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I fight back the tears welling in my eyes and nod. “Thank you,” I barely make out.
Thankfully, she heard me and nods.
I glance at Aaron, whose expression is stoic as he stares at his plate in front of him, moving around the food like he’s too emotional to eat too.
I pick my head up and look at Beau, who just gives me a kiss on the forehead before sitting back in his chair with a sigh.
Once dinner is over, Debbie takes me to the spare bedroom they have, which has been used mainly for storage for years but it will now be my bedroom.
“Boys, why don’t you head over to their house and bring her bed over?” She wraps her arm around me and brings me into her side. “There’s nothing more comforting than your own bed.”
Aaron and Beau take off, and I help her move things around to make room for it.
“There’s no rush, but eventually, we’ll get all your stuff over here and make this your room fully.”
“Thank you,” I respond as I put a box of Christmas decorations in the hallway.
Our houses are the exact same layout, just flipped, so it’s weird that the spare room here is my bedroom at my house, and I can set up everything exactly the same here.
The guys get my bed moved and set up along with my nightstand so I can have my clock and a place to set something to drink in the middle of the night if I need it.
Debbie goes and gets some of my clothes, as I’m not ready to go into the house yet and she doesn’t want the boys to go through my personal stuff.
Once Beau leaves, Debbie suggests I take a hot shower. The idea doesn’t sound terrible, but as I stand here with the water pounding down on me, I quickly realize that I don’t want to be alone right now.
That’s when reality hits me again, and I realize just how truly alone I am now with no one to call family. I drop to my knees and cry as the water washes over me like a warm blanket only with holes that have been cut out by the pain I’m in, never to keep me fully protected again.
CHAPTERFORTY
Senior Year
The last two months have been an absolute blur. Thankfully, my dad did have a will, and it stated that I was to live with Debbie, so the courts didn’t fuss when they realized a minor was now an orphan.
Seeing theFor Salesign go up at my childhood home was painful, but not as painful as it was to clean out the place.
Heather and Megan have been by my side the entire time—yes, I’m so happy that my and Megan’s friendship has finally fully mended, just sucks that it took something like losing my father to get us there.
We walked down memory lane as we looked at old photo albums my mom had put together before she passed.
Now, I’m sitting at Aaron’s home—my home too, I guess—staring out the window as people rummage through what’s left of our stuff in the estate sale the real estate agent set up. Every single piece that walks out our door, I can tie a memory to it, and here I sit, watching people nickel-and-dime to try to get the best deal they can on it all.
“Sweetie, you shouldn’t be watching like this,” Debbie says as she rubs my back.
I turn and sit on the couch like any normal person would and sigh. “I know. It’s like a bad movie. I can’t help but watch it all play out.”
She sits next to me. “I know. Why don’t you guys go out? Go to the lake or something.”
Aaron comes walking around the corner just then, and Debbie gestures to him.
“What do you think? You two should go hang out at the lake like you used to.”
Aaron looks at me questioningly with a raise of his shoulders. “I’m down. Want to go?”
I let out a breath and nod. “You’re right. Watching this is a slow kind of torture. Let’s go.”
I stand and head to my bedroom to get ready. Day by day, I’m learning I need to get on with my life. My dad wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. He was apull up your bootstraps and move onkind of guy, and I use that strength he gave me every day to keep moving forward.
After I’m changed and we pack a lunch, we head out to the lake, just the two of us, like we used to before all the drama happened and we were simply friends.
