Sunday, July 21
The town car pulled up in front of the brownstone and Arabella sighed, looking up at the house for a moment before she finally slipped outside. She tugged on the hem of her yoga shorts and glanced down the busy side walk, squinting in the summer sun. The city block was busy, as usual, with people hustling and bustling places. Almost everyone seemed to be in a hurry. Arabella on the other hand, was desperate for time to slow down or just stop. Everywhere she looked, someone or something reminded her of Hunter. A man with a similar laugh, a girl with the same skin tone, a guy with the same hair color.
Arabella picked up her bag and she slowly made it up the steps. She dug around in her purse until she found the little pink key ring. Once she had the door unlocked, Arabella pushed her was inside. The house felt cold. Like no one had lived in it for a few days. "Hello?" Arabella called out "Daddy?! Tyler?!" She waited for a response but silence answered her.
Finally, after a few moments, Arabella could hear a yipping sound and jingles coming down the stairs. A little ball of curly brown fur flew down the stairs and crashed into Arabella's legs. "Oh, Gracie" She said in a happy sigh. She put down her bag and picked the small dog up in her arms.
Arabella hugged Gracie to her chest for a moment before she turned and padded toward the kitchen. The first thing she really noticed was how clean the place was. The counter shined, the appliances sparkled and there was the faint lemon-y smell of cleaner in the air. Arabella put Gracie down on the ground before walking over to the counter. Sitting right in the middle of the granite was a note and a check. With a sigh, Arabella picked up the paper and quickly scanned it.
Belly,
Tyler is visiting family from his mother's side in Maine for the summer and I'm in Hong Kong on business.
The check is for the dog sitter, she'll be by on the 23rd to pick it up.
I hope you had a good summer. I'll be back on the 30th and then we'll go out for a hot dog. Maybe go to the zoo?
I love you
-Dad
Arabella folded up the note then she tossed it into the garbage. She stuck the check to the fridge door then glanced inside. It was pretty empty except for a bottle of white wine and a box of baking soda. That might be a comment on what the dog sitter was doing after she took Gracie out but Arabella was too tired to think about it at that moment. Arabella glanced at the clock and she considered ordering some Thai food but she ultimately opened the freezer and pulled out a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream. As she leaned against the counter, taking small spoonfuls of the ice cream tub, Arabella listened to the faint sound of Gracie's collar.
The house felt quiet compared to the craziness of Camp Half-Blood. Arabella was already starting to miss her fellow demigods. But maybe that was just because the silence of the house made her feel even lonelier than she already was. Arabella tossed the ice cream back into the freezer and the spoon in the sink. She needed to be moving, to be doing something. When she stopped and paid attention to the cold silence, Arabella's thoughts seemed to press in on her and it was just getting depressing. She couldn't think about how she hurt Hunter or how guilty she felt. With a yawn, Arabella headed up the stairs with her bag.
When she finally made it to her bedroom on the third floor, Arabella tossed her bag down on her bed. She yawned, stretching out her arms before she got to work. For the next four hours, Arabella kept herself busy. She took her clothes down to the laundry room to get it washed and she washed her sheets from her bed, too. She organized her closet, slowly putting away the clean clothes. She made her bed, making sure it was perfect and her teddy bear was waiting on her pillow for her. She wrote a quick letter to her baby brother. She fed the dog. She never let herself stop long enough to let her thoughts catch up to her. Finally, however, the sky was dark and Arabella had run out of things to do.
She glanced around her clean bedroom for a moment before she turned on her heel and walked over to her bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would relax her muscles and Arabella would be able to fall asleep. She turned on the water and quickly slipped out of her clothes, stepping into the steam. Right away, her body started to feel better but her mind started racing.
Arabella felt so guilty for how she left things with Hunter. It was really eating her up inside. Part of her wanted to run back to camp and open up to him, let him know all of her inner-most thoughts and tell him that she was crazy about him and she missed him. But the look on his face when she left was holding her back. He was so angry, so heart broken and so disappointed. If she were to go back, he wouldn't want anything to do with her. Arabella knew this. She had hurt him enough and having her around camp wasn't going to make things any easier for him. Maybe he would find a way to make things work with Marina. Maybe he would find another girl and fall madly in love with her. At first, the thought of this made Arabella furious. She didn't want to see him with another girl. The truth, however, was that he deserved it and Arabella wanted it for him. She wanted him to be happy and full and peaceful. She wanted him to have a good life. She knew that he deserved it.
With a sigh, Arabella stepped out of the shower after about 45 minutes. She wrapped herself in a big fluffy towel and she padded back into her bedroom, looking for pajamas to wear. Arabella finally pulled on a pair of pink flannel pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. She slipped into a pair of fuzzy slippers and headed downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
Once Arabella had her hands around a warm cup of tea and a happy puppy by her side, she worked her way upstairs to her room again and she moved outside to the deck. It was a small little deck that was right off of her bedroom and Arabella loved it. She had a chair out there with a little side table and a pot for flowers. The view of the city was incredible, too, and Arabella loved watching the city come to life at night. She slid back into the chair, looking out at the lights of New York and she knew that sleep would not come easy that night. But at least she was home and away from the heart ache that plagued her at camp.