I felt the bed move beneath me and I instantly knew it wasn't going to be a fun conversation. "Did you do this because of our disagreement?" At first I thought I could feign sleep, but Riley's smarter than that.
"No, I chose to live with my grandma because it's best that way."
"It's best to live six hours from me, because Emma, you're practically my daughter." His eyes were filled with sorrow. I had seen way too much sorrow in the last week.
"No I'm not," his face fell and I wanted to hug him and tell him it was all a joke, but it wasn't. We were close, but he wasn't my father. "Last night, during our argument, you yelled at me. It scared me, Riley. You never yell at me. You can't be my parent. That's not our relationship and I don't want to lose the you I have now. I'm not your daughter, Riley, but I'd like to think of you as my best friend. You've always been my fun uncle, but when I move to Iowa I'm losing all of my friends and you just lost your best friend." Tears fell from my eyes as the reality of moving sunk in.
"You're not losing all of your friends, you still have me. Besides," he smirked, "I was just promoted to best friend." I laughed at him as he pulled me into a hug. "Six hours is still far," he said while holding me to his chest.
"You'll have to use your vacation time you've been saving up to come visit me."
"Anything for you, Princess." He kissed the top of my head and I couldn't help but think that I made the right choice.
Riley left me to get dressed saying that we had some paperwork to fill out and that I should say goodbye to relatives as they left to return to Iowa.
Full Copyright 2013
Updated 6/17/2018