Chapter 36

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Taping the last cardboard box, I stood up and glanced around my room. It looked so different, so empty. The framed photographs were gone along with the decoration in the room. My room was so empty I could hear the echo of my own voice when I spoke. My phone rang, making the shrill sound echo. I cringed and reached for my phone. A small smile stretched out on my face seeing Ethan’s name flash on my display screen.

“Hello,” I said brightly.

“Hey. What are you up to?” he questioned.

I sighed, slipping my hand in my back pocket and looking around my room once again. “Packing.”

That one word was enough for him to become silent.

“Hello?” I said, breaking the silence.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Actually, I just-are you free tonight?”

“Tonight?” I repeated.

“I know you’re going tomorrow but today’s the last day we can spend some time together,” he explained. “Please. Just one hour. If you need help packing, I’ll come to your place with you afterwards. You know what? You don’t even need to come out with me. I’ll just come over. We’ll finish packing. I frankly don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”

“I’m going to cry,” I stated.

“What?”

“I think this is the first time you’ve sincerely asked-begged me to go out with you,” I said with a sad smile.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

I laughed. “Yes, of course. In fact, I’m done packing.”

“Great, then,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at 6:30.”

“Alright,” I said.

I continued with packing little bits and pieces I found around the house and before I knew it, Ethan was going to be coming over any minute and I had nothing to wear. Now, I know girls usually say this when they’re standing right in front of a huge closet with multiple dresses hanging in front of them but in my case, I really didn’t have anything good to wear. My closet was empty and if I dug through my suitcase to search for something good, I would have to re-pack my suitcase later. That’s just double work.

“Ashley!” mom yelled from downstairs. “Could you come down for a minute?”

I looked at my suitcase again and grabbed my denim jacket which was on the top. I put on over my crop top on my way down.

“Yes?” I asked, observing mom removing things from the last cabinet in the kitchen and blindly throwing things in the box.

She looked over at me and her eyebrows pulled in together. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m going out with Ethan.”

“Oh.”

“Is something wrong?” I questioned slowly.

“No, no,” she said, putting more stuff into the box. “I just thought you’d at least stay home today and help me out. But clearly, you have more important stuff to attend to.”

Was she seriously trying to make me feel guilty with her sarcasm?

I glared at her for a minute before saying, “Yes. I do. Please just call me when there’s something extremely urgent.”

I gave her a tight smile and swiftly turned on my heel. I grabbed my boots on my way out, without saying a goodbye. If she wanted to be plain rude, I could too.

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