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Bobby winked. “Let me worry about that, okay? All I need you to do is settle in, get comfortable, and stop worrying. Besides, you’re home. This is the one town I know you won’t have to worry about Dennis in.”
“I worry about Dennis wherever I go.”
“You don’t need to anymore, I promise you that,” he said. “Does he know where you are?”
I shook my head. “But he’ll guess it, sooner or later. Hopefully later.”
“I’ll call him tomorrow,” Bobby said.
I panicked, almost spilled my coffee and stared at him in shock. “You’ll do what?”
Bobby held up a hand to stop me. “Relax, will you? I’ll tell him you called me, you sounded worried, and now you won’t pick up your phone. I’ll even throw in a few insults just to make it sound authentic. That will buy us a couple of days.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Bobby shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he’ll buy it.”
“He’s not an idiot, Bobby.”
“You give him too much credit.”
“And you underestimate what he’s capable of,” I said. “Trust me, the minute you call, he’ll see through it. He’ll know I’m here.”
Bobby pursed his lips and drummed his fingers on the table. “So, what do
you want to do?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Absolutely nothing. He knows we hardly talk. He’ll probably think Mansfield was the last place I’d run off to.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous,” Bobby frowned. “You said he wasn’t stupid. This would be the first place I’d look if I were in his shoes.”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “Just don’t call him. He’ll know.”
Bobby looked at me for a few seconds, then sighed and ran a hand across his face. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”
“Thank you.”
“I still think my plan is kinda awesome,” he smiled.
“Your plan sucks.”
Bobby laughed and shook his head at me. “It’s good to have you back, little sis.”
I smiled at him, took a sip from my coffee and closed my eyes.
It was good to be back.
***
My room looked exactly the same. My bed was made, the purple sheets I loved embracing the mattress with a perfection that only my father could have achieved. My posters hung on the walls, faded and yellow, but still a stark reminder of the boyband lover that had once inhabited the room. My books were lined perfectly on the shelf above my desk, and the picture of me at ten playing baseball with my father still stood on the nightstand by the bed.
I would have cried if I hadn’t been all out of tears.
I rolled my suitcase into a corner and opened the closet, grazing my hand over the few clothes that had been left hanging there for God knows how long. Bobby was right. My parents really hadn’t given up on me. My room was a perfect symbol of their expecting me to come back at any time. I wondered how long they waited for me to knock on the front door before finally deciding that I was gone for good. That they wouldn’t see me again.
It made my heart ache.
I opened the suitcase, found something to sleep in, and quickly undressed. I slid under the covers, letting the cool sheets tingle my skin, and stared up at the stars I had stuck on the ceiling when I was only seven. I had never taken them down, even though I clearly remembered how stupid I thought they were back when I was in high school. But I couldn’t bring myself to remove them.
