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Group text it was. Lilac looked around for a good spot. It was crowded today—one of the reasons why the waitress kept giving her family the stink eye for taking up a table for so long, she was sure—but she managed to find a spot by one of the glass walls that afforded her a good view of some of the planes in the background. Not any from the airline she was riding, butwhatever.
She put her bag down and squished it between her sandaled feet, digging through for her compact mirror and making sure there were no flyaways in her hair. It was overcast in Chicago, but she grabbed her sunglasses anyway and put them carefully atop her head, checking again to make sure the movement hadn’t rustled her hair. With her flowery, off-the-shoulder blouse, she was going for the “Florida” look—and who knew if she’d have the time and energy to pose once she got there. She held her camera above her, making sure she got some of the planes in the image, and smiled, flashing a peace sign at thecamera.
So nervous but sooooo excited!she typed in a group text to Gavin, Brielle, and Pembroke. Satisfied with how the picture had turned out, she uploaded it to Instagram as well for all those other friends who rarely texted her to see.Starting a new chapter in my life, she typed.Goodbye, cloudyskies!
Once she posted it, she caught sight of the time again and her heart practically leapt out of her throat. Though she knew she was being overly cautious, she felt like she needed to get past security likenow, but she couldn’t very well go without giving everyone their goodbye hugs. She grinned as she saw an emoji thumbs up and a wacky face from Gavin in the text—of course, neither Brielle nor Pembroke had bothered to comment yet—and she stuffed the phone into her bag, practically running back toward the restaurant. At one point, her left sandal flew off and she had to run back to collect it, apologizing profusely to the older woman in a business suit whose rolling suitcase the shoe had whacked. She was almost at the restaurant, though, so she just carried it and limped the rest of the way, coming upon her mom and grandmas at the front of therestaurant.
“There you are!” said her mom. “We couldn’t find you in the bathroom, so we were about to send in the NationalGuard.”
“I went to another one,” she said, gesturing over her shoulder. She really did have to go, too, but she was going to have to wait until after securitynow.
Grandma Violet took Lilac into a one-armed hug just as her daddy and grandpas exited the restaurant, Papa William tucking his credit card into his wallet—they’d probably all dueled it out to decide who wouldpay.
“Hugs and kisses for Grandma,” said Grandma Violet, kissing her on each cheek. Lilac could feel the lipstick left behind and went to rub it off with her palm, although she smiled the whole way. Grandma Violet grabbed her tightly by both shoulders. “Now, don’t you let Daisy Francesca talk you into doing anythingunseemly.”
Lilac rolled her eyes. “Aunt Frankie isn’t like that, Grandma. She’s just…eccentric.”
Grandma Violet scoffed at her daughter’s nickname as Grandpa Matthew demanded a hug from his little “all grown up Li-Li,” and she gave him butterfly kisses aswell.
“We’ll let you all get going,” he said as Grandma Violet hugged both her son and daughter-in-law. “Stay in touch!” he called, nodding to Lilac’s other set of grandparents and wrapping an arm around his wife before heading toward hotelparking.
“Don’t you have to leave at 12:40?” asked Lilac’s mom, blowing a strand of dyed platinum-blonde hair out of her face as her fingers flew over herphone.
Lilac jumped, shoving the shoe back onto her foot. “Yeah, we should getgoing!”
“Not so fast,” said Papa William. “We all have to go to different terminals, so let’s say our goodbyeshere.”
Lilac turned around, her legs still bouncing, and hugged and kissed her other set of grandparents. Nana Abigail bristled a bit and went to check her makeup as soon as she broke away, but she smiled to find her foundation unmussed. “You’ll love Florida, honey,” she said. “Make sure you get plenty of beach timein.”
“I will,” said Lilac, already on to hugging hermom.
“Congrats again, sweetheart,” said her mom, shoving her phone into her purse and taking Lilac’s face in bothhands.
“Mom,” said Lilac, her eyes flitting back and forth to see if anyone waswatching.
“Oh, cut your mother some slack,” she responded. “My baby’s going off into the big, wideworld…”
“And she better be on the lookout for big, bad wolves,” said her daddy. He took over from his wife and swung Lilac in his arms, letting out an exaggeratedoofand cradling his back after he put her down. Lilac could feel her face flush, but she gave her daddy a peck on the cheek anyway. “My little girl’s not so little anymore,” headded.
“Well,that’sflattering,” sniped NanaAbigail.
“Mom,” Lilac said, looking from one parent to the other and taking a hand from both. “Daddy. Thank you foreverything.”
“I mean it, princess,” said her daddy, grabbing his wife’s and his bags. “If any beach bum gives you trouble, I want to be the first to hear about it. I’ll have a fist with his name onit.”
Nana Abigail’s eyebrows arched as her husband and son-in-law exchanged a look and laughed. Lilac wondered if her grandpa had had a fist or two for her daddy back in theday.
“Bye!” said Lilac, shuffling off. She walked backward a few steps, her view of her family growing hazy through thetears.
“You’ve got this,” she told herself as she turnedaround.
And for the length of the mostly uneventful flight, shedid.
Lilac couldn’t believe she’d fallen asleep on the flight, but she’d had trouble sleeping the night before. All the excitement over graduation and saying goodbye to Gavin and everyone else for the foreseeable future… True, she hadn’t seen them when in Spain, either, except for that time her parents had paid to send Gavin there to join her for spring break, but she’d known then she was returning to her friends, to her routine in thefall.
She didn’t know anyone in Florida except for AuntFrankie.
…And whoever had left a piece of paper with a phone number and the message, “Call me, hot stuff?” on it on her lap when she’d beenasleep.
