Chapter 37: Chapter 35

I laughed silently. “You actually did that?”

“Yeah!” Ethan exclaimed from the other side of the phone. It was currently 1 am and we had been talking on the phone for the past hour and before that, we had been texting each other.

“You are so dumb,” I responded, laughter vibrating through my body. “I still can’t believe you and Michael raided Erica’s make-up. Where was Jared?”

“He was busy trying to touch up our faces with permanent marker,” he said, chuckling lightly.

“You guys are such idiots,” I mumbled.

“Don’t judge me! We were a bit tipsy,” he defended himself. “Besides, red lip gloss really brings out the color of my eyes,” he added.

“Uh huh,” I said sarcastically. “What did Erica do?”

“She drew inappropriate stuff on my face with the permanent marker and took pictures of me,” he responded as a matter-of-factly. “She still uses them as leverage. But I have enough embarrassing stories and photos on her to get back at her.”

“So typical of her,” I said, laughing.

I heard him clear his throat while a yawn slipped past my lips when my laughter died off. “So, I was thinking about you moving to Australia.”

I felt my mood drop instantly. “What about it?”

“Don’t you think you should tell everyone?” he asked. “And by ‘everyone’, I mean Erica, Abby, Michael and Jared.”

I played with the fabric on my blanket. “I-No.”

“Why?” he questioned without missing a beat.

“I already told you, Ethan,” I responded, tightening my fingers on a stray piece of thread and plucking it out.

He didn’t say anything for a minute, waiting for me to continue. When I didn’t show any signs of continuing the conversation, he said, “Enlighten me again, please.”

I sighed. “Because I feel like I’ve been bothering everyone with my problems a lot recently.”

“But we’re-they’re your friends,” he protested. “They’re not going to get irritated by you. You have every right to bother us with your problems. Besides, isn’t it better if you tell them now and give them time to bid you farewell and spend some time with you rather than telling them a day before you’re going to leave? There’s probably a chance that Erica and Abby might get pissed at you for not telling them earlier, especially since I know and they don’t.”

Yes, he did have a good point, but he wasn’t around when all of them were there for me when Austin…drugged me and he was mad at me. I don’t want to pile them up with more uninvited drama. Honestly, I don’t think I can take it; mom has already limited down our talks to only arguing about whether or not we’re moving and Ethan seems to be talking about to it to me quite a lot now, too. I don’t want my last days spent here with the rest of them constantly thinking about the fact that I will be gone in the next few days, weeks, who knows!

“I don’t know, Ethan,” I mumbled.

He sighed. “Think about it.”

“I will,” I promised. “We should probably go to bed. It’s late.”

“Yeah,” he hummed. “Sleep well, night.”

“Good night.” I smiled.

“I shall see you in my dreams,” he said and I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Here we go again,” I said, laughing.

“Stop denying it, you know you love them,” he countered.

“Nope. Bye,” I quickly uttered out and disconnected the call before he could say anything, chuckling to myself.

My phone vibrated. It was a message from Ethan- well, an emoticon: -_-

I rolled my eyes and switching off my lamp; I pulled my blanket over my head and tried to get some sleep.

*

“Have fun!” mom called out behind me. I gave her a brief smile and continued walking.

It was unfair and infuriating how mom suddenly started behaving like nothing was wrong. This morning, I went downstairs and she had prepared my favorite breakfast. It was as if we never had those few days of tantrums and arguments and silent treatment never even happened. What the hell?

Not that I was complaining.

Okay. Maybe I was.

But that’s not the point. The point is that it’s aggravating how parents think they can make everything switch back to normal when they want to.

I didn’t bother arguing or showing attitude, though. I just went along with it. I wanted to keep the drama in my life to a minimum, anyway.

As I approached my locker, I saw Abby and Jared standing near it and I thought about what Ethan told me last night. Yes, they do deserve to know that I’m leaving soon but was it the best time to tell them yet?

Jared caught my eye and flashed me a smile. “Hello.”

“Hey,” I said through my yawn. I had not gotten enough sleep, obviously. I reached forward and hugged him. “Thanks,” I whispered in his ear.

He pulled back with a smile and gave me an understanding nod.

“Heard you and Ethan patched up,” Abby stated from behind me.

I turned towards her. “You heard correctly.”

She grinned. “I can’t believe you gave in so easily.”

“I did not!” I exclaimed. “I bet you wouldn’t last two minutes if Michael came in through your window with this cute, hopeless face and apologized to you.”

She raised a quizzical eyebrow. “It would depend on what he did.”

“Well, I did slap him,” I stated with a shrug and proceeded to unlock my locker.

Abby gasped while Jared was grinning foolishly next to me.

“Really?” she questioned.

I nodded with a smirk. “It wasn’t hard, just a light touch.”

Abby and Jared resumed to what they were talking about before I interrupted them and I got busy retrieving my books from my locker. Michael joined us followed by Erica. I kept looking behind Erica when she was nearing us but there was no sign of Ethan.

Erica noticed what I was doing and said, “He’s coming; parking the car.”

“I wasn’t looking for him,” I said with a fake confused look.

She nodded sarcastically. “Mhm. Of course.”

“So, I was thinking that all of us should go on a road trip after graduation,” Abby said enthusiastically and looked at everyone to see if they had the same reaction.

“You know that’s months away,” Erica pointed out.

“Yes, I do,” she said with a ‘duh’ expression towards Erica.

My smile faded as I realized that I probably won’t be around.

“It’s a great idea,” Michael cut in.

“What’s a great idea?” Ethan asked, settling himself next to me and briefly dropping a kiss on my forehead while slipping his hand around my waist and pulling me close to him.

“A road trip,” Jared repeated. “After graduation.”

“Oh,” Ethan said softly and I felt his eyes on me. He was thinking about the same thing I was. I looked at him through my lashes and he let out a short breath through his nose.

I sucked in a deep breath and said, “I need to tell all of you something”

All of them turned towards me with an expectant look. I looked up at Ethan and he gave me an encouraging nod.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?” Erica asked with wide eyes, noticing the look Ethan and I exchanged.

“What? No!” Ethan exclaimed, glaring at Erica.

Ignoring her, I continued, “I might be moving to Australia soon.”

“What?” Abby cried followed by Erica, Michael and Jared.

“Australia?!” Abby bellowed. “What? When? Why? How?”

“One question at a time would be quite convenient,” I mumbled.

“This isn’t funny, Ash,” Erica said calmly. “Seriously.”

“I’m not joking,” I said.

“You just came here!” Jared exclaimed.

“Exactly!” Michael and Erica agreed.

“I know, I know,” I cut them off. “It’s my mom. She’s got this great offer and it would be dumb to refuse it. I tried to arg-reason with her, of course. But it wasn’t good enough.”

“Maybe we could try talking to her,” Abby suggested. “Give her a good enough reason to let you stay.”

“Yeah!” Erica chimed in. “You suck at reasoning anyway.”

I rolled my eyes at Erica. “It’s not worth it, guys. She’s made up her mind. All that’s left is to decide when we’re leaving.”

“What about your studies? What about Graduation?” Michael inquired.

“I’ll just have to continue that in Australia,” I responded.

“So, there’s nothing we can do?” Jared questioned. “Nothing at all?”

I shook my head after a moment’s hesitation. Everyone fell into silence after my gesture. Abby occasionally kept opening and closing her mouth as if she had gotten an idea but then decided that it wasn’t good enough.

The bell rang, breaking the silence that was surrounding us.

“We should probably go,” I muttered, starting to walk away.

“Wait!” Abby called out, ignoring all the students who were clearing out of the hallway.

“Yeah?” Ethan questioned.

“We should skip school,” Abby declared.

“What?” Michael asked, looking at her with an incredulous expression.

“Why?” Jared inquired.

“You’re leaving soon,” Abby said, turning to face me. “Don’t you think we should be spending the few days you have here to the extremes?”

“Not by skipping school!” Michael cut in.

“Oh, come on, Michael,” Abby whined. “It’s just one day.”

The hallway was silent now. Most of the students had cleared out, leaving us standing alone in a circle. Either we leave now or go straight to our classes and apologize for being late.

“I’m in,” Erica announced.

“Me too,” Jared and Ethan chorused together.

I shrugged and grinned, indicating that I was in too. All of us turned to face Michael. He let his shoulders drop and sighed.

“Fine!” he exclaimed. “How are we meant to leave the school without letting the guard notice?”

“That’s easy,” Abby shrugged and started walking as we followed. “We’ll just use your car, Michael. It has tinted windows. The guard will assume it’s a parent and won’t notice a thing.”

Ethan looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Why didn’t I know this girl earlier?”

“Because you were too busy whining over the fact that I was your sister’s friend, entitling me lame,” Abby chimed in, shooting Ethan a smug look over her shoulder.

I laughed along with Michael and Jared as we made our way to the car park.

Maybe after all, it will not matter much if I do leave. I’ll have enough memories to carry with me.

*

“Oh, no,” Erica breathed as the top of the bottle landed on her. “You’re going to take revenge on me for making you lick the muddy grass, aren’t you?” she questioned with a horrified look towards Abby.

Yes, she made Abby lick the muddy grass.

We decided to go a park nearby which, thankfully, was not crowded since most of the toddlers were probably in school.  The weather was perfect; cool and pleasant. Erica had managed to find a beer bottle near a tree trunk. Placing it on a thick textbook, we started playing ‘Dare.’ Just Dare.

Although, Ethan had objected by pointing out that last time he played Dare, he ended up in a floral dress; we ended up playing it anyway.

“Absolutely,” Abby said cheerfully, sitting upright. “Oh! How about this?”

She leaned closer to Jared and whispered something in his ear which made Jared laugh and nod his head eagerly.

“Okay, you have to apply lipstick on Ethan,” Abby said.

“That’s easy,” Erica commented, suspiciously eyeing Abby.

“You didn’t let me finish,” Abby responded with an almost evil smirk. “You have to do it without the use of hands.”

“What did I do!” Ethan whined with a frown.

“I am not kissing him,” Erica said with a stern voice.

“No one asked you to kiss him,” Abby countered and then, looked at Ethan with an apologetic look and mouthed ‘sorry’.

“That can be one option, though,” Jared said with a shrug.

“The easiest,” Michael added with a half smirk.

“Please don’t kiss him,” I said, leaning forward to look at Erica, who was frowning.

“Fine,” she said and reached into her bag to pull out a clear glass tube.

“What! No!” Ethan said with a horrified look.

“Too bad,” Abby cut him off.

Opening the cap, she placed between her big toe and second toe and leaned back on her elbows. She raised her toe to Ethan’s face and he backed away.

“He’s not going to let me do it,” Erica said.

“Ethan, come on,” Jared pleaded with a playful roll of his eyes.

Ethan was about to reply to Jared but Erica had already made her move and attempted to apply clear gloss on Ethan’s face instead of his lips. Her aim wasn't that good.  His nose smeared with lip gloss and he pulled away with a girly yelp.

“There. Done,” Erica said, pulling the gloss out of her toes with a triumphant grin.

“That wasn’t his lips,” Abby objected.

Erica gave her a smug look. “You didn’t say lips. You just said to put it on him and I did.”

*

We pulled over in front of my house and Ethan reached forward to jiggle the keys in ignition.

“Today was fun,” he said with a smile.

“It was,” I agreed with a small smile.

“Okay, no PDA,” Erica stated from the back.

I laughed and reached forward to kiss Ethan.

“Ash! No. Stop. My eyes!” she groaned, making my lips vibrate with laughter on Ethan’s.

“Okay, okay, fine, I’m leaving,” I said, chuckling lightly. Giving Ethan a peck on the lips, I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for the ride.”

I waited till they left and made my way up the porch. Noticing that the lights in the living room were off, I presumed that either mom was not yet home or she was up in her room. I skipped up the stairs and sure enough, the lights to her room were turned on.

“Hey, mom,” I said cheerfully. “You won’t-”

I stopped mid-sentence, staring at her room. There were suitcases open on the bed and the closet's doors were open. Some clothes were sprawled across the tiled floor and some neatly folded in the bag.

“Hey,” she said, rummaging through the clothes. “I decided to start a bit of packing. I got the transfer letter and date of when we’re leaving.”

“And when is that?” I questioned, still scanning her room with wide eyes.

“Coming Sunday,” she responded. “But I guess we have enough time to pack everything since we’re experts at that now.”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“What’s wrong?” she questioned.

What’s wrong? What’s wrong?! I’ll tell you what’s wrong, mom. What’s wrong is that you’re pulling me out of school to fulfill your dreams and gain your success in your career. I feel like all you care about now is money. Well, guess what? I think we have more than enough to survive with satisfaction. You don’t seem to care about me or the fact that it takes time for me to settle down and re-start all over again. News Flash! My life is not a video game that you can play over and over again.

But I didn’t say any of that, of course.

“I’ll be in my room,” I said softly and walked out of her room.

Unlocking my phone, I logged into Facebook and clicked on the group chat between the six of us and typed out a message to them.

I’m leaving on Sunday.

A/N: First of all, you guys can go ahead and Blame Connor Franta and Sherlock (anyone who wants to fangirl or rant over Sherlock, please PM me) for the late update. Although, the long chapter should make up for the late update, shouldn't it? :3

So, I tried to make a bit a  balance with Ethley and their friendship.

Okay! I was thinking of making the next chapter based entirely on Ethan and Ash because she's going to be leaving soon so ya. Any ideas on what they can do? Leave some suggestions in the comments below!

Before I forget to tell you guys: The book has managed to read 500,000 reads. 500,000 reads! That's half a million! Are you kidding me?! Thank you so much guys! I love all of you so much! :')

Quick reminder: The book is about to get over soon. :(