Don't believe that it's all the same

 "Look, if you'd rather stay here, it's fine with me." That gaze on Nic's face was unforgiving. How could he do this to her? Moving to Omaha.

She'd only stayed a few days at the old motel across the way at the truckstop. Nic's uncle had put her up while she worked in the kitchen, mostly washing dishes, but she helped at the counter too. Yes, it was nothing exciting. After all, it hadn't been two weeks since she'd left home.

"Maybe this is the life you want," Nic went on to say as he was packing his belongings in a duffle bag or two in his little economy car. "But remember, education is important. Do you really want to give all those years up when you are just a few weeks from graduating?" His words were like dust in the wind and of course, it was a mighty wind on the smokey prairie. Firefighters were still fighting wildfires out there somewhere. 

She hadn't wanted to go back. But if he was taking her. Naturally, she'd bellowed, "FINE!" when she got in the car with him for the long ride home. Not once did she even bother to turn on her phone? It was best to keep silent. She wasn't even going to talk to him.

Oh, he'd smiled at that. Meanwhile, before they parted ways they listened to all the tunes of the BeeGees and even some of their songs she'd never heard of like, "HOLIDAY" and of course, he annoyed her with all the lyrics. "Oh, you're a holiday, such a holiday. Oh, you're a holiday, such a holiday. It's something I think is worthwhile." She knew he was secretly grinning.

He was moving into some apartment his old friend knew of. From time to time he would mention, "You haven't been away from school all that long. Maybe, if you sneak back home, your mom won't even know you were gone."

Mona was in a huff. Why did this guy have to hit every little nerve as if he knew exactly how to navigate her life.

And damn, if he wasn't right. Her mother had hardly noticed. But of course, she asked where had she been. "I was looking at Universities, don't you remember?" was Mona's smug response.

"Well, you could have called. Is your phone all right?" She swore she was going to call the police if she wasn't home by today. "But you always tell  me not to worry because you're so grownup."

Mona would not let her mother bring her down. Mona vowed as she got back to her studies, that she would move in with Nic by the end of summer.