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Chapter Twenty Two

The next morning, Mason and his dad had a huge blowup over breakfast. Which, even though I hated to see them argue, it did diminish the importance of Dan's complaints about noisy night squirrels on the roof. Mason was insisting that he be allowed to come to the airport. Kevin said it wasn't necessary. This went back and forth for about twenty minutes before Addy jumped in and sided with Mason.

One more battle won.

I was still half numb from the memories of the night before. Mason and I had managed to sneak back into our rooms undetected.

But morning came too soon.

As I washed up, I took a long hard look at myself in the mirror; the mirror that had been my friend the past month.

Still the same Shelby on the outside...

But the inside was a different story.

As we all piled into the SUV, I glanced out at the house one last time. My eyes stared up at the roof.

Sigh.

My little bubble of fuzziness was soon popped. The twins were in rare form. Brayden had gotten a hold of some bubble gum and that started a loud round of wailing from Tristan. Halfway to the airport, dad made Brayden spit the gum out into his hand and out the window it went. Or so I thought. Joe must have caught it and snuck it back to Brayden. I saw him happily munching and giving appreciative looks to his big brother. I didn't even want to think about how many germs were rolling around in his little mouth by this time.

Ally had taken the seat next to me. Kevin had kept Mason up front. Ally kept glancing up at Mason and then back at me. I was trying so hard not to cry. She reached over and squeezed my hand. I gave her a weak, albeit watery, smile.

When we finally arrived at the airport, it seemed to take forever to check our luggage and find our gate. AJ and Kevin were keeping one eye on us as they stood off to the side talking quietly.

"This is a load of crap," Mason whispered. I nodded. My bottom lip started to quiver. By the time our boarding call came up, I was crying steadily. Mason glanced at the dads.

"Screw it," he muttered. He wrapped his arms around me and I leaned against his chest. His lips pressed against the top of my head.

"I love you," he whispered. I held onto his forearm for dear life.

"I love you too," I blubbered.

"Shel, time to go," mom said quietly. Mason's arms tightened around me even more. Through bleary eyes, I could see Joe pretending to vomit all over the place.

The second boarding call came over the speaker.

"Shel, we've got to go," mom repeated.

I was hoping that Mason would somehow be able to turn into a ninja and just karate chop everyone away.

But we weren't that lucky.

"Shelby, now," dad said. Kevin placed a hand on Mason's shoulder and all of a sudden his arms were gone and I was more miserable than I had ever been in my entire life.

I don't remember a lot about getting on the plane or the plane ride itself. I curled up next to the window and stared out at the Kentucky clouds. They weren't the same as the ones in Florida. The Kentucky ones were so much better. Ally sat by me, my little tiny soldier. She put her head on my shoulder and commerserated with me just by being there.

Meanwhile, the stewardess took Brayden and Tristan into the cockpit to meet the pilot. I'm surprised the plane didn't crash, but they came out talking excitedly and showing off their wings.

When I heard the announcement that we were going to be landing in ten minutes, I started bawling all over again.

For me, summer - no, life - seemed officially over.

----------------------------------

"Cell phone and laptop."

"Mom, please."

"I'm sorry honey. One month. Cell phone and laptop."

I hadn't even unpacked and I had already been cornered. My eyes were raw and itchy from crying. I held out my cell phone. Mom pocketed it. I reluctantly held out my laptop.

"I just want you to have some time to think about this without his influence," mom said. "You know, absence makes a heart grow fonder if the feelings are real."

I didn't answer her. How could I even begin to explain what I was feeling? Mom gave me a kiss on the forehead and walked out of the room. I curled up on my bed.

It had barely been hours and already I felt like I was going insane. Thirty days of this was going to be...

Ugh.

"ME WANT BANANA! ME WANT BANANA!"

Brayden and Tristan ran into my room wearing their monkey hoodies. Identical brown tails were attached to the back of their jeans.

"I don't have bananas," I said grumpily.

They began to make loud screeching sounds and before I knew it, I had two pairs of feet jumping up and down inches from my head.

"GO AWAY!"

"ME WANT BANANA!"

"GO ASK MOM TO GIVE YOU SOME DAMN BANANAS!" I yelled.

I felt tiny little hands yanking my hair as if they were picking off nits. I sucked in a breath. I was going to explode. Why in the hell did mom and dad decide to have these cretins? This was--

"Hey monkeys! Come get your bananas!"

I opened my eyes. Ally was standing at my doorway holding two bananas. She tossed them down the hall. The boys tackled each other and flew out in search of their food.

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"We've gone through a lot of bananas this month," she said. She hovered at the door.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Are you okay?"

Tears sprang to my eyes again. I never cried. And today just filled my quota for years. Ally was the only person that had asked me how I felt. I'm sure mom and dad just thought I was being overly dramatic. It was nice to know that someone cared.

"I'm...depressed."

Ally walked in and sat down at the edge of my bed.

"Can I get you something?"

I smiled weakly. I wished more than anything that a banana or some hot chocolate could be the magic fix-all.

"Can you magically send Mason here?"

Ally shook her head.

"I can't do that."

"Then, no."

Ally looked down at me. She bit her lip. She always did that when she thought she was in trouble.

Or potentially going to get in trouble.

She was too good for her own...well, good.

"I might know how you can talk to him," she said quietly.

My eyes widened. "How?"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a yellow phone with black stripes.

My eyes widened.

Mom and dad had gotten her a phone.

A cellphone.