The Miner's Girl

Chapter 7

Parker's POV
The plane took off, and before long I saw she was asleep. She was asleep on me, and I just played games on my phone. I ate on the plane and tried to get her up to eat something. She woke up, but she refused to eat. After I woke her up, she didn't go back to sleep so I thought I would have someone to talk to. We did talk a little, but I could tell that she really didn't want to talk. We watched a movie together. The plane ride took four hours. It was 11:00 P.M. in North Carolina when we arrived. Then we had to drive three hours to her house from the airport.

I had arranged for a rental car to be at the airport for us. I stopped at Wendy's on the way home to get her something to eat. She hadn't eaten a thing since yesterday. I was getting worried about her. She tried to tell me that she wasn't hungry, but I insisted that she eat something. She finally agreed to eat something, and it made me feel a whole lot better. She acted like she was feeling better after we ate on the drive home. She was talking to me, laughing, and listening to music. It made me happy to see her not crying.

"It's kinda late, ain't it, baby?" She said when we were about halfway to her house.

"Yeah, it's almost 12:30 here. Back home it would only be 8:30, so it's not that late to us."

"Yeah, I'm not even tired."

"Well, you took a nap on the plane."

"True. Are you tired?"

"No. So are we just going to your house tonight?"

"Yeah, everyone was at my aunt's house today. They're getting everything ready for the uh-...thing. Everyone is probably asleep now. Except for Hannah, she's awake. She's been talking to me." (Hannah was her cousin/best friend.)

"Do you know when it is?"

"Um, yeah. It's tomorrow at 5:00 is the thing at the funeral home."

"So I guess I need to text Mama and tell her so they can be here. They're going to need an early flight."

"Yeah, like really early." She smiled. "I don't know, maybe I can get them to push it back until like 7:30."

"That would be great. That way they won't feel rushed so much."

"I'll ask her if someone is still awake besides her."

"While you wait for her to answer, can you check the flight times?"

"Sure."

There was a flight from Haines to Charlotte, NC at 7:00 in the morning. That sounded perfect for them if the thing could be at 7:30. Her aunt was still awake so she called her. After she got off the phone with her aunt, she said that they could get it moved to 7:30. She called my mom and told her about it. It was amazing that she was actually talking about it and not crying. I was proud of her.

"They'll be here tomorrow." She said when she got off the phone with Mama.

"Okay, sounds good. So how are you feeling?" I asked her as I held her hand.

"I'm pretty much cried out. I mean, I'm still sad, but I just can't cry anymore. You've been making me feel better lately. Thanks for coming with me and being there for me." She said as she rubbed my arm.

"No problem. I wasn't going to let you come here by yourself. I knew you needed me and I wasn't going to let you down, because you're my girl."

"Aw, I'm so lucky to have you." She smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

We talked about other stuff on the ride home. We listened to the radio and sang along. We both can't sing a bit, so it was funny. We stopped at a travel station around 1:30 and got food and coffee. She admitted that she was starving, and all she had ate was a little cheeseburger. She got her a hotdog, a donut, and coffee. I got the same, plus some candy and chips. It was fun riding with her, but I hated the reason that we were going back to her house. I knew that she would probably cry once we got to her house, so I tried to have fun with her while she was happy.

As expected, we got to her house around 3:30. She grew silent as we passed the city limit sign. I could tell that her realities were coming back to her. I held her hand and kissed it. She gave me a little smile. I could see the tears growing in her eyes. I pulled into her driveway, and the lights were on in her house.

"You have a key, right?" I said as I turned off the car.

"Yeah, it's on my keychain. Go to the back door." She said as she started grabbing her stuff.

"Okay." I grabbed my bag from the backseat and went to unlock the door. I unlocked the door and threw my bag in the door. I turned around and saw her standing against the car with her bag with her head down. I went up to her and took her bag. I wrapped my arms around her, and she put her arms around my neck and started crying again.

I threw her bag on the ground and held her, telling her it's going to be alright. She cried saying that she can't do this, that she can't go in.

"Baby, you're alright. We can go in." I said.

"No, it's their house. And they're not here. They're dead." She really started crying when she said that last sentence.

"Shhh. I know, I know. But we have to go in sometime. Let's go."

After a few minutes of her crying and a few tears went down my face, I finally got her to go into the house. She wouldn't open her eyes in the house until we got to her room. Then she realized that all of her stuff was in Haines. She then went into Kayleigh's room and we set our bags down, and sat on the bed. We got ready for bed, and she got in the shower.

Nicole's POV
This is the worst. I still can't believe it. On the ride home, I was kind of enjoying myself with him, because I wasn't thinking about it. Then we pulled up in the driveway, and I lost it. It all became real to me. The driveway was empty, the house was empty, and they weren't anywhere to be found. They were dead. I'm crying in the shower right now. I don't expect anyone to know what I'm going through, but I'm so glad that I have Parker, because he's kept me from breaking down a lot.

I get out of the shower and put my clothes on and dry my hair with a towel. I walk into Kayleigh's room where Parker is asleep on the bed. I can't help but smile at him. I climb into the bed and snuggle up close to him. He moves a little and puts his arm around me. I smile and before long, I'm asleep.