Promise

34

I woke up to an alarm that i didn't remember turning on. The alarm soon stopped beeping and i opened my eyes confused, who turned it off? But then i remembered that i wasn't in my room, i was laying in Ashton's bed. I rubbed my eyes and turned around to see Ashton sitting up looking at his phone. "What time is it?" I asked him with my beautiful morning voice. He let a small laugh and imitated my raspy voice "It is 8 AM."
I grunted and put the sheets over my face again. "It's way to early." Ashton got out of bed and said with a smirk on his face "Well if you want to sleep in that's okay. We can handle moving mrs Middleton ourselves."
I poked my head out from under the sheets and gave him an angry face. "Fine, I'll get up."

I didn't really bother to dress up nice so i just kept my hoodie on and changed my shorts for leggins. My hair still kinda looked okay and make up wasn't necessary for today. I walked out of my room still half asleep and sat down at the kitchen table. Calum put his phone down "Rough night?".

"She couldn't really sleep last night so i let her sleep with me." Ashton said answering Calum's question for me. I smiled at him, nobody else needed to know that we ran outside in the rain last night. It would be our little secret.

Luke had overheard the conversation and said with a sad face "Why didn't you come to me? I have the most comfortable bed."

I laughed at him and stood up to grab some food. "Next time, okay?"

We took 2 cars because mrs Middleton would most likely have a lot a stuff she wanted to bring to the retirement home. I got in the car with Luke and Calum, Michael and Ashton would join us later because Michael had forgotten the time again. Luke got to drive this time and i sat in the back while Calum sat in the front seat. I put my hands in the pockets of my jacket and felt the card that professor Whiteley had giving me, i had completely forgotten about it. I still had to ask one of the guys to contact professor Whiteley and meet him but i just didn't know how to aks it. I wasn't scared to ask them to contact the professor but i was scared as who they were going to contact him. Foster parent, family friend, guardian or dad?

I took a deep breath in ,pulled the card out of the pocket and gave it to Calum. "Professor Whiteley asked me to have my..uhm..guardians contact him so he can discuss the future plans and stuff. His information is on that card. I...i  would really appreciate it if one you could contact him when you have the time." I spoke to them with a soft voice, unsure of what their reaction would be.

Calum turned his head to me and gave me a smile. "Of course, i will sent him an email tomorrow."

"Thank you"

Luke parked the car infront of the house and we all got out. I immediately ran towards the door and knocked on it, it didn't feel appropriate of me to use my key right now. Mrs Middleton opened the door with a big smile and said with a happy voice "Bunny!".
I laughed and gave her a hug while the guys stood awkwardly behind me. I let her go and let the guys say hello.

"I almost didn't recognize you without your scrubs" she said to the guys. Calum and Luke both gave her an hesitant laugh, they knew that mrs Middleton had seen them a few times without scrubs before but had just forgotten that. I had noticed it too, her memory was slowly getten worse.

I broke the awkwardness by clapping in my hands. "Did you already pack everything in boxes?" I asked mrs Middleton.

"Most of it, yes. But there are some things I'll need your help with."

The guys and i followed her upstairs in the now almost empty house. All her big furniture was already picked up yesterday by either the trash or people who saw the ad in the newspaper. In the ad she had simply said: free furniture, those 2 simple words were for a lot people enough to come to her house. That made think how easy it would be to kidnap somebody these days.

Luke and Calum picked up the boxes that mrs Middleton had finished packing and they brought them to the car. While they were busy doing that mrs Middleton signalled me to sit next to her on her bed.

"I want to give you something." She spoke softly. She put something in my hand on closed it. "I want you to keep this safe for me."

I opened my hand and saw that she had layed a sliver necklace with a small locket on it in my hand. I gave her a confused look, why did she give me this?

"Inside the locket is a small picture of the house. My husband made the picture when we moved into this house. He told me that a home was something that you could keep close to your heart. So with this necklace you'll always have my home close to your heart."

My eyes had started to water. "I can't accept this."

"I insist that you keep it. I know have much this place meant for you."

"Here let me put it on." She said

I gave her the necklace and turned my back to her. It took her a second to get the tiny necklace to close around my neck. "There you go." She said when she had succeeded. I turned back around with tears in my eyes. I hugged mrs Middleton tightly and didn't let go until Luke, Calum who were now joined by Ashton and Michael had returned in the room.

"Everything alright?" Luke asked when he saw me crying.

I wiped my tears away and said with a smile on my face "Everything is perfect."

Mrs Middleton and i looked through some old photoalbums while the guys moved all the boxes in the cars. She happily told me every single detail about her wedding and how she had met her husband. She had never really spoken of her hushband so i listened carefully to every word she said. We both laughed when she showed a picture of her throwing a piece of wedding cake in her husband's face.

"God, i truly feel old when i look back at these pictures."

I nudged her arm. "That's maybe because you're old."

She laughed and tickled me. "You wanna repeat that smartass?"

Through my laughs i begged her stop which she eventually did. Gasping for air i let out a small "Sorry".

I sat up and saw Luke smiling at us from the doorway with his hands in his pockets. "What are you looking at?" I said with a mocking tone. He laughed at that and walked into the room.
"I came to pick up the last box." He said pointing to the box infront of mrs Middleton.

Mrs Middleton sighed and put the photo album back into the box. "I guess that this is it. "

I grabbed her hand, "I guess so."

We followed Luke downstairs but didn't go outside just yet. Hand in hand we took one last tour around the house, replaying the good memories we had in here. After 20 minutes we stood infront of the house and mrs Middleton closed the door for the last time.

She gave my hand a small squeeze and said "Are you ready for a new chapter in our friendship book?"

I gave her a faint smile "I think i am."

I sat in the back of the car together with mrs Middleton. It was only a 20 minutes drive to the retirement home. It surprisingly looked actually like the pictures on the flyers. "Maybe this place won't be so bad?"

Her room was on the third floor but the lady at the desk had given us a cart for all the boxes so we could do everything in one trip. Just as i suspected, her room was dull and almost empty. Only the necessities were there such as a bed, fridge, table and a few chairs.

Michael and I helped her unpack wile the rest of the guys went to talk to the staff about her medical conditions. While i was worried about mrs Middleton not feeling at home they were worried about the staff not giving her her right medicine.

After almost 3 hours of unpacking and a lot of talking it was finally time to say goodbye. Tears were streaming down my face while i held her tightly in my arms. I didn't want to leave her here behind with no friends in an unfamiliar place. Luke eventually had to pry us apart. He grabbed me hand and slowly led my out of the room down the hall. I waved at mrs Middleton until the elevator doors shut in front of me. I was still crying and felt exhausted. I leaned on Luke, he kneeld down and let me hop on his back.
I burried my face into his shoulder and said in a whispering tone " I already miss her."