This Isn't Goodbye, It's See You Later

I woke up that morning to the smell of cooking bacon, the smell flew through the house enough to wake up anybody who was asleep in it. Breakfast in my house is kind of crowded, considering I have six brothers and one baby sister, Liliana. Imagine being the oldest in that family? Well I don’t have to imagine. My mom had me when she was 16, now I’ve just turned 21 and enrolled in a college. My name is Lou Starverling, and this story is about my last days before college.

My brothers, Liam, Lucas, Landon, Levi, and the twins Logan and Leo were already awake when I got to the kitchen, the bacon was pretty much gone. One half piece of bacon was left for me. My mom was in the corner of the dining room feeding little Liliana while I made us some coffee. My dad already left for work, that’s where he usually is anyways. 

“Hi honey!” my mom ran over and kissed me on the cheek before getting back to cleaning up the kitchen and making Logan and Leo’s lunches for school. 

“Hey Mom, need any help? I don’t have to start packing until around 4pm Monday, cause I leave on Tuesday at 9am.” I said.

“You and your punctual scheduled times. You’re such a nerd.” said Landon before getting up and taking his breakfast to his room.

“Someone’s still going through the emo teen faze.” I said with a smirk as Landon walked off. “I’m gonna miss his snarky attitude when I leave.” There was an awkward silence throughout the room as I said these words. We were all still in the denial faze, even though I’m leaving in 2 days. The boys looked at me, even Landon before he got to his room. My mom was the worst of all though, luckily, Liliana let out a terrifying screech of hunger and broke the silence. Everyone got back to what they were doing. 

After that horrible awkward silence, I ran to my nearest Starbucks and got a coffee and a doughnut cause the boys ate all the bacon, then I drove to the doctor’s office for my annual physical. Most colleges require you to get a physical before moving in the dorms and so on. I’ve had a cold for a while now and needed a checkup, so I guess this was pretty convenient. I also have asthma and carry an inhaler, so if this cold was worse than it actually felt like then I needed to know before I move into a dorm with a new roommate. Wouldn’t want to get them sick and spread the sickness throughout campus. Could be the next “College Campus Pandemic”. That would be a great story for future med school students. 

My physical checkup concluded that my cold is just, well a cold. After that I went home to spend my last 2 days with the people I love. Today's kind of slow though, everyone’s off doing their own things. Monday, aka tomorrow is where the denial faze ends and everything begins to happen. I pack, I leave. Keep in mind, my college is in Indiana, promptly 1 day and 5 hours, aka 2,135 miles away from where we live, Oregon. I’ll be across the world from my family, the people who love me, and surrounded with people I’ve never met before. This is definitely a learning experience, but I really love my family and are gonna miss them so much. 

After a while of self-inflicting and deep thought, I went to my best friend Kathy Jilio’s house. She’s a year younger than me and wants to go to the same college as me when she figures out her future but is also leaning towards her family’s legacy college in Florida. She’s also my next door neighbor. I’ve known her since she was in kindergarten and I was in first grade. She is practically filthy rich. Her family lives in this biggest house on the block. Our family is, well not as rich but we are pretty lucky. My parents are pharmacists, and also have 8 kids, so we live in a moderately big house? Four bedrooms, I have my own room, Liam and Lucas share a room, Landon and Levi, the twins Logan and Leo, and Liliana gets a walk-in closet in my parents room. They are house shopping as soon as I leave for Indiana though.   

Eventually I made it to Kathy’s house. The guards outside let me in as soon as I pulled up. I know right, guards outside her house! They're pretty chill though. 

“Hi scholar!” Kathy yelled, there was an echo through the house, her parents walked down the stairs, gosh they were so elegantly dressed.

“Lou, darling. Such a pleasure to see you again!” Mrs. Jilio gave me a hug as her elegant dress touched my body, I could feel the prosperity rub off on me. 

“Hello Mr and Mrs. Jilio, where are you guys off too?” I said. I heard a stutter in my voice, and so did Kathy, she started giggling under her breath.

“We are hosting a party on our yacht in California, taking the jet there tonight, Kathy refused to come cause she wanted to see you one last time before you went off the Indiana, congratulations by the way.” I put my hand out and we shook each other's hand before they walked out.

    “Wow Kathy, I always forget how awesome your parents are.” We laughed loudly as I took a large sip of my Starbucks. 

“Awesome or cliche? With them I never know the difference between the two” we walked up to her room and talked for hours about where our lives will be in the future. She is still confused about her future career and whether she wanted to go into her family legacy. I told her I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. She supported me, just like we’ve supported each other our whole lives. Then, it was time for our final goodbye .

“God, is this really happening now?” asked Kathy. We giggled and both started crying and hugged each other tightly.

“I’m gonna miss you so much,” I said as we hugged. Tears got all over her brand new Chanel jacket.

“We will see each other again, I know we will, we won’t be those friends who drift apart during their college departure. We won’t be those people.” 

“I promise we won’t,” We finally broke the hug and wiped our tears. I looked around taking one last glimpse at her glamorous house. 

“You better facetime me every night, and text me nonstop. If you skip a day I will fly down there and make you answer!” Kathy and I giggled. “Later Lou.” I shut the door and finally got myself to drive away.

When I got home it was 2am. I spent my second to last night partying at a bar after saying goodbye to my best friend. Honestly I’m not sure how I made it home without crashing. I went to sleep as soon as I returned home.

Today is the day. The denial faze is officially over. It’s actually happening now. I’m leaving. This morning I woke up to a different smell. No ordinary breakfast. I smelled chocolate chip cookies. I rose out of bed, put on my slippers and ran out. I saw my family all clapping for me with a full catered party for my last day. There were cookies, cakes, a chocolate fountain, strawberries, and all my favorite desserts.

“Guys, oh my gosh! You didn’t have to do this for me.” I said as tears rolled down my cheeks. This was so amazing.

“We wanted your last day to be super duper special!” Leo exclaimed. They dug into the breakfast with me. 

“How is it? I made it my culinary class in school.” Liam said as he wiped come crumbs off my cheek.

“Oh my gosh its extravagant Liam, thank you so much, you are amazing. This whole thing is just, amazing.” 

“I helped! Come on Liam, really not gonna give me cred here? I got the chocolate fountain.” Lucas winked and walked off. 

“Hey! Get back here you twatty little pig” Liam chased after Lucas and I went to see Liliana. She smiled as I fed her ice cream.

“She is getting so big isn’t she?” My dad said as he stroked her tiny baby hairs. “I can’t believe my first baby is leaving the nest. This is crazy, I’m so happy for you baby,” This was one of the nicest things my dad has ever said to me. 

“Thank you, Dad.” He smiled and walked off, leaving me speechless, but happy. I was really gonna miss my family, even Landon.

The rest of the day was partying and me texting my aunts and uncles goodbye and that I was off to college. My grandparents live in the Czech Republic so they basically just texted me “dobrý zbavit” in english “good riddance”. I was also sending Kathy partying pics and taking selfies for Instagram. Also took ALL of my brothers out to dinner. There goes first months rent.

“Thanks for dinner sis, it was so good!” exclaimed Levi. I patted his head, then, something terrible happened.

“PIG PILE ON LOU!” screamed Logan. They all piled on top of me and we all laughed out loud, that’s what my family is like. After the pig pile, I was completely off my schedule, I was two hours from when I was supposed to start packing. So I rushed to my room and asked my mom to help pack. We were finished by 8:42pm. 

“This is really happening, my oldest girl is going to college, wow. I feel so old.” My mom laughed and tears fell.

“Mom you have a 2 year old, how can you feel old?” We both started laughing as I realized, this was the last heart-to-heart I had to have. Now it was official. My life was starting to unfold, I’m an adult.  

The next morning I was pretty hungover on ice cream. I took my bags out to my car and hugged each and every one of my siblings, then my parents.

“I’m going to miss you all so much. I just wanna say, I love you all, even though you're all a pain.” We all laughed in unison.

“We will miss you too sis.” Landon gave me a hug, I was quite surprised considering it was Landon.

I got in my car and started sobbing. Then, I got a call. I know I shouldn’t talk while driving but I was barely out of the driveway.

“Hello?” I said into the phone. 

“Look behind you.” I stopped the car before leaving the driveway. I saw Kathy. I rolled down my window and hung up the phone. 

“Kathy? What are you doing here?” I saw her holding a bag, actually multiple. She opened my trunk and put her bags in. She got in and held my hand. 

“I got my future figured out. Forget the stupid legacy. Let’s go to college, roomie.” I didn’t ask any questions, I just started driving with the biggest smile on my face. Goodbye.