I'll Look After You

My mother had just called me downstairs because she has something important to tell me. I couldn’t help but wonder what it might be. We weren’t moving, were we? I hope we weren’t. My whole life is here in California and all of my friends were here, including my boyfriend of almost a year. I didn’t want to leave but I think I may be getting ahead of myself here.

“Abigail, I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I’ve thought long and hard about this, but since your father passed away, I think it would be good for us to start a new life for ourselves. I’ve made a decision, Abigail, and we are moving…” she looks at me with a small smile.

“Moving? Are you serious?! To where?” I ask as I stare at her with a blank expression on my face. Is she serious? If she was, I didn’t want to go. I don’t want to move, my whole life is here.

“London, England. It will be good for us, you know your father would want us to be happy and be able to live our lives again, things haven’t been the same since the accident,” she says and gets up and slowly walks over to me and pulls me in a hug. I was speechless, I didn’t know what to do or say.

“L-London? That’s so far away…why there?” I ask staring at her as I feel my eyes slowly begin to well up with tears. My whole life was here, all of my friends and my boyfriend. They were there to comfort me at the funeral. It hurt me a lot, but not as much as it hurt my mother.

My parents were crazy in love and perfect for each other. After we found out he passed away, due to a head-on collision by a drunk driver, my mother was never herself. She was always smiling and laughing just like I used to when he was still alive. I was eighteen when it happened; it’s been exactly a year. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t it have been me?

“It will be good for both of us, Abigail. There are so many memories in this house of your father and I really don’t know how much longer I can take of it. Trust me; I’m sure that London will give us plenty of great new memories. We need this, your father would want us to move on and enjoy life if he were still here. Now, I think we should get packing because we leave this weekend,” she says as I pull her tighter in a hug. I feel the tears slowly begin to fall down my cheeks.

“I-I j-just k-know it’s g-going to be h-hard to leave my friends and Michael, especially,” I mutter in between sobs that escape my mouth as I clutch tighter to my mother.

“Shh, everything’s going to be fine, Abby, I’m sure,” my mother says and rubs my back as she tries to calm me down.

“Hope so,” I mumble as I hug my mother. I calm myself down a few minutes later. I decide I better go start packing since we’re leaving on Saturday most likely. I run one of my shaky hands through my messy hair as I slowly stand up and head for the stairs.

It takes me a good hour and a half almost two hours to pack up most of my room. I grab my laptop off my desk and lay down on my bed. I turn it on and wait for it to start up. So many things go through my mind as I wait for my laptop to power on. I begin to think how Michael, my boyfriend and two best friends, Haley and Nikki will react when I tell them all the news of me moving away. The thought of having to tell them makes me even more upset than I am now. It scares me since I can’t even begin to think of how they are going to react.

I let out a shaky sigh as I type in my password to get on my laptop. Once it loads up, it automatically signs me in to Skype. I hear the familiar noise it makes when you log in and click on the blue button for Skype to see if any of them were online. Sure enough, Haley and Mike were both online. I had a feeling Nikki was probably with Haley.

I click on Haley’s name and begin to type: Hey, girl! There’s something I need to tell you. Is Nikki with you? About as soon as I press the send button, I get an incoming call from her. I accept and wait for her to come up on the screen.

“Hey, Abs! What’s wrong? Have you been crying? Did Mike do something to you? Do I have to beat his ass for you?” Haley asks, her smile quickly turns to a frown.

“No, it’s not Mike. He didn’t do anything wrong,” I tell her as I stare off in to space and begin to come up with the right words and how to tell her I was moving.

“What is it then?” I hear Nikki mutter. Haley moves her laptop so I can get a good view of both of my best girl friends on the screen.

I open my mouth and begin to speak. A sigh escape my slightly parted lips as I open my mouth to talk.

“I-I’m m-moving,” I say and shift my eyes away from the camera to the fluffy comforter on my bed.

“What?” Haley’s mouth drops open in shock like she had just seen a ghost.

“Y-you are? When and where?!” Nikki says with a frown.

“Yeah, I am,” I say a bit quietly and let out a sigh as I open my mouth to continue speaking. “This Saturday I think. To London, England,” I say as I look at the two of them.

Both of the girls had frowns on their faces and I could see tears in their eyes. It is going to kill me to have to tell Michael. I’m sure he is going to have a hard enough time having to tell me goodbye.

“Shit, Abby! That is so far away!” Haley says sadly.

“Have you told Mike yet?” Nikki asks, looking at me, I could see soft tears in her eyes. It seriously kills me that I have to leave them, they are my best friends, and we grew up together and did everything together.

“I know! It is! No, not yet,” I say and sniffle a bit. It was going to be so hard to have to say goodbye to all three of them. Just as hard when my father passed away; he was the best father he could be and I loved him so much. He helped me through a lot in my lifetime. I still wish I could bring him back but I know I can’t.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, we talk about the most random stuff that has ever happened to us. I was going to miss these girls so much. We have been through so much together, the three of us have. The next hard thing I had to do was break this news to Mike. It wasn’t going to end very well, I don’t think.

“I think I’m going to have to break this news to Mike now, because this is just going to kill me. I’ll talk to you later, girls, we need to get together and do something before I leave. What do you think?” I say as I stare at the two faces of my best friends on my laptop screen.

“We totally should! Hope it goes well, girl. Text one of us if you need anything. Love you, Abs!” Haley says with a smile to try and cheer me up.

“I will, thanks Hale, love you too!” I tell her with a small smile. The screen goes black signaling the call was ended. The thought of the fact I will soon be telling Mike the news of me moving scared me quite a bit because I don’t know how it will end up.

I grab my iPhone 5 off my bed from where I tossed it earlier and press the home button to see I had three text messages and four missed calls all from Mike. I swipe my finger across the screen so I can call him back. It rings twice before he picks up.

“Hello?” I hear his voice on the other line.

“Hey babe, sorry for not answering earlier, I was talking to Haley and Nikki. Listen, I uh – there’s something I have to tell you,” I say and take a slow breath.

“It’s fine, what is it, Ab?” he asks. Shit…how do I tell him?

“Um, do you mind coming over so I can tell you?” I ask as I feel my throat tighten up a bit.

“Not at all, babe! I’ll be right over,” he says.

“Okay, s-see you then,” I mutter as I begin to mess with the black polish on my nails. It was a major habit of mine that I’ve had since I was younger. I always do it every time I’m super nervous. I sit there for the next few minutes while I try to get all my thoughts together. The sound of the doorbell ringing throughout the house brings me out of my thoughts.

“Abby! Mike’s here!” I hear my mom call from down stairs.

“Send him up!” I call back as I lay my head back on one of my fluffy pillows. For the next few minutes, I play with my phone until I hear the sound of my door being pushed open. Mike stood there, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as he looks up to meet my gaze.

“So, your mom tells me you’re moving…to London,” He says and takes a seat on the edge of my bed.

“Y-yeah,” I say and set my phone down in my lap as I look up to meet his chocolate brown eyes staring at me.

“I’ve heard London is a great place,” he says as he looks at me. I nod my head in response.

“Me too,” I tell him with a small smile as he reaches over and grabs my hand in his. He laces his fingers with mine and stares at me, a smile slowly appearing on his lips. I smile as he tightens his grip on my hand.

“Where does this leave us? Like, how is this going to work?” he asks. I shrug my shoulders as I stare at him. I really have no clue; I have never been in a situation like this before, so I didn’t know what to do.

“I’m not sure if this is going to work, since you’ll be here and I’ll be there, half way around the world, I’m not sure if I can handle that, being so far away from you,” I tell him as I feel soft tears begin to well up in my eyes. I notice his eyes begin to tear up as well.

“I understand, really, I do, because I know it will be just as hard on each of us. If that’s what you want, then I guess I’ll go.” he gives me a soft peck on the cheek before he stands up and walks out of my door and stops before turning to face me as he stood in the doorway.

“Have fun in London, Abby,” he says with a small smile and waves at me.

“Thanks! Will do,” I mutter softly as I look over at him.

As he walks out, I sit there for a few minutes and think about what just happened and whether I made the right decision or not. If I never did, I know it was going to be even harder than it was to tell him. I think I made the right decision because I don’t think I would have been able to deal with that, me being halfway around the world in London and him here in California. I’m sure he’ll find someone better suited for him just like I will, hopefully.

I get up slowly and begin to finish packing more of my things. After I finish packing most of my room, I go and help my mother pack things around the house. I hope London will be better for us and we will be happier and worth my while since I’ll most likely be there for a while. Maybe it won’t be as bad as I think it will be.