never be the same | grayson dolan

fifty six

I slowly open my eyes and look around the room with a sigh. Today is another dreadful day full of goodbyes. For the past six months I have been constantly saying hello and goodbye to Grayson and my father. This time, it's a little more permanent. I get out of bed and walk into Ava's kitchen. She's sitting at the table scrolling through her phone.

"Good morning." She grins up at me.

"Morning." I mumble as I sit down next to her.

"You upset about today?" She questions while glaring at me.

"A little." I lightly sigh. "I just had such a great past few weeks, I don't want it to end."

"Same here." She nods her head in agreement. "I asked Anthony to prom."

"I knew you would." I laugh and flash her a smile. As much as Ava acts like she doesn't want Anthony to be her boyfriend, she totally does.

"I knew you were going to ask Grayson, so I figured why not?" She smiles and look back at her phone.

"Okay, cut the crap." I roll my eyes. "You like Anthony, Anthony likes you. What's the issue with that?"

"There is no issue." She shrugs.

"Yeah, exactly. You guys should just start dating."

"It's more complicated than that." She defends herself.

"No it isn't, you're just making excuses." I shake my head at my brutal honesty. "He's crazy about you and I know you feel the same way about him."

"Yes, I really like him but I don't want to do the whole long distance thing. I'm going to Columbia and he's going to college in Florida, I can't date somebody I never see."

"You can if you try hard enough." I sigh and look down at my chipped nail polish. "You guys are perfect for each other, it's a shame to not give it a shot."

"I don't know." She lowly mumbles.

"Whatever. I'm going over to the hotel in a little bit." I inform her as I get up and walk back over to my room. I change out of my pajamas and into a comfortable sweatshirt and yoga pants. I sit back down on my bed and quickly look through the scrapbook Grayson made me.

It makes me sad knowing I'm not going to see him for awhile, but I know once June comes everything will fall into place. I put the scrapbook down and stand up. I throw on my heavy jacket and walk back out of the room. Ava is standing by the coat rack, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah." I groan as we step out of the apartment. We decide to walk over to the hotel since it is only a few blocks away. I'm glad we arrive before they have to check out.

"Hey." I call out while entering the room.

"Hey." My father says from the bathroom. "We're packing up our luggage now."

I walk further into the room and see Grayson sitting on the bed.

"I don't want you to leave." I exclaim and sit next to him.

"I don't either." He sighs and holds my hand. "Five months this time."

"That's the longest we're going to be away from each other." I lean my head against his shoulder.

"We'll be back here in June for your prom and graduation."

"By that time you'll already be graduated." I look up at him.

"And you'll be eighteen." He lightly grins.

Ava looks back at Anthony. "At least prom will be fun."