Melted

Chapter 9

That night, I slept at Gen's house on the floor. All that was left in her room was an air mattress and a few clothes in her closet. She was all ready to move out. Her garage was filled to the ceiling with boxes. This was serious. She was really leaving.

Gen's floor was uncomfortable, to say the least. The carpet was itchy, the floor was hard, and it smelled like cat. It didn't make that much of an impact, though; we hardly slept that night. At first, we ignored the lack of rest. Then, we started talking. We both knew that the idea of losing our best friend was keeping us up.

"How long did you know?" I whispered somewhere around 12:30 am. I turned to look at Gen, who was staring at the ceiling. She had to know that whatever she said wouldn't change anything. I couldn't get mad at her from keeping it a secret; I would've done the same thing. Besides, it wasn't worth it to fight for our last few days together.

"Last Saturday," she responded softly. The day I met Peter. No wonder she was so upset about me blowing her off. I couldn't imagine how awful I might have seemed to her. It was a week of me practically ignoring her to hang out with a new friend when she knew we'd never see each other again.

"I'm sorry for everything I did. If I had known-" I started to apologize but Gen cut me off.

"I know. I should've told you. It's not your fault. I just thought that maybe it would be easier on both of us if I pretended I wasn't moving. But I am moving. I can't ignore that anymore," Gen said. We were quiet for a while. I wanted to talk. I wanted to talk about anything and laugh with Genevieve again, but neither of us had the strength.

"Let's go to sleep," I suggested, "We'll go to the pier later and get some ice cream." Gen didn't say anything, but she rolled over and covered her head with her blanket. That was an awful night.

When I woke up, Gen was already out of her room. The smell of waffles filled her room. Who could resist that? I checked my phone, only to see that Peter had texted. I didn't have time for him. Not when I was about to lose my best friend in the world.

Where did you go yesterday? And do you want to do something today? Peter had texted. I ignored it and went downstairs. I'd call him later while Gen was in the bathroom or something. There was no way I was going to communicate with him around Gen.

I trotted down the stairs and into Gen's kitchen. It would be the last time I saw those stairs. It was stupid for me to get upset over stairs, but they weren't just stairs. They were part of history. Part of our friendship. Okay, maybe that's a little bit of a stretch. They were just stairs, but they reminded me of Gen.

Dr. Dre was sitting on the table, eyeing the stack of waffles. I couldn't blame him. Gen's mom made the best waffles I've ever tasted. I don't even like waffles, but I'd kill for one of hers. My heart sank, remembering it would be the last time I had those waffles. I had to stop thinking like that, but it was difficult. How could I be optimistic when everything was so negative?

I scratched behind Dr. Dre's ears and sat down at the table, helping myself to a waffle. He purred softly and nuzzled his head against my arm. Other than Gen, I'd miss him the most. He was the only cat I actually enjoyed. I was more of a dog person, but no one could dislike Dr. Dre. He was fat, and walked funny, and chased squirrels, and sometimes if you scratched him right, he would look like he was dancing. Gen had him since she was four. He was the oldest cat I've ever know. He's been hit by a car three times, fallen from eleven trees, and almost drowned more times than I could count. Poor Dr. Dre probably didn't even know he was moving.

"What do you wanna do today?" Gen asked casually as I inhaled my waffle and started on a second.

"Anything with you," I replied with my mouth full. She laughed and went upstairs to get dressed. I had to call Peter.