As I opened my eyes, I was severely hoping that we had finally made it. I had fallen asleep at least a hundred times on this trip and I had kept on hoping that I would wake up right as the car was parked in the new driveway. But each time, I would just wake up to more driving on blank roads. I was just begging for this trip to be over already.
Of course, we were still on blank roads as I work up for the hundred and first time. I closed my eyes and groaned. When will it end?
"Mom," I asked, still groaning slightly. "Where are we?"
"We're about four hours away," My mother said, keeping her eyes on the road. "We're almost there. Just be patient."
I groaned again.
I was sure that my mother was sick and tired of my whining at this point. I had only been pestering her for practically the entire trip. But I knew that she wasn't going to get angry with me. She hadn't shown any anger towards me in a very long time.
My three little sisters, nine-year-old Lauren, seven-year-old Autumn, and four-year-old Miranda, had hardly said a word the entire trip. As I turned to the back seat to look at them, they were still in the exact same positions that they had been pretty much the entire time. Lauren had her head rested on her left hand and was staring out the window, Autumn was looking down and fiddling with her skirt, and Miranda was fast asleep. It was hard to believe that I had once thought that these girls were the most hyper girls out there.
I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to fall asleep. Unfortunately, now I couldn't even do that. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt like I was forcing them shut. I was pretty much wide awake. Great. Just great. This meant that I had no choice but to just stare at blank roads for four straight hours. I legitimately felt like I was being tortured.
"Can we turn on some music?" I asked my mom. Listening to music often helped me fall asleep.
"Not right now, Adrian," Mom said in an irritated tone of voice. "I'm trying to focus on the road right now. It will be way too distracting."
"You've listened to music while driving before. And it never distracted you. Heck, I thought you said listening to music helps you feel relaxed on the road. Wouldn't now be a good time for relaxation?"
"Adrian, please. Not now."
I sighed and closed my eyes again.
While I was feeling irritated that this trip was taking so long, I just couldn't feel any irritation towards my mom. She didn't deserve any of it. I perfectly understood why she was acting this way. She had every right to act this way. I just wished that San Antonio didn't have to be so far away.
Once again, I had no luck falling asleep. I started to get a major headache. I was now severely wishing that I had my phone and my PS Vita. Unfortunately, I had stuffed both these things in one of my boxes and all the boxes were in the U-Haul. I really wished I had been thinking more clearly on the day that we were packing up. Then again, I hadn't been able to think clearly at all for quite some time.
"Mommy, I need to use the bathroom," I heard Autumn say.
"Me too," I heard Lauren say.
"We'll be in the next town in about ten minutes," Mom said. "Just hold it till then."
Lauren and Autumn both groaned.
Yippee, I thought. Now it's going to take even longer to get to San Antonio. And we're probably going to stop at least a hundred more times after this. Wonderful.
Although I wasn't angry at my mother and understood how she was feeling, I did not at all agree with her decision to move. Even if I wanted to move away from New York for some reason (I couldn't imagine why I would want to), right then was not a good time. It was actually one of the worst times to move. As understandable as mom's reason was for moving, we could've at least waited another year or two. Not that we would've recovered fully even by then.
"Mommy, are we ever going back to New York again?" Autumn asked. After hardly hearing any of my sisters speak for days, it was really strange listening to them talk right here.
"I don't know Sweetheart," Mom said, still keeping her eyes forward.
"I'm going to miss New York," Lauren said.
My mother didn't respond to that. I'm sure she didn't have the heart to say: "Well, I'm not going to" out loud to my sisters. It was best not to make things any worse for them.
Was I going to miss New York? Yeah, big time. But it was really hard to even think about New York at that moment. Honestly, I really wished that having to move away from New York was the worst thing I was going through at that moment.
"What's Texas like?" Autumn asked.
"Sweetie, I really can't answer questions right now," Mom said. "I need to stay focused on the road now."
"I'm sorry, Mommy. I was just asking."
Mom started to wipe her eyes.
"It's okay Sweetie," She said, sniffling. "I'm not mad at you. Please don't think I'm mad at you. I'm just...I...I..."
"Mom, it's okay," I said. "You don't need to explain anything. Just focus on the road."
My mom sniffled and wiped her eyes some more.
"Yeah," She said. "Of course. Of course."
I looked out the window and stared at all of the blank roads. Maybe if I was lucky, I would eventually fall asleep out of boredom.
Unfortunately, at that moment it was hard to even feel bored. So many thoughts had suddenly begun to circle my head. I soon felt tears drip from my eyes as well.
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