My Bestfriend's Brother

Chapter 19

I head downstairs in the bright morning and I find my mother in the kitchen with a plate of beautiful pancakes and a jar of maple syrup. It reminds me of my childhood.

"I made these for you," She tells me with a bright proud but weak smile and I sit down in front of her. She looks like she hasn't slept in weeks. Her under eye bags look horrible and I can tell she knows about what happened with Liz and dad.

"How are you holding up with everything?" I ask before filling my mouth with the sweet fluffy pancakes. They remind me of my childhood. My mom used to make me pancakes every weekend and we would bake cakes and watch movies and build forts. I never felt the need for a sibling because I always had her.

"It's, Its hard. I haven't slept properly in weeks. I'm broken. I honestly never thought your father was capable of doing that but it's my fault. I shouldn't have even brought up the divorce to him. I could've avoided this from happening," She tells me.

"Mom no it's not your fault. If it wasn't working out for you then you had to do what you had to do. It's his fault do being stupid and ruining his life so please don't blame it on yourself. I don't like seeing you like this, seeing you so broken," I say and I really mean it. I refuse to let her blame herself for my stupid fathers mistakes.

"Where did you go?" She asks me, her tired blue eyes looking up at mine. I notice the sad, low tone in her voice and I know I can't tell her the full truth.

"I stayed at Liz's. I needed to be there and comfort her," I half lie. I know I can't tell her about Josh and I and what we have, or what we had. Life is so confusing right now and I don't want her to stress more than she already has.

"Oh, I thought so," She says, "Did you get your college application results yesterday? I think I remember you telling me they would come in that day but I'm not fully sure" She asks me.

"Yeah. I got into SU," I say, half enthusiastically.

"That's great honey. Do you want me to go down there and help you get settled in tomorrow?"

"I would love that, thank you," I say and I mean it. No matter what I'll always love her and be grateful for everything she's done for me.

"Finish yo your pancakes before they get cold. I'm going to take a nap upstairs and I'll come back down to make dinner later," She says and leaves the kitchen. I hadn't even realized it's noon. I finish my sweet pancakes with maple syrup as I scroll through tik tok.

When I put my empty plate in the sink I go to the door when I hear someone ring it. I'm hoping it's Josh but it's just my amazon package. I ordered some LED strip lights last week for my dorm. I hope 33 ft is enough to fill up the whole ceiling. I also got one of those skylights because I love how they make your room look like space. I go upstairs to start packing my bags. I was so stupid when I decided to unpack yesterday. When I'm finished I plop down on my bed and fall asleep. I went to bed at 3 am yesterday, bad choice.

I wake up with the smell of ketchup and mayonnaise. I rush downstairs and I find 2 perfectly made hamburgers.

"I was about to call you to come eat," My mother says.

"It smelled so good from up there but it looks even better," I say, biting into the savory hamburger. The lettuce mixes perfectly with the meat and the ketchup.

"This is so good," I say, digging into my second bite. We finish our foods and we're both really tired so we go to bed.

The next morning I'm woken up by my mom. Today we're getting my things sent to Seattle and we're getting on a plane. It's noon so we'll get there in the afternoon, but it's fine since my belongings only get there the next morning. I get dressed and go downstairs with my little suitcase and wait for my mom. When she's ready we get in a cab and head to the airport. I hate the airport in Los Angeles. It's always full of people and I can barley get by without crashing into someone else. We pass the boring security that took hours and board the plane.

The flight is only two hours and a half but it feels like an eternity. Wow. I'm going to my dream college and I don't seem even a bit excited. Part of me thinks it's because of Josh, another part of me thinks it's because I've already expressed all of my excitement, and another part of me thinks it's because I'm not there yet.

We finally land and head straight to the hotel. I plop down on the queen sized bed and kick off my sneakers. I enter the bed without changing. I'm in a hoodie and sweatpants so it doesn't matter. Today was such a short day. All we did was eat breakfast and travel