The Secret (Boston's Best 1)

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Maddie

"You're not allowed to go."

Brooke rolls her eyes and smiles at me, "Maddie, I love you, but I was meant to leave an hour ago. You can't stall me anymore."

"But New York is four hours away! What am I supposed to do if I don't have you down the hall or across the city to help me with an emergency or if I just have some gossip?"

"Well, I don't know if you've heard." She smiles, "But there's this trusty little invention called a call phone, and you can call and FaceTime and text on it."

I roll my eyes now, "Shut up, I'm emotional. Yous are all breaking my heart today. Literally ripping it out and stepping on it."

Aebhín puts a box in the boot of the car and leans back. "You're so dramatic. And that says a lot coming from me."

"But all three of you are leaving me today."

Penelope throws her arms around my shoulder, "Yeah, well you get to keep the best one so all is right in the world."

I turn and grin at Pen, "Oh, yes. How could I forget that I get to keep the one and only Penelope Isabella Martinez all to myself?"

"I don't even know." She shrugs and we all laugh.

I collapse on the ground and wallow in my silly self pity. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"I'm here, calm your tits." Evelyn says as they walk out of Brooke's building, carrying the last of the boxes.

"I shall miss you the most of all." I say and fall back on the ground with my hand on my forehead, "Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow."

"Oh my days, shut up." Aebhín laughs. "You'll see me and Ev in a month and you'll be sharing a room with me and you can bet your ass that you will be sick of us a week in. So, enjoy this peace and quiet."

"Like I said, calm your tits." Evelyn says as they hand me a coffee.

"You're my favourite." I whisper.

They raise an eyebrow, "Me or the coffee?"

"Why can't it be both?"

Ev laughs and sits on the edge of the car beside Aebhín, Penelope sits down beside me and Brooke has pulled a foldable chair out from somewhere.

"And," Brooke starts, "I know it will be harder for me to get up here and see all of you or for y'all to come down to me because we'll all be busy but we'll all text and call everyday and we'll visit for the holidays and summer break. It will work."

"It will work." Penelope repeats.

We all sit in silence for a second before Pen sniffles. "Oh, fuck you, Maddie. You've got my emotions all over the place now. ¡Maldita sea!"

She wipes at her tears, "I'm gonna miss you all so much."

I hug her, "Oh, Pen."

"I don't want to be an adult." She sobs.

"Welcome to the real world. It sucks." Aebhín starts.

"You're gonna love it." We all finish and laugh.

Quickly those laughs turn into tears and we all suddenly look insane. Five people about to move away from people and places they've known their whole lives, crying infront of one of the most expensive apartment complexes in Boston.

"Look at us though," Brooke smiles, "I'm going to the Fashion Institute of New York, you three are all off to MIT, and this ones going to Tufts and then Harvard. I mean, we're doing pretty good for ourselves if I do say so myself."

Brooke expresses how she really does have to get going and we all help her pack the rest of her things in her car and Pen gets in with her as she's going to New York with her for a few days to help her settle.

They leave and Evelyn runs to the toilet before they and Aebhín have to leave for the Young Scientist program.

I'm genuinely so proud of them both.

Aebhín turns to me and sighs, "O'Brien."

"Mulligan."

"We made it. And we finished it out together. Fourteen years together and I'm still not sick of you yet. Very surprising."

I shrug, "Maybe fifteen will be the cut off?"

"Yeah," She nods, "That's probably it."

"Well, you know what they say, mazel tov."

"B'karov etzlech."

I stare at her, "You'd think after this long I would've picked up on some of the Hebrew you and your family speak. But literally all I still know is mazel tov."

"Well, you know French so that cancels it out."

"So do you. And you've a photographic memory."

She grins, "Suppose I am pretty great."

I bump her shoulder, "Oh, shut up."

Evelyn runs out towards us, "Ready to go?"

Aebhín smiles, "Yep." The 'p' sound pops when she says it, "Let's go."

We all hug and cry a little more and they get in the car and I watch them drive away.

If you were to put me a year ago, hell, me only six months ago standing beside me right this second there wouldn't be much of a physical difference. But the mental difference would be there.

Because me a year ago would have just watched all of her friends already start moving on with their lives and she'd have broken down and not in a funny cute way, but like I probably would not have left my bed.

But me now, is upset to see them go but I'm also so proud of them and myself and what we've all accomplished that I have clear enough eyes to realise that we're all going to see each other soon enough anyway.

And it's funny because I wasn't ready for half the shit I've been through, but I survived anyway, and the irony of it all is that broken people aren't fragile, we just need a little longer time to put ourselves back together.