Smothered (bxb)

Final Chapters

Today was Gus's 18th birthday. I drove my new, crappy Volvo to his foster home to pick him up and say his farewells to his new family. I was sure that he would always stay in contact with them, even though he wasn't adopted, Gus had always wanted a family like that and they did love him. They paid for counselling and his asthma drugs, took care of him mentally and physically. They helped him with his school work, took him to the movies on family movie nights, gave him art supplies, had family dinners together and I know that that was exactly what Gus wanted for his life. He told me the other day that It was going to be hard leaving them but it would never be a goodbye. I smiled as I remembered our conversation.

"Rain, I... I don't want to say goodbye to them... I can't." Gus said with tears in his eyes. We were sitting on my couch, him leaning up against me, his head on my shoulder as we tried to watch a crap movie on Netflix.

"You don't have to say goodbye Gus. You're moving out, not leaving the country." I said with a concerned smile as I stroked the soft hair on his head.

"Yeah, I know. I just... They're what I always wanted." He sniffled a little and I continued to comb through his hair with my fingers soothingly.

"You don't have to leave them, you can totally visit. I'm sure Megan wouldn't let you ignore them, that girl loves you, so do the rest of them. I know that they'll visit, and I promise we can too."

"Yeah, you're right. They can come for family dinners and we can have games nights at our new place too!" He sounded cheered up.

"Definitely!" I smiled lovingly at the skinny boy in my arms,  I was so incredibly in love with him.

I parked in the huge driveway of Kate and Amy's house and walked up the steps. As soon as I reached the threshold the large front door swung open and a bright, blond-haired, maniac in a purple dress leaped onto me giving me a ginormous hug. 

"Hey Megan!" I said laughing and hugging her back, used to her crazy antics by now.

"Hey you! I'm so going to miss you! You guys better let me come over for sleepovers!" She rambled on. I laughed and let her go, walking inside. The place was busy, the twins were dragging Gus's boxes downstairs, Amy was baking cookies in the kitchen, Kate was yelling at the twins to be careful and Gus was packing the last of his things.

"Rain! Gus is just up in his room getting the last of his stuff." Kate said to me as she hugged me hello.

"Thanks," I told her as I started to make my way upstairs. "I'll go help him." She smiled at me and I walked up to Gus's room. As I walked in the door, I saw Gus sitting on his bed in the very bare room. There were a few boxes on the floor and an open backpack with the remainder of his art supplies shoved into it. I smiled at him in greeting and sat next to him on the bed.

"You ready?" I finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"I don't know. I was finally just starting to feel like part of the family and now I'm leaving. It all feels so soon." He said in a distant voice as he looked up at the ceiling. 

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" I asked as I leaned into his side, resting my head on his thin shoulders. He brought his hand up to my head and began to stroke my hair, playing with the long ends that I had left to grow out. I closed my eyes and smiled as he spoke.

"I'm not upset, quite the opposite. I get to move in with my boyfriend in our own place, I'm a pretty lucky guy. I'll just miss these guys." He said softly, smiling down at me. We had finished school and now it was summer, neither of us had decided to go to college yet, we both had new jobs and both my mum and Gus's foster family were helping us out a little with the money to rent our place. Now that high school was over we were free. Free to live our lives how we wanted and free to live those lives together, happily. Our new place wasn't too far from my mum's and was a close 5 minute walk to the cove. Gus was working at an art gallery as a clerk and had some of his paintings up in the gallery too while I was working at a book store in the downtown area. 

"I'm ready." Gus said as he started to sit up. I followed him, picking up some of his boxes and we walked downstairs to where everyone was busily getting ready for the big departure.

"Hey!" The twins said as we entered the kitchen/dining room area. Everyone was gathered around talking and when we walked in the room went silent.

"I made these for you boys, I hope you don't eat them all at once." A teary eyed Amy said as she handed Gus a big tub of freshly made cookies.

"Thanks Amy." Gus said in a heart felt tone as he took them from her.

"We are all going to miss having you here Gus." Kate said as she came up to the two of us. "But we aren't saying goodbye."

"That's right." Amy cut in, "We are going to be doing lots of visiting!" Everyone smiled at that and after we all shared a big group hug, Megan, the twins, Amy and Kate all walked us out to my car, helping us load up my trashy Volvo to the brim, saying our last farewells.

As Gus and I drove out the drive way, he rolled the windows down and leaned out, waving at them until we were out of eye shot.

"You good?" I asked as he sat back down in the passenger seat.

"Very." Gus said with a wide goofy smile as we drove down the road heading to our new home. Hand in hand, both smiling like maniacs and in a crappy, tiny car packed so tightly with boxes and stuff, that we almost couldn't fit; I knew my life was headed in the right direction, and if I was with Gus, it always would be.

A/N

Hey Guys, this is the last chapter! Whoa, that was a long book! I hope you all were happy with the ending, I'm leaving it open so hopefully I can write a sequel! Not making any promises, but maybe sometime in the future I will bring out these cute characters again.

Thanks for all the votes and comments! Love you all and don't forget to check out my other stories!

Lee