After about ten minutes of walking, I was thoroughly frozen. My teeth were chattering and my nose looked like it was turning blue. I was pretty sure my fingers were falling off too, but I decided not to look at them.
The cold wind bit my cheeks as Jack's house finally came into view. I breathed a sigh of relief as I increased my pace. The wind immediately died down as I stepped on to the porch and rang the doorbell. I wasn't expecting anybody up, but to my surprise it opened a couple of seconds after.
"Kim! I was hoping you'd drop by before we left," Mrs. Anderson exclaimed, smiling.
"Yeah, sorry it took so long," I said meekly.
"Oh darling, don't worry about it!" she said good-naturedly as she ushered me into the warmth of the house.
As soon I stepped inside, I gasped in shock. All their furniture was gone. Not one piece of it left. I could see boxes stacked up all over the place, some opened and others sealed shut. I realized then how long my pride had kept me waiting before I finally swallowed it and came to say goodbye to the one person that knew me better than anyone else. Maybe even knew me better than I did.
I cleared my throat against the lump that formed and looked at Jack's mom. She seemed to understand and pointed upstairs, giving me a small, reassuring smile.
I headed up to Jack's room.
Before I could convince myself not to go in, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. Jack was sitting down on his barren bed, looking at a picture. The rest of his room was all packed, ready to be shipped to Seaford.
He looked up when the door closed and his eyes widened in surprise. He looked like he did every day, with his slightly messy brown hair that never wanted to lie down straight. The only difference was the faint darkness under his eyes that signaled his lack of sleep.
"Kim? I didn't think you were going to come," he said, standing up and putting the picture down on his bed.
"I might be mad at you, but not enough to send you away without giving you a proper goodbye," I said sheepishly, looking at the floor.
"You can't be that mad at me, I don't think I've ever seen you up this early," he joked half-heartedly.
I managed a laugh and looked at the photograph that he'd dropped on his bed. I walked over and picked it up.
"It's of the first time I got you to ride that big roller coaster," I heard him say.
I remembered the first time I had gotten on that monstrosity. It was the second fastest and tallest roller coaster in the United States, so like any sane person; I naturally would NOT ride it. Jack, being the crazy hooligan he is, dragged me along and I ended up loving it.
That's when the tears came, when I realized the full enormity of my situation. I would probably never see him again. Tears started to silently stream down my cheeks before I could stop them. I hurriedly wiped them away before Jack could see, but I could tell that he already had.
He looked at me and held his arms out. I hesitated; I'm not the type of person to go looking for pity. But I stepped forward anyway and let him hug me. I pushed my face into his shoulder and inhaled his achingly familiar scent. He rubbed soothing circles in my back as I silently cried.
No matter what I did, the tears kept coming. I didn't make a sound though, I don't think I could've even if I wanted to. He held me until I cried myself dry.
"Are you okay?" Jack murmured the question into my hair.
I nodded my head before taking a shaky breath and pulling away from his comforting arms. I hated that he had to see me looking so weak like this. But, he was leaving forever, so what the hey.
I just stared at the floor until I felt Jack's hand under my chin, lifting my face up so I had to meet his gaze.
"Now where's that smile?" he asked.
I tried giving him a watery smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.
"You can do better than that," he said mischievously.
Before I could reply, he started tickling me. He knew that I hated to be tickled, but he did it anyway. I started laughing uncontrollably as his fingers brushed over my stomach.
"Okay fine! Stop it, I'm smiling now see?" I gave him a big smile and grabbed both of hands, to stop him from tickling me to death.
He was laughing hard, so I put my hand over his mouth to make him stop. I still heard a muffled laughter so I couldn't help but join in. I laughed so hard that my sides hurt, and Jack didn't look any better off.
After we got that out of our systems, he sat back down on his bed and patted the spot next to him. I plopped down on the mattress, making it squeak.
"Is Kimmy getting fat?" he said with a mock look of surprise on his face.
I grinned wickedly before I put my cold fingers on his neck, since they still hadn't warmed up from my trip over here. He yelped and quickly grabbed my fingers, pulling them off his neck.
"What the heck are you doing to your fingers Kim? They feel like the inside of my fridge!" he said, rubbing my fingers to get some warmth in them.
He finally gave me my hand back, and I had to admit that they were considerably warmer than they used to be. We sat there in a comfortable silence as we waited for the moving truck to get here. I rested my head on his shoulder as he fiddled with the picture of us on the roller coaster.
In a couple of minutes, I heard the moving truck pull up outside and breathed a heavy sigh. I felt him get up and saw him look out the window.
"We better get out there," he said with a thick voice.
I nodded and headed downstairs. His parents were already directing the movers to the big pile of boxes in the living room that needed to be loaded on the truck. I waited out of their way with Jack for them to finish. They finished way too fast.
All too soon, the movers had driven off and left just me, the Andersons, and an empty house. I hugged Mr. and Mrs. Anderson for a long time before they got in the car.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," he said, sounding suspiciously like a movie I had seen last night.
I nodded wordlessly, I didn't trust my voice to work. I rubbed my good-luck necklace as I looked up at him. He took the pendant from my fingertips and looked at it. "Isn't this the necklace I got you for your birthday last year?"
"Oh yeah," I said, not even realizing until he mentioned it. The necklace was beautiful, I had no idea how much it cost and I probably didn't want to know. It had my birthstone, the peridot, on it. The stone was carved into a heart with tiny silver clasps holding it to the chain. It caught the weak light from the winter sun and shimmered.
"I didn't think you still had this thing."
"What? This 'thing' is beautiful! Of course I would keep it," I exclaimed, shocked.
"I knew I had good taste," he said, giving me a small smile. He dropped the necklace and stepped back, away from me.
"I should probably get going, 'bye Kim," Jack said in a low voice, not meeting my eyes.
Impulsively, I reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. I stood on my tip-toes, using my hand to keep my balance, and kissed him swiftly on the cheek.
I thought I saw his cheeks redden slightly, but it was hard to tell because they were already colored from the cold. I stepped back and gave him a crooked smile, "See ya Jack."
He got into the car and waved at me from inside. I kept my smile plastered on my face as I waved back. I stayed in their driveway until they were out of sight. Immediately, the smile slipped off my face as I began the walk long home.
Ta-da! This was probably the fastest chapter I've ever written! I just sat in front of my laptop and finished the whole thing in like half an hour.. Crazy right? Anyway, Review! :0 (its a pig! I know it looks better with an at sign, but the stupid computer isnt letting me do that)
P.S.
A lot of you guys favorited or subscribed to this story, and I really appreciate it! Ya'll are the best! If it's not too much of a bother, can I also ask you to drop a quick review? Critism is appreciated, and it helps me get better! Thanks!(:
-Courtney(: