Moving out.

Thomas wanted to repay the favor he owed me and offered to help me move my things, but I really only had like 5 boxes for clothes and other stuff like my PC. That and my instruments. All my furniture was staying at mom’s house because I didn’t need it. I told Thomas he could repay me by helping us move the girls’ stuff into the house and that’s where he hesitated. Mila said she had like 10 boxes of only clothes. Still, he sucked it up and even brought the other guys to help.

I texted Fernanda early in the morning to tell her I had something important to do, so I could probably see her on Tuesday. She texted back saying that worked for her.

Thomas, Ben, Kevin and Mark helped me load the van with my things while I said goodbye to mom and Isabelle.

“Be sure to keep everything neat and in order,” mom told me. “The house is big, but there’s seven people in it. If they’re not willing to clean, call me. I’ll give them a talking to, but you do your part as well.”

I chuckled. “Six people. You know Diana isn’t actually moving in with us, right?”

“Yeah, sure.” Not even mom believed she’d last long, huh?

“But yes, we talked about it. We’ll put in the work,” I told her.

“Do you know how long it’ll take you to get to your university from home?” she asked.

I nodded. “About 40 minutes in the morning, a little more in the afternoon. Not too different from what it would’ve been if I was commuting from here.”

“You’ll continue working at the hotel, right?” Isabelle asked me.

“Yeah, of course.”

I kneeled and picked up Cake’s carrier with her inside, lifting it up to mom’s eye level.

“I hope she doesn’t have too hard a time adjusting,” mom said, putting her finger against the mesh for Cake to sniff.

“I’m worried, too. If worse comes to worse… I’ll bring her back here.”

“I don’t think she’ll have trouble,” Isabelle said. “Maybe at first, but she’ll get used to it.”

“I hope so.”

Mom sighed. “Are you sure you don’t need our help?”

I smiled “I’m sure. Everything’s set up already. We’ll probably spend the day fixing our rooms, the kitchen, the living spaces, things like that. Like you said, there’ll be seven of us.”

“I thought Diana wasn’t moving in,” Isabelle said.

“She’s still going to help.”

“Alright then. Take care of yourselves, okay? Work hard, eat well, rest plenty. If you need anything, just call me,” mom said.

“Thanks.”

She hugged me and I hugged her back. She held me tightly, taking a deep breath, but didn’t say anything else. It was the same with Isabelle. We hugged, but we’d kind of had our goodbye that previous night, so we didn’t say anything else.

I took Cake to the van, put her in the back with Ben, Kevin and Mark and was ready to get on the driver seat, but Thomas stopped me.

“Want me to drive?” he offered.

“...” I sighed. “You know what? Yeah.”

Thomas got in the driver seat and I rode shotgun. I watched my mother, my sister and my old house get further and further away. It’s not like I believed I wouldn’t feel anything, but I didn’t think it’d hurt.

“You okay, Oliver?” Kevin asked me after noticing the silence in the van.

“Yeah. Just… It’s a bit sad, that's all.”

He sighed. “I bet.”

“Thanks for coming to help, though,” I told the guys. “You better be ready to carry lots of stuff. The girls are bringing more than I am.”

“It’s why we came,” Mark said. “I bet Grace is bringing her entire library.”

“Only what’s hers, but yeah.”

“Sorry, but it’s still funny to me that you’re moving into your own playboy mansion," Thomas said. “Will you start walking around in a cool robe?”

“I’m considering it. Either that or just boxers.”

“And that’s our cue to remember to call before visiting,” Ben said.

“Correct,” I told him.

Some 30 minutes later we arrived at the house. We were the first. They had also finished installing the tall metal fence and the electric gate. I used the remote to open it and the van followed the short dirt road to the garage to park in front of it.

I had talked to Mr. Moore, the architect in charge, the day before and he had officially given me the keys to the house. There was no construction equipment left, no holes or piles of dirt, no leftover materials. Only the finished, three story house and perfect, green grass.

“Um… Should we start?” Kevin asked, and I was thankful he did.

“It’d feel wrong not to wait for the others,” I said. “Do you guys want to go see the pool and the backyard?”

“Yeah. Do you have the space to have a barbeque?” Thomas asked me.

“If there’s anything we aren’t lacking, it’s space.”

We walked through the space between the house and the garage and reached the indoor pool. Sarah’s indoor pool, to be precise. This was her request. You could see the inside thanks to the glass walls, just like the one she had at her house, only here both the room and the pool were rectangular.

Right in front of the double doors was an area of smooth concrete flooring with a long glass table and metal legs and 10 white chairs around it.

“Oh, so you were already thinking about barbecues,” Ben said, grinning.

“Sarah was,” I told him. “She wanted to have a place to play outside. We considered putting a basketball hoop over here, too, but cut the idea for budget reasons.”

“Oh, come on…” Thomas and Kevin whined at the same time.

“Dude, it’s not your house…” Mark told them.

“Yeah, but still!” Thomas said.

I got a text and checked my phone immediately. Speaking of, it was Sarah with a quick voice message saying she was close to the house, so I went to open the gate for her.

She came in in her SUV, parked next to my van and came out looking… serious. I approached to ask what happened, but the moment she threw herself at me and hugged me, I understood.

Sarah cried softly into my chest, and all I could do was hold her and be there for her. If leaving my house was hard, it was doubly or triply so for Sarah. I kissed the top of her head and caressed her back, letting her cry all she needed to.

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