Of Family Matters

Moving; part 1

There was never a time that he could tell her how he felt. They never had a moment private enough, not since he realized that she is more than just a friend.
When his family decided to move away from the small town he grew up in, not long after his seventeenth birthday, he just had to tell her.
'Well,' he thought, standing with her on the steps of their shared high school for the last time, 'it's now or never, I suppose.'
Shifting from foot to foot, he started,"Hey, A, I know that this is sudden, but I want to tell you before it's too late. A, I am really, truly, in-"
"Love with me? We both know that's not true. At least not in the way you seem to be implying." he looks very confused at her words. "At least, I thought we did." She rolls her eyes, sighing. "If you think that, I don't know how you're going to survive without me. J, do you not know the difference between the love you're talking about and the love for a best friend?" at his confusion, she elaborated. "I know the difference in you, the different way that you act around someone you have a crush on and your friends and family. You act the same way around me as you do around CJ, Kay, and Mike. And I know you don't love your younger siblings like that. You treat me like a sister, and I treat you like my younger brother, because I hate my older brothers. All the time, not just some of the time like with you." She smiled at him, leaning against the rail dividing the concrete steps they were standing on. Both were waiting for their parents to arrive, as neither was trusted with a car because of all the trouble they get into without one. Not to mention the fact that they never quite make it home when they are trusted to ride the bus. The two of them had been thick as thieves ever since they were in diapers together.
He stared at her for a few moments, thinking, then took a few steps down before flopping down on to the one he had been standing on previously. "You're right," he said with a laugh and a short smile. "I just tried to think of us in a real relationship, and it felt so wrong. As if it was with a blood relative. I guess I should think things through more thoroughly before I go breaking some girls heart because she really is in love with me and I'm just confused again," he grinned up at her, knowing that she could steer him right. Then his smile slowly fell, remembering that he wouldn't have her there to help him work through confusing emotions and other dramas related directly to being a teenager. He was moving away, she would stay here. They could text, Skype, any number of other things, but they couldn't be in the same room, couldn't talk face to face, oh no, not good, really not-
He looked up from his lap--'when did I look down?'-- only to see her concerned face closer than it was before. She had squatted down beside him, leaning over the lowest bar of the railing now, and had reached through to put her hands on his shoulders. "J, you have to calm down. I know that moving so far away will be hard, but you have to be strong. Just remember, we can still talk, no matter the distance. You can make new friends, you will. I know it's going to be hard, but you have to be there for you brothers and your sister. CJ and Kay especially, Mike's too young to really remember much yet..." She continues, but she had already managed to calm him down. She always had an ability to know exactly what he needed in a particular situation. He really loved her for that, like a favorite sibling. And now that he really thinks about it, ew, how could he even think that he loved her like that. He really was an idiot.
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The next morning, instead of getting up at his normal 6:30 in order to get to school by eight, he was assaulted by the ringing of his phone alarm and the three sharp bangs of his dad knocking on his door to insure that he was conscious. At 4:30. His parents insistence of leaving so early drove him insane.
But, he had other things to worry about, such as waking the twin terrors in order to dress them.
"Why can Mike be the one I'm in charge of? I'd take diaper duty over dealing with CJ and Kay in a heartbeat," he grumbled.
Only to himself while getting dressed, of course. Can't let the two three year olds think he didn't love them as much as Mike, they had had enough trouble with that kind of think a year ago when their mother told them she was having another baby. Not a performance he wanted to see repeated anytime soon, and preferably never again.