Luke

Chapter 29

                  

I was at a bus stop.

The past four months have been eventful for me. Things have gone kinda smoothly since Brielle broke up with me, but we saw each other in the hallways at school sometimes. It was kinda awkward, but it was better than having to confront her and pretend that I cared about her. I'm pretty sure she was shit-talking about me behind her back with her girlfriends, too. Not that I cared; I knew what she was probably saying wasn't true. Everything was her fault and she was a bitch. But that was over and long gone by now. I graduated—just barely—in May. Jay decorated my graduation cap with a bunch of her artwork and we went out for dinner. Then we got really high on her roof. It was a great night. I was finally free from everything, but not really, I suppose. Even though the hell-pit of school was over, I now had to face adult life. And it was awful.

I still didn't have a job by the time I graduated high school. I got all my cash from the gigs I played with Ryan and Zach and I was still living at home with Sam and Lilly. Sam kept pestering me to get out of the house and find a job somewhere, but everywhere I looked they wouldn't hire. Even grocery stores and stuff wouldn't hire me. So I gave up searching. I spent most of my time at home locked in my room, writing poems or small stories from time to time.

It was around late June when things started to change. I came home from going out into the city for a day, and there was a package on my bed. It was from Sam, addressed to me as an early birthday present. I scoffed, because my birthday wouldn't be for another 3 months, but I read the card anyway.

Sam had passive-aggressively wrote in the letter that he was done with my shit and wanted me to move out—although he didn't use those exact words. He explained he had a friend in the city that owned a music store that accepted to give me a job without an interview. It would just be a trial period, but if I did a good job, I would work there full time with a good pay. He had also mentioned that he was tired of me hanging around the house without helping out, so he used the money he had saved up from the jobs he worked to buy me a small apartment with the rent paid fully for 3 months. He said that he was saving the money to help me pay for college, but because I wasn't going to continue school, he wanted to use it for something different. I was shocked to read this, partially because I thought Sam didn't give a flying shit about me, and also because it was slowly dawning on me that I had a job in the city, away from this hell-hole of a home, and an apartment of my own. I looked down at my pillow and picked up the little cardboard box taped closed and opened it, revealing a set of keys, supposedly for the apartment.

Jay, Ryan, and Zach all pitched together to help me move out. We combined the money we had to rent out a tiny U-Haul, and we all loaded the thing with my shit. It wasn't really a lot; I didn't take my bedframe or anything really big, I just took my mattress, my music stuff, my clothes, and other small stuff strewn across my room.

Sam gave me a hug when I was about to leave and said good-riddance, patting me on the shoulder and saying he would check in on me once and a while. I unwillingly said thanks for everything and got in the U-Haul, watching through the side-view mirror as Sam and Lilly waved bye to me. Jay sat in the front of the truck with me while Ryan and Zach drove behind me into the city.

Moving in was pretty simple. The apartment was super small; it was a studio with only a couple rooms and a tiny bathroom. That was fine, I guess. I didn't need a lot to survive off of. Jay and I carried up boxes of shit while Ryan and Zach carried up the heavy stuff. They were strong.

Ryan and Zach left later that day and Jay stayed with me for the night. We sat on the mattress on my floor and chain-smoked cigarettes for a while as I was daydreaming and bitch-talking about my new life in the city and how I would talk with her every day while she was at school. But something seemed off.