“Do you still want to come over after school to study for the Chem test?” Ashley asked hesitantly.

“Actually I can’t,” I murmured.

“What’s up?”

“There’s something’s I have to get done after school, but how about tomorrow?” I asked.

“Are you sure?” Ashley asked.

“Positive,” I assured her. That was the end of the conversation. The teacher went on talking about photosynthesis or whatever it is he was lecturing about. I zoned out the room trying to image different scenarios of the conversation, but no matter which way I put it, it always seemed to end in disaster. Maybe it is just my pessimistic attitude that’s leading me to believe this or maybe it’s just from the cold hard facts of the past that are telling me it’s be idiotic to think that anything good could come from this conversation.

I sat in my room. The only light entering was from the window half in the ground. The phone just sat in my hands. I dialed the numbers to my brothers cell phone, but I couldn’t bring myself to push talk. After about the seventh time of this ritual I got up the courage to push talk. It rang once…twice…three…four…five times, answering machine. I hung up slightly relieved. I my phone down and just sprawled out on my bed.

“Tell me please who the fuck did you want me to be?” sang my Staind ring tone. No, please tell me I’m hallucinating. It kept going I had no choice but to pick it up. He knew I just called him. I picked up my phone and I hit talk.

“Hello,” I answered dreading this entire discussion.

“Did you just call?” Glen asked sounding slightly annoyed. The sound of my voice is enough to piss off my brother, wonderful.

“Yeah, Clay called me the other day and he said I should give you a call,” I answered. If this didn’t turn out well he was going to be mad I dragged him into it, but right now I was lacking words and it was the first thing that came to mind.

“Okay, what do you want,” he asked confused by why I was calling him.

“We haven’t talked since I left, and I just wanted to see how you were doing,” I replied. I really did miss my family a lot, even my father.

“I’m fine,” he concluded.

“That’s cool, care to evaluate?” I questioned.

“We won our first basketball game, and I’m doing good in school,” he responded.

“That’s cool,” I said confused by what the hell to say next.

“What about you?” he asked. This took me by surprise. I honestly thought he couldn’t careless. Maybe he didn’t care, but he was just being nice.

“Good, I met two really cool people, and my grades have made a miraculous recovery,” I answered.

“That’s good to hear,” he replied. There was a pause. “Maybe I’m just being emotional or drastic or whatever it is you chicks are, but I think you should come to Ohio one weekend or something.” My heart stopped. Of all the scenarios I had played in my mind, in none of them was he this forgiving and gracious.

“Yeah, that’d be awesome,” I responded enthusiastically. “This might be asking a lot, but could you talk to dad for me? Not about staying, but just about visiting one weekend.”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him,” Glen answered. “Listen I’ll call you later this week and I’ll tell you what he has to say, okay?”

“That’d be cool,” I replied a little speechless. “I guess I’ll let you go then.” I could sense he was becoming uninterested in the conversation.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said.

“See you,” I stated, and I hung up. After a day of worrying things had actually turned out well. This blew me away.