Destined To Explode

Leaving Baltimore was harder than I thought it would be. After only being there for about a month, I never expected the drive to the airport to fill my stomach with such dread that I very almost turned the car around and forgot the trip to the place I had called home for the past three years of my life altogether.

Alex and Rian had joined me for the short ride, I having stayed at their house the previous night, so my car wasn’t parked up in a shitty car lot until my arrival back. I had thought that taking a plane would be more convenient than the thirteen hour drive I normally partook in to clear the distance but all in all, it just meant that I had less time to mentally prepare myself for the emotions that were sure to surge once I reached the capital again.

Rian scurries off to find Starbucks once I have checked my bag, Alex pulling me along to collapse on the seats near my gate without having to go through any security, complaining profusely about having to be up so early, even though it was his idea in the first place – Jack or May would have happily travelled with me to take my car back – and it’s a kiss that finally shuts him up.

“Well, hey, I didn’t realise this was for public show as well.” He smirks, leaning forward to connect us again, grinning when I push him away, my eyebrows raised in question as he continues to smile in my direction.

“What?”

“I thought, with you being so hesitant about us, that you would wanna confine this to home and shit. Not in the middle of Baltimore airport.”

I scoff, shaking my head, even though I’m still smiling. “Who said there even was an ‘us’, huh?” I poke his chest with a smirk. “Someone never made this official.”

“Why should I be the one to do it, eh? You’re the one so desperate to label.”

I scowl as he bites his tongue, eyes creasing as he stops himself from laughing. “You’re an evil man, Gaskarth.”

“Oh fucking fine, your argument wins. Poppy, be my other half?” He sighs dramatically, acting like I had just bitched him out for hours over the subject, even though I was willing to drop it and not bring it up again, after all, I had been joking to begin with.

“The better half?”

“If you’ll just stop dragging this shit out, you can be whatever kind of half you want, okay?”

“Well…” I drag out the syllable, watching as Alex’s brow creases, turning into a mocking frown. “I suppose that I could, at least until I get a better offer.”

“Better offer, my ass.”

* * * *

After only a day in Chicago, I can’t wait to be back in Baltimore again. I thought that it would be nice to be in the city I had spent what seems like a decade in but it just brings back really shit memories of the amount of time I had spent miserable walking around the familiar streets.

Marky tries to keep me busy, taking me pretty much everywhere with him, including meeting with printers apparently so I can give personal input now that I’m finally back at headquarters but I know that it’s just to distract me while I’ve got nothing better to do. People around the office were constantly asking me to do stuff, menial jobs that they could have easily done themselves – like collecting printing and checking over order forms – things that I had stopped doing after my two month training period.

By Tuesday, I have managed to organise everything so that I can head home the next day, things like the transference of all of my stuff to a storage unit in Baltimore until I can find somewhere that can handle all of my furniture as well as all of my GK stuff being sent to my house so that I can run my part of the company from home, my address change – everything except a plane ticket.

Wednesday morning, I have managed to repack all of the clothing that had been found slung around Marky’s spare room in my few short days of staying with him and get to the airport early, hoping and praying that if I constantly check, there will be a ticket available to get me back to Maryland.

To get me back home.

Notes