So Kiss Me Goodbye

"It was great seeing you again." Matt said, kissing my forehead, no easy feat since I was short and he was close to Will's height.

I nodded.

"I'll see you again soon, before the baby is born. And congrats on yours as well." I replied, hugging him.

Christine quickly put Elizabeth in Matt's arms and hugged me tightly.

"Promise you'll call more?"

"I promise." I replied with a smile.

I moved down the line that had formed that morning to send us off, ending up in front of Jake.

"Hey kid, I'm sorry we didn’t get to hang out as much as I had hoped." I told him, biting my lip.

Jake shrugged. "Just seeing you again made my day, well, and introducing me to The Academy Is..."

I laughed and hugged him.

"Well if you come visit me I'll introduce you to the rest of those Chicago boys." I replied.

Jake stepped back with a dramatic gasp, his hand on his heart. "Are you bribing me with music dear sister?"

"Pretty much." I nodded. "But what's a sister to do? I've got to stay cool somehow."

Jake laughed and pulled me into a tight brotherly hug, only increased by his height that he must've inherited like Matt.

It's scary when you're sixteen year old brother is taller than you.

"You're the coolest sister ever Lilly... but I wouldn’t mind meeting Fall Out Boy sometime." He replied.

I rolled my eyes with a grin as Madi quickly pushed Jake out of the way and pulled me aside.

"What's up?" I asked her with an eyebrow raised at the determined look on her face.

"Okay my bags are packed and I've got my plane ticket. I'll meet you there." She rushed, hugging me quickly.

I stood there dumbstruck as she ran off to hug Matt, Jake, and lastly my dad, where she lingered longer.

As Madi ran off into the house I walked over to my dad. "What's up with her?"

"She said she was going to spend the night at a friend's house." He shrugged. "I've been worried about her a lot lately; she skipped out on college last year and now I don't know what her plans are."

"She'll figure something out dad, don't worry." I assured him.

He sighed. "And now you're leaving again."

I shrugged, hugging him. "I'll be back dad, don't worry. And look, Matt and I were the same way and we're doing fine."

A smile spread across his face as he held me closer. "I love you sweetie, and though your mom doesn’t show it she does too. If you ever need anything we'll, or at least I'll be here for you."

I sighed. "I'll miss you daddy, and I'll call to update you on your grandkid, don't worry."

He shuddered. "Jeez, I feel so old; I'll be a grandfather a second time."

"Well I'll still be your little girl." I replied as Will walked up.

"We should get going." He interjected awkward.

I nodded and gave everyone a quick hug.

Will gently led me away to the car we had packed earlier.

As he got behind the wheel and pulled away I waved to my family, hoping the last time we were together wouldn’t be four years from now.

We hadn’t been gone for more than a few minutes when Will turned to me.

"So I'm going to be on tour for another couple of weeks so I'm not gonna see you for a while... could you keep me up to date with the doctors appointments?"

I looked out the window. "Sure."

"And I'll call you everyday so we don't drift apart." Will continued in an attempt to reassure me.

I didn’t move my gaze or body at his words, too tired of Will drama.

Between focusing on the road he glanced over at me. "You okay?"

I nodded absentmindedly, trying to figure out where to go from here.

After a moment I shook my head, sick of bottling everything up when I knew I wasn’t okay.

"Will we can't keep doing this."

He looked over at me. "Doing what?"

"All this bullshit... we're either together, then one of us freaks out, we get back together, we get to close, you go on tour, we're back apart. I really can't take it anymore... this isn’t working."

"Lilly what are you saying?" Will asked a little more urgently, glancing at me more and more.

"Can't we just cut things off cold turkey? I stop talking to you, you stop talking to me... make a clean break... even though we're having a baby."

Will didn’t look at me, merely stared off at the road.

The car was silent and it gave me chills, the lack of sound nearly smothering me.

After a few moments Will spoke.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" He asked tonelessly staring down the road.

I nodded, quietly answering with the word that almost killed me to say. "Yes."

"A clean break huh? It makes sense I guess... okay."

Okay?

Just the other night he proposed to me and now he can end it all so... coldly?

Fine then, two can play at that game.