Cheers

Part Four

Despite how simple it seemed, it was the best summer of my life. I had my own place, with a roommate that didn't hate me, I got to choose my job and hours, and I made my first genuine friend that I cared about. And, bonus, I could cuss in front of her, because no matter how great the overall summer was, it was still retail work, and people are still stupid.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad when the summer was over. I told Luke about my situation with my parents and asked if there was anything important binding him to Castle Rock. He said no and offered to come back to Long Beach with me as long as I found the apartment this time. Fair enough. I got online and started looking for an apartment, and made it a sort of competition to see if I could find a cheaper apartment in a better neighborhood.

I failed. I didn't find a cheaper one, but it was only a hundred dollars more than the one in Castle Rock. Plus, it was close to my school and in a better neighborhood, so Luke gave me the win. We moved in, and I registered myself in school. I got another job in Long Beach to save up for the summer since I earned enough over the summer to live on 760 dollars a month. I earned between 540 and 600 dollars a week every week of summer, so I was covered for the school year, paying 400 dollar rent each month.

Remember how I said I went back to my old house one last time? Two days before school started back, I went back and tried my old house key again. They hadn't changed the locks so I went up to see if all my stuff was still there, like my bedsheets and some old school books. When I got to my room, everything was in labeled boxes. They were all labeled like "Bed", and "Clothes", and "School", in my dad's messy scrawls. I wasn't going to bring my old clothes and things because I had brought all my favorite things to Colorado and it would be unnecessary wasted space, but since it was so neatly organized for me, I packed it all into my car and left a note on the kitchen table that read, "Thanks for boxing everything for me - Jace"

I left and locked the door on my way out, out of respect only for the house that had raised me.

The school year passed quickly, and before I knew it, we were back in Castle Rock. I was lucky enough to get my same job back, and the same cheap apartment back, and the summer passed almost the same as the first one. I didn't get to see Raven much during the school year, since we lived in different districts and she told me that I didn't want to meet her mom. She explained to me that her dad simply didn't care about her, but her mom wanted full control over her. Not in a helicopter parent sort of way to keep her safe in the dangerous world. No no, Meghan wanted control over her simply because she didn't want anyone else to get near her. Like a greedy sibling. She always knew Raven's location, and anyone she talked to was documented for later use.

As I've said, Meghan is a powerful woman, so if she wanted a background check done on someone her daughter had contact with, she'd get it, then file it away for later.

Raven told me that her mom knew nothing of my existence, and it was better to keep it that way. We texted each other but never met in person, and our conversations had to be kept short and deleted once they were over in case Meghan checked her phone. As a result, when summer came, we had lots to catch up on, including lots of bottled-up anger from both of us. That was when our first game of therapist began. I've already told you that she talked to me about how lonely she was because she had tasted what it was like to not be lonely the previous summer.

It was kind of a "you can't miss what you've never had" type deal. She grew up without friends or anyone that truly loved her, but last summer she had me, so she was incredibly lonely once we couldn't meet anymore. I felt what it was like to miss a person you cared about for the first time too.

Every day, she'd study while I worked. I never worked on Sundays, so I took her out to various locations on those special free days.. I brought her to a few high-class restaurants because why not? I wanted to treat her like a queen in place of her parents. She deserved it so I tried my best to make it happen. I'm not sure why, and I've chalked it down to being what true friendship is like. We went to a few restaurants, the movies, and a famous ice cream shop just out of town. I even took her to get a new dress and got a makeup artist to do her makeup, then got a professional photographer to take her photos, as a late birthday surprise the second week we were there. The photos came out very well, better than even I expected. I still have some of them. The photos. I keep some of them in a small box of memories under my bed. Cliché, I know, but I have a talent for losing precious things.