InsaneJournal

Marcie sat on the plane with her eyes closed and earbuds in her ears, listening to music and pretending to be asleep. Kaden was sitting silently next to her but right now, she was circling her own head and didn’t want to have to talk.

Kaden had been kind of surprised when Marcie had come in to talk to him first thing in the morning three days ago, and told him she wanted to go back, and go back now. Surprised, but didn’t complain. The family dynamic had been stiff ever since the Incident. Poor Leo was stuck in the middle and confused as to why Adrian didn’t want to invite Kaden to anything anymore, and Adrian was holding a grudge until his dying day apparently. Trying to maintain a settled life there was tricky. Celeste did her absolute best, though. It would’ve been shit without her. She stomped on any and all shittiness from Adrian, and encouraged Marcie in her relationship with Kaden. When Marcie had told her she wanted to go, and how soon, she’d done her hardest to cover up her disappointment and instead made Thanksgiving dinner a month early, just so they could have it together.

The thing was, Marcie told her mother, was that she’d meant to go back at the end of summer, and then she was walking down the street and there were Halloween decorations everywhere, and the kids went trick or treating and she hid at Cathal’s place (who, surprising nobody, absolutely killed it at Halloween) and went to a party and thought about how soon it would be Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then it’d be a year and she’d still be there and oh Gods, she couldn’t do it. It was stifling her, she said.

She did not say anything about the other thing stuffed into the bottom of her hand luggage as she kissed her family goodbye and boarded the plane. She told nobody at all about the two dreadful pink lines on that sinister plastic stick, and how she’d suddenly seen her past repeating, stuck in that podunk town with a life she didn’t want. She’d end up like Bethany, her life revolving around gossip and keeping up appearances, and she’d never make a difference to anything or anyone.

There was a small amount of guilt in parting with Cathal. He had been so good to her, exactly what she’d needed to get through the summer. Even if Kaden still didn’t trust him. He’d even tried really hard not to cry when they parted, and Marcie had shed a few tears too, because she might not be in love with him, but she certainly liked him a lot. And also in not telling him… but she wasn’t going to keep it, anyway. So it would only hurt him to know. Better to go to New York and deal with it there, quietly. In fact, nobody had to know. Ever.

So now here she was, pretending to wake up with the announcement of entering descent back into New York, and giving Kaden what was meant to be a reassuring smile. They were going to start a new life, and it was going to be... well, if not good, at least satisfactory. They'd play it by ear.