“Need…to…breathe, Casey!” I managed to gasp as I writhed under her, trying to escape her deadly grip. Immediately, Casey stilled above me.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” She apologized hurriedly, blushing beet red as she got off me, and stood. She gave me her hand and helped me stand up.
On my feet, I sighed as I brought her in for a hug. “We will talk every night on Skype or FaceTime, and then there is Messenger! We will always talk. It’ll be like I’m not even away, I promise.” I assured her as I pulled away. Losing my towel, I pulled on my clothes.
Casey sighed a little heavy and a little scared. “What if we don’t?”
I smiled a small, broken smile. My hand found Casey’s again, and I gave it a comforting squeeze. “No matter what happens, whether we talk every day or not at all for months, when we do talk or meet, we will always be the same best friends.”
A small tear dropped down Casey’s cheeks, and she nodded, chuckling.
“You better tell me everything when you get there!” she blurted out, smiling a bit as she folded and placed my towel inside a plastic before packing it into my suitcase. My room was nearly empty. It was literally stripped bare except for the built-in bookshelves and a few boxes and suitcases that were still lying around waiting to be hurled into the moving truck.
Smiling, I nodded and pulled Casey in for a final hug. “We’ll visit each other during breaks. I’ll miss you, you know.”
Casey nodded. “I’ll miss you too, Thi.”
The loud stomping noises alerted us both of someone coming up the stairs, and soon enough, there was a knock on the door. “Theia, are you done?”
“Yeah, Dad, come in!” I replied as I picked up my jacket—just in case it got cold—and slipped into my flip-flops, which seemed like an irrational choice considering the two contrasted each other, but I wouldn’t need my shoes in the car, anyway. I’d probably just tuck them under me throughout the ride.
The door opened instantly and in walked my dad with two bulky men. Smiling at me softly, they strode towards the boxes and picked them up.
Again, Casey and I stood in my empty room—a room we had dozens of sleepovers in, a room we played doll in, a room we gossiped, planned, and plotted in, and a room we did our homework and fangirling in. I sighed.
“I think we should go now…”
“Uh-huh.”
Casey and I walked downstairs hand in hand. I took a deep breath as I stood in the living room.
The place had a lot of my memories. I grew up in this area. Well, that was until I turned sixteen and got the television setup in my own room. My eyes were closed. I let out a deep breath and whispered, “I’ll miss you, home. Goodbye.”
“Theia, sweetie!”
My mom’s voice rang out to me like a fire truck’s siren. I instantly opened my eyes and walked out of the threshold, letting Dad lock the door and hand over the keys to our real estate agent, who had managed to sell our home for a very, very reasonable amount.
The day outside was bright and happy, vibrant and warm, yet the heat suddenly didn’t bother me anymore. I looked around my neighborhood and smiled. I would be taking all the good memories as I went. But as much as I was sad, truth be told, I was also secretly excited.
I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like something was waiting for me in Peidmond. An adventure was waiting to be lived—maybe a mystery waiting to be unraveled. The little knowledge about the new feeling in me was all the more alluring, and somehow, secretly, I couldn’t wait to reach Peidmond.
“Bye, Cas. I’ll call you when I reach there okay!” I muttered, suddenly holding back my tears as I was pulled into a hug.
“Uh-huh, we will always talk! And if we can’t, we will at least message when we can.” Casey assured me as she hugged me back.
Smiling slightly, I pulled out of the hug and with a final wave, climbed into our SUV, watching my best friend stand in my yard and my neighborhood for the last time as my dad drove off.
It felt like I was leaving a part of me here. But then again, I was going whole.
***
“Are you excited, darling?”
Mom suddenly asked me, cutting the silence that had been building up since we left seven hours ago. The ride from California to Peidmond was fifteen hours and thirteen minutes, and already in these seven hours, we had stopped twice to fuel up the SUV and buy some snacks for along the way.
“Yeah, Mom, are you?” I murmured back, knowing well that both my parents were extremely excited for this “new chapter” in their life. Dad would not stop talking about the amount of brilliant literature his new university had, not to mention the immense raise in wage and position. He was ecstatic. For Mom, her boutiques and salons around California were still running. And although she would have to fly back and forth occasionally, her excitement with opening a new boutique and salon in Peidmond was especially overwhelming.
“Oh, I am so excited!” She squealed, clapping her hands together before turning towards Dad and placing a loving kiss on his cheek.
It was normal for me to witness their weird romance, so I just rolled my eyes and looked at the passing views.
“The new house is bigger, Theia.” Dad chuckled and looked at me from the review mirror.
I knew he was trying to
