Fell In Love With My Best Friend.

Back to Erica and Liam

It was closing in on summer, and since it was already August they had to go to their school to pick up their schedules. They had to go back to school on August 24th, and they had to have their schedules a week or two earlier. Erica's mom was taking them to the school, and on the whole way there, Erica complained.
"Why did the summer have to go by so fast? Don't those teachers know how much I hate going to see them at that school every day?"
"It's not that bad. Don't you think those teachers don't want to go to that school to see you everyday, too?" her mom replied.
"Why couldn't they give us another week?"
"I don't know."
Erica sat back and watched painfully out the window as she noticed her mom's car nearing the school. It took a couple minutes, but they eventually pulled into a parking space behind the school.
"Do I really have to go?"
"Yes Erica. Let's go," Liam said, pulling her out of the car. She tried to pull back, but Liam was too strong. He nearly picked her up and dragged her to the school doors. While he did this, Erica's mom was already at the door, and she was talking to the principal.
"Looks like someone isn't excited to come here," the principal said, laughing.
"Nope. She'll be fine though."
Liam finally got Erica in the building, but when he finally let her down, she wasn't happy. Liam knew she would be like this, but he didn't know that she was going to be this bad. Liam just shrugged and walked up to the principal to get his schedule and locker information.
"Good job dragging Erica in here," she said before giving him his locker information. Liam was a little surprised at first, but he smiled and shrugged.
"Thanks. She's a handful," he said, smiling.
"You're a very good friend. She needs you," the principal said before moving on to another student.
Liam was shocked. She needs you, was the thing that shocked him the most. Did she know something he didn't? It might just be a nice compliment or something, but that was weird. Liam shrugged and went back to Erica who was calmed down, and she was in line with her mom waiting for her schedule.
"Sorry Liam. For getting a little crazy out there," Erica said a little embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it. I know how much you hate this place, but I heard 8th grade is supposed to be the easiest year until our last year of high school."
"I hope so. I'm just nervous, you know? This is my last year of middle school and everything until high school, and I guess I'm not ready."
"You will be...Hey, I'll catch up with you in a little bit. I need to go check what locker I have and practice the combination," Liam said, looking at her for confirmation.
She nodded and gave him a small smile. "Okay. I'll be there soon."
Liam nodded and started to walk down the hall. Don't worry Erica... I'm nervous too.
Liam walked down the hall to the area of lockers that belonged to only the 8th graders, and he looked down at his locker information card. Locker: 368. Combination: 30-5-20. Liam shrugged. Easy enough to remember, he thought to himself as he tried to do the combination. 30.... Go around...5...20... He tried to push the lever up to open it, but it wouldn't open. He sighed and tried again but slower. This time when he pushed the lever up, it swung open. He took a sigh of relief and put his notebooks, binders, pencil case and book bag he brought with him in the locker. He wanted to do that now, so he didn't have to worry about it later.
By the time he was done, he heard Erica walk next to him. "Are you done?" she asked him.
"Yeah. What locker did you get?" Liam asked.
"Locker 364."
"Man...We're in the same section of lockers, but we are not right by each other."
Erica shrugged and grabbed his arm. "Who cares. Come on, I'm hungry. My mom is taking us to Subway."
"Okay, I'm coming."
They walked out of the school, and they ran to the car since her mom was already there. When they got in the car, Erica's mom was giving them a weird look. "Are you guys that excited to leave the school? You weren't even in there for half an hour."
"Mom. Of course we're excited to get out of that school."
Erica saw her mom roll her eyes, and Erica just giggled and looked out the window. Good-bye summer.

******

Liam was called by his mom to have a serious discussion, and Liam has been sitting in his living room for 10 minutes already. He was starting to get impatient because his mom called him here to talk, but she's not talking.
"Mom. Are we going to talk?"
His mom looked at him and sighed. "Yeah." She sat down with Liam's dad, and they sighed.
"Liam. Before we start, we want to say that we love you so much, and we don't want you to be mad at us..."
"What are you talking about? What you're about to tell me is...Bad?"
"It's....Something like that. You see. Your dad found a house that is bigger for the family since this house is causing him to be stuck on the couch...."
"We're moving?"
"Let me finish..."
"Are we moving far away? You know I can't leave Erica."
"Calm down. That's what we talked about. We know how special Erica is to you, but we think that this house will be a good chance for us to meet new people and experience new things."
"Is it far away?"
"It's across the country."
"Across the country? Why is it across the country? Are you crazy? How am I supposed to see Erica? How am I supposed to deal with her out of my life?"
"She won't be. You can always take trips back here or video chat."
"I can't believe you guys are being so selfish!"
"Hey. Calm down. This house will be good for us, you'll know it. We are moving and you're going to have to live with it. We are leaving after this Christmas."
Liam couldn't even look at his parents. Are they really serious? He can't just move across the country and expect to be all happy. This is crazy! What is he going to tell Erica? He needed to tell her, but he didn't know what she was going to say. He had to tell her now or he would never tell her.

*********

Erica was sitting in her room that night wondering why Liam never came back. She knew that he was talking to his parents, but could that talk last 4 hours? She was a little worried, but she couldn't do anything but call him. He'll call soon, she told herself. Later that night, she was right. He called....
"Hello?"
"Erica... I need to tell you something."
"Okay, tell me."
"No. I have to tell you in person."
Erica was confused. If he wanted to tell her in person, he can just come to her house.
"Okay... Then, do you want me to come over?"
"We can be alone better if I come over there."
"Okay... You can come over."
Liam hung up the phone, and he grabbed his jacket. Am I ready for this? He didn't have time to answer that. He needed to do this now before he grew strong enough to avoid it. He couldn't avoid this. He slipped on his shoes and ran out the door. He walked up to Erica's house, and he knocked loudly. Soon after he knocked, Erica opened the door and saw Liam who looked stressed and worried.
"Liam?"
"Hi Erica. Can we talk in private?"
"Yeah, we can go to my room."
They took their time and walked up the stairs to Erica's room, and during this time Erica was getting more scared each minute that passed. What if he wants to break up with me? Before she could answer herself, they were in her room, and the door was closed. She tried to keep her cool, so she turned around and sat on her bed.
"What did you want to talk about?"
At first, Liam didn't say anything, but after a couple seconds of painful silence, he began talking. "I. I can't do this."
"Do what?"
"Erica... I'm leaving."
"Leaving?" Erica asked confused.
"Yes. I didn't want to tell you this, but we're moving. Across the country. We're leaving after this Christmas, and I feel really bad about it."
Erica really didn't know what to say. They were silent for a few minutes, but Liam spoke up.
"Erica...I'm really sorry. I really didn't plan for this to happen."
Erica couldn't believe this. Liam was about to leave and move all the way across the country. They won't be together anymore. He'll be gone for a long time. They won't be able to see each other anymore. There was a strong painful feeling in her chest, but she knew she had to stay strong for Liam. He didn't deserve to see her break down right now. Erica let out a nervous laugh and shrugged. "I know you don't want to leave. I know that. I just... I just can't believe you're leaving."
"I'm not leaving yet. We still have 3 or 4 months together still."
"Yeah, but..."
"I feel the exact same pain you're feeling. You're losing your best friend, but we can get through this. I'm not sure if I really believe that right now, but we will. I won't be gone forever, remember that. I'll come back, I will, but we should enjoy these last few months we have together."
Erica nodded and hugged Liam as hard as she could. She didn't want to believe what he was saying, she didn't want him to go and most of all...

She didn't want to lose her best friend.