The Boy Next Door

celebrate life

heyy guys!

im sorry i haven't been updating as much as usual, im with my family (i have a big family, there's 17 of us) in rhode island at this hotel and it's a lot of fun but im sharing a room with four other people and there hasn't been very much time to write between my toddler cousins and the ever so present drama and fighting because what's a family reunion without a big fight?! jkjk anyway, i know none of you cared about that, so i'll let you read the chapter now!

x -e♥︎

EBONY'S P.O.V. (BACK TO PRESENT TIME) October 1, 2016 9:30am

--if you don't know what's going on, this is continuing from 'stormy weather' and here's some quick catch up: last night (September 30, 2016) Ebony slept over at Caleb's house and this morning she woke up (October 1, 2016) And it is the one year anniversary of when Caleb's heart stopped working. BUT in this story, obviously he survived (AND EBONY HAS NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON BECAUSE CALEB NEVER TOLD HER) anyway, the whole family is remembering it and acting really loving toward Caleb and Ebony is confused.--

I don't know what's going on. We eat breakfast as we tell Katie what we did last night, but the way Annie and Katie are looking at Caleb and interacting with him is just really strange. They keep holding his hand and staring at him for a really long time. I'm positive something's up that nobody informed me about. Annie gets up to go to the bathroom and I follow her. I wait until she comes out and stop her.

"Annie, what's going on? I'm really confused." I say desperately.

Annie looks at her feet, then looks to make sure nobody's coming. She takes a deep breath and says, "a year ago, Caleb almost died."

"What?!" I say, my heart begins racing.

"Well, Caleb and I were in the river and I was asking him to push me but he seemed tired and..." Annie tells me everything. (A/n Annie just told her everything from the last chapter, 'Annie's memories') "...Hayley and I forced him to come out and play with us on the day we met you, and it was like a lightswitch. He became social and happy again, and wanted to be with you and wanted to have human relationships again. So that brings us to today, we're thankful for Caleb and thankful for everyone's good health." Annie finishes, I'm at a loss of words. I had no idea I made such an impact on their lives, and Caleb's life. I'm so touched, but at the same time alarmed and scared to hear why everybody was acting strange this morning. We hear footsteps coming toward the bathroom and then Caleb comes into view and sees Annie and I standing by the bathroom door.

"Oh hey... I was just making sure you didn't fall in the toilet or something. I didn't mean to interrupt anything-" I throw my arms around my perfect boyfriend. I couldn't help it. I love him so much and I'm so thankful he's here with us. "Woah," he says, embracing me in a big hug.

"Caleb, I love you," I say.

"I love you too..." He says.

"I told her," says Annie.

"Oh, um, Ebony. I'm sorry I-" He says.

"It's okay, I'm just happy you're here," I say. There are tears in my eyes, "I don't know what I'd do if I had never met you, if you had been gone." He's crying also.

"Neither do I, Eb."

"Do you still have it?" I ask.

"What, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?" He say as Annie goes back to the kitchen.

"Yeah," I say.

"Uh, yeah. It can't be cured. But it's under control. I have regular checkups and I'm on medication and I have this thing in my heart called a cardiac pacemaker. It like pumps my heart or something, I don't even know. But I know it's not a big deal." He says.

"It's a big deal to me! I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you! What if-"

"Don't think about what if's, Eb. We need to celebrate life, not worry. You've taught me that, and so much more." He says, taking my hand.

"Celebrate life?"

"Yes, celebrate life. Always," he says.

"Okay," I say, "I just love you so much and I would die if you..."

"I know, I know. I love you too. But that's not going to happen, we won't let it. Ever, okay?"

"Okay."

"So let's go celebrate life, bubs." We go to the living room where Billy, Katie, Annie, and Hayley are watching T.V. Caleb and I join them. It's still pouring rain outside. I wish we could go swimming or something outside. But no, we can't.

Mom, Dad, and Joey come over and we watch a few movies together, then we have lunch and play board games. By the afternoon, the storm is finally slowing down and then around 3:00, it stops completely. Caleb and I want to go swimming, but it's too cold. Annie and Hayley have gym, and we're invited to come watch them but we don't want to. We've been doing that a lot lately. Dad and Joey are going outside to work on a bedside table for Joey's room.

"Would you guys like to assist us in making the table for Joey?" Asks Dad. "We're doing it out of scratch, it will be a fun project."

"Yeah! You guys should do it with us!" Says Joey. I look at Caleb and he nods yes.

"Okay, we'd love to!" I say.

"I'm not much of a builder but, I can probably find some way to help. It sounds like fun," says Caleb.

"Don't worry, I can't nail two boards together and I always find A way to help Dad and Joey with their little projects," I say. He laughs. Suddenly, every phone in the room beeps. We all whip them out to see what it could possibly be. It's a weather warning for a earthquake. An earthquake?! We just had a storm!

"An earthquake may affect towns near you as aftermath of the hurricane we have just had," reads Billy.

"So do we need to stay inside or something?" Asks Hayley.

"No, I don't think so. We can still do what we were doing, they were just warning us." Says Katie.

"So we can still build the bedside table?" Asks Joey.

"Yes, I believe so." Says Dad, "is it okay with you, Katie and Billy?"

"Sure, you can still build it Caleb," says Billy.

"Awesome!" He says.

(sorry it ends kinda randomly, there will be more soon... im going home tmro so soon i'll be back to my normal schedule of chapters)