Thirteen days. Thirteen days until my 18th birthday. Thirteen days until I am finally free, a bird flying away from its mother's nest. Thirteen days until we can’t be separated anymore…
“Are you okay, Lil? You seem kind of down,” said my best friend, Kelly.
I break my blank stare and look up at her, all of her long brown hair resting over her right shoulder. “Oh, yeah, sorry I’m fine. All good,” I say with a smile. “It’s just… Life has been hard lately, you know? I mean, I know I’ve told you everything that’s happened, it’s just that I can only take so much of it.”
Kelly twists the cap on the nail polish closed, sets it down, moves next to me, and pushes her hair back.
“I know. But you know what? Things will get better. As soon as you turn 18, you’re moving in with me and we’re going to have a blast. You won’t have to deal with your dad anymore and you’re going to be okay. I promise.” I sigh and nod my head. Kelly is two years older than me and for a while we have been planning on moving in together. We decided that we are going to split the cost of the bills every month. I mean, it makes sense, right? There are two of us living in the apartment, so two of us should be paying our part of the rent. It's not fair for me to just come in and live there ungratefully. Kel and I argued about this for a while, how she doesn't want me to be paying because it's her place, but I stood my ground and told her I won't live there unless she lets me pay. She finally gave in, and everything is okay now.
My phone lights up and vibrates as I get a text. It’s from Tyler.
“13 days, cutiepie. I love you.” A huge grin spreads across my face as I read the text and Kelly smiles, too.
“Ooh! Mr. Lover Boy! What did he saaaay?!”
“Just 13 days, Kel. Every day for the past month he’s been sending me a countdown of how many days until I’m 18… And how many days until he comes home, finally. Lately he and his roommate have been at each other’s necks and he just wants to get out of there as soon as possible. He misses home a lot, but I think that’s just a regular college thing, especially when you are so far away from home.”
“And away from the love of your life,” Kelly adds, smiling and elbowing me. I giggle and nod my head. Her saying that made me a little nervous. I don’t want to jinx whatever Tyler and I have because it’s special. No guy has ever treated me with such respect.
I open my phone to reply to Tyler.
“I love you too. And yes, 13 days. What are you doing texting me right now? Shouldn’t you be in class?” I respond. It’s 2:17 in the afternoon. He should be in Psych right now. He’s not supposed to get out until 3:45. I wonder if he skipped class.
“I’m sorry, Lily. I gotta go. Dave and I have a movie date in an hour and I must get home to get ready! But I will see you tonight. 8 o’clock sharp, okay? Bye, girlie!” She walks out of my front door, gets in her car, and pulls out of the driveway. I stand at the front door and watch her drive away until I can’t see her anymore, which isn’t very long.
I turn around and start to walk away. I’m home alone tonight because my dad has to work late. Ever since Mom died, he’s had to take on as many extra hours as he can to keep food on the table for the family, or at least whatever is left of it. Jacob is out with friends tonight, probably getting drunk, again, and Adam is spending the night at a friend’s house. A night with the whole family gone would usually be a night my sister and I would do something…
My phone vibrates again and I slide it open to see what Tyler said.
“Class was cancelled today. I just woke up because I finally got the chance to take a nap after Chemistry. But exams are coming up, so I should probably get to studying…” I sigh. Well, at least he didn’t skip. I’d love to take this chance to talk to him, but he’s so nervous about exams. So I guess I’ll just tell him to text me later.
