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I can’t help but hope that she’s right. I want nothing more than to be with Jack. I want to be with him forever.
Ten
When I get home, my dad is sitting on the couch, watching a basketball game. He mutes it when he sees me.
“Jack? You okay?”
“No.”
I don’t say anything else as I sit down next to him. He looks at me and just waits. I stare unseeingly at the TV. I feel like my whole world is crashing down around me, and I’m trying to sort through everything that I’m feeling, but it hurts so much to think about Paige leaving that I’m struggling to concentrate.
“Jack.” My dad speaks softly and puts his hand on my shoulder, “What’s wrong? You’ve got me kind of worried over here, and I’ve got a whole slew of scenarios running through my head right now.”
“Paige and her family are moving to Chicago.”
My dad lets out a deep exhale, and I think I hear him murmur, “thank god.” I turn to look at him.
“Sorry, I thought you were about to tell me you got Paige pregnant. I’m too young to be a grandpa.”
“Dad!”
“Sorry. Okay, so Paige is moving. When?”
“Next month, I guess. Her dad got a promotion at work.”
My voice breaks at the end, and I can’t keep my emotions under check. I feel my throat tightening and a burning behind my eyes. I’m trying so hard to hold it together. I haven’t cried since I was a kid. But the idea of losing Paige has me gutted in a way I’ve never felt before. My dad wraps his arm around me.
“Oh, Jack. I’m sorry. I know how much she means to you.”
“I love her,” I whisper. “I love her so much. I can’t imagine her not being here. Not being at my games or in my classes. She’s been my best friend forever, and now she’s so much more. She’s everything.”
Choking on the last word, I lose my fight with my emotions and cover my face with my hands. My dad just sits there with his arm wrapped around me, while I let everything out. I held so much of what I was feeling back from Paige because I knew she was struggling and needed me to be strong, but I can’t hold it back anymore.
I don’t know how long my dad and I sit there. When I finally manage to pull myself together, I see my mom standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. She’s looking worriedly between my dad and me. My dad shakes his head at her – like he’s silently telling her he’ll explain later.
“I’m going to bed.” I murmur as I stand up and start heading upstairs.
My dad calls out to me before I’ve even reached the third step. “It’ll all work out, Jack. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but it’ll work out in the end. We’ll figure it out, okay.”
I nod my head at him and then continue up the stairs. I don’t know how it’ll work out. Chicago is 2,123 miles away (I looked it up when Paige went to the bathroom before dinner). I want to believe my dad. I want what he said to be true more than anything else in the world, but I can’t help the doubts that are slithering their way into my thoughts.
Eleven
I open the door to see Jack standing there with flowers in his hand. He’s wearing jeans, a button-up, and his letterman’s jacket. Damn, he looks good in that jacket. He smiles at me, but I can see the sadness in his eyes. I could hardly sleep last night after telling him about the move. I eventually crashed from sheer exhaustion.
I smile back at him. “Hey.”
“Hey. Wanna go somewhere?”
“Where’d you have in mind?”
“It’s a surprise.”
I smile a little brighter now. Jack is usually terrible about keeping secrets from me, so it must be something he thought of today. At some point, I know we need to talk about what things will be like when I move, but I don’t have the courage to bring it up. I don’t want to hear him say that all this will end when I go.
“Okay. Let me grab my jacket.”
We drive for about 30 minutes through beautiful pastoral landscapes. We are about halfway when I guess where we were going.
