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Chapter 12: Välkommen

The following two weeks were the longest I’ve ever had to live through. I waited so anxiously for my dad to return that I barely remembered to eat and sleep. At school everything the teachers said went in from one ear and out from the other without stopping. Mikey and the others tried to make me not think about it and act normal, but I just couldn’t do that.

And the strange thing about this all? I was happy and excited about dad coming back, but at the same time I was a little afraid. What if all goes wrong again? I tried my best to shake off the ‘What if’ questions, but they wouldn’t go away.

I guess I had always been like that, questioning stuff, thinking about things too much, but who can blame me. With my childhood, I’m surprised I’m not even more messed up that this.

I walked into my room, thinking that it won’t be mine for long anymore. Soon I’ll be living in a new house with dad and I’ll have a real home.

Anyway, as I said, I walked into my room. But it wasn’t as empty as I expected it to be.

Mikey rarely came to my room. Alicia was there more, since she insisted on cleaning it up every now and then. I had told her that it wasn’t necessary, that I could clean up after myself, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Mikey on the other hand preferred letting me have my privacy. He only came to my room if he had something urgent to talk about or he was worried or I had trouble waking up in the morning. Mikey was cool like that.

But now he was in my room. And he was obviously looking for something. The drawers were pulled open – though not the one where I kept my underclothes, thank god. The things I kept on my desk weren’t in the order I had left them. And currently Mikey was looking through the big chest where I kept some of my clothes that I didn’t wear often (after the shopping trip with Frank I couldn’t fit all my clothes in the closet anymore).

While he was rummaging through the clothes, he kept mumbling something that I couldn’t hear very well so I had no idea what he was saying.

“Mikey? What are you doing?” I asked.

Mikey jumped up, slamming the chest shut and he looked very guilty. “I’m looking for my glasses!” he quickly announced.

I gave him a suspicious look, wondering what was going on. “Why would your glasses be in my room? And besides, you’re wearing them.”

Mikey touched his face and took off the glasses with an obviously faked surprised gasp. “Well god damn it, you’re right! I’m so stupid! Sorry!”

“That’s fine...” I told him and stepped away from the door when he dashed through it, his face beat red of embarrassment. I shook my head and started to re-arrange the room, though it was useless. I’d have to pack soon anyway. Tomorrow would be the day that dad will come back.

____________________________ Mikey’s POV

As soon as I got downstairs and to the living room, I slapped Frank’s head. “You idiot”, I hissed and sat down.

“Wow, you’re all red! Did you find anything?” Frank asked, acting all surprised.

“Do I look like someone who found something?” I rolled my eyes. “You were supposed to distract her and warn me in case she came home!”

“She came home?! Did she catch you?” he gasped. Frank was supposed to be guarding the door and make sure Gia didn’t suspect anything. Need I even say it, Frank did a lousy job doing that.

“She must’ve come through the back door”, I thought out loud, ignoring his questions.

Alicia, who just came home, greeted us cheerfully. “Hi!”

“We’re not doing anything!” Frank instantly announced, sitting up straight.

“Frank, shut up!”

Alicia looked at us suspiciously. “What are you boys up to?”

“Nothing, dear”, I smiled to her.

She just sighed. “Alright. I’m not sure I even wanna know.”

As soon as she was gone, I turned back to Frank. “Anyway. No, I didn’t find anything. She must keep them in her bag. She’s too smart to keep them in her room. We would find them. And if she kept them in her locker at school, someone might see them.”

“Yeah”, Frank sighed, sinking into his arm chair. “Damn her for getting the good Way genes.”

“Hey!” I shouted, a little offended. “I’m smart!”

“Are you?” Frank grinned.

Now, I bet you’re, like Alicia, wondering what all this is about. If you remember that Gia was at Frank’s a few weeks ago, then you might remember the mysterious pills that Frank saw her take. Since we’re too afraid of her snapping if we ask her what they were all about, we have to be sneaky in finding out. So far we’ve had no luck.

“Okay, so next we’ll check her bag”, Frank said.

“Yeah. And now it’s your turn.”

Frank got up. “I have a plan!” he said before going upstairs to Gia’s room. I could only hope that his plan wouldn’t end up in Gia beating the information out of him.

____________________________Gia’s POV

I had just gotten my room back the way I wanted it and started doing my homework when Frank came in. I didn’t suspect anything at first, because he greeted me with one of those bone crushing hugs that he gave me these days.

“Hi Gia!” he said.

“Hi Frank.”

“Oh, you’re doing your homework! Good girl. You know, when I was young, I rarely did my homework unless I knew that the teacher will check.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s... nice.”

“Yeah”, he nodded.

“Did you want something?”

“Oh, not really. I just wanted to greet my favorite niece.”

“You know, we’re not actually related.”

“Yeah, sure”, Frank answered, and it was clear that he didn’t listen to a word I said. “Oh but look at that! Your bag! It’s all dusty!” he shrieked, picking up my school bag from the floor next to my chair. “Don’t worry. Don’t even get up. You just sit there and I will go and make sure your bag is spotless.”

By now I was really confused. Why did he want my school bag? I couldn’t understand why Frank and Mikey were acting so strange, so I decided to follow him.

I found the two men in the living room. They had emptied the insides of my bag on the couch and were looking through it. It was mostly just books, my pencil case, notebooks and stuff like that. Nothing interesting.

To let them know that I had caught them, I cleared my throat and raised an eyebrow when they turned around to look.

“Now would someone please tell me what’s going on?” I asked, though it wasn’t as much a question as it was a demand. I wasn’t one to tell people what to do, but this was just strange.

Mikey gave Frank a mean glare before concentrating on me again. “Now, Gia, I know this may seem a bit odd to you –“

“You know, that’s really an understatement”, I said.

“True. But, we’re only doing this because you’re family and we love you.”

“Yeah, family!” Frank repeated.

“Frank, we’re not really related”, I told him, but once again he didn’t listen.

Mikey continued: “When you were staying Frank’s, he... uh... Frank?”

“Are you doing drugs?” Frank asked boldly, causing Mikey to hit him.

“What?” I asked. “No! Why would you think that?”

“Because I saw you take something”, Frank explained. “When you were staying with me.”

I started to get a little upset. “And you two decided to be all weird and look through my stuff instead of talking about it with me?”

“Well... yeah”, the two admitted.

I sighed. “Stay here. I’ll show you something.” I quickly went to fetch the small pill bottle from the bathroom. When I got back to the living room, I gave it to Mikey. “Remember buying me this?”

Mikey gasped. “Oh right!”

“What? What is it? Is it deadly?” Frank asked, trying to see what the text on the bottle said.

“Those are the iron pills I have to take because my hemoglobin is low”, I said. “I love you Mikey, so I’m sorry to say this, but you’re kinda simple sometimes.” I was still a bit offended by them sneaking around behind my back, so I just turned around and went back to my room, something that I regretted later. I hated being mean to people, and while that wasn’t really that mean at all, I still felt bad about it because it seemed like it.

But at least one good thing came out of this whole thing. I didn’t think about dad coming back. Well, that is until I went to sleep. Then the excited anxious feeling came back and I could hardly sleep at all.

I had set my alarm clock to wake me up at seven o’clock. I had finally managed to get some sleep at about 3 AM, and four hours was enough for me. Dad’s plane wouldn’t land until 9.30, but I wanted enough time to get ready.

When it was time to choose what to wear, I had a problem. What kind of an outfit said ‘I missed you’? For the first time in my life I actually gave thought to what I wore. And with my new overly large selection of clothing, it only got more difficult. In the end I decided to go simple. Jeans and tank top would have to do it. I would wear a jacket over it anyway. At least one good thing about the cold weather.

“What would you like to eat Gia?” Alicia asked when I entered the kitchen.

“I don’t think I can eat”, I answered. My stomach was swirling and I thought I was going to puke when I smelled the scrambled eggs.

“Come on, you’ve got to eat something”, she scoffed and put a plate with a toast in front of me. “Butter or jam?”

“I’m fine with just toast, thanks”, I mumbled and slowly started to rip tiny pieces from the dry bread.

The morning went by slowly and painfully. I just sat in kitchen and waited for Mikey to announce that it was time to leave for the airport. It would just be me, Mikey and Alicia, and grandma.

When it was time to go, I shot up from my seat the second Mikey said those magic words ‘let’s’ and ‘go’.
The whole drive to the airport I was in my own little world. I didn’t react to anything, and Mikey and Alicia knew better than to try to talk to me. I wasn’t thinking about anything. I was done thinking. I just stared out of the window with a blank expression on my face.

At the airport we went to sit down on the horrible, uncomfortable orange chairs that were in long lines in the big hall.

I stared out of the big windows. The view wasn’t all that great. Only gray. A few planes here and there. The weather was horrible too. It was drizzling and the sun was blocked by the dark gray clouds. For once I hoped that the sun would have been shining. Perhaps that would’ve made me feel less anxious.

My grandma Donna was someone I used to spend a lot of time with. I might not see her a lot anymore, but I still liked her. When she came to where we were sitting, Mikey and Alicia stood up to hug and greet her. I, however, couldn’t be bothered. I knew I should have acknowledged her, but I just couldn’t. It might seem mean, but I didn’t care.

The only thing I really cared at the moment was the plane that had just landed. I sat up straight on my chair when the announcement came. I looked at Mikey questioningly. I had never been on an airport before because I had never had to go anywhere, so I didn’t really know how everything worked.

“It’ll still be a while”, he explained quietly. “He has to wait until he gets out of the plane, then he has to wait for his luggage.”

I nodded, and I returned to looking out of the windows, biting my bottom lip nervously.

I didn’t have a clock, so I didn’t know how long it took, but it seemed like hours. When I finally spotted my dad walking towards us, dragging along his luggage, all the nervousness and anxiousness disappeared. Instead, I froze. I just stared at him when he walked up to us. Everyone else stood up to greet him.

Dad glanced at me, I bet expecting me to be the first to greet him, but instead he was instantly pulled into a hug by Mikey. Then grandma, then Alicia. For a moment they just stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do when I didn’t do anything. But then Mikey, the saving angel, decided to speak.

“Well, we’ll take some of this luggage and take it to the exit. You two follow us when you’re ready”, Mikey announced and took, not just some, but all of the luggage and led grandma and Alicia to the exit where they instantly sat down and started chatting about something. Probably so that I wouldn’t feel like I had to rush. Thank god for those people.

I figured that I couldn’t avoid his eyes for much longer. I looked up at him but I still didn’t get up.

“Well...” he started, clearing his throat. “It’s nice to see you. I guess.”

So he was just as confused as I was. Excellent. This is going well. But his words were the perfect ice breaker. I suppose it didn’t matter what he said, it’s the fact that he at least said something.

“I missed you”, I said. I must’ve not been thinking clearly. The wary, shy Gia wouldn’t have said that, just like that. Really, where is this world going to?

A warm smile spread on his face. He was happy. “I missed you too.”

I finally got up from the chair and even though my legs felt like jelly, I still managed to walk over to him. A third hug in two months.

Now I know where this world is going to. Straight to a fairytale, because this was unreal. However, I did like the hug.

Dad used to smell like cigarettes, alcohol and like he hadn’t showered in days. Now there was only a hint of cigarette smoke, but I didn’t mind that. In a way it was homey, I guess. You can try, but you can’t change everything. Smoking I could live with. At least for a while.

“Come on”, dad said when I pulled out of the hug. “Let’s go before Mikey starts crying.”

I grinned and wondered what Mikey would’ve said if he heard that. As we slowly walked towards the exit, dad had an arm around my shoulders, and for once I felt like a normal kid who was just picking up her dad from an airport. How much better can it get?

__________________________

A/N: I'm really happy about the response I'm getting :) Thank you everyone who reviewed, I really love it.
The title of the chapter, "Välkommen", is swedish and of course means "Welcome". Just... fyi.