Yours, truly

Chapter 13.

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Rae

Finally, I was done. My bedroom had officially been cleaned thoroughly. My clothes had been hung neatly in my wardrobe and my makeup and lotions were sitting perfectly organised in my desk drawer.
My mom always says I clean when I'm nervous or upset. She jumps for joy every time I have a big test coming up. The house didn't have even one speck of dust in the week that I was doing my driver's test.

I'd consider it one of my good habits.

I glanced at the plain white wall above my bed. It was annoyingly plain and held no uniqueness or design at all.

Maybe I should be like Haley and get some photos for my wall. She had rows and rows of photos over her desk picturing all kinds of things. I didn't recognise half the people in them.

I glanced at one of my photos that was in a picture frame on my desk. It contained Austin, Luke and me, down by the lake. It was last year and we all looked slightly different, more so Luke. All of our faces were beaming with happiness, a feeling I always get when I'm having a good time with Austin and Luke.

The usual sun was shining down and I could easily feel the coldness of the water on my skin by just looking at it.

Luke was standing on the shore holding the phone up smiling widely and in the back, I was sitting on Austin's shoulders as he stood in the water waving at the camera.

Little did I know my brand-new phone was in my pocket and I was about to fall over moments later.

I smiled at the memory and then glanced at another picture on my nightstand.
It was Austin and me in the back of his truck watching Toy Story at the drive-in theatre.

I looked at both of us cuddled up in the blankets with popcorn on our laps laughing with each other over one of Austin's jokes.
The sun was setting behind us in the most beautiful way capturing the moment perfectly.

Tears started to well up in my eyes as soon as I looked at it.
I sat down on my bed gripping the edge of it with my fingers as tears slowly made their way down my cheek.
I hated when we fought and it was so stupid how he couldn't just let it go.

So I can't wear a jumper every once in a while? And he said I was being quiet?

I barely even looked at him in school today and I started silently crying in the middle of chemistry.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

A day doesn't go by when I don't talk to Austin. It was part of my daily life as we told each other what interested us that day, how our families were or complaining about some first-world problem that conflicted us that morning.
Every day he showered me with compliments and lost track of his sentences staring at me where I would just roll my eyes or hit him lightly.
We always walk each other to class or sit beside one another at lunch and it's weird not being able to even look at him.

The longest we've been apart is when my family went on vacation last summer to France but even then we texted for every one of those ten days.

I looked up at my vanity mirror and sniffed. My cheeks were red, my nose was now stuffed from crying and my eyes were glossy and heavy. I looked horrible.