Halfway back to my house, Kell got a random text. We stopped walking and she checked her phone. I turned around to see what happened.
“Oh shit.” she said, having an annoyed look on her face.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“Ah. Mum’s being a bitch. She wants me home right now.” she shoved her phone back into her pocket.
“Can’t you tell her if we can hang out today? I won’t be able to see you for a while.” I walked back towards her, taking both her hands into mine and squeezing them.
“I wish but she’s in one of her shitty moods. Don’t wanna piss her off, you know.” she rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Don’t worry. I understand. I’ll call you or swing by or something later tonight, yeah?” I made her favourite half smile.
“Call me. Doubt mum would be pleased to see any visitors tonight.” she stretched up on her toes to kiss me. “But don’t worry, I’ll go to your house first thing tomorrow. Gotta see you off.”
“Alright. Can’t wait to see your pretty face again.”
With a final hand squeeze, she turned and headed off back in the opposite direction. I turned on my heel, still heading back to my house. Better have a head start at packing.
*****
I wheeled the luggage bag out of my older brother, Luke Diviney’s room. He recently came back from a massive trip around Japan. Lucky bastard. I unzipped it and sighed that it was empty. Couldn’t be fucked arguing with him about him having his shit still inside. I began pulling draws and wardrobe doors open, messing up all my neat-ish folded clothes. That was one thing that mum loved hammering me about. Having my clothes mixed around instead of it being in stupid neat piles. I’m a boy, it was one of those things. I threw my most prized items of clothing into the bag; horeur shirts, hoodies, and jackets along with a massive pile of skinnies and undergarments. I opened up my really, really old draw of clothes I rarely wear. It was filled with the crowd pleasers, the clothes that I used to wear when Short Stack first started out. I decided to have a trip down memory lane. I took the draw completely out of the space it was in and placed it onto the floor.
“Whoa!” I said to myself. “Helloooooo stranger.”
There laid my classic Astro Boy, Pokemon and all them other cartoon shirts that I had since I was 16. At the very back of the draw, I found my old favourite pair of yellow skinnies.
“Holy fuck, I remember you!” I spoke to the pants as if it was gonna say something back.
I stood up and headed over to my mirror. I placed them in front of my legs and smiled.
“That explains why you’re there in the first place. Fucking small much?” I laughed.
As I turned to throw them back to where I got them from, something fell to the ground. I noticed it and bent down to pick it up. I clenched my teeth together, squeezing the tiny picture that Maddie gave me a few months ago between my fingers.
