Malia's Might

Chapter 3: Anywhere but home.

                  Malia was sitting in the arcade with her favorite people in the whole world.  She couldn’t believe that in a matter of days she would be leaving them all behind to head to another country.  She hadn’t been to another county let alone country.  What the heck had her life become?  She stared around the table as her friends laughed and joked with one another as if nothing would ever change between them.  She swallowed past the lump in her throat as she was about to turn all their lives upside down with just a few words.

                “Hey guys, I have to tell you all something.  This is really gonna suck but I can’t keep it in anymore.”  She could feel the tears threatening her as she tried to compose herself.  “My dad just got a promotion at work.”

                “Hey hun, what’s with the tears, isn’t a promotion supposed to be a good thing?”  Mack was looking at her with a worried expression.  Why did the whole talking thing have to be so hard when it was important?!

                “Yeah it is unless it involves moving.”  Malia looked around the table as the chatter suddenly stopped and she could feel all their eyes on her.  She squirmed under the pressure of everyone’s attention.

                “Well, hey no matter where you go girl we will still come and visit.”  Davis was talking now, with his lopsided playful grin Malia almost smiled back.

                Shaking her head she let the other shoe drop. “Not this time.  This time the promotion means moving to another country.  Apparently we are moving to Europe in less than a month.”

                The silence was so quick that you could hear the waitress drop the plate of silverware in the back room.  Somewhere a guy cheered her on as if she wasn’t embarrassed enough already.  Gosh, sometimes people could be such jerks.  Malia let her thoughts wander as her friends failed to find their voices.  She didn’t want to look up at them; she stared at the table top like it was the last thing on the planet.  Maybe they wouldn’t be upset she was leaving, did they really care?

                Hesitantly she looked up and felt all the insecurities in her chest lift at the sorrow in their eyes.  These really were her people.  They had been together since elementary school and now in an instant they would be separated as if that meant nothing.  Life just wasn’t fair.

                “You can’t go!”  Mack was holding her hand now.  She had a look of fierce determination on her face and her eyes were sparking with a fire that made Malia want to hug her.  They had been friends since they were two and they did everything together.  There would never be another normal day without Mack in it.  Malia swiped at the tears on her face as she lost the battle with the warm drops as they slipped over her lids and down her reddening cheeks.

                “What the heck is your dad thinking transferring you in your senior year?”  Sienna was normally the quiet one of the group, staying back and letting everyone else have the light more often than taking the stage herself.  Now she appeared appalled at the idea that Malia was going to be moving so far away at such a critical time in her life.

                “I know, but I have been told that I have no choice.  The stepmonster says that I have to stop being selfish and let my father have this opportunity.”  Malia was picking at her napkin as they all took in the fact that this was going to happen whether they liked it or not.

                Malia took a shaky breath and looked around the table at the people who had become her whole world.  Mack was her other half, having been there through everything from lost teeth and knee scrapes to the loss of her mother.  Davis was the only guy in the group and though he didn’t always understand what they meant when they used their “girly” jargon as he called it he was still just as important with his quick wit and goofy grins.  Sienna was the shy quiet soul of their group, always there in support of the others and fiercely protective of her little family of friends.  Malia was going to miss them all so much she felt a piece of herself c***k at the sudden realization of the loss that she would have to deal with.  I don’t think I can do this she thought.  It was just too much, too hard, and she had already lost so much already in her short eighteen years of life.

                “Promise me that we will have the best time of our life in the last few weeks that I have here.”  Malia looked at all of them in turn as they solemnly nodded in agreement.  “Okay then, with that settled where is our pizza?  I want nothing more than to listen to Davis’s awful jokes and to eat greasy pizza and then play so many games our hands hurt before I have to leave you all.”

                “I’ll have you know my jokes are not awful, you just don’t have my sense of humor.”  Davis had a mock look of indignation on his face and all the girls broke into laughter at his expense.

                “Davis, you are the only eighteen year old guy who tells dad jokes and thinks they are actually funny.  Remember the last one you had to explain to us?  Did no one tell you that a joke isn’t funny if you have to explain it?”  Mack nudged his arm as his jaw practically dropped onto the table.

                “Well I can’t help that you have no funny bone.  Dang everyone’s a critic these days.”  Davis smiled back at her as he bumped her shoulder with his own.

                They spent the rest of the night doing just that, talking, eating and playing games.  Malia did play until her hands hurt from holding the old fashioned arcade joysticks.  When they all walked her home she had the biggest grin on her face, feeling so very loved, at least until they reached her doorstep and saw that Shannon was waiting for her on the porch.  Great, way to kill a mood, that woman could kill the shine off a rainbow I swear.  Malia turned to her friends and hugged them each one by one before saying her goodbyes and vowing that they would all do this again before she left.

                Turning to her house Malia had no intention of stopping.  She didn’t want to hear what her stepmother would say to her.  The look on the woman’s face said that it wouldn’t be anything kind or comforting, but that was nothing new between them.  Malia had gotten used to feeling like she was just the added baggage that came with her dad and the woman couldn’t wait for her to be gone.  That was why Shannon insisting that she move with them was so confusing.  You don’t want me here but you can’t leave me behind to be happy either.  Whatever stepmonster, play your games; as soon as I can I am moving back here to my home.

                “Malia can I have a word please?”  Shannon was giving her the look that said it wasn’t a request but rather a situation where she was expected to stand there and listen without comment until the tirade was over.

                Malia stopped in her tracks and looked over to Shannon waiting for her to start her rant.  With Shannon it was always a rant, never a conversation, and it was always best to just let her get it over with so that you could go back on with whatever you were doing before she decided to assault your ears with her incessant rambling.

                “I feel you are not truly grasping what this opportunity means for us all.  You will get to put some culture into your life and experience things that you would never have had a chance to see in this tiny little nothing town.  Your dad could really use this promotion; it will be very good for him in the company.  Plus, they made a mandate that the whole family had to move for him to take it, so as that stands you are a part of this family and thus will move.  Have I made myself clear?  You will attempt to find some way to adjust to this after all this will be your home now so get used to it.”  With that Shannon turned on her heel and walked into the house quietly shutting the door behind her as if to say the conversation was over.  If you could call it a conversation rather than a one way monologue.

                Malia had to stifle the giggle that was working its way up her throat at her own thoughts on her stepmother.  She knew that openly laughing about her absurd view of a conversation did not go well.  Besides there was really nothing she could do about it, she was trapped and had no options here.  Sure her mother had left a trust for her when she passed but Malia was unable to touch it until she graduated high school and her father had control of it until then.  So basically Shannon would hold that over her to get her way if she had to.  Her dad might have the control legally but Shannon seemed to control dad and so again trapped.  Malia felt herself harden when she thought back over Shannon’s words.  Well she might not have a choice but she would be damned if that place would be home.  It might be where she was going to be living soon but it was anywhere but home, she already had a home.