Neighborhood ➳ h.s. au

Nineteen

Ann's hands and back ached from the endless folding of the clothes around her. Her big eyes glanced around the room where she had called her home for the past few months, and she let out a heavy sigh as she put her light blue, lace dress in the cardboard box and taped it up, her foot kicking it to the side. It was a routine that she was all too familiar with, and always, always after she was done packing a few boxes, she would pull her thin hair up into a bun and sit on her bed.

Never has her mom had to transfer jobs this early into just moving, so why now? She was one of the busiest people in the business, and Ann could understand why she had to move the other times, but not now.

Not now.

The loud ringing of Ann's phone caused her to nearly jump out of her skin, and she wrapped her sweaty hand around it before seeing that Harry was the one trying to reach her, and her eyes squeezed shut as she thought about having to leave him. They were already going through difficulties, and this made it even worse.

"Hey," Ann sighed as she answered, her body turning so she could see him at his window, a grin spread across his lips.

"Hey."

For a moment, they just stood there, looking at each other, and for a moment, Ann could swear she saw something more than friendship in his emerald eyes, but it dissipated as Ann spoke in a harsh tone.

"Did you need something? I was kind of busy."

Harry shook his head and he glanced away from her moistened face. "I just wanted to talk, really, like we used t-"

"Harry," Ann's voice had a pleading tone, and she started to pace back and forth, her free hand clenching and unclenching at her side. "We aren't going to be able to go back to the way we used to be."

She couldn't see Harry's reaction because of her movements, but she knew he wouldn't react friendly to that statement.

"Ann, how come you've been so...I don't know. I feel like I don't even know you anymore."

Ann shook her head and rolled her eyes before glancing over at the boxes to the right of her. She needed to tell him, but she didn't know how she would ever be able to do something like that - and in the middle of an argument.

"Because I'm.." She sucked in a breath through her teeth and felt tears well up in her eyes. The tears soaked through her eyelashes and lightly wet her cheeks, and she let out a shaking breath. "I just - I need to go. I'm sorry."

Her thumb quickly pressed 'END' and she threw the phone onto her bed, her bottom lip quivering from the undeniable amount of sadness and rage building up inside her. She had made new friends, made this place her home, and now they had to leave.

A knock emitted through her room and Jewel poked her head inside, her eyes glancing around the almost empty room. Her mouth opened to speak, but she quickly closed it when she saw her sobbing daughter standing in the middle, her head hung so Jewel wouldn't be able to see her face.

Jewel knew this trick all too well, and she quickly made her way to stand in front of her daughter, her thin fingers combing the hair out of her face to see her silently weeping.

"Hey, baby, come here," Jewel whispered before pulling Ann into her chest. Her hand stroked her hair lightly, while her lips lightly kissed the top of her head. "What's wrong?"

Ann just shook her head. She couldn't trust her voice, and she knew that her mother already knew what it was that was wrong. "Is it Harry, or the fact that we're moving?"

Ann looked up her mother with swollen, red eyes and let out a sob before choking out, "B..both."

Jewel nodded then, and hugged her closer. "I know it's hard, but we don't have any other choice. If we don't make this move, I'll be out of a job, and then we won't even be able to afford anything."

"I know but.." Ann sniffed and turned her head to look out the window, only to see Harry's closed curtains. "Mom, I c..can't leave."

Her mind raced with the thoughts of him and only him. The him that would make her smile, the him that would make her happy on a rainy day. The him that she had fallen so deeply and desperately in love with.

Him.

And she knew that when she left, she would never get to be with him again.