Turn Right

Days passed by and soon enough, it was the last day of school…it was actually my last day all together. I wouldn’t be going back and I’d be getting home schooled. But now that summer is here…so is the touring. Rea and I have been spending as much time as possible with each other…not thinking about the tour…but since it’s here…there’s nothing we can do. Rachael and I were in my room, packing last minute things because tomorrow we would be leaving. She was laying on my bed, hanging upside down and I was at my dresser, showing hr my clothes I was bringing and then putting them in the suitcase.

“Hmmm arachnophobia” she said.

“Fear of spiders…scotophobia”

“Fear of the dark…auto phobia”

“Fear of being alone…phonophobia”

“Fear of noises…”

“Or voices,” I added.

“Whatever,” she said and I could tell she rolled her eyes.

The other night we were reading about phobias online and we were seeing how many of them we remembered…not that this is important in any way but we were really bored.

“Anglophobia,” she said.

“Fear of pain…you have nosocomephobia”

“Yes I’m afraid of hospitals, so sue me” she said and I noticed she flipped onto her stomach. “And you have atychiphobia”

“I do not fear of failure,” I said and looked at her and she just gave me a look. “I’m a perfectionist sometimes but…”

“Oh don’t try to defend yourself,” she said and walked over to me as I scoffed.

Then she came face to face with me so that our faces were inches apart. “Philophobia,” she whispered and I stuttered a little.

“Fear of love,” I replied and she just nodded.

“Very good Nicholas,” she said and I shivered.

“Nick?" she asked.

“Yea?"

“I love you,” she said with all sincerity and the humor vanished from her eyes.

“I love you too,” I said gently. “Hey…I’m not going away forever…I’ll be gone for just a month or two”

“I know…but I can barely be away from you for a week, let alone a month or two,” she said and grabbed my hands.

I can barely stay away from you for a day, let along a week, is what I wanted to say.

“I gotta break up with you Nick,” she said and tried not to smile.

“Wow you actually sounded serious that time…if we were talking on the phone I’d think that you actually meant it”

For a while now, Rachael has been trying to convince me that we should break up…she’s only joking around though. The first time, I think she was serious, but I talked her out of it…now, she says it and I know she’s not serious…or at least I like to believe it.

“Listen…I love you…and I want this to work,” I said and then kissed her and she smiled into the kiss.

“In coming!" Joe yelled and came running in with a water gun and he started squirting both of us and Rea was laughing but I was kind of annoyed.

“Joe!" I yelled.

“Oops, gotta go,” he said and ran out as I chased after him and Rachael was quickly following.

“Kevin did it!" he yelled as we ran down the stairs to where Kevin walked in from the kitchen and I tackled Joe onto the couch, grabbed the water gun from him and started squirting at him.

“Shall we Kevin?" I heard Rea’s voice say.

So Joe and I popped our heads up and over the couch to look at them and we saw they both had water guns as well. “We shall” he agreed and they began shooting at us.

“Kids, take it outside!" mom yelled from outside.

“Yes mom,” we all {including Rachael} yelled and raced outside. Rachael got used to calling mom, either Denise, Mama J or just, mom.

So we all ran outside with Kevin and Rea shooting at us and then as Joe ran head on to Kevin and tackled him down, I ran at Rea, picked her up and spun her around as she laughed. Then we both fell over and I was hovering over her. I looked into her bright blue eyes and started leaning in slowly as she grabbed some of my hair and right before our lips touched, we heard noises of disgust and when we turned our heads, we saw Kevin and Joe standing there with the water guns and they began to spray us.

We continued to mess around until we got tired and collapsed to the ground and looked up at the sky. We were laying on the grass on our backs in a square formation. Rea was across from me, so our heads were touching and Joe and Kevin were on both sides of me, across from each other.

“Can you guys just promise me something?" she said suddenly and we all turned our heads so we could look at her but she kept her faze on the sky.

“Can you just promise me, that you’ll never forget about me, even when you’re all famous and traveling the country and maybe even the world…just promise me you wont forget about me and our memories and don’t forget the way you guys are…and don’t change,” she said and we were all silent as we rolled onto our stomachs and looked at each other.

“We promise…we could never forget you Rea…but we’ll be back…dont…”

“I know…but sometimes things change…we cant always expect everything to go the way we want it to,” she said and we looked at each other again as she continued to look up at the sky.

So then I crawled over to her and looked down at her so she was upside down to me and I was, to her. “We promise,” I said and kissed her lips quickly.

“Since Nick kissed you, does this mean so do we since we’re keeping this promise,” Joe joked, wiggling his eye brows.

“Yea right,” I said and pushed him over and continued to glare at him. Then Rea started laughing and I smiled at her laugh and completely forgot about Joe’s piggish comment.
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Now it’s dark and Rea and I are sitting on the porch as she held my hands in her lap. We were young, yes, but to me, I felt like we’ve been in love for years.

“I’ll miss you,” she admitted quietly.

“I’ll miss you too,” I said sincerely. “But now promise me something,” I said and she looked at me.

“Promise me that if you meet a cool sophomore with a developed voice over the summer…then just promise me you wont fall for him,” I said and felt kind of stupid and then she laughed lightly.

“I promise I wont…but hey I like your voice,” she said and this time it was my turn to laugh.

“And promise me you wont turn into a hermit and hide inside all summer just because I’m not home, go hang out with Melissa…I’d say go hang out with Kayla and Brittany too but I’m afraid that when I get back, I might have someone completely different for a girlfriend,” I said and she laughed a little.

“And go hang out with John and Luke too…I’d say Alex but I don’t even want to know what he’s thinking when he’s around you,” I added and she laughed harder which caused me to smile.

“John and Luke will be there for you though, if I cant be…and you know you can always hang out with Maya too…she cant come but I swear she will come when I go on my own tour…” Maya is my best friend {besides Rachael, Rea's my girlfriend/best friend} and my family promised her dad we will take care of her and her mom.

We intend on keeping that promise and Rachael knows this which is why I smiled as she nodded at my idea of bringing Maya. “I’d love it if you could come sometime too,” I added quietly.

“And when that time comes, I’d love to”

“And promise me one more thing”

“Sure, what is it?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side, which got my breath caught in my throat so I had to look down in order to think of my words.

“Promise me you wont take off your necklace,” I whispered and she just starred at me.

But then she bent her head down toward mine so I was forced to look at her. “I promise,” she whispered and then kissed me and it didn’t take long for me to kiss back.

Then we pulled away slowly and I stared into her eyes. “Rachael, you’re mother just called, she was just wondering when you were going home,” mom said as she walked outside to us and she turned her head to look at her but I kept my gaze on her.

“I guess that’s my cue to go home then, thank you Denise,” she said as she stood up and I just watched her.

“Nick?" she questioned and I snapped our of my gaze and stood up.

“Rachael!" Joe yelled as he came running out, and tackled Rea in a hug and she gasped for air but just laughed and then mom went back inside.

“I’ll see you soon Joe,” she choked out. “You guys will be back before you know it,” she said once Joe let go of her. Then she hugged Kevin.

“Try to keep Joe in line for me,” she said.

"No need chief," Joe said but she ignored him and looked at Kevin. “I’ll try but even before you came, I’ve tried that and it hasn’t worked,” he said and she laughed lightly and pulled away.

We all agreed that we would say good bye, the day before the tour instead of the day of, because then it would be harder to leave…and for me I think it would be impossible…but it’s not like we wont ever see each other again…so that should make it seem easier…shouldn’t it? And Maya came by yesterday to say good bye because she went on a small vacation with her mom {coach K} just to get away for a while and to de-stress.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home,” I said as I took her hand and led her off the steps and she waved good bye to my brothers.

“Have fun you guys,” she called to them and we continued walking.

I walked her up to her door and we faced each other. “I’ll be back at the end of summer and when I’m back, we’re going to spend as much time with each other as possible,” I said and she smiled and nodded.

“Umm I managed to get a burned copy of the cd we made,” I said as I pulled it out of my back pocket and handed it to her as I rubbed the back of my head with my other hand.

“Seriously? Thank you Nick,” she said and kissed my cheek but didn’t pull away completely. She came back in as I did the same and we kissed.

“Not good bye…just see you later…so see you later Nicholas,” she said and kissed my cheek once more before walked inside her house and I began walking home.

Only two months…I can handle that much cant I?