Hello, Goodbye

Chapter 1

It is TUESDAY. I'm packing for my move to New York. I lean over to pick up my high school yearbook. I run my fingers along with the barely touched pages. All my memories don't mean shit anymore. I flip to the back of the book. I had not asked for a single signature. I throw the yearbook in the trash. I stumble over the half-dozen moving boxes to my iPod. I had been packing for days. I change the song and play with my hair in the mirror. I have bleach blond hair and big blue eyes. My face is round, small, and puffy. My freckles run across my nose and onto my cheeks.

There is a knock at the door. I run over my attire, sweatpants, and an overly sized Pink Floyd shirt. "Can I come in?" It's my mother. "I just want to have a little chit chat." It was never just a little chit chat.

I sigh, "Sure." My mother struts into the room wearing her pink high heels with skin-tight denim shorts. Looking 45 but feeling 20. I cringe at the thought then continue to box up my collection of Mary Shelley books.

She looks from box to box until I can see her eyes widen as she looks at the trash can, "You threw out the yearbook?" she asks, stunned. I shrug and continue packing.

She leaps over a box extending her arm into the trash can. She swipes the dust off the book and places it in a random box. "I don't think you should be traveling so far away from me," she pouts. "New York is so far away."

"I'm not a baby anymore," my voice cool, my expression completely annoyed. "I am doing this for myself. I'll be getting experience." I tape up the box agitated that the tape won't stick and she won't leave.

"But next thing you know you'll be coming home in the middle of the night with a bouncing baby boy!" she giggles with awe as if she wants me to be like her, a college drop-out. My mother had it set in her mind I would go to college and not university so I could stay close to her. I was all she had left beside her occasional boyfriends that seemed never to last long.

"Mom I'm not going to be like you," I murmur.

"Yes well, I hope you learn from my mistakes. I honestly don't see why you can't go to a local college around here! There are some very nice courses."

"No thank you -" I grab my phone to check the time."Besides, I saw the list of five courses they supply at the local college. Plus, I'm not even going to college, I'm going to university."

"I don't see the difference," she murmurs, her eyes watering.

"There is a big difference mom."

The phone rings from the kitchen and like that she is gone. It was probably Chuck. Chuck the truck driver as I would call him. He seems to be a real keeper. I continue to pack as the day passes by.

IT IS THREE IN THE MORNING as Becky and I begin to board the plane. My mother looks horrified. Becky's parents look relieved that she is leaving and starting a new life. Becky smiles at me. I smile back analyzing how beautiful she is. Her body is perfectly shaped in all the right places with just the right amount of fake tan on. She has bright green eyes, brown hair with highlighted ends, and is wearing her pink sunflower dress. She was someone who rarely looked anything less than gorgeous. I might have resented that if she wasn't my best friend since the second grade.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" Becky jumps into her seat and fastens the belt across her waist. I sit next to her giving one last glance out the plane window giving my farewell to what was my home for 18 years.

"Oh don't be second-guessing this!" Becky cries.

"I'm not. It's just I'll probably never be coming back," I say with a tinge of guilt.