This Is for Keeps

So here I am it's in my hands
And I'll savor every moment of this
So here I am alive at last
And I'll savor every moment of this

I rolled over and groaned, placing my hand on the side table and felt around for my alarm clock. When I finally reached it, I hit snooze and rolled over and dug my face onto the pillow and closed my eyes again. When I finally fell in a to a peaceful slumber, my mom barged in the room without knocking and yanked the blankets off of me.

"Shaea, wake up and pack.” I groaned again and propped myself up on my elbows and glared at her.

“Mom! Let me sleep, I didn’t get in until 2 this morning. Why do I need to pack?”

“Charlie and I talked last night about you,” she started. I groaned involuntarily and stared at her, huffing.The bastard Charlie was my new step dad. He and my mom had gotten married just two weeks ago. She ignored my reaction and continued.

“ We decided you were to go live in New Jersey with your father.. I think it’d be easier on Charlie and he agrees.” she said, not looking guilty at all.

“Wait, you’re sending me to dad because you don’t think Charlie can handle me?” I asked incredulously and jumped out of bed. I was shocked but not surprised. Ever since my mom started bringing Charlie home when she first met him, he has always found away to bug into my life, start something, and act innocent when my mom was around. Ever since he showed up, my mom has distance herself from me, and when she didn’t it was to either yell at me or just fuss and complain about my appearance. That was because I looked like my dad. She nodded and began to pull out my Badtz Maru suitcase and my Hello Kitty duffle bag and threw them on my bed.

“Shaea you’re fifteen, it’s about time you lived with your dad anyways.” she snapped. My dad wasn’t exactly into my life, but I’ve seen him before, on TV and on the internet. I vaguely remembered being with him through out the first four years of my life and can only remember so little what happened between him and my mom. He would send support money and beg my mom for me to visit during phone calls with her. I always remember hearing her say no and they fight on the phone. She always won and even better, she never let me talk to him.

“When do I go?” I asked quietly. I had a feeling she’d choose him over me. I just did.

“You leave tonight, at 7. You’re flight is 14 hours so charge up your laptop, phone, and ipod. Your dad knows when your flight ends so he is sending someone to pick you up. Star packing.”

“Mom its 7:15 can I sleep and pack later?” I whined.

“It’s not my fault you went to that concert with Cody. Now pack.” she snapped and walked out. Actually, it was her fault because she had gotten tickets for Cody and I to see my all time favorite band, The Used , two months ago as a ’sorry I didn’t tell you I was getting married’ present. Cody was my boyfriend and was only a year older than me and I’m proud to say I’ve been with him for 2 years. As I began to pull out an outfit to wear for today, which was jeans and a teal billabong shirt, Charlie walked in my room and smirked.

“I’m so glad to get rid of you brat.” he said in a nasty toned and I just scoffed and flipped him off.

“Bite me.” I snapped and returned to packing after he faked a gasp and walked out. After three incredibly long hours of packing everything and my closet and putting my laptop and ipod to charge, I jumped in a hour long shower. I towel dried my hair quickly and changed into my clothes, then pulled my sidekick off the charger and slid on some brown sandals. I walked into the family room and found my mom and Charlie watching TV.

“Mom, I’m going to Cody’s.” I said walking past the couch.

“Just be home at 5:30.” she yelled as I walked out the door. I walked a nice slow eight minutes walk two blocks down and towards a baby blue house and knocked on the door twice. Answering the door was Lillian, Cody’s mother.

“Hey Shaea! Cody’s up in his room. Did you two have fun last night?” she asked with a smile and hugged me briefly. I smiled back and returned the hug as well.

“Yes, it was amazing.” I said.

“Oh that’s nice, well I’m not going to be a pest, go ahead and head on up to see Cody, he might’ve fell back asleep after showering this morning.” she laughed.

“Thanks.” I smiled and walked into the house, giving Cody’s dad a quick hello on the way up to his room. I opened his door quietly and peeked in. Surely enough, Cody was asleep on top of his blanket. I laughed quietly and pulled my phone out from my pocket and took a picture of him. After putting my phone back in my back pocket, I sat on my bed and leaned to his ear.

“Cody, babe, wake up, I need to talk to you.” I whispered. He stirred and opened his eyes and immediately smiled at me and sat up, stretching his arms. I smiled weakly, remembering I had to tell him the news.

“Hi babe, sorry, I’m so tired from last night. What’s wrong?” he asked as he saw my face, I guess my expression gave to much. I felt tears well up and sighed and hugged him tightly, then burying my face into his chest.

“I’m leaving.” I mumbled. He tensed and grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at him.

“Leaving? Where? How long?”

“She finally did it Cody, she chose him over me. Her own daughter!”

“I’m so sorry. So what’s going to happen?”

“I’m going to go live with my dad, in the states.”

“What’s going to happen to us?” he asked. I looked down and sighed and fiddled with my hands.

“I don’t know.” I mumbled and looked out his window.

“Do you still want to be with me? Two years Shae!”

“I know! But what the hell am I supposed to do? You’ll be here in the UK and I’ll be there in the US!”

“We can try to work something out.” he said and hugged me tightly, since I had begun to cry.

“What if we can’t?” I sobbed and clutched on to him, not caring whether or not I’d ruin his shirt.

“We will Shaea, I promise you we will.” he said softly and brought my face up to his to kiss me softly on the lips. I pulled back and sighed and began to wipe my tears.

“I’m going to miss you.” I whispered.

“I am too, when does your flight leave?”

“Seven, my mom wants me home at 5:30.”

“Well, then I say for my remaining 6 or so hours with you, I say we go to the mall. I’m buying you a going away present.” he grinned and swiftly got up and ran to put on his vans. I laughed and got up as well. He grabbed my hand and dragged me out to his car. During the ride we blasted----as you guessed--- The Used. He switched out the CD and put in another one. I sent him a playful glare as he put on Dead!

“Hey don’t look at me like that! I want to listen to this, I barely got it yesterday so I want to hear it.” of course, Cody knew who my dad exactly was and only him, he promised not to tell anyone and hasn’t in the years.

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t wear it out.” I laughed and playfully nudged him. We pulled up into the parking lot and literally ran inside the mall into Hot Topic. I ended up buying more The Used merch, as did Cody, even though we had bought a lot last night, and some jeans, makeup, jewelry and another Skelanimal, this one being Pen.
“My collection is complete!” I cheered as the clerk had put the stuffed penguin into the bag. Cody laughed and entwined our fingers as we were leaving the store and towards the food court.

“Hey can you order for me, I got to go get your present.” he asked with a smile. I nodded and he ran off to the northern side of the mall. I smiled and walked to a McDonalds and ordered Cody his Big Mac and then to Sbaro’s to get a veggie pizza. Yes, I am a vegetarian.
Once I got the food I found a table, I pulled out my phone, which was ringing, and looked at the caller ID, it was an unknown number but I answered it anyways.

“Hello?”

“Shaea?”

“Who’s this?” I asked weirdly as Cody came up to me with a smile and a bag in his hand. He looked at my face and furrowed his eye brows. I put the phone on speaker and set it down to sort out our food.

“It’s dad..” my jaw dropped and I looked at my phone.

“Dad? How’d you get my number?” I asked after Cody had reached over and closed my jaw with a laugh.

“ You’re mom, and who was that?”

“My boyfriend Cody. We’re at the mall.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to interrupt. Look, I just called to say Hi and that I’ll be seeing you soon. I don’t know if I’ll be able to pick you up from the airport or not but if I can’t, I’ll send Bob.”

“Bob Bryar, the muscle.” I laughed.

“Oh, wow. You’ve actually seen that dvd?”

“Yes, Cody is a fan actually.”

‘Oh, I see. I can’t wait to see you and they guys, minus Mikey, since he‘s already met you, can’t wait to meet you. I better go, I left Frank alone in the kitchen.” he laughed, just as he did I heard a loud crash followed by a swarm of curses. Cody and I laughed as we heard my dad yell at Frank.

“Well, got to go hon. Call me when you get to the airport.”

“Okay dad.”

“Bye.” he said and I hung up and looked at Cody before laughing.

“I can’t believe that you are going to go live with THE Gerard Way.” he gasped.. I laughed and took a nibble of my pizza.

“It’s still weird to sometimes know that he’s my dad. Do you know how hard it is to not let everyone that thinks he’s hot and gossip about him to me that I actually am related to him?!” I cringed. I had used my mothers maiden name when going to school and public.

“Yes, here.” he said and pulled out a long white box from the bag and placed it in my hand. I slowly opened it and inside was a heart locket with ’I love you’ inscribed on it. It was golden and had emerald rhinestones around it, emerald was my gemstone. I smiled widely and kissed Cody.

“Its beautiful, I love it. Thank you so much. I really am going to miss you.” I said and hugged him tightly. He removed it from the box and helped me put it on. I smiled and kissed him again.

~*~

“You make me so happy. I wish you wouldn’t leave.” Cody said as we walked into the airport. I talked my mom into letting Cody take me and she finally agreed after I pulled out the fake tears. It worked like a charm. Except that my mom still had come but in her own car and was now walking up to us as we hugged and kissed.

“Have you talked to your dad?”

“Yes, I talked to him on the way.”

“And?”

“And Bob is picking me up.”

“Bob?”

“Band member and best friend.”

“Just him?”

“And Uncle Mikey.” I fibbed so she wouldn’t flip out, she had no idea who Bob was.

“Okay, I’m going to miss you honey, remember this was for the best. I’m sorry.” she said and brought me into a hug.

“Yea, sure you are.” I muttered and hugged her back. After pulling away I went back to Cody and hugged him again.

“Call me everyday.” I said.

“Of course babe.” he said and hugged me tight, kissing me softly on the lips once, twice, three times before my mom coughed and said my flight was boarding. I ignored her and hugged him tighter, letting tears escape my eyes and kissed him again before walking off with my things. After getting on to the plane and taking a sit by the window- thank god no one was sitting next to me- I pulled out my ipod and hit shuffle. The first song was Error Operator by Taking Back Sunday.

New Jersey, here I come.