Watching Time (Novel): Chapter 6 (Never Perfect)

The next day they wrapped up what they wanted to do, and the day after they were headed back for Texas. For the first few hours of the trip, Myra just stared out the window, trying to tune everything out. She needed to think, although she learned that was impossible when traveling with extroverts.

          But she tried her best, until John poked her arm. “Still alive?” he asked her.

          Myra gave a half-smile. “Barely.” To her surprise, her tone was light-hearted. Did I just…joke? Who on earth accidentally jokes?

          “Ha, you’ll survive,” John assured her. “I’ll drop by your place every few days so we can keep in touch.”

          “What if I went to your house?” Myra countered. She hated being the center of everything.

          John winced. “Um, maybe not. My parents don’t exactly…approve of guests.”

          Myra got the message, and knowing how John had avoided probing her about her past, she decided to return the favor and avoid the topic. “What about emails? Or maybe…do you have a phone? I bet Earl would be willing to buy me one.”

          “Nope, I don’t have either of those,” John shrugged. “And before you ask, no, I don’t have anything social media. At that rate, I don’t even have internet. That means face-to-face interaction is the best we can hope for.”

          “When you think about it, few of us actually have phones,” Mark contributed from the row directly ahead of them. “Naomi and Fia both do, but no one else.”

          “It’s so cool!” Fia squealed.

          And Myra reverted back to her silent pain mode. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

When they got back to their actual home, Naomi immediately unpacked, taking only about five minutes to get all her luggage sorted out, since she didn’t bring much to begin with. Then she raced to the kitchen and dug out some cereal and milk.

          “How can you stand to eat?” Myra mumbled, rubbing her eyes as she walked in. “It’s so late.”

          “Road trips make me hungry,” Naomi shrugged, pouring the cereal and milk into a bowl and then plunging the spoon into the delicious combination and took a massive bite. “Besides,” she said through the mouthful, “food is food. John and Mark would agree.”

          “Because they’re teenaged boys,” Myra countered. “You’re teenaged, but you’re not a boy, so there’s no reason to act like every bite may be your last bite.”

          Naomi swallowed. “Agree to disagree.”

          She got a text. She checked her phone and saw that Ethan had sent something.

          Fia back yet?

          “Oh, Ethan had time to actually send a text message!” Naomi shrieked. “Fia’s going to be so happy!” Then a thought struck her.

          Y not ask her urself?

          Good thing Fia isn’t going to see what I wrote. She would freak out if she knew my texting grammar was this bad.

          A few moments later, she got another buzz.

          Idk

          Naomi frowned at this. It was kind of odd that he didn’t want to text Fia. Maybe it’s relationship issues. I bet whatever it is isn’t a big deal.

         

John got back him and immediately regretted it.

          “Oh, great, he’s back,” his mother moaned. “John, while you’re up, why don’t you do the dishes? Kaitlyn absolutely hates chores.”

          “Yes, ma’am,” John muttered, monotone, and proceeded to the kitchen. He kept his backpack on. The list of chores and tasks continued for what seemed like hours. Finally, at eleven o’clock, he was allowed to go to bed.

Ethan looked at his schedule. He was free of work for an entire week, and since he had just been kicked out of school, he didn’t have homework, either.

          But he didn’t care about his education. He finally had time to hang out with Fia. Maybe he could even ask her out, supposing she still had plenty of free time.

          But one thing worried him. While she hates how little free time I have, she believes my education should come first and foremost. How would she react if she found out?

          He decided to play it safe, he was going to stay holed up in his room until he would usually be back from school. She doesn’t have to know.

         

Fia gasped when, the next day, Ethan showed up at her house after school. “Ethan! Shouldn’t you be at work?” She knew what the answer would be, though. He had been trying to convince his boss for ages to let him have a week off, although his boss had always been reluctant because of how shorthanded they were.

          Calm down, Fia! Your heartrate doesn’t need to climb to a thousand beats per second!

          “I got off work for a bit,” Ethan shrugged, and wore a crooked grin. “You claimed to have an activity chart or something?”

          “Oh, yes!” Fia exclaimed. “Follow me to the Wheel of Activities!”

          She dragged Ethan to her bedroom, where a makeshift cardboard wheel hung on the wall. There were ten sections, each with its own activity. “How do you…uh…spin it?”

          “Well, I haven’t finished it, yet,” Fia shrugged. She took a marker and labeled each section on the wheel with a number, skipping the number one, so that the numbers two through eleven were present on the board. “I’ll roll two die and add them together to figure out what we’ll do. Obviously, one won’t pop up, and twelve will be a reroll.”

          “The chances of rolling double ones for Take a Walk Through the Woods is highly unlikely, though,” Ethan noted.

          Fia shrugged. “Whatever.” She picked up a pair of dice and rolled, and the double ones popped up. “See? The odds are in your favor!” She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the wheel. “Now we can do it on the go, and we won’t have to come back every time. Come on, to the woods!”

          She smiled larger than she had smiled in ages. I’m no longer alone!