College Fund

//When I was Five I Lost My Mom in the Grocery Store//

This chapter is dedicated to my beautiful friend Sawyer becuase she never fails to make me smile! She's my real life Sage :)

Bria and Will had just left for dinner, and that left Greg and I alone in the apartment. It was sort of an awkward atmosphere because we had only just met each other yesterday, and I didn't know what to say.

"So... I made a list of some hotels," Greg began, and I quickly nodded, relieved that the silence had been broken.

"Right! Thanks for doing that. Which ones should I call?"

Greg showed me the list on his phone. He had all the hotels listed in alphabetical order, with their phone number right next to them. That was so cute! "This one here is really close to the Victoria and Albert, which is an amazing museum. I was actually thinking we could go tour it tomorrow."

"That sounds great! I guess I'll call them first, then." I typed in the number Greg had written down into my own phone, then immediately hung up when I remembered I still hadn't set up a long distance plan on my phone.

"Ugh! I can't call anyone until I fix my cell phone plan," I groaned.

Greg shrugged. "Just use my phone."

"Thanks Greg! I'll get my phone figured out tomorrow, I guess." I gratefully took the phone Greg handed to me and dialed the number of the hotel. It rang a few times before someone finally picked up.

"Hello, this is Elizabeth from Holiday Inn. How may I help you?"

I smiled at the almost robotic way that 'Elizabeth' greeted me. I cut her some slack though, because I'm sure she has to give the same speech a thousand times a day. "Hi Elizabeth. I was just wondering if you had any two bedroom rooms available for the next two weeks or so?"

"Yes, I think we could work something out for you. What day would you like to come in?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"It's a little short notice, but luckily for you we aren't too busy right now. I'll just need a name and card to book it under?"

I was so relieved that the first hotel I called had somewhere Bria and I could stay. I would have felt awful if we had to take over Greg and Will's apartment again. "I'm Cassidy Clark, and my card number is..."

While I was giving my credit card information to the random lady on the other end of the phone, my eyes were drawn to Greg. He was checking himself out in the mirror hanging in the apartment hallway, and it was pretty hilarious if I don't say so myself. He was smoothing his hair back and grooming his eyebrows, and then he gave his reflection a nod, clearly quite satisfied with what he saw.

You know, I didn't expect Greg to be so... self-obsessed. It was funny though. I guess it just proved there was a lot more to Greg than I thought.

There was a lot more to a lot of people than I thought. I was starting to learn that just when you thought that you knew someone, they would surprise you. Sometimes for the worse, other times for the better. And sometimes, it just depended on the way that you looked at it.

It was just another lesson I had learned since my dad had... left. Permanently left. Died.

I wondered if my dad was doing alright, wherever he was. I hadn't been raised Christian, and I've never really developed any particular view on any sort of afterlife, but I will say that one of the only things keeping me going without my dad was the hope that he was in a better place now, whatever that place may be. Even if it wasn't that castle-on-the-clouds sort of Heaven that was commonly pictured, I hope it was comfortable, relaxing and had good wifi. What else could he possibly need?