Unravel (Completed)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Friday August 16 2013 

I stand on the driveway in my pyjamas the sun still has not risen yet so the air still has a chill to it. A thin layer of dew covers everything and is making my feet wet, and the freshly mowed grass stick to my feet.  

My dad adds another suitcase to the back of his car. My mom checks her bag yet again muttering her list of stuff she needs under her breath. My dad puts the last bag in and slams the trunk shut. He claps his hands together making my mom look up from her bag a gleam of excitement in her eyes. 

"Is that everything," my mom questions.

"Yep, every bag we packed," dad says. 

"Do you have your passport? And money?" 

"Of course I do. We have been through this before," my dad says easily. He is the complete opposite of my mom, who is extremely organized and uptight; my dad is insanely laid back. My dad could have easily decided to go on the trip last night and not been worried, but my mom had needed to plan the trip months in advance. Lists had been scattered over the house of things they needed, expense plans were written up and somehow there seemed to be sticky notes appearing everyday with little reminders. 

"Alright, then we should leave. I want to have lots of time for the drive and customs." Mom says consulting the schedule she gripped tightly in her hands and had been holding for the whole morning.

Her hair is up in a sophisticated bun and she wears a smart pant suit even though she is leaving for vacation. I don’t even know why she bothered to do her hair, nor had the effort to do it this early in the morning. She is always like this though, her hair and makeup done up perfectly no matter where we go. She even dressed up to go to my grandparent’s farm. It was a sight watching her walk around the farm avoiding mud pies in four inch heels. My mom isn’t one of those stuck up rich people, her parents always taught her that no matter where she went she should be done up because you never know who you might meet. So here at three in the morning in the middle of summer my mom had already done her hair and makeup and is wearing a pant suit, which I don’t think anyone should wear in the summer. Like my dad I’m a firm believer of  “it only takes five minutes to get ready” so in spirit of that I was still in my pajama shorts and a tank top, my hair in a messy bun. My dad wore Bermuda shorts and a plain t-shirt. Even though he was 45 years old he was still able to pull off dressing like a teenager, which I never figured out.

"We have lots of time no need to worry," dad says. 

"Oh alright. Well Elizabeth do you remember our rules?" Mom asks, flipping the schedule over to a list of the rules she thought up for me for when they would be away. The list was absurdly long and the rules on it were not even something that a child half my age would have to follow. I swear the six year old next door had more freedom than me with these rules. And add onto the rules that my mom still had asked the neighbors to check on me every day I might as well have been in prison. 

"Of course and they are all written down on the fridge if I need a reminder.” I say as I think to the two page list that had little edits and new additions added even this morning.  It was a little (okay a lot) ridiculous. 

"Bye mom," I hug her, "bye dad," I hug him too. I can’t wait to have the house myself, as much as I  love my parents I'm glad they are leaving, even if they practically have me on house arrest at least I can do whatever I want, as long as I'm back home by my seven o clock curfew that is.

"We love you," mom says her eyes tearing up. I try not to roll my eyes at this, they’re only leaving for two weeks and my mom acts like we will never see each other again. She is always like this though, I don’t think she realized that I grew up and was almost legal now, she still treats me as if I'm going to my first day of kindergarten, which actually was so traumatic for her she ended up staying for the first week before my teacher finally said enough was enough and sent her home. Thank god she did because I don’t think my mom would have ever left me for the rest of the year if my teacher hadn’t kicked her out, or the rest of my school life now that I think about it. I'm not complaining I mean I love that my mom wants to be so involved in my life I just wish she would back off sometimes. My dad was a lot more chill than my mom he actually wanted to give me freedom when they left and thanks to him I think the list of rules was only about half as long as it might have been. My dad was pretty lax about the rules, he even offered to get me a fake I.D. for my sixteenth birthday so we could go clubbing together before he got “too old for those damn clubs”. Of course as soon as my mom heard wind of that plan she vetoed it pretty quickly and told me that if I went to a bar before I was twenty five she would personally hand me into the cops, even though it wasn’t illegal after I was eighteen but I didn’t bother telling her that. 

"Be careful," dad puts in but I can tell he doesn’t really think he needs to say that I have never been anything but careful with my mom breathing down my neck.

My dad is anxiously rubbing his hands together and I know he can’t wait to get on the road. My parents haven’t been on a vacation just the two of them since before I was born so it was pretty exciting for them when they decided to go on this trip. Of course the vacation wasn’t their idea, my aunt and uncle were having their fiftieth birthdays and to celebrate they were all going on a cruise to celebrate. My dad’s whole side of the family were going except me of course, but that was only because they were going on some cruise that you needed to be older than 40 years old. And I didn’t really want to go on an Alaskan cruise I mean why would you ever go on a vacation where you can’t get a tan? It’s the middle of summer and you’re leaving to go somewhere where there is snow on the ground. It didn’t make sense to me but maybe that was why the cruise was only for old people, they obvious seemed to like cold and places where you can get frost bite.

"I will," I promise. I don’t need to be careful if I follow my mom’s rules, they make sure that I cannot get into trouble, ever. 

"Now we left rules and phone numbers on the fridge. Also we left a key for the cabin on the fridge so if you go there you can mow the grass. We put extra money in the cupboard." My mom goes through her speech again that I have already heard at least a hundred times. "Lock all the doors and close the windows make sure the oven is turned off,” she continues. Of course they had given me a list of chores along with the rules so while I was home all night I had something to do, it was two weeks of so much fun I didn’t know what I would ever do! Note the sarcasm. 

"Mom I will be fine," she looks at me doubtingly. She drones on and on telling me more rules and reminding me not to go off with strangers. She even tells me not to do drugs or alcohol. I swear I am in the peanuts cartoon and she is the adult that drones on and on in a monotone voice and no one even knows what they are saying but they keep talking. I I exaggerate a yawn hoping that my mom will get the hint that I want to go back to sleep and she will leave. Unfortunately she isn’t even fazed and continues talking my dad smirks at me realizing what i am trying to do. I turn back to my mom seeing if my mom will be finished anytime soon but at the rate shes going I don’t think she has even touched the surface of what she wants to say. My dad is standing behind quietly laughing as my mom goes over her lists of rules. I raise my eyebrows in a help me gesture but he just shrugs his shoulders in you have to let her just finish her rant. I pout as I realize he is never going to stop her. I nod my head and assure my mom that I will stay safe. She still has a look of disbelief in her eyes and I know she doesn’t think I will be able to survive without her for a day much less two weeks. She starts repeating the rules and I know she will never stop if I don’t interrupt her.

 "I promise I will be good. And anyway Krista and Hannah are coming over."

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse," dad says trying to lighten the mood. Hannah and Krista have been my best friends for so long they are practically my sisters; my dad even introduces them as his adopted daughters. When we get together though, we can get a little crazy seeing as there is really nothing we won’t do. We are so comfortable with each other that it doesn’t matter what we say. It’s like all shields are down when we are around each other. Like when your drunk and your mind doesn’t filter anything so everything in your head just comes out, that’s what the three of us are like together. We have been known to get super hyper off just sugar and caffeine, people actually thought we were high one day after we had one to many chocolate bars. My mom only buys decaf coffee because she doesn’t think that we should be getting so crazy and somehow believes that we might be allergic to caffeine. I don’t even know if that is possible.

"Go," I say trying to sound stern, "before you miss your flight." I know that there is no way possible for them to miss their flight though. My mom accounted for every single thing ever to go wrong on their way to the airport and still get on the flight early. I think there was even time scheduled in for the zombie apocalypse to start and still get on their flight.

"Are you sure you will be okay?" mom asks. I know that if I even hesitate to answer or sound at all nervous about her leaving she will stay in a second. She doesn’t believe that I can stay alone for a day much less two weeks.

"I'll be fine," I say again as I usher them into their car. "Enjoy your cruise." I slam the door and watch them drive off I o a little celebratory dance at the fact that they finally left and the head inside to fall asleep until at least mid-afternoon. I send a text to Krista and Hannah saying my parents have left and I know that by time I wake up they will have already eating all the food in my fridge and will be sorting through my closet looking for clothes.