Chapter 14: Somewhere Only We Know

It was the day before Tina moved into college and she was spending the remainder of her time with family. Linda was overemotional and Bob, who had tried his hardest to conceal his emotions, was beginning to emote as well. Gene and Louise were going to miss her, but they were better about hiding it. The family, including Zeke, went out for dinner for a change (not Jimmy Pesto's of course) and had a nice meal. They watched television as a family together and eventually parted ways after bringing Tina's totes and bags into the living room.

Tina sat at her desk and scanned the room to see if there was anything she forgot. While she looked around, she heard a knock at the door. She turned around and saw Zeke poking his head through the door. "Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course." Tina said.

Zeke walked in with his hands behind his back and sat down on the bed. "Before you leave, I, uh, kinda bought got you something." He said quietly.

Tina got up and sat next to him. "You didn't have to," she said as she sat down. He handed her a wrapped gift. She could tell he wrapped it himself, and clearly hadn't had much practice, but it as still a nice gesture. She unwrapped it to see a framed picture of them at prom, a copy of Black Beauty, and a handwritten note:

Dear Tina,

The past four years we have spent together have been some of the happiest years of my life. You are smart, beautiful, kind, creative, and the best girlfriend I've ever had, or will ever have. You mean the world to me. I wish we could be together like this forever, but it's important to go out in the world and experience new things. Good luck at college. I know you will have a great time, make new friends, and go on to do great things. I won't forget about you, so I hope you don't forget about me while you're away, because I know I won't forget about you. I love you Tina Ruth Belcher, and I always will.

Love,

Zeke

Tina put down the note and stared at the floor for a while. "Tina?" he asked. She burst into tears. It didn't feel real for the longest time, but now it was starting to. She'd be away from not only her close-knit family, but also the love of her life. "Oh God, I didn't mean for you to cry. I'm sorry, come here." He said as he wrapped his arms around her.

She finally regained composure, took off her glasses, and wiped her eyes. "It's not that; you didn't do anything," she said as she put her glasses back on, "it just didn't feel real until now. I've spent my entire life here and I'm so close with you and my family and I don't know what to do I-"

Zeke cut her off with a kiss. He slowly pulled away and hugged her. "You're rambling, T-Bird. It's gonna be fine. You're gonna meet people, make friends, and I know you'll keep in touch with everyone.

The next morning, Tina said her final goodbyes to the family as she loaded the car. Linda and Bob were wrecks, Gene and Zeke were forlorn, and Louise burst into tears, which was the second time they've ever seen her cry. She hugged everyone goodbye and got in the old family car, which was made hers after Bob was left with Bib Bob's car. She drove off and stared longingly at her rearview mirror. She was going to miss them.

Tina had a relatively easy drive, got checked in, and was escorted to her dorm. She opened the door to see that her roommate had already moved in. The girl had long, brown hair, was curvy, and short. "Hi, you must be Tina, I'm Raquel!"

"Hi, I'm Tina. Oh, you just said that, never mind."

Raquel laughed and looked at her things. "I can help you unpack if you want. I've just been decorating and we have a floor meeting this evening."

"Okay, sure that would be great." The two unpacked and had everything put away by 3:30pm and Tina took care of the rest. By the time Tina was done, Raquel had finished decorating. Raquel looked at her desk and pointed at a specific picture. "Who's that?" She asked.

Tina looked over and noticed that she was pointing at the prom picture Zeke gave her. "Oh, that's my boyfriend, Zeke."

"Aw, you guys are so cute." She cooed. "Are you guys doing a distance thing?" She asked.

"Yeah," Tina said as she sat on her bed, "I'm not too far away from home, though. So we'll try to visit and vice versa."

Raquel sat on her bed. "That's really nice. My boyfriend and I are taking a "break". I live out of state and he didn't want to do distance," she said as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry about." Tina said.

"It's okay," she said as she got off her bed, "he was a jerk, anyway. There's plenty of fish in the sea and it's about time I went fishing." She laughed as she peaked in the hallway at all of the boys walking around on their floor.

"I know what you mean," Tina laughed as she peaked with her. The two of them already had a lot in common.

"Hey, you wanna go get something to eat?" she asked, turning to her.

"Sure," Tina smiled. She already knew they were going to be close friends.