Our Little Melody

"I can't believe this. My little girl is off to college."

"Honey, feel free to take everything," Mom says. "Or say it's not too late. You can just start next year or the year after that...or even go online."

"Mom, I don't need it. It's a dorm. There's furniture. I'm leaving. It's time."

"Right." She says quietly, sitting down on my bare mattress. "I can't believe this. My little girl is off to college."

I zip up my second suitcase and look at her, running my hands down my thighs.

"Mom, I'm nineteen. I should have left last year."

"I know." She sighs. "I'll go check on your father and make sure he's working on your car instead of binge watching CSI." She kisses my forehead and walks out.

Marissa, my little sister, walks in my room and drops down on my bed.

I'm nineteen and she's fifteen.

"I can't believe your actually leaving me with Mom and Dad." She grumbles.
"Sorry kid." I smile, moving to my closet.

"Where did you get those shorts?" she asks. They're light denim short shorts from Forever 21 and they have shreds in the front.

"Uh, Forever 21, why?" I ask.

"I was thinking that, you know, since you're leaving me with Mom and Dad, you should give me those to remember you."

"Nice try, Marissa. You're getting my room." I laugh.

"Maybe not." She says quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." she trails off. "I can't tell you."

"Why?" I ask.

"I can't even tell you why because you'll know."

I sigh and start pulling clean clothes that I carelessly tossed into my closet out. I begin to fold them. Marissa helps me in silence.

Dad is supposed to be doing an oil change on my car.

Since we're rich, Dad insisted on not letting me pay a cent for college. We got into a whole fight for it that lasted all of senior year, and then I gave up and let him pay, and then for graduation, he handed me car keys.

I swear I almost slapped him.

I want to be independent. I don't like being rich. I miss being poor and sharing a room with my little sister and riding a bike to school.

Right when people see me, with my long brown curly hair and my brownish greenish bluish eyes, they think I'm a snobby bitch because of the clothes I wear and the car I have, but that's not the truth.

My parents are rich, I however, am a barista at Starbucks and would rather be riding a bike then driving a car.

I want to make a living for myself, not my life made for me.

I am a very independent person, but I do let people help me, it's just money when I get mad.

Dad deposited five hundred thousand dollars in my bank account, we got in a fight about it, and then I went and donated half of it to All Children's Hospital, and kept the two hundred and fifty thousand left for myself, but its in savings.

I grab the last shirt, which is from when I was ten, because I never go trhough my closet, and I toss it aside, in the pile of clothes that don't fit.

I pause, because there is a light purple book sitting there, untouched.

I stare at it.

I know exactly what this is.

A memory hits me.

"Sissy, why are you crying?" My six year old sister whispers. "Do you miss Ryan?"

"Yes." I whisper, hiding my ten year old face in my pillow. "Now get out."

"I want to help!" she stops her foot and her light up sneakers light up.

"Fine." I snap. "Hide this book and make sure I never see it again!"

The funny thing is, I looked for that book. Marissa said she didn't know where she put it, but I know she was lying.

I slowly open it.

Deer Dary,

I'm 5 and Ryan is my frend and we play linkin logs together

That's the only one I read before tears well in my eyes. I couldn't spell.

Ryan.

He's all I ever think about.

It's all his fault, my father's.

If he hadn't gotten that stupid job, I would have been best friends with Ryan still.

I would still know where he lives, and even at nineteen years old, I would probably still steal his cookies and chase him around the playground.

But no, of course not, because when I was ten, Dad got a job that made him a millionaire, but there was a catch.

There always is, right?

We had to move to New York.

New York.

That is literally sixteen hours and two minutes away from Ryan, and one thousand, and seventy two point six miles from Ryan's house to mine.

I'm going to Florida for college, because I hate New York. I hate the city, I hate snow.

I just hate everything here.

Right after we left, I sunk into a depression, and I never made any other friends.

Ryan was my old friend.

I saw him once after that, but I never saw him again.

I'm going to Saint Leo University. Ryan and I, when we were nine, we decided to go to Saint Leo's. we said to wait a year so we could spend time together.

We weren't together during the year, but I still waited the year, just in case Ryan did too.

I had straight A's and a 4.0 GPA all through middle and high school.

I was the top student in the county, I had every honors and A.P. class I could have, and I had Avid, which is a college prep class.

I've never even seen Saint Leo University with my own eyes, but I'm going there. I was accepted.

I throw the diary in my suitcase, just in case.

I zip up the last suitcase and stand up. Classes start in a week but I'm leaving around the time as everyone else so I can be prepared and situated for classes.

Dad and Mom walk in just as I stand up.

"Ready?" Mom asks.

Sighing, I nod. "Yes."

I hug Marissa. "Don't make Mom and Dad have heart attacks. Don't do anything I would do. Be careful, if a guy is a jerk, kick him in the balls." I kiss her head and hug Dad.

"Be careful, no boys, follow curfew."

I smile. He kisses my cheek and I hug Mom.

"Don't drink, don't drink and drive, make friends. Smile. Be respectful. No fighting, work hard, cal every night, and call when you enter a new state."

"Yes ma'am." She kisses my head and they follow me downstairs. I pull my suitcases and Dad gets the other two.

I take one last look at my bare room and walk out.

I head to my light blue mustang and pop the trunk. Dad and I fill it with my suitcases, and I toss my big brown leather purse in the passenger seat and hug them goodbye one last time, and then I get in my car and shut the door.

I give them one last look as I stat the car, and drive away to the start of my new life, back to where I belong.