✧ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 ✧

Goodbye (Chapter 4)

February 17, 2004

"Bill."
"Tell me."

"Lor, we're going to LA." Gustav said without looking at neither of us.
"Bill? Is this true?" I can't even look at her right now. I always see her with a broken heart, now, I'm gonna be the one to cause that.

"Yes. It's true, lor.. I'm sorry, we were gonna start a band! And -- " she cut me off with her hugging me tightly.
"I'm not mad, bill. I'm proud of you."
She said as she released from the hug, smiling at me. She was always thinking about others, I admire her for that.

"We're gonna live there, Laurie. Forever." Tom said behind us, nearly whispering because I know for sure that he was disappointed because lor was his best friend too.

"That's fine.. but hey! I'll try to visit." I can see her tearing up and still not breaking her smile. "I love you, lor."
"Love you, too billy!" The five of us started a group hug and then there was georg, who almost cried, I always knew he had a soft spot for lor! We all do.

Laurie broke the hug and started sniffing. I felt bad and wiped her tears. Now, she was looking at me, but.. the look she gave was different.
"So, when are you guys.. leaving?"

She's so beautiful even if she was crying. "Tomorrow, actually." Georg was smiling at Laurie, sadly. "Oh! That's surprising. I thought you guys were gonna leave in a week."

"We could've told you sooner, Laurie. I'm sorry, the three of us insisted on telling you much earlier but bill couldn't do it because he told us he doesn't wanna see you get... Hurt."

Laurie looked at tom and quickly back at me. "Bill... I'm fine! Just disappointed, that's all." Laurie smiled touching my arm and reassuring me that she wasn't mad or heartbroken, but I know for a fact that she is.

"But I don't wanna see you get disappointed either, lor."
"I didn't wanna feel that either. But it's life, bill. We gotta expect that it's not perfect all the time." She still hasn't broken her smile and it kills me that she has to fake it just for us to be happy.

"I promise. I'll come back." Tom cleared his throat behind me, almost telling me something. "I mean -- we'll come back." I smiled and looked at her face. Beautiful as ever.

"I'll take that promise. And if you can't come back.. just know that I'll come for you, but I'm not going back to Germany." "Why not?" "I wanna stay in LA if it's possible. But only if I graduated college!"

"Of course! I'll keep in contact with you, lor." Now it was the three of them that cleared their throat sarcastically which caused lor to laugh.

"I mean, again, that we'll contact you."
"Alright! You guys better!" She said and looked behind me to see tom, georg, and gustav.

"We promise." The three of them said in unison.

"You'll come back, right, billy?"
"And you'll visit, right, lor?"
We both laughed totally forgetting who was behind me. Like, it's just the two of us in the world.

"Alright, it's our last night here! We should make the most of it." Gustav said nearly shouting and causing us four to look at him. "You guys are sleeping over?" Oh! Did we forgot to tell her? "Yeah! Oh shit, we forgot to tell you, didn't we."

"Yeah." I groaned in frustration while looking at my 'innocent' brother. "I told you to tell her while you were on the phone with her!"

"Hey! I forgot. See, there was this chick with a huge rack and then --"
Tom started explaining his side of the story which made no complete sense.

"Alright alright, I don't even wanna hear it, tom!" Laurie laughed at him and we all started joining. God! She's so beautiful no matter what expression she does to her face. I feel like a chicken because I can't even say it to her.