When I finally woke up the next morning, I wasn’t completely sure where I was. Nathan wasn’t anywhere in sight, and all I could smell was bacon from down the hall. I tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep, but the smell was overpowering and after a few minutes, I listened to my grumbling stomach and got out of the bed I was laying in and followed the smell. I walked through a sparsely decorated hallway, and out into a living room with only the “necessities”. I could see into the kitchen from where I stood in the living room and it was as bare as the rest of the apartment.
“Don’t you like things in your house?” I asked, sneaking into the kitchen and causing Nathan to jump.
“I’m never really here for long periods of time, so what’s the point of spending a bunch of money to decorate it?” Nathan asked, making me remember that he was leaving soon. I had honestly forgotten all about the whole military thing, I was so happy just to be around him again but obviously that came with a price this time.
“Oh, yeah.” I answered simply, grabbing a piece of bacon from the plate and chewing lightly on the edge.
“You okay, Ais?” Nathan asked, waving his hand in front of my face as I drifted off into my thoughts. I smiled brightly before nodding a yes.
“So, what are we gonna do today?” I asked, continuing to smile at him.
“Well, my mom kind of had a family day planned…” Nathan’s sentence simply drifted off after those words.
“Oh. Well you could just take me home then.” I answered, smiling lightly and trying not to show how disappointed I was that he wouldn’t be with me today.
“Aislin, you know you’re invited. My mom loves you.” Nathan rolled his eyes at me, before turning the strips of bacon over.
“Oh!” I answered brightly, smiling for real at him, “So when are we supposed to meet everyone else?”
“They’re actually coming over here in-“ Nathan began his sentence just as the doorbell rang, “Right now.” He laughed, muttering something about perfect timing.
Blair was the first one to come rushing into the house, and she barreled straight into Nathan’s chest. Then as he was holding her up in a hug she spotted me over his shoulder, and squealed to get down.
“Aye!” She yelled, rushing over to me and squeezing me like her life depended on it. Blair was only ten years old, and I had been around a lot when she had started talking and she had loved me. Nathan’s other sister, Jenny, was completely different. Even though we were really close in age, she was less than two years younger than Nathan and I, but she hated me. I don’t really know what it was, but she had never really liked me, and from the way she was sulking near the front door with her arms crossed, glaring at me, that hadn’t changed.
“Hey Aislin” David, Nathan’s brother said as he walked in, giving me a high five and a head nod, causing Jenny to glare even more. David and Jenny were fraternal twins, but David had been born first and everyone thought he was older.
Nathan’s parents walked in then, his mother giving me a huge hug and his father a brisk handshake. Once everyone was in, they began to discuss what we were going to do that day. Everyone eventually agreed on a picnic at the local park, where there would be lots of things for everyone to do. The family left to head down there, and allow Nathan and I to get ready. After we were both done we headed down there and met them.
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked, smiling up at him, happy to be with him once again.
“Um, let’s go this way.” Nathan answered, suddenly steering me away from a group of teenagers that we had been heading towards.
“Nathan? Is that you?” A girls voice called, making Nathan visibly cringe before he turned to face her.
“Oh, hey Taylor.” He said, smiling a fake grin.
“Gosh, I sure have missed you. It’s been so long, I can’t even remember the last time I saw that cute little face of yours.” The girl in front of us had an extremely flirtatious smile on as she ran her finger up and down Nathan’s arm.
“Yeah, you know, I should really get to my family.” Nathan replied, clearly trying to get out of the conversation.
“Oh, is this one of your sisters?” The girl finally turned to look at me, giving me the fakest smile of them all.
“Uh, no.” I answered shortly, glaring at her a little.
“This is Aislin. You remember me telling you about her?” Nathan said, correcting her as shock overcame her face.
“Oh. So you’re with her again?” She said, glaring at me, and turning on her heel before calling coolly over her shoulder, “I won’t always be around when your heart gets broken, you know.”
Nathan simply rolled his eyes before turning away from whoever that was and heading over to his family.
“So…who was that?” I asked after a minute of complete silence.
“Just a girl I used to know.” Nathan answered shortly, not even looking at me as he answered.
“Really? Cause she seemed to more than ‘know’ you.” I answered, rolling my eyes at his behavior.
“Yeah, okay. So we had a thing, but it’s really not important.” He answered, looking at me before continuing, “You were the only one who was ever really important.” His phone began ringing before I could say anything back, and after looking at it, he said he had to take this call.
“What’s Nathan doing?” His mom asked when I finally reached them.
“Oh, someone called and he said he had to take it.” I answered sitting down next to Blair on the picnic table.
“Oh, no. I hope he doesn’t have to ship out early.” His mother answered, looking over her son with worrying eyes.
“Does that happen a lot?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at him, but being unable to tell anything since his back was turned to me.
“It seems like every time Nathan gets shipped out he leaves early.” His mother sighed out just as Nathan closed the phone and began walking over, “I guess we’ll find out now, huh?”
“So what was that about?” I asked brightly, trying to keep my mind on the bright side.
“I have some bad news.” Nathan said, running his hand over his short hair before continuing, “I’m leaving next week.”