Across the Street

7.

   "What??!"
   Tom reached into the box and brought out a yellow piece of paper due to its obvious age. He handed it to me and my breath hitched at the back of my throat. In my hands I held an old drawing that I had made when I was 11 of me and tom outside the house. Which was basically two stick figures and a square because I can't draw to save my life. On the back was a list of all the things I was going to do when I turned 18;
   1) buy dog
   2) graduate high school
   3) marry Joe Jonas
   4) buy house
   5) live
   I burst into laughter after reading and Tom smiled. "You kept this piece of crap all this time?'
   "I kept a lot of things," he pushed the box over to me. Inside was a never ending abyss of things I had lost or dreamt of actually owning. Old photos of me doing dumb stuff like trying to swim, or ride a bike, and photos of all the places I had taken him on our annual winter break road trips. Like the time I had taken him to California and we rode that two person bicycle thing, and the time we went to New York, and he saw Time Square's lights for the first time. Then little trinkets filled the rest of the box, mostly bracelets, wrappers from snacks or pieces of gum, and old board game pieces. As I shuffled through the memories he kept inside, I found a ring.
   His eyes immediately widened and he tried to grab it from hands, but he is always too slow, "Is this the ring Holland?"
   "N-n-no it's not," he stuttered, "give it back!"
   I almost died of laughter, "I can't believe you still have this! This was the ring you gave to me when you tried to ask me to your 6th grade dance!"
   Tom groaned and fell back on the bed, "You weren't supposed to see that," he mumbled.
   "It was in the box though, so it is fair game."
   "Whatever, do you want to live with me or not Kelly."
   I looked up, shocked at his question, "What?"
"You didn't think I bought the house without the intention of you living in it did you?"
"Well, yeah I did because you bought it."
"Oh."
"When do you move in to it?"
He shrugged, "Soon, maybe October?"
I nodded, "I don't really want to leave the house that um, they left me, yanno... so uh, I'll think about it."
Before I could get up he grabbed my hand, pushing something small into my palm. When I opened it, a tiny key laid there.
"For whenever you make a decision," he smiled. He walked out of his room and said he'd be back in a little to get some food. When he left, sitting among all his crap, it hit me. I didn't know it would be so soon, but I always knew that he'd grow up someday. And now that I'm here, and he's ready to move and live his own life, it feels weird. I've basically taken care of him like he's my little brother for the past 16 years, and I can't imagine not seeing him from across the street mowing the lawn or taking out the trash anymore. Tom wasn't just becoming an adult, he already is. He's almost a year away from graduating college, a few months away from moving out of his house, and who knows how long until he finds someone he loves, marries them, and has kids with them. Going that far in my mind made me dizzy, or maybe I was honestly tired from all that time in the hospital.
Soon the room got dark, and I felt my head fall back on his pillow, and my eyes shut.