Run Away With Me

Chapter 29 (Katherine)

1 year later

As many of you may have guessed, that was me who showed up at Jack's birthday party. Hard to believe it's only been a year. A lot has happened since then. Well, duh, it's been a year. I'll recap for you. 

Jojo is currently attending Queens College, studying to become a children's counselor. We're all very happy for him. His 19th birthday is coming up, and Davey finally agreed to let us get him a puppy. His lovely boo, Bennie, is positively lovely. We call them Buttons, seeing as their shirt always seems to be missing a button. We've met them a few times, and they're amazing. 

Albert has decided not to go to school. He's content to work at Medda's forever, and we support him. Medda's awesome, so I can't really blame him. He has, however, taken up dance classes in his spare time, and he is incredible. He came out as ace a few months ago, and of course we support him in this as well. 

Race, to all of our surprise, and yet to no one's surprise, is studying at Columbia University. A psychology major, specifically studying neuroscience and behavior. Him and Spot have moved out, now living just off campus. Their wedding is coming up in the spring, and we are all very excited. 

Speaking of, Spot has a full time job as a mechanic. He's also taking night classes at some local community college. No one really knows what he's studying. When we approached him on the subject, all he said was that he thought a degree would look good on a resume. We see those two at least once a week, seeing as they really don't live that far away. 

Crutchie also has decided to opt out of further schooling. He works at Medda's, who has been a saint, honestly. He also has decided to dabble in writing! Yeah, he wants to be a children's author. He's made Jack promise to illustrate for him, to which Jack happily agreed. He finally turned 18 a few months ago, so Jack's been a lot less protective of him.  

Davey is in his second year of school. Studying classic literature. He'll probably end up being a teacher somewhere. Which we all know he'd be excellent at. He still babies us all, even though some of us are older than him. Doubt that'll ever change though. He's not in a relationship as of now, but we all think he has his eye on someone. We have no proof, or even solid guesswork. We kinda just decided it. 

Medda's cafe is going strong. Seems to be that she's gotten more popular in the last year. She insists that we eat there at least once a week. She is, in fact, absolutely amazing. There is no denying it. 

Hannah married my dad not too long ago. We were all invited to the wedding, much to the surprise of some of my friends. I was very happy to see Hannah again, and she was very excited to meet my friends. Much to my surprise, Dad and Jack actually got along. Seems to me if they were to just listen to me, they would've hated each other for so long. 

Jack is still working for the newspaper. He sent in his application for The Times a couple days ago. He's very anxious about that, but we're doing our best to calm him down. He just turned 20, and we love to tease him about how old he is. He finally got the nerve to ask out a girl he's been crushing on since forever. She said yes, and they've been going out for a while now. 

Speaking of, I've been doing pretty well. Still in school. Still hoping to go into journalism. Never did get that job at the school cafeteria back, but I did get a job at that Chick-fil-A where Jack and I had our first unofficial date. Jack is wonderful, if not a little full of himself. But we'll see if I can't remedy that. 

So yeah. That's pretty much it. Kind of a crazy ride, yeah? But I'm happy with the end results. And I'd go through it all again to be where I am now. Of course, it's not perfect. But I'm not sure that I want it to be. There is a sort of joy in struggling. In having to fight for something. Kinda makes you wonder though. What would've happened had I not left? What if we'd never come to New York? 

I suppose I would've stayed in Kansas. Went to some college, only to inherit Dad's business someday. I certainly wouldn't be as close to him as I am now. I wouldn't be as close to the boys as I am now. And who knows where they would've ended up! 

But, in the end, we did go to New York. We came, we saw, we conquered. And our story's not over yet.