Something Beautiful

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Song of the chapter: ♪
Fourth of July by Fall Out Boy

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As I looked back at my childhood home in Kamloops, British Columbia, I tried to hold back the tears that threatened to spring to my eyes.

I was finally moving to Vancouver to hopefully fulfil my dream of becoming an artist.

I was eighteen, just graduated a week before and had my birthday three weeks before, and now I was finally going into the big city to live life on my own. Saying I wasn't excited would be lying.

A girl I knew from a summer camp I went to when I was thirteen, Ashley Rengard, had called me a couple months back just to see how I was doing. I told her I was looking for a place to stay in Vancouver, and she offered to let me stay at her parent's house. They had a renovated basement suite that was going to waste. They kept trying to rent it out but they were sceptical of all the people that were interested. I knew her parents quite well so I accepted the offer right away, and everything moved quickly along from there.

My father and I moved all my belongings into the basement suite two days ago so all I needed to bring today was my clothes and my maine coon, Corona. He was the typical Maine coon, dark pattern and he was a big cat with thumbs on his paws. He was my pride and joy, the one of the only pets I ever had and quite possibly the only other pet I was gonna have. Pets were a lot of work. The animal I had before him was a beta fish and I killed that thing within 48 hours of having it because I didn't feed it. Sad, but true. The only reason Corona was still alive was because A. He was a cat and that's hard to miss especially with all the cat hair that coated absolutely everything I own, and B. he made it damn clear when he was hungry, meowing up the ying-yang until he had a bowl of cat food in front of his face.

Originally, I had planned to leave Corona with my parents but Ashley's parents already had two cats and another cat wouldn't be a problem for them. I was actually quite pleased about that because leaving Corona behind would be just about unbearable.

"I'm so sad to see you go, honey. I thought you'd at least stay for the summer." My mother said as she wiped under her eyes with a tissue. She was extremely emotional about anything that was even remotely sad.

My parents and I were standing on our large front porch, which my father and I had painted light blue a couple of years ago. The paint was already chipping off, revealing the ugly grey paint beneath it.

The house itself had to be at least one hundred years old, which is why my parents bought it so quickly twenty-seven years ago. My mother said it reminded her of her childhood home, of course before it burned to the ground due to the wood stove somebody had left on. I wouldn't doubt it if this house burned down soon too, with all the electrical issues it had. The porch was the only thing that looked at least kind of modern.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but I want to settle in before I have to go to school in the fall. I don't want to move there and have to go to school right away." I kissed her cheek lightly.

"Do you want any Ikea bags for anything?" she asked backing up one step, as if ready to go in the house to grab some.

I rolled my eyes, "No, what would I need one of those for?"

"Uh, Ikea bags can be used for anything, honey. Like if you're going to the beach or you can use one as a laundry bag. Do you want any?"

Damn, new trend, walking around with an Ikea bag at the beach. Not. "No, mom, thank you but I think I'm okay." I gave her another hug and she clung to me tightly for a few seconds before I turned to my dad to give him a hug.