25

Hi yalll!! Life's been so busy, I've got so many things I want to do and allat but I finally finished writing this chapter! Hope yall like it <3 lotsa lovee for yall since you've read this far and as a reward you get a nice long chapter <3

"Yeah. I can't manage you pack of fucking brats by myself anymore. Kaiya's coming home drunk, Caleb has weed, Georgia fucking failed her exam. I'm fucking done. We're moving across the country to so your gran can look after you. I talked it over with them, they'd be happy to help." 

"No. No we're not." I spat. I'd just met possibly the best person in the world, and she really wants to throw all of that away?

"Oh yes we fucking are hun. Start packing your things you shits because first day of the summer holidays is our last day here." My heart was already ramming against my ribcage and I wasn't having any more of this shit. I got up from the table, not really thinking anymore, shoved my shoes on and left the house, running as fast as I could, without stop, to Reese's house. It was the only place I could go right now.

I didn't even realise tears were streaming down my face. 

I hammered on the door. Reese opened it, and as soon as he saw me his face went pale, millions of thoughts racing through his mind. I was a mess. I regretted all of a sudden that we hadn't even tried to meet up once while he was grounded. Made some memories while we still had the chance. Because I'll probably never see him again in a few days. Just that thought sent a fresh stream of tears down my face.

"Reese, who is it?" Lois called from the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Reese asked me, completely ignoring Lois.

"Reese, you don't have to ignore me." She came up behind him, her face lighting up as soon as she saw me. This was the moment that I realised I had tears streaming down my face, and I frantically tried wiping them away, but she'd already noticed.

"Oh no, Georgia. What are you doing here? Are you alright?" She asked, concerned. "Are you not getting ready for school?"

"I mean, I'm meant to, but I just came here to say that I-I'm moving in a few days."

Reese's eyes widened and Lois' jaw dropped. Reese tugged my arm to come inside and closed the door behind me. All of a sudden there seemed to be so many things that were more important than school.

"Oh, how so?"

We sat down at the breakfast table with Malcolm and Dewey and I told them everything.

Reese simply stared, trying not to cry, Dewey and Malcolm couldn't look more confused yet upset, and Lois bit her lip to rawness.

"I think I'm going talk to your mom about this." Lois concluded. "I really don't want to butt in, but this is a terrible idea. I mean, do you even know where you're moving to? Do you have a house bought? Besides, you're a lovely girl Georgia, and I would be very upset if I didn't get to see you again. And I know you and Reese are really good friends. And ever since Reese met you he's been behaving way better than he used to." I burst into fresh tears. Lois wrapped her arms around me. She was better than my real mom.

Once I'd gotten myself toghether again, she kicked us all out to go to school, remembering about it all of a sudden. She didn't even realise I didn't have my bag, which was a very un - Lois - like of her. I hope she hadn't actually thought we were going to school. 

As the four of us walked down the sidewalk, me and Reese tried to slowly slip away so we could go to our spot and hang out for one of the last times.

"Reese, where are yous going?" Malcolm's brain was really getting to big for his head.

"Great Georgia, you fucked it!" He whined, half joking.

"Why the fuck are you blaming me?" I joined in on the banter.

"Are you skipping school? Can I come?!" Dewey squealed.

"No!" Reese yelled.

"Yous are skipping school? Hey, what about me then?"

"You're too much of a nerd to skip school." Reese spat. 

"Come on now Reese, if they wanna come, let them come. I might just never see them again."

"I don't want you to leave." Dewey sniffled, hugging my legs. Tears welled in my eyes yet again. I'd grown fond of the little kid, even if he was a little gremlin sometimes.

We hiked all the way to mine and Reese's lake area. Malcolm and Dewey were pretty giddy since they'd never actually skipped school before, and this was the first time they had a good excuse, so their mom couldn't be mad. I could just picture them, all smug:

"Mom, we skipped school because we wanted to spend some time with Georgia before it was too late."

As soon as Dewey saw the water, his socks and shoes were gone and he was splashing around. I was slightly nervous about what he might just pull this time.

Me, Reese and Malcolm hung out and talked, watching the water. It was only 8 something and it was already so warm. Possibly one of the most beautiful days of the summer.

Me and Malcolm were arguing whether Green Day or Blink 182 were better when Reese said, fixedly staring at the water:

"You can't leave." 

I looked up at him.

"I know. The only people I want to spend summer with are you guys." I sniffled, wrapping my arm around him. I wasn't sure what else I could say.

We hung out there until we decided it looked enough like the end of the school day, because we were all pretty hungry and we hadn't thought about that earlier.

"You boys are grounded." Were the first words we heard when we got back.

"Lois, I'm sorry, I convinced to hang out with me cause I might never see them again soon." I kept on saying that, but I didn't actually believe it for a second. I just hoped that if I believed with my heart and soul that time wouldn't come, it wouldn't.

"It's the before last day of the school year anyway, and we never learn anything on the last week." Malcolm actually stuck up for me for once. But really he was just saving his own ass.

"Fine, but you can't be skipping school. Georgia, your mom called me to say that if I see you, I'm meant to tell you to come home. So I'd go home if I were you. Remember that you're always welcome here, just go and make sure your mom's okay."

I left pretty quickly after that, even though I would have rather did anything but that, feeling guilty and embarrassed that Lois had to listen to my mom rage on the phone.

"You're a fucking little shit, you know that? I'm so glad we're fucking moving." Were the loving words that welcomed me home. "You're not leaving the house tommorow. It's not like you learn anything on the last day anyway. Now start going through your room, pack your things, and find things we don't use anymore because I'm doing a garage sale tommorow."

That's how I spent the rest of my day since I didn't have the life in me to disobey.

The next day, I didn't have the will to get out of bed. Yet I was up and running, setting up our garage sale by 8. We actually had a lot of junk we never used or needed in our house. I was meant to be helping mom with the garage sale, and it was pretty damn tense if you ask me. Everything was happening way too fast. I wasn't sure it was realistic that we were getting our whole house packed up in less than a day. Mom hasn't even bought a house or anything yet, we're going to say with our gran until we find one.

For the next few hours mom was sitting behind one of the tables packed with our old stuff,  about everything from old toys to pots and pans, all priced for less than 5 bucks. I was sitting on the cold front steps in the shade, sulking. Still refusing to believe that we were moving. I looked down at the concrete, feeling as sorry for myself as I could. Then I heard a familiar voice. 

"Hi Alex! So good to finally see you again!" My head jerked up, to see Lois.

"Hello Lois." The response was pretty cold.

"I heard you were moving! Reese is devastated." She looked over at me, with her kind, empathetic smile. I was grateful that she would try to change mom's mind, even though wouldn't really change anything, if anything, it would make things worse.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't manage these kids on my own anymore."

"I'm sorry to hear that. You never mentioned. I could always look after your kids if you're ever busy. I'd be happy to help. Because it's just so sudden. I just want you to make the right decision. Are you sure you don't want to think it through a little bit better beforehand?"

"I've already thought it through quite well, thank you very much."

"Ah. It's just so hard on the kids though, it's going to be-"

"Lois. I appreciate your advice, but you're not going to change my mind. We're moving."

"Fine. I'm sorry. But you should really think about it. You've got all summer to move, are you sure you don't want to do it properly? Let me tell you what I think, just pack the things you need for now, make sure that's what you really want, then later come back and fully pack everything else up once you're sure. Good luck." And she was gone.

"Georgia, go sit at the table, I need a shit." Mom barked at me, facing away from me, running into the house. I knew she didn't, she was just crying. She was crying because she felt bad deep inside, and it was a hard decision for her to make, one she didn't want to make, yet had to, and everyone was shitting on her, which she didn't deserve to be honest.

I couldn't be more bored and miserable, just sitting there and burning in the sun, drawing on my hand with a random pen I found. Then while someone was walking past, they ruffled my hair. I almost sprained my neck looking up, outraged, only to see that stupid little grin. It was Reese. 

"Just got back from the last day of school." What should have been an euphoric sentence, sounded as depressing as fuck. "Guess how much you got on your maths test." He tried cheering up.

"I mean I didn't pass, so probably like 40?"

"No, you did pass, you did so fucking good. You got 65 percent. That's fucking great!"

"You can't be fucking serious." Because no FUCKING WAY my mom got that mad and me getting 65% and it was one of the reasons we were moving.

"No. You did so good!" He squealed. I just laughed. I'm gonna go fucking crazy one day I swear to fucking God.