Broke me like your Promise

Seventeen

Jack: Miss you xo what are you up to tonight?

Me: miss you more. Sav and Gran have convinced me to watch the Love Island final with them. 🥳🙄

Jack: not possible, I miss you the most. Have fun watching, call me before bed?

"Annie, tell Jack that it's my turn with you and put your damn phone away. The shows about to start!" Savannah demands from the lounge room where she is all set up for this ridiculous show with my Gran. I've never understood their fascination with reality TV, but I love these two women with my whole heart.

I send another quick text to Jack and join them in the lounge. The show starts along with their running commentary of thoughts and feelings about the different couples, but I don't pay attention to any of it. It's only been a week since Jack had to go back. Thankfully it didn't take too long for the paparazzi to also disappear with him.

I had a few sneak into the diner and try to get an exclusive story from me. Thanks to the small town we live in, any stranger asking questions about Jack instantly raised red flags and I could avoid feeding them any information accidentally.

I miss him. I miss him even more then I did when he left the first time. It's different now. I loved him then, but we both grew in our time apart and we still found each other again. I don't see myself with anyone else.

Our week together was the happiest I had been in so long and I want to feel like that forever. I want to beg him to move back home and only travel when he needs to film, but that's not fair on him. Besides, it's not like he is going to come and live with Gran and I, and I need to care for Gran.

"Annie, did you even watch any of the show?" Savannah disrupts my daydreaming.

"Uhh, no sorry," I reply sheepishly.

"She was too busy thinking about Jack, weren't you Annie?" Gran calls me out.

"Yeah, I was," I take my necklace between my fingers, a new comfort habit I've developed.

"Are you sure this long distance thing is a good idea?" Sav has been concerned about the arrangement since I told her. But she understands the reasoning too. She's just being a concerned best friend.

"It has to, what other choice do we have? I can't leave Rosehill."

"And why the hell not?" Gran interrupts. "I've heard you on the phone to him. I've seen how happy you've been the last few weeks and you need to go be with him. Don't you dare say you're still here for me."

Savannah is hiding a grin. She loves being a witness to one of Gran's lectures.

"And who's going to look after you?" I retort. If she thinks I haven't wanted to pack up my bags a hundred times over the last week and just make things work, she's loosing her mind faster than her bodily functions.

"You can put me into the village. We'll sell this house and you can run the diner books from anywhere. Nicole can run things and you can go be with that boy. Go and make me a great grand baby before I die!"

Savannah can't hold it in anymore and bursts into laughter. She points to Gran and gives me a look. "The old lady wants a great grand baby Annie, you have to deliver after all she's done for you!"

"You're not helping!" I give Sav a murderous look. "This is a serious discussion Gran! It's not as simple as just putting you in a home and packing my bags."

"Why not?" She asks again. "Annie, you love him and he loves you. It makes sense to be together. I've thought about this for a long while already. You already gave up college to look after me and you've achieved all you can with the diner. In fact, I spoke to my lawyer this week and he has secured me a spot in the village. I can move in next week. There are nurses there who can help me whenever I need it. I don't need to be your responsibility."

I'm speechless. Gran doesn't lie, she's a straight shooter and if she's saying she's already made arrangements then she has damn well made arrangements. I can feel the tears well up in my eyes as I realise that she has done this for me.

I know she thinks that me staying in Rosehill with her held my life back, but she's wrong. Sure I didn't get to be with Jack, but who's to say we would have lasted when we were eighteen anyway. Maybe we needed to experience time apart to be able to come back together. I also got to learn how to run a business, and maybe I can take those skills and do it over again. In Malibu.

"I'll help Gran move and help pack this place up, you should go and book your flight and go to your man," Sav tells me, taking my hand in hers. That's when the floodgates open and the tears fall. I haven't always felt lucky in my life, but right now in this room with these two women who mean everything to me, I feel like the luckiest.

"This is really going to happen isn't it?" I ask them, though the question is absolutely rhetoric.

"You just better name one of those great grand babies after me. Now help me up, this old woman needs to go to bed."

I jump up immediately and help Gran to stand. When she is upright I wrap her up in a tight hug. She wraps her arms around me too and we stay like that for a moment before I help her off to her bed. She's already done so much for me in my lifetime and now she's giving me this gift too.

When I talk to Jack later that night before bed, I decide not to tell him about my plans. I'm going to ask his mom for his address or coordinate with Tom and surprise him. I think if I told him, he would have me out there by tomorrow and I have a number of loose ends to tie up first, starting with promoting Nicole and I really owe Baden a conversation.

All of that though, is a task for tomorrow. Along with packing up my whole life.