Daddy Issues

90 - I'll miss you

5 months later
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'No... no, you can't go. I'll miss you too much.'

'I'll miss you too, Mel.'

We're both crying when we jump into each other's arms again. Dan and Luke are giving each other a look over by the truck, probably because they've been watching this display for about ten minutes now. But we ignore them. This is one of those pivotal moments and those moments require time.

I'm leaving. No, I'm saying that wrong. We're leaving. The last of Dan's stuff has been packed up on the truck we hired for the move and we're about to drive off to our new apartment.

It's only 20 minutes from the Uni where I'm starting medical engineering in a few short weeks. I'm so nervous. But excited. And I never would have dared to dream that Dan would want to come with me. Until he offered.

I managed to get the funding together to start Uni this year. I will be going into crippling depth from the student loans I'll have to take but I'm hoping I'll be able to make a good career out of these studies so I'll eventually be able to pay them off. And who knows, maybe it won't be a problem. Because Dan's on his way to become the biggest author in the country so he'll be rich enough to cover them.

Okay, we don't know that yet. But he did send his book out to several publishers a couple of months ago and one of them actually responded that they want to publish it! So now he's working on it with an editor and everything, getting it ready for publication. It's like legit.

I was so excited when he told me. And he told me it was all because of me because he never would have dared if I hadn't pushed him to send it out. I told him I'll happily let him dedicate the book to me unless, of course, it turns out to be a flop. Which it won't, because it's amazing.

Then a couple of days later he sat me down all official to tell me about the plan he'd come up with. I'd been living with him for a while at that point, ever since that crazy day where my mother dumped me in front of my father's house. And it had been going great. Those months together had been some of the happiest months of my life. We were both nervous about what would happen when I'd move away to start Uni. We knew we'd miss each other so much. So then he asked how I'd feel if he came with me. The advance he'd gotten for the book along with his savings would be enough to last us for a while. And he wanted to quit his job anyway to work on his book full-time. I practically jumped him in excitement before he could start his counterarguments about how he didn't want to hold me back from enjoying student life and everything.

I wanted nothing more than to have him with me, but I'd been afraid to ask him. So, of course I said yes. Everything's been happening fast from that point. And now we're on our way to start a new chapter in the cute little apartment we found.

There isn't much that I'm sad to leave behind. I actually did get my job back when Dan and Mel testified on my behalf, so I've managed to earn some more money these past few months. I'll miss Joey and Chloe, but I'm too excited to start my new studies to be too sad about leaving the job behind.

Then there's my mother. I haven't seen her again and I haven't missed her. I'd be lying if I said I don't still feel sad about everything sometimes. I still wish that things could have been different. That I could have had parents that cared about me and that we wouldn't have hurt each other so much all the time. But the past can't be changed and I've felt so much lighter since she's been out of my life. I've only been back to the house once to pick up some of my stuff. A courtesy I was only granted because Mel's mom pretty much harassed her into it. It was strange to say goodbye to that house that I lived in for so long, but never felt at home at. Shutting the door behind me for the last time felt kind of freeing.