Until the End of Time

I sighed, heaving another box into the moving van. Carmen huffed beside me, and I'm sure she was thinking the same exact thing I was. Neither of us wanted to leave Wycoff, New Jersey. Hell, we grew up here. Not just that, but it was our last year in high school.

"Madison, I think that's all of your things. Carmen, honey, your room is done, too."

"Thanks, Mom," I said smiling at my mother. Carmen had lived with us since she was ten. Her parents were users, and my mom wouldn't have her daughter's best friend be around that. My mom was able to legally adopt her after some time, and we've lived together as a family ever since.

Still, Carmen addressed my parents as Kathy and John. I didn't blame her, though. You only do have one set of biological parents, so I understood why they were just Kathy and John to her. She called my parents her real parents only because they've raised her as their own.

She still kept her last name, which was Hill, but I rather it that way. Carmen talking to me broke me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked her again.

"I said, do you want to go walk around the neighborhood?"

"Sure," I said with a smile.

She looped my arm through hers as we walked, taking in every scene of our childhood. Carmen looked at Mrs. Bates's house and started laughing.

"Remember when we rolled her house? She got so mad she called the police."

"Yeah," I said with a chuckle. "I remember. My parents were so pissed that we were grounded for a month."

"Yeah."

My eyes sweeped over the house directly in front of us, and my gut twisted some. That house would always be empty, but the memories that we left in it could never fade. Carmen looked at me, her brown eyes expressing concern.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She nudged me lightly. "Remember when we were six? And Nick tried to get you to marry him?"

I put my hand over my mouth to minimize the loud laugh that followed. "Yeah! Mrs. Denise let us use the backyard and I ran away."

"Nick was so upset, but you gave him a kiss. I think he liked you."

"Yeah," I said with an eyeroll. "Very funny."

"It was cute," She said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess it was."

I smiled, thinking back on all the times Carmen and I would play outside just to see those boys. Carmen had always liked Joe, and I think everyone knew that but Joe. The guy was so oblivious at nine. Then again, he was oblivious at every other age, too.

Carmen exchanged a glance with me, and I knew that we didn't have to say anything. We missed them, but we wouldn't admit it. I also remember the day that they left. Nick had always want to be a singer, and he had promised me that when he became famous, I'd always be his number one fan.

He also said that girls had cooties. I shook my head smiling; that boy was something else.

"Do you still love him?" Carmen asked, once again breaking me from my thoughts.

I swallowed hard. "Who?"

"You know who," She said giving me the signature Carmen look.

I sighed. "Yeah, I do."

"Kevin's never coming back, Madi."

"I know that, Carmen. I know that."

Nick was my best friend. I loved Nick like a brother, and that was it. But I loved Nick's brother, Kevin, with everything I had in me.

Kevin Jonas. The man I could never have.