complications ↠ hemmings

Chapter 25

Raven

Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. Leaving Luke sitting on that bed in the hotel room with his head in his hands is etched in my memory. I had to leave; when all I really wanted to do was hug him and forgive him. Luke left marks on my memory, on my conciousness, on my heart, on my body. I'm taking pieces of him with me, and hopefully it was a good thing I left him behind.

You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, even months, over analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together. Justifying what could've, would've, should've happened.. Or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on. Which is exactly what I'm doing.

As I sit in the airplane seat, my knees pushed against my chest, I look out the window and into the clouds. Ed Sheeran's voice fills my ears from the headphones I had plugged in my phone. I lightly sway my head to the sound of his new album.

With all of this happening, I check the time, and the clock tells me that's it's 12:32 A.M. I lock my phone again and stare out the window. It's my eighteenth birthday today. I smile to myself, and the plane starts to shake as we begin to land.

After the plane lands, I grab my duffle bag from above my seat, and wait in line as people slowly and sleepily walk off the plane. Jet lag has gotten the best of me, because I'm wide awake and it's almost 2 A.M. now.

Since I didn't want to have to call my mom to have her and Amy pick me up from this impromtu flight, I called one of my only friends from back home - one that I've been ignoring ever since I've been with Luke.

I see my best friend Kate holding a sign up with my name on it, and without thinking, I rush and crash into her, hugging her tightly.

"Woah, Raven!" She squeals.

I'm crying now, and I lightly sob into her black tanktop. She immediately pulls back and holds me by my shoulders. "What happened, Raven?" She soothes me, and rubs my back.

I quickly pull myself together as I see lots of men with cameras come into the building, something I've gotten used to since Luke. "I'll tell you everything when we get to your place. Is that okay?" I nod my head in the direction of the men walking towards us.

She sees them and quickly mumbles a yeah, and she links her arm with mine as we walk to her car.

The men rush towards us and quickly start snapping pictures and asking jumbles of questions, all of them involving Luke. I push past them and try to block everything out as we get to Kate's car. As Kate begins to unlock her car, one of the men push past me and try to get into her front seat. She kicks him from the other side.

"For fucks sake, leave the damn girl alone!" She screams at them, and they all begin to laugh as they continue to take pictures and videos. "Whatever, come on Raven, get in the car." She grumbles and sits in the drivers seat.

I take my seat in the passengers side and she begins to drive out of the airport parking lot. "Sorry about all that." I quietly say and look at her as she stares out the windshield.