Euphoria

House

The next day was spent in bed, skipping your scheduled classes since you couldn't get yourself out of bed and didn't have anything that important in them. You luckily had enough strength to email your teachers why you weren't there, and Hitoshi did the same to stay with you. Since it was Friday, you would also have the weekend to feel well enough to work on school before Monday. The school took mental health really seriously, most of your teachers wished you the best.

Even though the initial shock and sorrow of losing your parents faded slightly by the start of the next week, it was easily brought back every time one of your friends wished their condolences. Hitoshi had told Sero, since they asked why Hitoshi wasn't in their 'intro to film development' lecture. They then accidentally told the whole group when explaining they hadn't seen Hitoshi that day.

However, even more effective in ruining the progress of your coping, was the next call you had gotten from your grandfather. Which informed you that the funeral would be next Saturday. Not only that, he also reminded you that you would have to make a decision on what to do with their house within the next week too.

Trying to figure everything out in such a short time frame was a hell you couldn't have ever imagined. You called your grandpa about what to do with their stuff in the house. Put it on the market, though you couldn't see how it had much appeal to buyers. Trying to figure out where to put the belongings you would keep. It was too much.

Since you would only be able to get to your home town over a long weekend, most of the work to clean out their stuff was physically guided by your Grandpa and finished by professionals. You were on call with him many times to tell them what to do but it wasn't the same as actually being present in the moment. There was nothing of much value to you there, so a lot of it was donated and thrown away. The only real direction you gave him on things, was to save photos and anything he would think of being sentimental. Other than that, he had free will to do what he wished.

—

The drive to your old house was uneventful and unnervingly quiet, even though Hitoshi was there with you. When it came to arriving at the newly up for sale home, you could see that the realtors spruced it up as much as they could with your budget and profit goal. As you knocked on the door, a friendly face that was noticeably filled with grief, answered.

"Hey Grandpa." He hugged you and welcomed you in, an odd turn of events since you lived in that house for most of your life. It was small, but less ragged and more empty than the last time you saw it. The only thing you could notice, was was a medium size box where there once had been beat up furnishings that made a makeshift living room. Still open on top, you could see it was filled with picture frames, scrapbooks and some other knickknacks. Some you recognized, some you did not.

"Hello my child." He finished greeting you finally. "And you must be Hitoshi, it is kind of you to help her with this. The box has all the items I thought you would like to keep." He shook Hitoshi's hand and after that, grabbed some packing tape. "If you want you can close it up so nothing spills. I wasn't sure if you want to go through it now or later."

"Thank you, I think I will just wait 'til after the service to go through it. When I'm in the comforts of my own room." You responded as you grabbed the tape from his hand and closed the box. Hitoshi took it upon himself to pack it in the car.

"The good news is that the house has only been on the market for two days and already has an interest in it. Some businessman wants it and the rest of the property gutted to build as many cookie cutters as they can. But that means you can get good money for it, at least enough to help get you through your second year at school."

He had to bring it up, though you wanted to forget. Of course he agreed to pay the rest of your expenses on your first year at UA, but that was all he agreed to. He wasn't made of money. Had helped save for a college fund, which was what's currently being used, but once that wore off, it was up to you to figure it out.

The plan was to get a job the summer after your first year, so as the money ran out into the second, you would have been saving up your own instead. However, with there being be a large sum coming into your life, you could focus on your art a little longer without a random part time distracting you.

Even though school only went three years, third years had to live off campus, because there was not enough room in the dorms for everyone. Unless the house happened to sell for the asking price and your parents' happened to have a secret extra savings they had left you, tuition would be way too expensive to live in the dorms second year. So you had to be self-sufficient enough by then to rent an apartment or buy a house, because it was cheaper than dorming at that point.

That is why it was so important to get that full ride next year from the contest. Or else it may be time to kiss your school goodbye.

You'd gone down that rabbit hole in your head, not knowing at first if you could get out. However, when you snapped out of it, you smiled at your grandfather softly. It was not his job to worry about how you would use the money anyways, because any angle you thought about it, you ended up running out too soon.

—

The service was as nice as it could have been while witnessing the two people who raised you being buried into the ground. And though you were in disbelief about everything happening, you couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the fact that the money paying for this was from their own belongings and bank accounts.

You really had no extra money of your own and since their wills stated everything went to you, it really just went back to them. The little money they had was paying for every inch of the funeral. When you thought too hard about it, it only became more messed up.

That daze fell into a new one as your socialization skills came into play. People you did and didn't recognize kept saying how sorry they were, and how much they would be missed, and all that other bullshit.

You knew it was bullshit, because even your own grandfather knew they weren't high and mighty or good. They obviously didn't know them that well if they said that your parents were nice people. That was what you got from everyone wishing their condolences.

You almost got to a tipping point where you couldn't take it anymore, but held yourself together.

Before you knew it, you were back at the dorm by Monday afternoon. The house and property was sold to the first inquisitor for the first price they shot out of their ass. You didn't care if it was a bad deal anymore, it was enough to give you time to figure out how to pay for the rest of your years at UA. Even if you did get financial aid and the scholarship, it would only just be enough to cover it all.

That though, was basically the equivalent of trying to find a needle in a haystack, not impossible per se, but pretty fucking hard.