Day 15: Write a scene taking place in an (almost) empty room.
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How do you say goodbye to the room you've spent fifteen years living in?
Spencer had no idea. He looked around. For the first time, the wood-panelled walls were blank, the gray carpet was completely clean, and his blinds weren't closed. The only things left in the room were two boxes filled with his stuff which he'd been carrying out before he was overcome with a sudden wave of nostalgia. The room didn't hold any particularly special moments. It was just a huge part of how he's lived his entire life.
As far as he remembered, he'd always woken up there, from infancy to puberty, and he had the pictures to prove it. It was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning. He played all his video games there, and listened to his music which his parents called "racket." He had posters of all his favorite bands and movies mounted on the walls. He had his desk where he always worked at. He had his clothes, his drawers and his privacy most especially. It had only then occured to him that waking up and spending his time at a new place would be...weird.
How do you exactly go from having something your entire life to not being able to come back to it forever?
Wouldn't this little change tranform everything else he knew? With a new room came a new house, a new neighborhood and a whole new school. From this day onward, his life was going to be different. He was going to have to change everything about his routine and lifestyle. That's what moving somewhere else meant, right?
"I hope you're not planning on forgetting about me." A sweet voice came from behind him.
He turned around and locked eyes with his childhood friend, Carol. She smiled widely and skipped over to stand beside him, her blonde curls bouncing as she did so.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Spencer asked, a little surprised. "I thought your Mom was making you help out at the store?"
"I asked my sister to cover for me for fifteen minutes," she answered. "In return, I have to cover for her tonight when she sneaks out with her boyfriend."
"Tommy?"
"No, she has a new one."
"Oh. Do you like him?" He chuckled.
"I don't like any of the guys she picks." Carol sighed. "They're obviously jerks."
Spencer could do nothing but laugh.
"I hope you have fun out there," Carol said, changing the subject all of a sudden. She looked up at Spencer with her big blue eyes. "California's a big place. Lots of things to do, places to go. You should have a real good time."
"Yeah, I guess I should." Spencer sighed. He didn't know how else to respond; he hadn't really thought about that.
"I bet you'll make a bunch of new friends," said Carol. Her voice cracked a little as she said it. She looked down. "And you'll...you'll..."
"Hey, stop it," Spencer cut her off before she could start crying. "I could go all around the world and I still wouldn't find another Carol."
"Really?" she squeaked.
"Really."
She smiled.
"And it's not like we're never going to see each other again," he continued. "We'll come visit, and there's always Facebook."
"You're right, of course." She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I guess I'm just being silly."
"You've always been silly."
They stood there in silence for a while, and Spencer realized this was the first time she'd ever been in his room. He wondered if she would've liked it in all its cluttered glory. He looked at her. She kept her eyes on the window. He slowly took her hand and looked around the room.
That was the last thing he ever did in there, and even though he heard her breath inexplicably hitch when he did it, he was glad about it anyway.
