Sweet Magnolias Autumn

Clearing the Air

Annie

*Knock, Knock, Knock*

Ugh. I'm not done packing yet. I put the sweater I was holding into my suitcase before going to answer the door.

*Knock, Knock, Knock*

"I'm coming," I yell. Do they have no patients? Ty and Kyle both know my room is the farthest from the front door, so I don't know why they knocked again already. When I open the front door, it's Ty standing on the other side. "Do you have any patients?" I ask.

"No, my dad's, the doctor, not me; you should know this by now, Annie." He says with a chuckle. "I just wasn't sure you heard the first time, so I knocked again, louder. Anyway, I am here to help you bring your stuff over."

"Well, come in; I'm almost finished," I tell him, closing the doors behind him.

"No worries; I'm early. My mom told me to wait 20 minutes or so, but I came over pretty much right away," he says, walking further into the living room.

"Why."

"So, I found out what's going on with my dad and your aunt. It turns out they are going on an indefinite road trip together." He informs me, avoiding my question.

"Okay, so your dad's gone?" I posed it as a question

"Again."

"Again," I ask.

"Yeah, Um...Well, I guess he technically never was really gone, but he missed some visits during the summer and didn't go to court with Kyle. So he was kind of missing in action," Ty says.

"I'm sorry," I tell him. Leaving it up to him if he wants to say more, it will only push him further if I ask, which will lead to an argument between us, and our friendship is at a knife point right now. I don't want to push too much. Ty just shrugged. "Do you want anything to drink or eat?" I ask.

"I'm good, thanks." He says

"Well. I'm going to finish packing. You can come hang out in my room or hang out here if you want." I tell him.

"Lead the way," he says. So we walk to my room in complete silence. It is not comfortable silence, but it is not a completely awkward silence either; it is somewhere in between. When we get to my door, he stops and lets me go in first. I walk back to my dresser to grab a couple more sweaters, and Ty walks over to the window and looks out of it. "Oh, we're having a PJ family party tonight, by the way." He says, sounding nervous and unsure.

"Your Idea, I presume," I say, knowing it was likely Katie's idea.

"My Mom's, actually." He says with a chuckle. I turn around to face him.

"Aunt Maddie suggested having a party on a school night?" I asked in total disbelief.

"Yeah, I think it was to cheer Katie up and distract her from the news about my dad, but we are all required to attend—the four of us, you and Coach," he tells me with a straight face.

"Okay... then. I guess." I say before bursting out laughing.

"What so funny?" Ty asks, sounding completely confused.

"Nothing, it's just not something I would expect Aunt Maddie to do. When we were little, and they had margarita nights, and we would hang out, Maddie would always insist that they be on Fridays so we get to days to recover from our "late nights" before school, and now she is just saying, hey let's have a "party" on a school night. It's weird." I admit to him, adding air quotes around late nights and parties because they weren't that late of night, and it sounds like the word party was Katie's idea. I know Katie will be in bed within a half hour of her regular bedtime.