouldn’t make her too suspicious or overprotective.

"I... I think you're right," I confessed.

"About?"

"I need to figure myself out and my life," I said. "So, I thought maybe I needed a change of scenery. You know, a vacation, where I don’t have to think about anything else but figuring out what I like and want to do with my life."

"Sounds great!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're finally trying to put Nathan, and everything he did to you, behind you."

Again, I forced a smile onto my lips because I knew my voice would betray me.

"I'm going on my own though," I clarified.

"I wasn't going to intrude," she assured me. "Where do you think you want to go?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe Spain," I suggested.

"Wonderful idea! Enjoy your freedom," she encouraged.

If she just knew, I thought to myself, but she couldn’t. Naomi had changed a lot since getting out of rehab I noticed, but of course, being high all the time could easily become the person everyone saw you as. Now, I saw a different side. I saw the old Naomi, but more protective.

“How long will you be gone?” she inquired.

“I was thinking a month or so.”

“Good, take a lot of time. You need it,” she said.

I smiled and nodded. It seemed like that was the best way to sell this lie, but I knew, of course, I couldn’t keep this a secret forever. In one way or another, she would know.

***

“Do you have everything?” my sister asked, as she looked at my suitcase that was packed and closed.

“I think so.”

“Are you sure?” she inquired.

“Are you my mom?”

“Hey, I just don’t want you to have to turn around because you forgot something important,” she said and held up her hands.

I chuckled and shook my head, taking a last look through the room just to be sure.

“You got your phone?” she asked when I came back to her and the suitcase.

“Right here,” I confirmed, pulling it from my back pocket.

“Passport?”

“Here.”

I retrieved it from a pocket in my jacket, which I was carrying in my hand.

“Hmm, let me see.”

“Can we just go?” I laughed.

She smiled and nodded.

"Is Thomas already at work?" I inquired, knowing her new husband worked a lot.

She nodded as we walked down the stairs. "He is always busy."

"And you will be just fine here alone?" I questioned.

Naomi waved a hand through the air and nodded.

"I have school now, remember?" she said, smiling at me.

That was right. Naomi had gone back to school wanting to study law. I had never imagined Naomi wanting to be a lawyer, but she did, and she was determined to become one.

"Right, of course," I acknowledged.

"I will be fine, and so will you," she assured me, opening the door.

We walked outside and over to her car.

"I just feel like I am abandoning you a little," I expressed as we threw my suitcase into the trunk and then got in the car.

"Abandoning me?" she chuckled. "You are gone for a month, not a year."

"Still. You helped me, and now I am just disappearing."

"You are taking time to figure out yourself. You know how important that is. So few people ever take the time to figure out what they really want and just accept whatever others tell them to do. We are not going to be those people," she declared, pointing at me before starting the car.

"Yes, sir," I responded.

She smiled at me and then drove away from the house to drop me off at the airport. She didn’t follow me inside because I told her not to. I didn’t want her to figure out where I was really going, but she hugged me goodbye and told me to have a great time.

I had no idea what this trip was going to be like. I didn’t think I would ever go back to that house, but a deal was a deal, and I knew if I didn’t come to Nathan, he would come to me.