Chapter 2: Carrie Says Goodbye, and Then Hello

“I don’t want you to leave, Caroline,” Suzanne Marshall said, clinging tightly to her daughter. “Why did you have to go and grow up on me?” There were tears sliding down her full cheeks as she clutched Carrie to her large bosom.

“Mom, you’re making a scene and I have to go. The plane is boarding,” Carrie said, trying to pull away from her mother but having no success. She loved her mother, of course, but this was just embarrassing.

Carrie looked helplessly over her shoulder at her fifteen-year-old sister, Jessie, who glanced at her with blank brown eyes (which exactly matched Carrie’s own before she put in her blue contacts this morning), and then went back to playing with her video game. She won’t miss me at all, Carrie thought. She looked up and saw her father walking over to them. She flashed him a hopeful smile.

He took the cue and gently tried to pry his daughter and ex-wife apart. “Suzanne, I would like a turn to hug my daughter,” he said pointedly.

Suzanne looked at him and released Carrie. “You’ve never liked my closeness with Caroline. You were always so jealous of it, Terrence.”

“Don’t start now, Suzanne,” he groaned.

“Where is the missus, Terrence?” Suzanne snapped. “I am surprised you could leave her alone for a second.”

Carrie bravely stepped between her warring parents. “Come on, you two, now is not the time. I want to say goodbye and go with a little bit of a happy memory.”

“You wouldn’t have to say ‘goodbye’ at all, Caroline, if you hadn’t insisted on running off to New York. I can’t imagine for the life of me what you would want to see there …”

“I am going to a great college, Mom,” Carrie replied with a sigh. “I will be in one of the best student theatre programs in the whole country. You need to be happy for me for once.”

“I can’t be happy when you’re so far away,” Suzanne sniffed. “I don’t know why you couldn’t stay in Cedar Cove and go to the community college where your aunt works.”

“Mom, noteven Aunt Rose’s own daughter wanted to go there. Lea is going to go to a four-year-college too and Aunt Rose is beyond happy for her. Be happy for me too. This is my dream.”

“Dream-shceam,” Suzanne huffed opening her gargantuan purse and looking for a Kleenex.

Carrie took the brief moment of reprieve to turn to her father and embrace him. He was a little stiff in her arms as he had never been one to lavish affection on his two daughters, but it felt good to hug him once more before she left. “I’ll miss you, Dad,” she said.

“I’ll miss you too, Carrie,” he said, patting her back before pulling away. “You will have a wonderful time in college. I loved it myself.”

“You met mom there,” Carrie couldn’t help but say, watching his worn, lined face for a reaction. He never looked happy – even on the rare occasions when Carrie went to his house to see him and he was with his much-younger wife, Brenda. At first, Carrie had blamed him for the breakup of her parents’ marriage but then slowly let go of the anger when she realized how miserable being married to her mother had made him. Well, even more miserable. He had suffered from clinical depression for years but being free of Suzanne had been a sort of a reprieve from his negative feelings for awhile.

“That was a whole lifetime and a half ago,” her father said.

“I know,” Carrie replied. She hugged him once more and then kissed his cheek. “Take care of yourself, Dad.”

“I should be telling you that,” Terry said. “But I know you will get along famously because you’ve always had a bright, amiable spirit that I have always admired.”

“Thanks, Dad, it means a lot to hear you say that,” she said, squeezing his hand. She moved away from him and walked over to her sister. “Hey, Jessie.”

Jessie looked up at her, briefly glancing away from her video game. “Hey,” she mumbled.

“Is that all you have to say to your sister who will be thousands of miles away?” Carrie asked. “You are not even going to say ‘goodbye’?”

“Goodbye,” Jessie said lamely.

Carrie’s lip twitched in a little smile. “Well that’s something I guess … I left some stuff in my closet if you want to borrow it, Jess. Just keep it in one piece.” She eyed Jessie’s tattered black jeans with gaping holes in each knee.

Jessie looked up. “Do you honestly think I want to borrow anything of yours?” Jessie asked. “Everything you own is either pink or purple.”

“Not true,” Carrie insisted with a smile. “I have a few things in white and peach.”

Jessie shook her head. “Whatever.”

“Well, uh, goodbye,” Carrie said, giving her a hug. Jessie was completely stiff and still in her arms. “Take care of mom. She needs you.”

“Yeah. Thanks for leaving me with the babysitting duties,” Jessie griped, turning back to her game.

“Final boarding call for Flight 306 to JFK,” a female voice called over the loudspeaker.

“Well that’s me,” Carrie said, picking up her small leather carry-on bag and her matching purse. Her mother again threw her arms around Carrie. Carrie mentally applauded herself for spritzing her blonde hair until it was “hurricane proof” that morning. If she hadn’t, it would be a mess now with all of her mother’s crushing embraces.

“Oh I’ll miss you,” Suzanne said. “Promise to write and call every day.”

Carrie didn’t bother to point out how unrealistic that was. She would never have that much free time with all she would have to do. She was going to be a star in the university’s theatre; she would be rehearsing hour after hour. And she was going to go on dates all the time with the hottest fraternity guys and go shopping in all the major boutiques – she would barely have time for sleep, especially if she wanted to make a class or two every now and again, she thought with a little smile.

“I’ll miss you too, Mom,” Carrie said, kissing her mother’s cheek and then, with her father’s help, wrenching away from her mother’s suffocating embrace.

“Bye everyone,” Carrie said, scurrying away so she didn’t have to hear her mother attack her father for “interfering”. Carrie handed her ticket to a flight attendant and then walked down the jet way.

She walked into the plane and waited as a large man took his time putting away what seemed to be an even larger bag. She wondered how he had gotten past the check point with that monster of a carry-on. The man gave Carrie a little smile, wiped his sweaty forehead and then with one last push, managed to fit the bag into the overhead panel. Carrie smiled back, as with a huff, he dropped into his seat, and she went down the aisle.

Her seat was in coach (sadly) at the very back of the plane. When she reached it, she found a young man sitting in her window seat. A nice looking young man, she couldn’t help but notice. He had shaggy, sandy-blonde hair and bright green eyes that seemed to take on a twinkle when he looked up at her. “Am I in your seat?” He asked, noticing her standing there. He had a soft, husky voice that sent shivers down her spine.

“I think so. The aisle seat is A and the one you are sitting in is B. Which according to my ticket is mine. But it’s not really a big deal,” she said, starting to drop into the empty seat.

“No, I’m sorry, I’ll move,” he said, quickly standing and moving out past her. His bare brushed hers briefly, and a little tingle shot down her arm.

“Thanks,” she said, scooting into the next seat. He then sat down beside her.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Its okay, really its no big deal,” she said. She adjusted her knee-length purple mohair skirt across her long, slender legs slowly, hoping he would notice them. They were still smooth and shiny from all the lotion she had rubbed on them that morning after her shower.

She appreciated it when guys appreciated her looks as she had worked extremely hard to maintain her figure. The women in her family tended to be on the heftier-side and she herself had been overweight until junior high school when she decided to do a whole complete lifestyle makeover, complete with losing a large amount of weight (hours at the gym after school and cutting calories had accomplished that), bleaching her naturally dark brown hair blonde, and talking her parents into buying her colored contacts and a whole new, highly expensive but fashionable wardrobe.

The guy beside her briefly glanced at her legs and then up at her face. “I’m a bit of a nervous flier so if you see me gripping the armrests with wide-eyed terror on my face, don’t be alarmed.”

She chuckled. “Seriously? You’re really afraid of flying?”

“Yeah. Crazy I know. That must make me look ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous is not exactly the word I would choose …” She said, giving him a large smile.

“Childish then?”

“No,” she replied with a shake of her silver bangle earrings. The word she would have chosen was gorgeous.

“Okay. Maybe I don’t want to know,” he said, smiling at her. She noted two perfectly placed dimples in his tan cheeks.

He held out his hand to her. “I’m Brad.”

“I’m Caroline. Well, everyone calls me Carrie. Except my mom,” she said, shaking his hand as more tingles centered in her fingertips.

“My mother calls me ‘Bradley’ and I loathe it,” he chuckled. “Ah, mothers. Literally could not have lived without them but so hard to live with them.”

Carrie laughed. “You’ve got that right.”

“So you’re going to New York City. Do you have family there or uh, friends’ maybe?” he said. She could tell he was fishing for information about her and she relished it.

She shook her head. “No. I actually don’t know a soul there. I’m going to college in New York.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Which one?”

“New York Metro Line,” she replied. She thought she saw a brief look of tension dart across his face but it quickly disappeared. “I’m enrolled in the theatre arts program.”

He smiled. “Oh really? So we have a budding Tony award-winning actress on our hands, do we?”

She blushed and smiled. “Hopefully.”

“Well I am sure you will do great,” he said. “You definitely have a dramatic flair.”

She laughed. “I am not sure if that’s a compliment or …”

He shook his head causing a strand of his hair to fall in his face, which she longed to brush back. “I meant it in the best way possible, I assure you. I just mean that you have a presence. You have a strong, colorful personality. I am willing to bet I will see you in a magazine one of these days and I’ll be able to say ‘I stole that girl’s seat’.”

She covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing too loudly. When she regained her composure, she said, “Thank you for the compliment. I can sign something for you and you can save it and then sell it on eBay one day for thousands of dollars,” she joked.

He nodded. “I’d love that.” He opened his laptop case and pulled out a little piece of paper and a pen and handed it to her.

“I was kidding,” she giggled. “Totally kidding.”

“I wasn’t,” he said, flashing her a smile with completely straight white teeth. He could not be any more perfect if he tried and suddenly she had an idea. A wild idea that her mother would most certainly label her “brazen” or “outrageous” for doing.

She took the pen from his outstretched hand and covering the paper slightly, scribbled her name and cell phone number on it. Then she quickly folded it up and tucked it into his laptop case before he could look at it. That way she wouldn’t have to see his reaction when he saw her phone number. The reaction she hoped for would come later, if he called her.

The flight attendants came around, instructing everyone to buckle their seatbelts because they were about to take off. “Well this is it,” Brad said, smiling. “Remember what I said. Just ignore me if I look all panicked and twitchy.”

She chuckled. “It would be impossible to ignore you, Brad …”

TBC

Next Chapter: Mark sees his family and later meets his new roommates