the middle of my room. My box-covered room. No more pictures scattered on my walls. No more mirror covered in more pictures and notes and ticket stubs. No more fabric and thread strewn across my bed. No more Batman paintings above my bed. No more blankets and sheets or clothes in the closet. Autumn came in and put her hands on her hips. "Well, it's real now." "We're growing up, Autumn. It's weird." "But good." "Good in a weird way." I sat on my bare mattress. "I'm kinda getting emotional. Is that normal?" "Don't know, but it's not normal for you." "True." "Lots of memories here," she said, turning around to take in the emptiness. "It's definitely sad to me too." "Next I'll be helping you move to Virginia. That's really going to be hard." She stared at her feet. "It will be." She looked at me again. "But it'll go fast." "Promise me we won't grow apart." She hugged me. "Impossible." "Never say impossible. Everything is possible. Good and bad." "Thank you for that wisdom of the day. Can I add that to my quote book?" I laughed. "Sure. I'd like credit though." "Of course." She smiled and picked up a box. "Let's do this." I picked up another and followed her to the moving truck. "Is this it?" she said, setting the box down near the back. "I got the smallest truck I could. I don't have much to bring. Keeping the bed here. I'll probably need a trip to Ikea after this." "Definitely." She jumped out of the truck. "Can't believe your parents decided to go on vacation on your moving day." "I feel like Mom was trying to avoid it. I don't know. They said they don't mind, but I get the feeling it's upset her." "Maybe it's just hard to see your daughter leave." "Not for my real mom." "Don't be depressing." She walked toward the house. "Come on. Let's beat Donovan and Zoe." "Zoe...." I trailed behind. "Excited?" "Can't you tell?" I made the most serious face possible. "It's written all over your face." "Really though, how could a mother just give up her child?" She shrugged. "Sometimes they don't feel like they can take care of the kid and the best thing is to let her go." "But—" "You can make up a million reasons why that's not enough, but to her it was. What's the matter anyway? You have amazing parents who just gave you a crap load of money." "Crap load. I always hated that term."
We unloaded a few boxes at the new apartment when Donovan showed up with his arm around Zoe. I seriously couldn't stand when couples were all starry-eyed and inseparable in public. I would tell myself they wouldn't last like that much longer, but then be proven wrong every day when I saw Mom and Dad staring at each other over their tea cups. Tea, not coffee. Always tea. Even though I made sure they were aware of the fact that British people do, indeed, drink coffee too. "Please don't make out in front of me," I begged as Donovan wet her lips. He didn't stop kissing her. Autumn looked at me and smiled, her chest jerking with one of those bursts of quiet laughter. I shook my head. Finally Donovan stopped and put his forehead against Zoe's. "Wow, this is intense," Autumn said. I walked to the door and slapped Donovan's shoulder on the way out. "Time to work." Autumn and I picked up another box and headed to the stairs. Donovan jogged down as we went up. "Where's Zoe?" Autumn said. "Isn't she helping?" "Nah. She's got painful joints." Autumn raised her eyebrows and mouthed, "Okay." I laughed. "Are you serious?" He nodded. "Yeah, she's sensitive to hard labor." "You're not serious." He glanced at the two of us. "What?" I laughed again. "Nothing. We'll help with her stuff too."
Only took about an hour and a half to unload and even unpack quite a few boxes. Apparently Zoe liked to accumulate things, because she had twice as much as me and I was a little freaked out about it. Her rent was cheaper since she had the smaller loft, so I imagined her weird artwork on the living room walls and I wish I could say it didn't