That's Life, Bud

the decision has been made

Questions were flying at me all day by Jet and Emma as I explained the offer Jasper had given me. Mostly just 'what's and 'when's and 'why's. I couldn't tell if they were furious or sad or both. Probably both.

The rest of the day was dreadful. They kept bombarding me with question during passing periods and classes. They even texted me a few times during science. They even made a group chat and everything with just us three.

Finally, my last class was over and I got to go back to my homeroom and relax. Mr. Aniter was back, but he didn't speak much anymore. He lets us do whatever we want and just kind of stands there. We had thirty minutes until we were dismissed, which was usually spent doing homework, but now was time for Emma to ask more questions for her and Jet, Jet not being in our same homeroom.

I sat slumped in my desk, staring off into space, when Emma walked over and sat at the empty desk next to me.

"You promise you aren't just messing with us?" she asked, hoping that I would exclaim that it was all just a joke and that I was just messing with them.

I just looked at her with a defeated face. That gave her the answer.

She shook her head sadly.

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Just you and Jet."

"When did you decide that you wanted to move?"

"About 4 hours ago."

"Is . . . is it ok if we tell people?"

I thought for a moment before saying, "Sure, go ahead."

"Tell people what?" Harper asked, walking in from her last hour and joining the conversation. This was the first time she has spoken to me today.

"Carter is moving to New York City with Jasper sometime next week," Emma choked out, emotions almost overcoming her words.

All the color drained from Harper already pale face. "No, you can't move! This needs to be a joke! Who is going to give me advice about my whole stupid love triangle?!" she exclaimed, worriedly.

My eyebrows scrunched together. "The fact that you're sad that I'm moving because I gave you advice for your two boyfriends and not because we used to be friends really pisses me off," I stated. Harper looked at me with a surprised expression.

"Carter, as a matter of fact, what is going on right now with my love life is actually really important to me-" she angrily started, but I cut her off.

"And it has taken over your life. Austin and Patrick shouldn't be your biggest priority right now, but go ahead and do whatever you want. It's your life; you can chose how you want to waste it," I stated firmly.

Harper was speechless. Her mouth moved but no words came out. Eventually, she just gave up and stomped off to her desk.

Silence.

"Thank you for being the one to finally tell her that," Emma said with a light chuckle.

"No problem. It's not like I have anything to lose," I said with a small smile.

We looked at each other for a while, smile, appreciating each other's presence. We always loved the little things in life that made things easier. We both like old cars and the smell of coffee and being able to sleep while someone else in the room got ready in the morning. But right now, the thing that we liked was being with each other before I had to leave (no homo).

"I'm gonna go ask Jet a question about our math homework, I'll be right back," Emma told me after the peaceful silence. I nodded and she hoped off the desk she was sitting on and walked out the room.