The Summer Before he Left

Chapter 11: Blair

        I think something inside me died a little last night. I wasn't expecting that at all. He is leaving me. We will probably never see each other again. I am still trying to come into realization about the whole thing. I sat there, in my room, all day and night. I only came out for food and the occasional bathroom break.

        My parents knew something was wrong. They tried talking to me to see what was wrong, I just lied and said I was on my period. That's always a good lie, they always leave me around when I say that. I haven't even really talked to Drew, I know I should but I just can't right now. Why would he even get this close to me if he knew he was going?

         I stared reading this book called the Catcher in the Rye, I'm not sure where this book is going to lead. It's one of the first times I am several chapters in and I have not a clue what the main conflict is. After I read I put on my headphone and listened to what seamed like every song on my iPod. Sometimes I would look out the window just to see if he might be looking out his window. He wasn't.

          I tried to go to bed early but I ended up not being able to fall asleep until 2am. I couldn't stop thinking about him and what's going to happen when he is gone. My mind was filled with what if's. But I had to take my mind off of that because you can drive yourself insane doing that. So I watched TV until I fell asleep.

              We only have the local channels so after 10 all of the channels have the news on them. So I ended up watching local news twice, Access Hollywood, and world news. I'm pretty caught up with my current events now. Apparently there is a heat advisory for the next week or so, temperatures will reach above 100 degrees almost everyday. Then there is a small town near by that is renovating it's whole down town and they are getting a bunch of help from some billionaire that heard about their town through the news or something. Each weekend they are going to go start working on the down town and reinventing it to be as it was in the 1920's. Interesting. In world news they talked a lot about Afghanistan and Iraq. It was hard to watch but I did it anyway. I don't know why but I guess it was the only thing on so I suffered through it.

        For the past two months I haven't watched TV much at all. I read the local paper occasionally in the mornings but other then that I was becoming pretty isolated. The only thing keeping my up to date on what was going on back home was twitter, Facebook, and Lauren.

         Lauren and I hadn't been talking as much as we used to but she still would text, Skype, or snapchat me when something great in her summer fling happened, and caught me up on all of the news in back in Lansford. I would tell her a lot of my story too, just leaving out some things.

           Finally I fell asleep, I had to go back to work tomorrow. Hopefully we can make some good out of what we have left together.

~~~~~~

        When I woke up the next morning I wanted to actually do something, so I told mom I would get the groceries today. I hadn't done this all summer, which is surprising and kind of sad that I never get out of my house or off the lake. She gave me the list, some money and the keys to the Durango.

        When I was driving to the store I picked out the roads I wanted to go for a run on. When I got to the store I went and picked up the food I needed. When I turned down the bread isle I was surprised to see Matt.

        "Grocery duty today?" he asked when he saw me.

         "I volunteered." I said.

         "Okay Katniss." he said and we both laughed. "Hey uh sorry about the other night.. I don't know why"

          I cut him off, "It's fine, really it is." I laughed.

         "Okay, thanks, so I heard he told you about the Army."

         "Yeah.." I looked down, "It's a little hard to take in."

           "I can imagine." he said.

          "Yeah.. Well I better get going." I said

           "Oh yes, of course, see ya at work." when I started to walk away he put his hand on my shoulder to stop me, "Blair if you ever need anything, I'm here. I know this is all pretty hard on you, so I am here."

           "Thanks Matt." I said and walked out of the isle.

             When I got home I put of the groceries away and then headed out for a run on the path I had mapped. Wow I was really out of shape. It's kind of saddening actually. When I got back I got ready for work and headed out.

          When I got there Drew and Matt were already in there.

          "Hello miss! I have an idea!" exclaimed Drew and he grabbed my hand took a piece of paper and a pen and we went and sat at the bar. Matt followed and sat on the other side of me.

        "What's the plan?" I asked.

         "We are going to make a list!" he said with much enthusiasm!

          "What kind of list do you speak of?"

           "The greatest list ever of course!" you could tell he was exited about this, "We are going to make a list of things we are going to do before you have to go back and I have to leave. So I figure we have three weeks before you leave." he waited for my response.

         "Correct." I said.

          "Okay lets begin." he said, "Anything that you want to do before you leave put it down."

          I grabbed the pen and wrote "Go skiing"

          "You haven't gone this whole time you have been down here?" he asked.

          "I've actually never skied before."

           "Whaaaaat? No! Then that is a must do! My mind is blown!"

           Yeah it's true, I have never skied before even though I live 1/4 of the year in the Ozarks. I've just always been afraid to. I don't like trying new things, but I'm going to do it. The only thing I really ever do in the Ozarks is go tubing and cruise around.

         I looked at the piece of paper and smiled, then I began to write.