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It wasn’t really something I could explain. It was just there.
Tomorrow was the first stop on the journey to fill it.
***
I didn’t sleep that night.
Like, at all.
I lay in bed, staring above me at the stars that hung from my ceiling, willing sleep to come, but I was too excited.
When the clock beside my bed flashed that it was six in the morning I gave up.
I crawled from my bed and changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top. I slipped my feet into my black and white Converse and tucked the solid white pair into my backpack. You could never have too many.
I pulled my hair back into a messy bun and searched my room for any last minute things I might have forgotten to pack last night.
When I was satisfied that I had everything I slung my backpack across my shoulders and grabbed my duffle bag.
I startled when I reached the kitchen and found my Uncle Mathias and Aunt Remy sitting at the table with my parents.
I dropped my bags in the doorway and started forward.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter and biting into it.
“We wanted to see you off.” My uncle stood from the table and opened his arms for a hug.
To the rest of the world Mathias Wade seemed like an impenetrable steel fortress, but to me he was a big softy.
I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight.
He chuckled. “Willow always gives the best hugs,” he said to the rest of the room.
Remy stood from the table as well and her heels clapped against the floor as she strolled over.
“Let her go.” She bumped her husband’s hip with her own and his arms fell from me. “My turn.” She smiled, hugging me tight.
Mathias and Remy were like second parents to me—it was impossible for them not to be with how close Liam and I were growing up.
“Are you going to see Liam while you’re gone?” She asked me.
I nodded. “That’s the plan. I miss him.”
I hadn’t seen Liam since we graduated high school—we were in the same class—because the very next day he packed his bags and moved to California to pursue his dreams of surfing. We all missed him, but he was happy and that’s what mattered. Hopefully, when I saw him I could convince him to at least come back to Virginia for the holidays so that all of us could see him and his parents didn’t have to fly all the way across the country to visit.
“I hope you have fun,” Remy told me, taking a seat once more. She crossed her legs and picked up her coffee mug. “Maybe meet some cute boys.” She winked.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” My dad threw up his hands. “No,” he said flatly.
Remy snorted and Mathias reached over to place his hand on her knee.
I hopped up onto the kitchen counter, my legs swinging, and took another bite of apple.
Remy tilted her head slightly to side. “What?” She said innocently. “She’s a beautiful girl, she needs to
find a cute boy. And speaking of cute boys, Dean’s pretty handsome.”
My dad shoved away from the table. “You’re not going. I changed my mind.”
