1000 Miles - Chandler Riggs // Austin Abrams

Chapter Twenty Three

September 14th, 2016

As soon as I walked into the apartment the next day I could tell something was wrong. Karson was sitting on the couch with his knees to his chest and Mom had a can of beer in her hand. She never drinks, I'm surprised she even has that. 

Karson looks up at me and runs over to me, wrapping his arms around me, he's crying. I wrap my arms around him as his tears soak my shirt. "Mom, what's going on?" I ask, noticing a couple of boxes scattered around.

My mom stands up and wipes a couple of tears from her eyes. "You're moving in with your father." She says. 

I stare at her in shock. Moving in with him? But he moved to Georgia. 

"In Georgia?" I ask. She nods. 

"W-What? Why?" I ask trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall. She hands me a slip of paper. 

"Your father said in court that I was 'unstable' and couldn't care for you two. I lost my job, I can barely afford this apartment, let alone food to put on the table. Your father has a well paying job and a decent house. As much as I don't want it, you and Karson have to go to Georgia and live with your father." Mom tells me. Karson pulls away and sits down on the couch. 

"She can't move to Georgia! What am I supposed to do?" Kaylin asks. I forgot she was here. She was crying. 

"I'm so sorry." Mom whispers taking another sip of beer. "You need to pack. You're leaving tomorrow." 

I don't say anything. Instead I storm off to my room, slamming the door in the process. 

I go to my closet and grab my suitcase and pulling all of my clothes down off the hanger and very messily putting them into the suitcase. 

I didn't know it, but Kaylin and Karson came into my room. 

"Poppy." Kaylin whispers. 

I slam the suitcase shut, but it won't zip. I let out a frustrated groan and sit on my bed. "Poppy, do you need help?" Kaylin asks, opening my suitcase and dumping its contents onto my bed. 

"I don't know what I need anymore." 

Kaylin starts folding my clothes and neatly putting them into my suitcase.

"Kaylin you don't have to do that." I grumble, grabbing my clothes and helping. 

Karson joins in. 

"I can't believe your dad is doing this." She says. 

I shrug. "Me either." 

An hour of silence and all of my things that I'm taking with me are packed up and ready to go. 

My phone dings. It was the group chat.

Nat the bat: guys did you make it back okay? 

Australia: ya, are you guys okay?

Poppy Seed: we're good. 

Cara: you guys don't seem okay.

Kaylin the only ten i see: poppy's dad is an ass 

Cara: oh no what happened

Poppy Seed: I'm moving to georgia because my mother is ''unstable'' and ''can't care for her kids'' oh and my favorite ''a drunk''

the thing is she's never drank a beer in her life until recently. 

Nat the bat: dejavous. if i ever meet your dad i swear i'm going to smack him so hard

Poppy Seed: that'd be an interesting sight.

I put my phone up and squeeze my eyes shut. My dad will have full custody of me. Who knows what that means? He already doesn't like me talking to older people, and I can tell he doesn't like Nat just by the messages he's seen. He can barely stand Kaylin, and it really ticks me off. 

"I'm scared." Karson says snapping me back into reality. "Why?" I ask. 

"Planes." He says. 

Kaylin and I give him a small smile. "Don't worry. I was scared too, but after a couple times it's actually pretty cool." Kaylin tells him. "Besides, you'll have Poppy." 

Karson nods. "I just wish I didn't have to leave Lexi." 

Karson and Lexi are keeping a long distance relationship, but he's still upset about it. "Don't worry bud." I tell him. "We'll get through this." 

"I'll come visit you guys every chance I get." Kaylin says. 

"You better." 

Kaylin smiles but then her smile fades as if realizing something. "Will you guys still be able to come to the movie premiere in January?" 

Karson and I exchange a glance. "I don't know." I tell her honestly. She stares at the ground. "Great." She says sarcastically. 

For the rest of the night, Karson, Kaylin, and I sit around my room staring at it and looking at an old photo album that I've had forever. It was mainly filled with photos of my family and pictures Kaylin, Elliot and I took. In more of the recent pages, I filled it with photos from Gatlinburg and with everything else. 

I wish summer didn't end.

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A/N: I'M SORRY IT'S ANOTHER SHORT CHAPTER. THE NEXT FEW WILL BE SEMI LONGER. I HOPE I'M NOT SURE.