my cousin's best friend

chapter twenty-two

The sun woke me up almost immediately. I jumped out of bed, wanting to finish everything that I had started the previous day.

I packed away all of the photos that Toby had sent me over the months I was away. And over time, the collection had grown almost covering half of my wall.

Most of them were Toby and Tommy taking selfies, but some were just of Tommy.

Whether he was just standing awkwardly or sitting with Toby, I cherished every single one of them.

I grabbed a blue berry muffin and walked quickly back up the stairs, careful not to wake my father.

Within two hours of me waking up, everything in my room was packaged up, except for my bed. But that would come later.

Eventually my father woke up, and we started to pack everything up in the kitchen.

"So, how close are we going to be to Toby?" I asked, closing the box i was working on, labeling it fragile.

"Two blocks away from their house. The house was about to sell, but I got it just in time. I knew that you would want to be located close to him. Have you heard from him lately?" He responded with a question.

"We haven't talked in two months, but I've seen some of his YouTube videos. It was nice to hear his voice again," I said smiling at the memories we had made that summer before school started.

"Well, I'm sure that he'll be happy that you'll living near him again. But before we can move into our house. I need to have it repaired," My father stated, placing a few of the boxes on the floor.

"Is there something wrong with the house?" I asked.

"No, I just want the flooring changed. Its carpet at the moment, and I would like it hard wood instead," He simply replied.

"So this means?" I asked again.

"This means that you'll be staying at Toby's house for a few days. Once that's over, then you can move into the house," He replied, applying tape over the edges of the boxes.

"I don't know why this would be such deal that you would want to bring this up to me," I responded, a small smile appearing on my face.

"Well, I guess I thought you'd want to know what's happening. Since you are two years away from being an adult," He said smiling.

"Stop reminding me. I want to be a kid for the rest of my life. I don't want to deal with all the responsibilities that you have to deal with. Its yucky," I whined.

"Don't worry kido, you still have some time left," He said walking off into his room.

The rest of the day passed by relatively quick. But eventually it was time to leave.

As I stood outside of the house I had grown up in, I left all of the tragic memories that I had had here behind.

I was going to start a new life with new people and new opportunities.

The car ride there was almost as silent as the first one. And even though there weren't as many people in the airport as the first time, it still was nostalgic.

I boarded out flight and immediately, I put my headphones in. The first song was exactly what I needed to hear.

When you're young you don't think about
How good things have a bad side
You spend your time waiting around
For the fall not the goodbye
When you're naive and so green
It makes it hard to believe
How life works when you're older

Even the best of us get hurt sometimes
Could be from life or love or "I don't know why"
It's all out of our hands, nobody will ever understand
Don't blame yourself and don't ask why
That's the art of getting by
That's the art of getting by

It gets easy to become blind to
The good things when times are rough
But when there's nothing left to try and do
It's okay to throw your hands up
'Cause there's no use in getting burned
From the same lessons that you learned
So carry them with you and be wiser

Even the best of us get hurt sometimes
Could be from life or love or "I don't know why"
It's all out of our hands, nobody will ever understand
Don't blame yourself and don't ask why
That's the art of getting by
That's the art of getting by

No life ain't a game
There's nothing to win, and no way to cheat
We all walk through flames
All get burned from the heat

Even the best of us get hurt sometimes
Could be from life or love or "I don't know why"
It's all out of our hands, nobody will ever understand
Don't blame yourself and don't ask why

That's the art of getting by

That's the art of getting by

Eventually i fell asleep, and in no time at all, my father tapped my shoulder, quietly announcing that we had arrived in England.

Word Count~ 853