Adventures in Dating - 7. Going Home, part 1

Riley and Chase were back at their apartment, packing for their trip to New Zealand. Riley was eager to go, as he’d never travelled before or experienced life outside of Amber Beach, and this was a chance to expand and learn about different people and cultures for him. He was especially eager to see if life was really all that different in New Zealand, or if Chase was just an especially relaxed and flirtatious person.

Chase was much less relaxed about the whole thing. While he was really excited to be going back home, it wasn’t really home he’d be going back to. New Zealand wasn’t that big, but they were there to look for an Energem and stop Sledge, not to visit Mum and Chloe. The fact that monsters were being sighted so close to where his family lived scared him since there was no way to protect them if anything did go wrong.

Chase haphazardly threw clothing into his suitcase and tried to force it shut, only to have the suitcase bulge further and refuse to stay shut. ‘This was insane’ he thought. ‘I’m going back home, how many times are we going to go to New Zealand as Rangers?’

Chase was stopped in his pacing when Riley grabbed him by the arm and held him still. Chase turned around and looked at the concern etched into Riley’s face, and stopped struggling against his boyfriend’s grasp.

“Chase, what’s wrong? Something’s bothering you, you’re even more out of sorts than you normally are, and I’ve never seen you become this messy. At the very least when you’re fixing your skateboard, everything stays at least somewhat close to the other pieces.”

I looked up at Riley and I could see he was really worried about me and that he wasn’t going to let this go until I explained what was going on, except that it wasn’t going to make any sense once I said it.

“I’m just a little stressed about going home, that’s all Riles.” I said, hoping he’d leave well enough alone.

Of course not.

“But I thought you were excited to be going back, you were talking about it all of yesterday when you showed up at the museum with the newspaper clipping, and you sounded really happy to be going back. What’s changed since then?” he asked.

I sighed and shook my head, trying to make the conversation come to an end so I can at least try to fix my suitcase. When Riley refused to stop hovering around me, I sat on the bed and watched my suitcase flip and deposit all my stuff on the bed.

“Nothing’s changed. I just hate that we’re going to New Zealand and I won’t have time or a chance to see my family. We’re there on Ranger business, and that means we’re out doing something that’s going to potentially get dangerous. It scares me to think that my mum and Chloe might be in danger again, and I still haven’t really gotten over the fact that Chloe almost go hurt the last time she got too close to us.”

“It scares me, knowing that Sledge has been sending monsters to New Zealand, and I’m all the way here in America with no way to protect them, and no real way to even warn them about what’s happening. They’re my family, and at least everyone else’s family is close to Amber Beach so it’s easier to protect them. It terrifies me to think that other people I know are going to get hurt.”

Riley grabbed onto the pile of clothing that had fallen out of my suitcase and put them aside on his bed, and then moved to sit next to me. When he did so, he reached out and clasped my hands with his and pulled me towards him.

“I know you’re worried, but that’s why we’re going down there. If we find whatever’s sending Sledge’s monsters to New Zealand, then we can bring it back here and there won’t be any reason for your family to be in danger anymore. You won’t have to tell them that you’re a Ranger or anything like that, and it will be safer for everyone.”

Riley was right of course, once we got the Energem or whatever it was that was down there then we’d go back to our new lives of facing a new enemy up here in Amber Beach every few days. Mum and Chloe would be safe, that was the important thing.

“Thanks babe, you always know just what to say. You’ve got it all figured out sometimes, you know that?”

I leaned forward to kiss Riley on the forehead, forcing a small smile onto my face and getting back to trying to pack things up. I was still worried about my family, but at least I had Riley and we were going to do everything we could to keep my old home safe.

Now that I wasn’t as worried about my family, it was starting to sink in again that I was going home. The team was going to need me to be at my very best since I was the only one who knew where anything was in the country. They’d be relying on me to help make sense of things, since these Americans don’t always use the same words that I grew up with back at home. Hopefully we wouldn’t have too much trouble once we got there.

I glanced over at the envelope over at my desk. The plane ticket that Chloe gave me the last time I saw her, when she got attacked and Philip saved her. I still hadn’t opened the envelope, even though the tickets had been sitting there for a few weeks now. It was only a few weeks until Christmas, and I thought about using the ticket to come home and visit the family for the holidays, as my Christmas present to Chloe.

I hadn’t thought about it, but I did miss being at home. It was just starting to warm up around now, and the summer would just be starting. It’d be a great time to go skateboarding and hitting the beach with all my old friends. Maybe tell some stories and do some of the drinking we used to think about doing when we were younger and more carefree than we are now.

I didn’t even realize I had stopped packing until Riley poked me with his finger and pointed out that the music on my iPod had been playing and that I hadn’t started singing along with it. I was so lost in my little daydream of going home that Riley had managed to pack everything up for me and even got the suitcase closed, a satisfied look on his face at his success.

“Come on Hotshot, let’s go! We gotta meet everyone at the base before we head to the airport. Don’t want to be left behind on your grand trip back home do you?”

Riley grabbed his suitcase and started to head out the door of our bedroom and back through the apartment. I lingered a few extra moments, marvelling at home excited he was for me and realizing that I needed to snap out of this funk. I may not have been going home, but at least I was getting a chance to show off New Zealand to my friends. This was going to be a good trip, and if we found something to help end the threat Sledge put on the world, that was even better.

I smiled to myself, thinking that I might be able to head home and show Riley everything that was really important to me in New Zealand sooner than I thought. Grabbing my suitcase, I raced after him and caught up with him at the car. He was just packing his own suitcase into the trunk when I threw mine in and slid myself into the driver’s seat.

“Hurry up Baby Raptor! I got a lot to show you down under, and the sooner we get going the better!”

Riley looked up and smiled when he saw how much more relaxed I was, and the trip back to the museum was lighthearted. As the team piled into Tyler’s truck to head to the airport, I thought about how much better this was going to be to be going back with friends, and that Riley was so special in the ways he helped me think about the bright side of things.