Kiss Me

Chapter 8: Change Of Plans

Luke's P.O.V.

It's been two weeks since Abby has moved out but it feels like months. I'm due to leave for college in three weeks and I feel a little uneasy. The reason I waited to go so long was because of Abby, but now she's gone. However, I've been thinking about it and I may take a year off of school completely and start college next August. It's a hard choice because I want a career and a good life, plus my parents want the same for me and it would be hard to dissappoint them. I just dont feel ready to leave town and go to school, I want to live a little and explore. I have about  a grand saved up from over the years of mowing lawns, walking dogs, and allowance from my parents. I never really had things to spend money on so I just saved it. I graduated school with honours and got a full scholarship to Stanford University so I don't have to use it on collage tuition. I check up on it and even if I wait I will still have the scholarship. I wouldn't call myself a nerd, I just did as much as I could in school because I wanted a good life for myself. 

With the money I've saved up, if I get a job I can afford a decent appartment and I can live on my own. Maybe I could even get a roommate. I am just tired of living off my parents, I'm eighteen and since I'm not going to college just yet I'm going to have to start supporting myself. I remember the hard times we had when we first moved here to the U.S...

*Flashback*

I felt a soft hand on my shoulder gently shaking it as I slowly woke. We had a seventeen hour flight from Australia all the way here to California. My eyes slowly fluttered open to see my mom gently smiling down at me, her seven year old son. My family and I left our home, some of our posessions, and family back in Sydney in hopes of a better life here in America. I scooted from the middle seat in the car over to the open car door and climbed out to see a tiny tan colored house with a brown door and a window a few feet to the right of it. Our house in Sydney was a tad bit nicer on the outside than this house, but I can't complain because I'm here, in America, if it wasn't two in the morning I would be able to show more excitement. "Luke wake your brother," my mother told me breaking me from my young thoughts. 

I walked around our small car to the side where my younger brother Tommy was sitting and opened the door that was in the way of me waking him. "Tommy." I said. "Tommy wake up we're here." I said this time a little louder gently shaking his knee. His eyes fluttered open as I began to unbuckle him from his car chair. He slowly climbed out of the only car my family owned. Holding on to my little brother's hand, we both tiredly walked up the small lawn of our new home to the tall brown door that would soon open to our futures.

 **End of flashback**

Even though when we first moved here we were poor, we made it, the right way. My parents always did their best to make my brothers and I happy, if we wanted something they would do their best do use whatever money they could spare to buy it for us. They taught us that you don't need money to be happy, and there's always more to life than what you see, so of course we still had to work for what we wanted. These days we're all doing alright. My dad is VP of a major insurance company, and my mom is a well respected teacher in our neighborhood district. My younger brother Tommy is now sixteen and he still attends high school. My older brother Will is now twenty one, and would be finished with college by now, if he didn't change his major every semester. Right now he currently is staying in his old bedroom at my parents' house because he has decided to take a break from college, hopefully he goes back soon because he's already twenty one and he needs to finish college. Here I go being a hypocrite. 

-Two Days Later-

"Yes, thank you Jessica. That would be great."

"Mhm, yes."

"Tommorrow at two, I got it."

"Thanks love." The sound of my voice filled up the room just before I ended the call with the manager of the Bridgemore Appartments. Two nights ago I told my parents about my plan to move out and get a job before going to college next year. They didn't seem too thrilled with the idea of me putting off going to college longer than I already have, but after one of my famous speeches and explaining them all the pros of the situation, they finally gave me their 'blessing'. They also loaned me five hundred dollars do get on my feet for a bit until I get my first couple paychecks from the job I don't have yet. I turned in applications online to Toys R Us, Target, Starbucks, and this local Cafe called 'The Shiny Spoon' which is only a few blocks from the appartment that I'm set to look at tomorrow at two.

I have a good feeling about this. Nervous, yes I am, but ready. I'm really ready. I already feel the freedom of being on my own and getting to know myself better if that doesn't sound weird. A lot of people say, "It's not what you think, adulthood is harder than it looks," but you have to start somewhere right? I'm already forgetting I ever loved Abby Stone. I haven't heard from her in awhile, I wonder how she is. I am not calling her or texting her though that's for sure. The sound of her voice, or even words on the screen of my cell phone that are from her could easily bring me right back into loving her and I can't do that now, not after all of the time I spent trying to get her out of my mind.

 (Finally, I know. Sorry I haven't kept my word I have just been super busy and everytime I get my laptop out my mom tells me to do something else so I hardly ever have time. I wanted to make this longer but I was in a rush to update because it's been awhile. Thanks for reading PLEASE VOTE!! It would mean the worrrrllllldddd to me.)