Unceremonious goodbye.

If I had received that text any other night, it could have very well woken me up and prevented me from going back to sleep. Fernanda sending me a picture of herself masturbating was NOT on my list of things to expect from her. On top of that…

Tell me when’s the earliest you can meet. I… need to see you.

She NEEDED to see me? Can you blame my heart from beating like crazy?

Thankfully, I already had trouble falling asleep and had completely given up on it. It was weird because I normally sleep really soundly after having sex, and the past two days had a lot of that. But considering what I’d be doing tomorrow… I was restless.

I decided against texting Fernanda immediately, not wanting to ruin her mood by telling her I couldn’t see her tomorrow. After all… I was finally moving out of my mom’s house.

My house was ready. All tiles set, all walls painted and every piece of furniture assembled. And just a couple of days before we started university, too. It’s still hard to believe how fast they worked, and I think that’s part of the reason I felt so restless. It felt like no time had passed since we made the decision to move in together and the house being finished. I kept a close eye on the progress, but it still hit me out of nowhere.

I couldn’t sleep. Leaving this house, this room, my family… I didn’t think it’d feel so heavy, but now that the time arrived, I felt… uncomfortable, anxious. It was about 2:30 am and the one sleeping soundly at the foot of my bed was Cake. I had… told her we’d be moving out, but of course she didn’t understand. She’s a cat, no matter how much it looks like she understands human speech. Either that or she doesn’t care either way.

I got another text not long after and got excited that it might be another picture, only to be sorely disappointed when it turned out to be my sister asking if I was awake. I sighed, smiled and answered that I was.

She came into my room a moment later, wearing long pajama pants and an old T-shirt.

“You should be sleeping,” I told her, sitting up on my bed.

“...Wanna play some games?” she asked me.

“...” I held back a chuckle. “Sure.”

Isabelle turned on my PC and the two of us sat on the bed with controllers in hand. A new kart racing game had come out recently, so we played that because it had some amount of randomness to it that I wouldn’t absolutely destroy her.

For about a full hour we just… played the game and talked only about it.

“Someone sent me an e-mail asking me to edit a highlight video of them playing this game, but since I’m not familiar with it I haven’t answered yet. It’s fun, so maybe I will.”

“Is it really that important that you know the game?” I asked her.

“You miss the funny and impressive moment if you don’t,” she said. “It’s why I don’t edit a lot of game footage, but more people are asking me to do that, so maybe I should get back to playing more games.”

“You’d be able to edit more for Noelle that way.”

“I’d love to, but she has editors in the company, right?”

“I bet she could tell them she’s working with someone and having them pay you.”

“That’d be nice. It might be more stable, but I’d feel guilty asking her about it. I don’t want her to feel like she has to hire me just because we’re friends.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“...”

“...”

“So what are we going to do with the channel?” she asked me.

“I can still record and send you the footage. And for more elaborate stuff you can always drop by. You’re always welcome.”

“You’re too far away.”

“It’s an hour at most, and that’s if you run into traffic. Going downtown by bus is already 40 minutes and you go all the time.”

“Yeah, but your house is in the middle of nowhere, so it feels like it’s farther away.”

“That’s true.”

“I’ll drop by every once in a while. When I’m not busy. Will you come back to visit, though?”

“Yeah, but our aunt is going to be using my bedroom soon, so it’ll only be for the day.”

“Right, I’d almost forgotten.”

“How do you feel about that, by the way?”

“I like auntie. And she’s always been the type to help around the house, so it’s not like she’ll be a bother in the slightest. In fact, she’ll help more than you ever did.”

“Yeah, probably,” I said with a chuckle.

“The girls are all ready, then? I asked Alice and she said she has everything packed, but Noelle was still putting everything in boxes when I called her at 8:00 pm.”

“I bet she’s STILL putting everything in boxes,” I said.

“Likely. Her room was full of stuff. No one getting cold feet or parents changing their opinions at the last minute?”

I shook my head. “No, everything’s going well. Why? Do you want something to go wrong?”

“Of course not. I can’t wait to have you out of this house.”

“...”

“...”

We kept our eyes on the screen and kept playing, even as Isabelle started to sob. I caught a few tears rolling down her cheeks, but since she didn’t pause the game, neither did I. We kept playing for about 40 more minutes until Isabelle finally had enough.

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed,” she said, standing up.

I nodded. “Good night, sis.”

“Good night, brother.” She leaned in and kissed my cheek before going back to her room.

I threw myself back on the bed and sighed.

“Really, just as things went back to normal, I grab my stuff and leave…” I muttered to myself. “Sorry, sis… but I’m going ahead.”

Author's Note: And now 700 chapters. Man. I still really enjoy writing this story a lot and I'm definitely planing to continue, but we're getting to the point where I worry I'm getting stuck in a single thing. It's kind of the same reason I ended my Affection Multiplier story, because I was afraid I wouldn't grow as a writer if I kept doing the same thing. Still, the point in the length of this story is to be something that goes with you through your lives, hopefully a thing to look forward to in the week. I like this sort of long-form stories, but I am starting to think of finishing things. Not soon, mind. I still have plenty of ideas and plans. And while I have ideas for new stories, there's still nothing that clicks as hard as this one did back when I started.

As always, thank you all very much for reading and for the support. It really does mean the world to me.

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