33 Days To Live (Under Revision)

42

After a couple more minutes of shedding tears Gene promised me that she'd keep my secret the best she could and we said goodbye.

As expected my parents and sister got nosy about the shouting but I reassured them it was nothing to be worried about. I couldn't tell if they believed me or not but it was dropped in the madness of getting last minute things ready for New York.

Soon, about half an hour after Gene left we were on the road to Lucy's house and I was trying to contain my excitement that Oscar had decided to let her go.

I think this trip to New York was exactly what we both needed after last night. Just a little bit of time to escape, get over our anger towards Jamie, then move on.

As I fidgeted around in the backseat of the car while my mom messed with the radio to find my dads favorite station, I began to think back on the list. It was kind of my guideline of things to do for Lucy to help her out.

This weekend my goal was to show her by Rachel's example how the future could be exciting, even if the present was terrible and gloomy. I wasn't quite sure how I'd do that but I intended on figuring it out.

When we pulled up to Lucy's house I felt my heartbeat accelerate as I undid my seat belt.

"I'll go get her," I said and before anyone could argue I climbed out of the car and made my way up to the front door. No sneaking in through her window this time, I was going to be polite this time and knock on the door.

A moment later a sleepy looking Oscar opened the door and he smiled a little at me.

"Hey Ben, are you guys here to pick up Lucy?" He asked.

"Yes sir, is she ready?" I asked, stuffing my hands in my pocket.

"Almost, she'll be down in just a moment." He then glanced behind him before stepping outside on the porch.

"Your going to look after her right? I'm taking your advice and giving her a little bit more credit and trusting her to go on this trip." He informed and I nodded fast.

"She's safe with me sir, I promise." I then smiled. "Thank you for taking my advice," I said.

At that he smiled softly.

"It was good advice. The other night when she was stressing over homework I asked if she wanted to take a break and show me her art and she did." He shook his head. "I had no idea how talented she was. I need to get her into an art school this summer, I can't let that talent go to waste." He marveled, making me smile widely as I scratched off another thing on my list.

Help her reconnect with one of her parents or both.

Hopefully his small gesture of looking at her art would flourish into something bigger and more meaningful that would benefit Lucy down the road.

"She's very talented. I love it when she doodles cartoons for me," I said just as Lucy appeared in the doorway.

"I don't know why you do, those aren't my best works," She said and I laughed.

"It beats my stick figures Lu." I reminded as Oscar hugged her.

"Are you all ready to go sweetheart?" He asked and Lucy nodded.

"Yup, thanks for agreeing to let me go," She said, glancing at me and I winked at her.

"Your welcome kiddo." He then pulled back to look at her. "Be safe okay? Stay with Ben and his parents." He warned.

"I will, I will. No worries." She reassured. Looking content, Oscar then said a final goodbye to her and I before going back inside. Relieved he was in a good mood about the whole thing, I grabbed Lucy's bags from her and we walked over to the car.

Once I had put her bags in the trunk I climbed into the backseat with her and we were off. After a moment of some tired hellos being passed around, Rachel leaned over the middle seat she had claimed to look at Lucy.

"Excited?" She asked and Lucy nodded fast.

"Beyond excited. I can't wait to see all the art!" She gushed cutely.

Gosh, why did she have to be so cute?

"Its going to take hours to get through that museum! Its huge and there's so much to see.'' Rachel informed and as the two of them got deep into conversation about the Metropolitan I listened quietly as I laid my head against the window.

Might as well as get some sleep before we got there.

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Hi guys! I'm sorry this chapter is so short, I just didn't have a lot to write today and my past few chapters have been really long so I think it'll be okay lol. Yikes, I can't believe this story is almost over. It feels like yesterday I started writing and now I'm almost done! If I managed to keep updating everyday I'll finish it by the end of next week I'm hoping!

Thank you for being such loyal readers :)
-Mari.