Chapter 2 Goodbye, Home

I can't believe I'm saying goodbye to my home today. It's been a month since my parents had their accident. They were travelling through Europe in a helicopter, when the engine dropped and it crashed. Noone survived. It's been hard, but I've managed so far.

I really miss them. I smile sadly as I put the last picture of the three of us in a box.

'Is this the last one?' My uncle Wilson comes to stand behind me as I close the box. I smile at him.

'Yeah, that's the last one.' He squeezes my shoulder and takes the box outside.

'I'll take this outside. Are you coming, too?'

'Yeah, I'll be out in a second.' I slowly walked around one last time and said goodbye for good.

I'm going to live with uncle Wilson, who is now officially my caretaker. He's not my uncle by blood, but we had a special bond. He's been friends with my parents all their lives. I've known him my whole life. And it was my parents wish that should anything happen to them, he would take care of me.

It'll be hard getting used to, having to start all over again. Make new friends, go to a new school. New neighbours. That makes me laugh. Uncle Wilson used to come here and tell us all kinds of stories about his neighbours. He gives them advice if they need it. Which is almost every night. We always wanted to come visit him and meet the Taylor family, just to see if they're real. Too bad my parents will never get that chance.

I sigh and walk to the front door. I take one look behind me. 'Goodbye.' Then I walk outside and close the door behind me.

As I get inside the car, uncle Wilson looks at me with a concerned expression. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, I'll be fine.' I give him a small smile and look out the window, waving one last time as we drive past my house.

As we drive off, uncle Wilson turns to me. 'So, I was never able to ask you. How was Costa Rica?' How glad I was that he wanted to change my thoughts, it didn't make me feel better. I gave him half a smile.

'It was good.' And I looked back out the window.

'That's it? What I got from your letters, you were having a great time. What happened?'

'I'm sorry uncle Wilson, but I'd rather not talk about it.' With that I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window, pretending to be asleep. I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, but I really didn't want to talk about Costa Rica. Yeah, it was great in the beginning...

The night I got the phonecall that my parents had their accident, I had to leave in a hurry. I wanted to say goodbye to Him, but I never got a chance. A flight was booked for me immediately and I left just like that. I talked to my best friend Britney after I left, I wrote him a quick note and asked her to give it to him. She promised she would. I didn't write a lot, just that I was sorry I didn't get to say goodbye and that I loved him. I wrote my phonenumber and my address on the bottom so he could contact me as soon as he got the note.

I had really hoped he would, but I never heard from him again. Then, after two weeks I talked to Britney again. She told me she gave him the note. And then she told me he didn't care. He told her I didn't mean anything to him. I was just someone in between, until he would get together with his ex-girlfriend.

I was heartbroken. He told me he had never loved someone as much as he loved me. I guess he lied to me. He also said our night was his first time. According to Britney he lied about that, too. And last week I heard the worst news of all, his ex-girlfriend is pregnant. She said it's his. I cried all night when I heard that. I couldn't believe he hurt me like that. How can someone do that? How can you tell someone you love them and not even mean a word of it?

I hope I never see him again... I'm just going to forget I ever met him. I have no idea how I'm going to do that, but I sure as hell will try.

Soon, I did fall asleep as we drove in silence towards Detroit. Towards a new life...