Misbegotten

Sixteen

"I was thinking I'd move out."

I was in my room packing up some things for Loren's and Chelsea had popped in because she was bored. She was currently lying on my bed staring at her phone so I don't know why she came in her in the first place because she would have been doing the exact same thing in her own room. However, when I spoke she turned her head slowly and looked at me.

"You mean like permanently?"

"Yeah, I mean I can't stay at Loren's forever, and well I think getting out of this place would help me, you know, move on," I explained as I folded a few shirts before placing them in a suitcase. We had been back for three days and I had unpacked my suitcase only to begin re-packing it again. I was going to go to Loren's at the beginning of next week and staying with her for the rest of the summer, and while I knew I was incredibly welcome at her house, it wouldn't work forever and I didn't want to have to come back here.

"That makes sense I guess," she said after a while in a tone I couldn't quite distinguish. I felt there was something else she wanted to say, but when she didn't say anything I walked over to the bed and sat down next to her, leaning against the wall.

"What else?" I asked quietly.

She sighed heavily before sitting up and turning to look at me.

"It's just that I think I'm going to try and distance myself from Thalia, and I don't' know, I won't really have any friends if I do that." I raised an eyebrow waiting to see what she was implying. She rolled her eyes at me before continuing, "I suppose I just hoped you be around to I dunno, hang out, I guess."

"Hang out?" I almost laughed. Two weeks ago the idea that Chelsea would want to hang out with me would've been the most absurd thing I'd ever heard of. We'd broken down a lot of walls the past week and a bit. I was happy about it actually, never would I have imagined that I'd be glad we weren't glaring each other down and avoiding each other.

"I'll be round, I don't want to go far I think, I still want to be able to work at the café, I just don't think I can stay here anymore," I told her. "I think it'll be better for everyone."

She smiled but said nothing. I was glad I didn't really want to go into it about dad and Florence. It was a problem I still hadn't addressed. Dad had gone back to work and I had hardly run into Florence except at dinner, but we didn't speak to one another, in fact we both pretended the other didn't exist.

"There's an apartment block about ten minutes away, more towards the beach, you should look around there, it's close enough to the café that you could still walk," Chelsea suggested after a while.

"Yeah, hopefully I can find a cheap one, but I have some savings so I should be able to find something," I nodded.

"You're right, I think it will be good for you," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, your own space, you can walk outside your bedroom without worrying about running into my mum and you'd be in control of your life."

"It's been a long time since I've done that," I sighed. "Been in control, I mean."

"Well then, it sounds like it's about time you were."

*

"Holy shit." Loren's mouth hung open as I finished my story. She had laughed and told me I was a lying bitch when I said Chelsea and I were okay now. She still doesn't believe me but I promised I'd prove it to her next time we saw Chelsea. Then I told her about Declan and her jaw hit the ground and she still had hardly recovered.

"Well that's no fair," she sighed. "You get a cool holiday romance while I've been working everyday for the past two weeks. Thanks so much for including me Sof."