Chance ~ Chris Evans

25. Bye New York, hello Belgium

My childhood home wasn't very big, nor in a known place like Antwerp. I knew we were sleeping in Antwerp but my home was in a little city about 30 minutes away from Antwerp. My family wasn't really rich, not that I minded, it was my home, that was all that mattered. My mom was about 46 years old, she was a nurse in a retirement home, my dad was about 51 years old, he was a guard in jail. My sister was 2 years younger than me, she was studying to become a nurse, just like my mum.

My mum always knew I dreamt big, she always knew Belgium wasn't my country, she knew I wanted to go bigger, to live somewhere else. My dad always hoped I would stay in Belgium, I was never a momma's kid, I shared too many things with my dad, we both loved old cars, or Volkswagen Beetle's for example. My dad always knew what to say or what to do when I was furious or sad, while my mum only made it worse at some moments, although I loved my mum, I was just closer to my dad for some reasons.

My grandparents is something different though, the parents of my mum divorced when she was younger, my mum had lost contact with her dad after that but she managed to restart with her dad several years after that. My granddad from my mother's side was my best friend, but he died when I was about 14, yeah cancer sucks. My mother's dad was remarried to a woman named Ida, I never felt like she was my grandmother but I had to act like she was, after my granddad died she started to ignore my family, she only called when she had a problem so I had to go and solve it but soon enough I stopped doing so and she completely ignored us.

The mother of my mum, my grandmother, she means everything to me, she was always there when I had trouble with my mum, when I had trouble in high school or college, she is my best friend, she too was remarried to a man, not that I minded, I felt like he was one of my real grandad's. Although the last years he had been quite annoying, only talking about his past, about how the young people were destroying the world, without even thinking about me or my sister sitting at the same table as him. Nonetheless, I still felt like he was my granddad so I always acted like it.

The parents of my dad are something different though, everything always went well, until they started fighting with my dad, they said my mum was not the right woman for him, they said my mum was a bad mum for my sister and I. They started fighting with my dad, although my dad always forgave them but when I turned 16, I only visited them for birthdays or Christmas. When I was 18 I got my driver's license, I was so happy, I had called my grandmother and my aunt but I didn't call the parents of my dad. Afterwards, when my dad visited them, they started fighting with him about the fact that I didn't call them about my license, my dad left them. A few weeks later was my 19th birthday, they didn't even call me to congratulate me or something, they completely ignored me.

Of course, Chris didn't know any of this yet, I never thought about telling him, thought it was kind of stupid to tell him, like it didn't matter. But now? We were on the train, heading to Antwerp, I felt like it did matter, he would meet my grandmother sometime this week.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked me when I noticed I was stressed.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about something that I should've told you before we came here," I told him honestly.

"What? What could've been so big that you are worrying about it when we are visiting your family, or is your family with the Mafia or something?" Chris smiled, he was trying to cheer me up. I smiled to him.

"Not that big no, just some family drama you probably should know about," I told him, still smiling.

"Nothing to worry about it then," Chris smiled at me, he knew exactly how to calm me down and I was glad he was here with me.

"Aren't you nervous?" I asked him, trying to keep the conversation going, I didn't want to fall into a silence right now.

"Not really, I'm only scared that you guys are all going to talk Dutch and I couldn't understand a thing about what you would be saying," Chris laughed, I smiled at him. That's something that could be happening since my mum's english isn't good at all.

"Ticketjes graag," the ticket collector told us, Chris was trying to figure out what he said, when he saw me giving out tickets to the collector. (Tickets please). The collector gave us our tickets back after he looked at them and made sure they were okay.

"I would be lost without you," Chris told me, I smiled.

"When you don't understand something, just ask them to translate it, most of the flemish people speak english," I told him, pointing out he wouldn't be lost without me.

"How do we get to the apartment?" Chris asked me, thinking about calling a cab.

"We walk, it's only about 15 minutes from the station, it's really close to my old college," I smiled to him.

"But our suitcases?" he asked me again.

"Not a problem, trust me. Some friends of me used to walk through the city every Friday and every Sunday with a suitcase like this to get to their college apartment," I told him, he looked at me.

"They really went home every weekend?" Chris asked me, I nodded.

"Most students do, so their mother can wash their clothes and they can be home for a day before the school week started again," I explained.

"In America, we usually stay in the apartment," Chris told me.

We soon arrived in the station of Antwerp. I lead Chris outside, in between the rushing people who were trying to get to their work. We both walked slower than the average person in Antwerp, but faster than the older people. Soon we were walking over the shopping street, a lot of people came walking out of stores, many people walked in stores. We kept on walking until we made a turn to the left and we found the apartment. I rang the bell and waited for the lessor to open the door. Kim waited for us to get upstairs, to the apartment.

"Welcome!" She greeted us, I introduced her to Chris and she explained everything we needed to know before she left us with the key.