Callie POV

"You want to move out?" mom stuttered back after a long pause

"I'm thinking about," I confirmed with a slight head nod as I watched mom closely, worried how she was going to take it

She ran her hand over her forehead, pushed her chair back and got up suddenly, turning her back to me. I assume she did that, because mom didn't want me to see the tears that had appeared in her eyes. Seeing mom like that, tugged at my heartstrings. I had seen mom stunned before. But never like this. She was taking my news harder than I ever thought she would. Mom was hurting, because of me. And that realization nearly made me cry.

"It's a big step, I know, but I feel like I'm ready, mom!" I said feeling that I needed to explain myself, while standing up, that I wasn't doing this to get away from her or hurt her, but only to start a new chapter in my life "I'm 21, I have an education, I have a good job, steady income..."

"I know, I know, I know," Mom quietly chanted to herself as she tried to compose herself with her back still turned to me

Walking up to her, I hugged her from her back, set my chin to her left shoulder "Mom? Now it's your time to talk to me. Don't lock me out," Amy placed her hand over mine, that were wrapped around her

Mom shook her head softly as she wiped her eyes with her free hand and turned around. There were tears still lingering in her eyes but I saw that she was determinant to not let them fall. She placed her palms on both side of my neck, her thumbs resting on my cheek as she looked into mine and admitted softly "It's just...I thought I would have more time with you."

Mom tucked a strain of hair behind my ear and started to stroke my hair fondly"It's seems like only yesterday you moved in and now...now you want to move out. It's going to be strange not having you here, not seeing you every day...I kind of feel like I'm loosing you," she sucked in a sharp breath as tear from her left eye fell down

"Mom! I would never-I'm not leaving you!" I exclaimed, shocked that she would ever think that "If you think, even just for a second, that I'm not going to come by to see you, talk to you or need you, when I move out - you are crazy!"

Mom pulled her hands back and took a step back as she started to elaborate "In my head, I completely understand you wanting to start your own life. I wanted the same thing, when I was around your age. It's my heart, that's having trouble accepting it right now, because for a very long time, you were the only one, who made this place not feel so empty and quiet…" mom trailed off as she looked around the room

For a moment, we stood watching one another, tears in both of our eyes, but neither let them fall as we tried to stay strong for each other

"Honey," mom then smiled at me "I'm okay with it-"

"Are you?" I questioned back, no longer convinced that me moving out was a good idea "Because it doesn't seem like you are."

Her mouth parted a little, but she stopped herself from saying what was on the tip of her tongue "I'm going to be," Mom corrected herself. Now that, I believed. "My heart may need a bit more time to accept it, but...once it catches up with my head, you won't have to worry about your old mother, anymore."

"You're not old," I said walking up to mom, wrapping my arms around her and leaning into her "And I will always worry about you, just like you, always, worry about me. I love you, mom."

"And I love you, pumpkin!" Mom squeezed me a fraction tighter

Once moms strong, yet gentle arms held me, I let my muscles became loose as I melted into moms warm embrace. Time always seemed to stop and all the worries seemed to disappear, when mom was cradling me like a cherished child.

The car was parked on the side of the road, in front of the 5 floor apartment building. Jude and I were leaned at the passenger side of the car, while we waited. Both of our phones were out. We were both scrolling through the countless ads about apartments to rent. Mariana was studying for a big test, so I had invited my brother to join me on the apartment hunt.

When I felt his eyes on me, I stopped browsing and glanced to my brother.

"I still can't believe you want to move out. Leave home. Live alone," He said once my eyes landed on his

"It's not like I'm planning moving to another state or to another country," I said lightly with a small chuckle, because I didn't want anyone to make a too big deal out of it

"I know, but..." Jude glanced down to the pavement

"But, what?" I coaxed trying to get him to say whatever was on his mind that was bugging him so much

"Can you promise me, something?" Jude asked, looking back at me. My eyebrow raised a little at his question.

"Promise me, that we won't drift apart. You want to start your own life and all that, I get that, but can you just promise me that you won't forget about me. About us? I don't want to wake up one morning and realize that I can't recall the last time we talked to each other or saw one another. I don't want to lose you again, Callie!"

"Hey!" I put my arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer to my side "I'm never going to allow for that to happen. It took me years to find you. I'm not letting you out of my life ever again," I assured him before I placed a kiss to his temple "I will always make time for family, no matter how hectic or busy my life will become."

"Promise me," Jude said quietly

"I promise."

We remained in the close proximity for a moment longer, until Jude wiggled his way out from under my arm and spoke up "I found an ad, of this one place. It was super cheep. Hold on a second, I will show you," He said unlocking his phone and reloading the web page

"How much?" I asked and out of curiously leaned towards him to see the price

"Only 500 a month!"

"That can't be," I could not believe the price as I hadn't found any reasonable place cheaper than 1300$ a month "Where?" I asked, thinking to myself that the apartment had to be in the worst neighborhood in the city or it had to be in the most horrible condition ever to be that cheep

I watched how Jude scrolled down the screen and looked at the map at the bottom of the page "Not far from here - Hyatt street."

The address was some 20 minute drive away from home and work, so I snatched my brothers phone out of his hand and looked at the ad. My eyes scanned over the data, looking for a reason the owner was renting the place out so cheep. And of course, I found one.

"Nop!" I placed the phone back in his hand, once I saw what was wrong with it

"What? What didn't you like about this one?" Jude looked down at the ad

"150 square feet! (14 m2)," I placed the phone back in his hand "There would barely be any room for me to turn around. I couldn't even invite mom over, because there would be no space. And I'm not even going to talk about game nights with all of you."

Jude chuckled awkwardly "Guess I should have set a filter to the apartment size."

"Yeah, you should have," I smirked, averting my attention back to my phone

"So, what's the minimum square feet you are looking at?" Jude peaked to my phone

"At least 269 square feet (25 m2). That's the minimum. Best case scenario - I would like to have 376 square feet (35 m2), then I would be able to invite everyone over and maybe, just maybe you all would have a place to sit. It also wouldn't feel like the four walls are closing in on me," I answered

But the apartment size was not the only thing to take into consideration. Cost – was I able to afford it. Rent plus the electricity/water/heat/recycle/maintenance etc bills. There was also the location of the place, how far from work and home. Does the place has a parking lot. Is there a mall, hospital, pharmacy, parks etc near by. What's the neighborhood like. And of course neighbors themselves. Can anyone from the street wander in the apartment building or are the outdoors with a code or card to only let the tenants in. In what condition is the apartment – does it need cosmetic repairs, how much furniture I will need to buy. Does the owner has any unpaid bills I should know about. There was a lot to think about and it was not as easy as I had at first thought.

Jude nodded, putting the numbers in the filter. I was busy staring down at my phone, when Jude announced, leaning off the car and putting his phone in his pants pocket "Our moms are here!"

Looking to my right, I saw Stef's black SUV pull up behind me with Stef, herself, sitting behind the wheel, but my mom was in the passenger seat. Even thought it was Sunday, they were both called in to work, because of the protest that was going to happen today by the City Hall. Police needed a lot of man power to control the crowd as thousands of people were planning on protesting. Now that the protest had ended, we could pick back up on our plan to go apartment hunting.

"Lucky number 9," Mom called as she stepped out of the car. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at the tall building in front of her taking in the sight

"We heard a couple complaining about some noisy neighbors as they walked out of the building," Jude informed my mom, while Stef walked around the car

Moms face dropped a little at those news, but she tried to keep positive "You don't know for sure, that those neighbors they talked about, are going to be on the same floor as the apartment that we're about to check out."

"Probably upstairs neighbors," Stef joked as she stepped up to the pavement

"Hey, don't jinx it!" I called back

"I'm so glad my days of living in an apartment building are long gone!" Stef commented as the four of us moved towards the entrance

"Amen to that!" Mom agreed as she smiled to her partner and dear friend

"So, why did the previous renter move out?" I heard mom ask the landlord as I was standing in the kitchen area, looking up to the ceiling.

It seemed that the upstairs neighbors had often flooded their place, because the ceiling looked bad. Covered in yellowish stains from where the water between floors had gathered. Right on top of me, it looked like the ceiling had been repaired, maybe because it had caved in a while ago. The repairs looked fresh. Stef had disappeared into the small bathroom, probably looking at the old pipes. Jude was looking at the window, that had bars on the outside. He had tried to open the window, but because of the bars, it barely opened.

"Oh, they were robbed. Couple of times actually," the landlord replied indifferently, causing all of us to look at him, Stef suddenly appeared out of the bedroom.

The landlord was a man in his mid 40's. Average height, but a thin looking guy. Bald head, one day stumble. Black framed glasses. He was wearing a checked, button up shirt and black jeans. By the look of his face, it felt as if he has seen it all and could not be affected by anything. Dealing and fixing up other people problems at this apartment building seemed to have drained all of his life, energy and happiness out of him. He had probably seen hundredth of people come and go.

"That's why there are the bars on the windows," The landlord pointed to the window that Jude was standing by "Not that the bars stopped the robbers on the 1C apartment. They took everything...even grabbed the old ladies cat."

"This apartment was robbed couple of times?" Mom moved her eyebrow up at the detail the man had given

"They got through the bars?" Stef blurt out as she shared a worried look with my mom

"Did you say they stole a cat?" Jude's mouth parted in surprise, he briefly glanced to me to see if I was as shocked by the news as he was, before returning his back to the man. To be honest, I was the most curious about the cat as well.

"It was a Sphinx cat," The landlord explained, slowly nodding his head, while looking at my brother "They probably sold it and got a good 1000$ for it. Maybe more, the lady in 1C took him to cat shows and all that crap. He had won couple of awards."

"If you ask me, it's an ugly cat breed," the man adjusted the glasses on his nose and continued despite the fact that neither one of us asked him to elaborate about it "Looked like a fucking rat. Almost kicked it once, when I was at the 1C apartment fixing a leaking pipe. The bastard sneaked up on me..."

"Okay..." I dragged slowly as I looked to my mom, with my eyes telling her that we should leave.

"Thank you for showing around, but we will be going now!" Mom shook his hand as the rest of us used that moment to get out quickly

"So much for this place," I said once we were out on the street by our cars

"So," mom clapped her hands "What's our next stop?"

"Let me check," I said taking my phone out and checking my email, where I had contacted couple of more people about their apartments "Clay avenue 35." I saw Stef putting the address in her phone to look it up on the map

"Alright, lets hit the road, then," Mom smiled and we all moved to our cars

"Can we stop for ice cream on the way?" Jude asked as he opened the doors to the passenger side

"Sure," I smiled back and heard Amy asking the same thing to Stef as she sat in the black SUV. Smirking to myself, I buckled up, Jude turned on the radio and we hit the road.