The imagination of a perfect life

Chapter twenty two

The August sun shines into Aurelia's face. She yawns and rubs her eyes. She can't believe that this was her last night in her bed. She's moving today and next month she will start college.
Her bedroom door opens and Emilia and Ben walk in. They crawl into bed.

"What are you two doing here?" she giggles.

"We want to snuggle because you leave today" Emilia mumbles before she lies her head onto her sister's stomach.

"Do you have to leave?" Ben asks.

"I do Benny. You two have Luna now. You have to be strong for her and help mom and dad"

Ben nods before he snuggles into Aurelia's side.
Her eyes water when she wraps her arms around her siblings. She will miss them so much. How their running around the house woke her up in the morning, how their sticky little hands held hers whenever they were outside, the morning snuggles. She will miss everything. She doesn't want to believe that Emilia and Ben will be 9 almost 10 when she's done with college. She doesn't want them to grow up.

"Lia can we play before you leave?" Emilia asks, looking up to her.

"Of course Emmy"

"I want to play too" Ben squeals. "Lia when will you be back?"

"Thanksgiving, Luna's first birthday"

Ben gasps "but that's sooo long"

"I know Benny but we can FaceTime as often as you want. Maybe I'll come visit you guys over the weekend"

"I going to miss you Lia" Ben sniffs. His eyes water and his bottom lip trembles. She feels the tears on her shirt and starts crying too. "I'm gonna miss you too. Both of you, so so much"

Just in that moment the bedroom door opens again. This time Archie and Veronica walk in. Luna is in Archie's arms.

"More people" Aurelia giggles and wipes her tears away.

"Morning kids. Are you hungry? We thought we could go to Pop's for breakfast today" Archie grins.

The twins gasp and start to jump up and down on their sister's bed. As they were about to run into their rooms to get dressed, Veronica stops them.
"Mommy wants her morning kiss"

The twins both place their hands on her stomach and get on their tiptoes. She leans down and giggles when her kids place a kiss on each of her cheeks.

Archie chuckles when the kids run out of the room. "I'm gonna help them"

"Mom can I talk to you for a second?" Aurelia asks when there's just her and her mother.

"Sure sweetie what's up" Veronica smiles and sits down on her daughter's bed.

"Well, I'm a little scared-"

"About what?" Veronica interrupts and tugs a strand of her daughter's hair behind her hear.

"I was about to tell you" she giggles "I'm a little scared because I'll go to Harvard and Aaron will go to college in California. What if long distance doesn't work? I don't want to lose him mom"