Moving On

Fourteen

FOURTEEN
S a n d r a

I was supposed to be studying with Austin for our long quiz in Foreign Languages tonight.

Guess what I'm doing?

a.) Ditching studying and Austin because I'm a cool kid.

b.) Going out with the girls to treat myself.

c.) On my way to Columbus to look after Dev because that's what I promised his mom.

Correct answer: C!

It's a good thing that my 4 to 6PM class for today, World Economy, was a free cut because our professor was sick or something.

It's Wednesday, four days since my meeting with Carly in the Applebee's. I wonder how she's faring. I hope she'll get better soon, not because I'm burdened by Dev. I genuinely want her to get better. I know she already has it hard enough as it is: being a mom at such a young age, not getting the chance to continue studying because she got pregnant... The list goes on and on and it's too disturbing to enumerate all of them since I used to hate her so strongly.

Yeah, that's right. I used to hate her.

Don't fucking ask me why I'm starting to soften up towards her, I don't know either. Maybe it's because that she's sick? No, it's far too complicated than that. I'm not going to dwell on it right now, because I don't want to make assumptions.

"What block are you going to again?" The cabbie asked me.

"I'm going to block..." I say as I open the piece of paper Carly handed to me before we parted ways that night that contains their address. "Three."

"We're almost there," the cabbie informed me.

Thank God. I wanted to get there as soon as possible because I also want to get back to Oxford as soon as possible.

To be honest, I feel hella bad that I ditched Austin. I mean, we were just starting to finally get along with each other and then I pull out this ditching stunt that's sure to get him pissed as heck.

Sorry, Austin, I thought. I didn't want to tell him about my predicament, of course. He'll probably ask a lot of questions after, and I don't want to answer them. I don't want my life to become some sort of Q&A portion all the fucking time. Like, I already know that my life sucks, no need to dwell on it.

"We're here," the cabbie announced. "That'll be forty dollars."

"Thanks," I say as I hand him the cash.

I was about to get out of the cab when he suddenly said, "Next time, honey, try taking the bus. Much cheaper than hailing a cab," he winked at me.

I actually laughed at his suggestion. "Um, why are you telling me this? That's like promoting other people's business."

"I'm a good person, ya know," he laughed too. "Plus, you're in college and you need to understand costing."

I like that man.

Now that that's over with, I turn around. I see this huge and beautiful house before me. I swear to God, I almost cried because I remember that day when Luke showed me an old and abandoned house and told me that he's going to fix it up somehow when we're older and we're going to start our own family there.

But now, I wasn't that girl.

I took a deep breath and tried to bottle up my emotions so tight that it hurts.

"You're doing this for their family, Sandra," I said to myself. "You're a good person. Don't live in the past."

Then I rang the doorbell. Carly told me that she got a babysitter too, but they aren't reliable so she still needed other people to look after Dev while she was gone.