Away With Him

01 - Pack To School

"I don't need to bring all of those clothes," I groaned, lifting a pile of shirts out of the suitcase on my bed. "I'm only going for four months."

"Sorry, I forgot how unhygienic men can be," Ellie giggled sarcastically. I could clearly hear her distinct high pitched laugh even though she was in my walk-in wardrobe. She emerged carrying several pairs of pants and a few hoodies in her arms.

"We're not unhygienic, just... efficient," I smirked.

"And it's disgusting," Ellie laughed. She dropped the clothes on the floor and flopped down onto the bed. I lay down on the other side of the bed. "You know that I really don't want you to go," she said somberly, "Mostly because I won't be able use your pool, or your hot tub, or your cinema room, or your-"

"I get it," I interrupted Ellie, "You're only friends with with me because I'm rich." I put on a fake shocked face and did an exaggerated gasp. I knew Ellie was only joking... but I did feel a little bit sad that she would be missing her best friend for so long.

I guess I should probably explain. My name is Riley. I'm 16 and tomorrow I'm going to live and study in France for four months. My parents said that it would be a great experience to be immersed into a different culture. I just see it as an extended summer vacation. But my best friend Ellie doesn't want me to go.

Ellie has been my best friend since middle school. It's a funny story actually. At first we absolutely hated each other. The first time I set eyes on her I thought she was just another stuck up cheerleader wannabe who only cared about herself. And since then she told me that she thought I was a stubborn popular kid who didn't bother doing any work. But because of our surnames, hers is Harris and mine is Henderson, we were forced to sit beside each other in almost every class. And we couldn't have been more wrong about each other. Ellie is compassionate with everyone and never fails to make me smile. She really is the best friend I could have ever asked for.

And trust me, I've been through a lot of fake friends. Apparently being the son of a successful international property manager is an easy way to attract attention. It's been happening for as long as I can remember, people just want to spend time with me in hopes of getting something. Sometimes they want to see the inside of my house, sometimes their parents want a meeting with my dad. Good luck with that I think, I barely see him and I'm his son. He's usually away on business trips or when he is home he is locked away in his office almost 24/7. So we're not really that close. He's tried to talk to me about his business. I think he wants me to take it over someday. But I don't want to run the business if it means I have no time for anything else.

It's the opposite problem with Mom. She is always around. I mean I'm 16 years old, I can drive. I'm very responsible yet she feels the need to treat me like a baby just because I'm the youngest child. At first she didn't even want me to go on this exchange because she didn't think I was mature enough. Even though my sisters, Sienna and Autumn, both went on exchanges to France when they were 16. Thankfully Dad and my sisters talked some sense into her. Though it still seems like she doesn't want me to go. Almost every day for the past month she has asked me if I still want to go. And my answer was always the same: of course I want to go. How often do you get to travel to somewhere completely new where nobody knows you and live there for four months? I basically get to create a new life over there. Here, everyone knows me as the rich kid who gets everything he wants handed to him, which is true. But my dad worked hard to earn that for me and I don't forget that. But tomorrow I get to start a clean slate.

"It's getting pretty late. Are you finished packing yet?" Mom asked as she peered her head into my bedroom. That was her attempt at a discrete way of telling Ellie it was time to leave.

"Yes I'm done now," I murmured. I sat up on the bed and zipped the suitcase closed.

"But what about all of this?" Ellie questioned as she gestured to the towering pile of clothes still on the bed.