Going Home.

He sat in the airport drinking coffee, he glance across the table and she smiled at him. It was a smile that could make any man weak in the knees. He loved her for that; for smiling at him the way she did just then. He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. He was going home and he was taking her with him. He went back home a lot in the past 10 years and every time he did, he went home a different person - and this time was no exception.

When he first moved away, going home was what made leaving worth it. He would leave and feel so grown up because he got to "get off the rock' and move on to bigger and better things. But secretly he was jealous of all the well wishers sending him off at the airport, and he smiled tentatively as they gave him hugs and told him to do well in school. He promised he'd keep in touch and send everyone back home picture of his new college friends. He put on the bravest face he could and thought he could see envy in their eyes because he made it and he was leaving, he hoped that his true feelings didn't show plainly on his face. When the final boarding call was announced, he tried to hold back tears as he handed his boarding pass to the ticket agent and made his way down the jet-way. From the moment he stepped on the plane, all he could think about was going back home. He was glad that it was a red eye flight and the cabin was dark so he could curl up under his blanket and let the tears come. In his own private cocoon, he cried for everything he was leaving behind and everything he was giving up, he never once thought that maybe, just maybe he would gain more than a little by leaving.