Chapter 16

Graduation had finally came, which meant moving day was the next day. Julie and her family had just gotten home from the ceremony. "You're a graduate!" her mom said as they walked in the door. "Yeah," Julie replied sitting on the sofa. She couldn't honestly say that she wasn't happy. She was happy to graduate and had passed high school with almost straight A's, but there were other things on her mind. She still didn't want to leave. The house was pretty much all packed up and her clothes and the rest of her things were in bags. She got up and headed upstairs. "Where ya goin'" her mom asked. "I'm, just gonna go change." She said and continued up the steps. Her mom sighed at her dad. They didn't like that she was upset.

Julie went over to her mirror, the only thing left in her room that wasn't in a bag. There, actually was one more thing. Julie walked over to the shelf that was there and looked on top of it. Sitting there was the little statue of the butterfly Edward had made. She picked it up and ran her hands over it. She remembered the day she got it. She remembered when she left, how sure she was that her and Edward's friendship would last for a very long time, maybe forever. But now, it was all backwards. Not only did they have a friendship, but they had love and they'd only been together for almost two weeks.

Tears started to well up in her eyes. She was sick of crying. All she had done the past few days was cry in her room after coming from Edward's house or school. She hadn't even seen him that day and it was killing her. She had to see him. She was moving tomorrow.

She changed out of the dress she wore for graduation and ran downstairs. She went over to the kitchen and looked in the fridge. Going to the "store" was out of the question, but she had to get out of there somehow. She grabbed the almost empty milk carton and attempted to dump it down the sink, but panicked when her mother came in. She quickly threw the carton out of the open window before her mom could see.

"Want some cake, honey?" her mom asked opening the refrigerator. "Um, sure…can you get the milk out?" she asked trying to act casual. Her mom looked for a minute. "I could have sworn I bought some…" she said rummaging through the refrigerator. "Want me to go to the store?" Julie asked. "Oh, I'll do it honey." She replied. "Let me do it, mom. I need to take a walk anyway." She said. "Okay," her mom said. Julie went for the door as soon as her mom said yes.

She went towards the store, but stopped when she heard Emily. "Julie, wait!" she called. "Em, what are you doing?" she asked. "I wanted to come see Edward with you," she said. "I told you I was going to the store," "Julie, I'm not stupid. You ran right out of there. Plus, you spilled some milk in the back yard when you threw the carton out the window." She laughed. Julie rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but giggle. She and Emily both headed towards the mansion.

"Edward!" Emily yelled. Julie found him in the garden, cutting his plants. He smiled when he saw her. "Hi," she said, almost shyly. "Hello," he said back. They just stared at each other for a few minutes. "Em," Julie yelled coming out of her daze. "He's down here." A few moments later, Emily came down and hugged Edward's leg. He smiled down at her.

"You're moving tomorrow?" he asked, his smile fading. Julie wasn't smiling that much to begin with, but Emily's also faded. Julie nodded. "Uh huh," Edward nodded back. Emily looked up at Edward, "We can come and visit…we won't be gone forever." She said. Edward smiled at this. Julie also smiled. She looked at Edward and was trying as hard as she could not to cry.

Edward looked at Julie and saw that she wanted to cry. He didn't really know what to say, but he hated to see her sad. Emily also felt like crying, but it wasn't as bad as Julie. She saw those two pretending to be happy just because she was there. She hated being little…but she was smarter than they thought.

"I'm gonna go look at Edward's sculptures!" she said. She quickly ran back to the door of the house and went up to the room with the statues, leaving Edward and Julie alone. "So," she said in a shaky voice. "What are you doing?" she asked. Edward took her around the garden and snipped at a few of the plants. Julie watched him. She was going to miss watching him create stuff like that. Julie told him about the graduation and tried to keep her mind off of leaving tomorrow.

About an hour went by and Julie realized what she should have been doing. "Oh God, Emily!" she yelled. Emily peaked her head through a window of the mansion. "What?" she yelled. "Mom and Dad," Emily hurriedly ran down the stairs and went to the gate. Julie stopped.

She went up to Edward and threw her arms around him. "I'll come back tomorrow," she said. Emily nodded, noting that she was coming, too. After a few minutes, Emily had to pull them apart. Julie waved good bye and they left.

Julie and Emily quickly ran to the store and then home. "Where have you been?" her mom asked impatiently. "We….um…" "-ran into Danielle." Emily said. "Julie, why didn't you tell her to come home?" "Well, I was talking to her mom," Julie said. "Funniest thing we got into this huge discussion about…couch pillows…" "Couch pillows?" her mom asked. "Yeah," Julie replied. "Ok, did ya get the milk?" Julie handed her mom the milk. They all went into the kitchen and had some cake.

That night, Julie was getting ready for bed. Her bags were all downstairs. The only thing left in the room was her bed, a shelf, and her butterfly statue. She shoved the statue under her bed when she heard her mother knocking on the door. "Julie," she said as she came in. "How are you feeling?" "I still don't want to move, but I'm more okay with it than before." She said. Her mom sat down next to her. "Well, I was thinking when we move and get all settled in, you can have a graduation party, since you didn't have one here." Julie smiled at her mom. Even though there'd be no one to invite, she was happy her mom was trying to cheer her up. "That'd be nice, mom." She said. Her mom hugged her and went towards the door. "Good night, honey." She said closing the door.

Julie laid on her bed and pulled her statue out. She looked at it and smiled. She thought she would definitely be crying herself to sleep tonight, but she couldn't. Thinking of Edward mad her feel really comfortable and loved. Even though Edward mad her feel really happy, she was devastated about leaving him the next day. She held the statue close to her and slowly drifted off to sleep.