Saturdays were starting to be my least favorite day of the week.
Even the thought of that sounded odd in my head, though true it was.
I watched my mom chastise the movers for handling a box that clearly said the words, fragile, too roughly while loading it onto the moving truck. She started wagging her finger at him as she scolded the proper way to handle someone else's belongings. I felt bad for him; he looked like a hurt puppy. I figured she'd only keep yelling at him until someone came to save him so I volunteered myself to interrupt her tirade. I looked around for something I could create a sudden problem with and found a small box with the words, pictures, scrabbled across the side and ran to her, butting in between her and the man. He threw me a look of gratitude.
"Mom, what do you want me to do with this?" I asked as her eyes searched for the guy she was lecturing. He'd ran off as fast as he could.
She finally settled with me, looking at the picture box and then met my eyes. "What? This? Find a bigger box to put it in." And then she shoved me aside to go yell some other guys who were hauling our couch out of the house.
I shrugged to myself. At least I tried. I carried the box back into the garage where all our other stuff was, packed in boxes and boxes, waiting to be moved to the truck. I sat on a large one while I opened the picture box. I began thumbing through the five by sevens, reliving old Christmas' and birthdays' when I felt another presence in the garage. I looked up to see Steve, my boyfriend come in. He looked like he hadn't slept all night; he knew today I was leaving Atlanta for good.
"Well you look great." I told him while putting the picture I was looking at back in the box. It had been a picture of Steve and I at his junior prom two years ago. As a freshman, I'd been so ecstatic that an upperclassman asked me to go. It was also the same night that Steve and I began dating.
"You're leaving today. It was more difficult than I thought to come to terms with that… so I didn't get much sleep last night, seeing as though this is the last I will see you in person for a long time." He said, confirming my assumption.
I put down the box of pictures and stood, making my way to him. I ran a hand through his tousled chocolate brown hair before cupping his cheek and reaching up on my toes to kiss him.
"Don't worry so much," I began, "distance can't come between us, alright? It'll be okay."
"I'm out of high school; I can just move to California also if I had the money." He protested. I gave him a doubtful look.
"Steve," I said, disbelief crossing my tone, "you can't just pick up and leave. I mean I know your parents kicked you out but that doesn't mean you should leave them without any explanation. Besides, your job is barely paying for your rent at Derek's, I don't think you could pay for your own place in California."
He sighed, "I know, I know. I just am gonna miss you, is all."
I gave him a sad smile and rested my head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around me. It was hard enough having to deal with starting a new school in a new town across the country that I'd never even heard of. But when I'd asked my mom if I could stay here and live with Steve, she'd shot it down before I could even offer a rebuttal. The fact was that I was still seventeen to Steve's twenty. And I don't think even I could handle living across the country without my mom. We were all each other had after my step-dad died.
"Sam!" I heard her call from inside. I untangled myself from Steve and we both went inside to see what it was she needed.
"Where are you?" I called, trying to place what direction her voice had come from.
"Your room." She responded. I headed that way to find her sitting on my floor pulling boxes to the left and right, deciding if they were going into the moving truck or in her car with us.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"Help me load up the rest of the boxes. It'll get done faster if we help the guys out." She said and then looked to Steve. "Steve, good, you're here. Help us carry these boxes out, will you?"
Collectively, we managed to pack up the truck faster than originally expected. The movers were just about finished loading up the moving truck around eleven which was perfect, I guess, because my mom wanted to leave at noon.
"Okay, well it's time to start saying your good-byes, Sam. We have to leave in twenty minutes if we want to make it to Jackson before dark." My mom told me, motioning to Steve who gave me a look of confusion.
"I thought your Grandma lived in Houston." He said.
I nodded, "We're stopping halfway tonight and driving the rest of the way there tomorrow." He nodded in understanding.
It was awkwardly silent for too long of a moment. I didn't really know how to say good-bye to him and I felt my eyes fill with tears. I leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder and wrapping my arms around his waist. He put his arms around me and we began rocking side to side. I could feel his breathing hitch and it nearly broke my heart. I'd never actually seen him full out cry before; he was never that kind of guy. I hugged him tighter. It was as if we were trying to hold each other together to keep the separation at bay.
This is why I was beginning to hate Saturdays. It was the day I found out my mom wanted to move and it was now the day I had to leave my life behind. I didn't even like California. I never could put my finger on it for why either which just made me hate it even more. I'd made a pro and con list for moving there and the con side definitely won.
"Steve," I said, my voice choked up on itself, "I love you so much. I don't know what I'm going to do without you."
I lifted my head to look at him. His eyes were filled with tears also. He pushed a strand of hair from my face and his fingertips traced my cheek bone before cupping the side of my face. He bent down to kiss my forehead.
"Samantha Elizabeth Hayes, never in my life did I imagine meeting someone like you. I love you so much and this distance won't change a thing between us." He whispered. He said it so sweetly that I felt the tears spill over and he leaned in to kiss me.
It was soft and sweet. It didn't feel like a good-bye kiss because it wasn't. It was a kiss filled purely with love and promise. I never really wanted it to end but I knew my mom wouldn't be too happy if we weren't on schedule because I was busy kissing my boyfriend. I tried to gently pull away but Steve caught my bottom lip and kissed me two, three more times before actually allowing me to pull away.
"I have to go." I whispered to him. He nodded and kissed my forehead again. We separated, said our last good-byes and then he left my garage for the last time. Before overthinking too much, I turned on my heel to find my mom. She wanted to leave so badly then I figured she might as well want to get moving.
She met me out on the front porch. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. Sure. Let's just go." I said and pushed passed her on my way to the car. I watched as she locked the doors for the final time and set the keys in the mailbox. She walked up to the car and I rolled down my window.
"I know I never asked you about moving and I'm sorry. But I don't want you to start taking it out on me. Not when your step-dad just passed." She shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Okay. I'm sorry also that I had to ask you to drive all the way to Grandma's but I thank you for being such a good sport about it. It's six hours from here to Jackson in Mississippi. I just filled up the tank so you should be good for a while. You're following me?"
I sighed. I didn't really want to fight with her either. "Yeah, I'm following you. And it's okay."
She nodded, "Alright then let's hit the road." She walked to the moving truck and climbed in the driver's side. I turned the key in the ignition and as soon as I saw her start to pull away from the curb, I glanced at the house one last time.
I followed my mom down the street of our neighborhood for the last time while watching our house disappear in the distance.
A.N. Okay, I'm SO sorry this wasn't up yesterday. Go figure the time I plan to keep my promise to you guys we have a massive power outage. Yeah Thursday night the power went out and didn't come back on until yesterday but our internet didn't come back until this morning. I'm SO sorry. I'm getting ready to go on a camping trip for the week so the next chapter will be up next Saturday. I am changing the intro chapter up, for those of you who have gotten to chapter 13 already. Characters will remain the same, I just hated the first few chapter and how little sense they made. Please read and review for me : )