waitress // lrh

41 // bobby

  // cate //

Luke and I had talked for hours after I woke up. Mostly about the future. Our futures.

I realized that I wasn't ready for college. Sure, academically I was prepared, but that was it. Being away from home, even just by forty minutes seemed daunting to me.

So, a gap year seemed like the reasonable route to take.

I was so lucky that I had Luke. He supported what tentative decisions that I made, and if I was on the fence about something, Luke would always try and help me to make up my mind without pushing his opinions into it as a factor.

And eventually, the topic of me moving in had come up again. Before, we had mentioned it very briefly. But I could tell that Luke wanted to see if I was even somewhat on board.

Of course I wanted to be with him and spend time with him. I also loved being able to walk into the room next door or just glance over and see him.

Moving in with him was also very intimidating to me. Yet I knew what it was like to live with him. I just wasn't quite sure if I was ready to be away from my family just yet.

I'd move in eventually. I was only twenty some minutes from home, probably even less when Luke drove. We had figured that in a few weeks, if my parents allowed it, I could move in with him.

I knew that my dad especially would want to discuss the whole thing in detail with both myself and Luke. He still had a few things to figure out, but we had mostly made up our minds on how it would all work out.

We had decided to save that for another day.

I was lying on my own bed now, just staring up at the ceiling in the dark.

So much had happened today. Good things, mainly. Or bad things that lead to good things. It depended on the perspective you could look at it with.

Either way, Luke and I weren't a secret anymore.

Luke was in his own apartment.

I wasn't starting college this year.

And that was okay.

All of that was okay.

//

"Here's your check, I'll be back in just a minute to collect it," I set the little black book down onto the table with a forced smile, before walking away to check on my other tables.

The restaurant was closing for the night, so there were only a few people around. Autumn and Leigh were packing up to leave, apparently trusting me to handle it. I didn't mind, though.

Luke was working late again anyway. He was just going to drive me back to his apartment when we had both finished up.

I didn't know how he worked for so long. I had been coming in at one only three days a week the entire summer and I was tired. However, Luke worked overtime every single day.

I guess this was where I'd be working at for the next year or until I was ready for college. That was okay, I liked waitressing and I was so close to Luke. Maybe I was starting to have attachment issues.

Fingers scrabbling to grasp my hand startled me, and I glanced down in surprise to see a little boy standing at my feet.

"Hi," I greeted him softly, my face lighting up, kneeling down to be a little closer to his height.

"Hi," he replied, his small voice high pitched.

"Do you need something?"

"My mom." He seemed almost distraught.