Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"Thorn in My Side"

The rest of the evening went better than I thought it would. By the end of dinner, I found I was actually having a good time. There would be times where that awkward silence would come around again, but we would eventually find something else to talk about. The point was...I was really starting to believe this would work out. In fact, we discussed doing some family counseling.

When Arjun and Ms. Harlow came to get me, I was in better spirits than I had been in before, though I had that wary side of me that wondered if my mother would disappear again. I couldn't...really trust her yet, could I? I told them about how the night went, and Ms. Harlow was somewhat hopeful. By the time we got home, however, I was falling back into my pessimism. I wanted to see more from my mother before I let myself feel hope again.

Luckily, it didn't take long. As the weeks went by, I saw her more than once. We'd go to lunch, or we'd get coffee. We actually did start getting therapy together. By the end of May - graduation time for my friends - I was talking to her more often.

Graduation came and went. I watched Arjun, Veronica, and Keto walk the stage, and I was able to watch Valerie via a livestream. It was bittersweet. While I was happy for them, I wished I could have been there for Valerie in person. I wish we could have all graduated together. Now they would be going out into the world, and I was here...with two more semesters of school to get through.

But I pulled myself together. I got the job at the mental health center and started saving money. I was able to enroll in the fall semester. I had to admit I was nervous to go back to school, but I was a little excited, too. I soon realized that just because my friends graduated before me, that didn't mean we couldn't work towards our dream of making video games. School would keep me busy, but on the side, I could make time for coding. Keto got to work on the animating, and Veronica on the story. Arjun helped out where he could. Though it was weird without Valerie there, we made it work.

And before I knew it...the one-year anniversary of the accident was in a few days. As it approached, I found myself growing reserved. Therapy was helping, but somehow, the memories of those days returned in full force. Veronica and Keto came down to spend the week with us, and that helped a little. But even though I tried not to let my thoughts distract me from work and school, two days before the anniversary, I found it hard to concentrate on the code I was working on for our game.

"Good news!" Veronica came sailing into my room, holding her phone up. "I think I found an apartment that would be good for us!"

I looked up from my computer. "Really?"

Veronica showed me a picture of an apartment, and started flipping through the slideshow. It was a little like our old one, which made a little wave of nostalgia wash over me. "What do you think?" she asked.

"If we could afford it, I like it," I said, a little too flatly.

"I'm applying to a new job that will pay more, so between all of us, we should be able to afford it. Especially since Arjun might be joining us!"

I blinked. "Arjun's going to move out with us?" I mean, I guess it wasn't that weird. He had been living with his mother so he didn't have to pay for living on a college campus. Plus, he wanted to help Ms. Harlow pay the bills and whatnot.

"He said he'd think about it," Veronica said, starting to type away on her phone again. "I've got to ask him what he thinks when he gets home from work."

I nodded before looking back at my computer. Speaking of Arjun, he had been gone all day, and I had a feeling he hadn't been at work all this time. Nathan had been relatively quiet over the last few months, and there for a minute I thought maybe he just gave up on Arjun. Now I wasn't too sure. And after all this time, Arjun STILL hadn't explained things to his mom.

"I'm going to show this to Ms. Harlow and see what she thinks," Veronica said, snapping me out of my thoughts. She left without any input from me.

I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about moving back into an apartment. It would be nice to be out on our own again, but still...

Aftera few more minutes of being unable to concentrate, I left my room to see what the others were doing. I found them all on the couch in the living room: Veronica and Ms. Harlow looking at apartments, and Keto playing Kingdom Hearts again...and I was pretty sure that was Arjun's save file.

"Do you like the apartment?" Ms. Harlow asked when I came into the room.

"It reminds me of our old one," I said flatly.

"That's what I said!" Keto agreed without tearing his eyes away from the TV. "I think we should go with something completely different."

"We'll have to get what we can afford, though," Veronica said, pouting slightly. "If Arjun joins us, maybe we could afford something a little bigger."

"Knowing Arjun, he'll probably just keep paying rent here even if he doesn't live here anymore," Keto replied.

Ms. Harlow sighed. "Well, I'll talk to him about it. He can't stay here forever if he doesn't want to, as much as I like having him around."

I smiled slightly. "Good luck with that." I started to come over to watch Keto play his game, but my phone started to ring, and when I took it out of my pocket Arjun's name was on the screen. "Speak of the devil."

I answered, and before I could even get out a "hello", Arjun said, "We need to talk."

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Listen to Bon Jovi's "Thorn in My Side"!

Peace✌️~ A.J.