Coffee and Cigarettes and Everything in Between

Twenty-eight

Giselle

"Are you sure you aren't forgetting anything?" I asked Winter who's looking smaller than usual with her oversized coat hanging on her shoulders and her two ginormous luggages beside her.

She replied with a roll of her eyes followed by  her little pout. "Gi, we've checked like ten times already last night. You even made me a checklist remember?"

My best friend is such a bottom but I didn't voice my thoughts out fearing that she'll hit me just like what a bottom would normally do.

And yes I did made her a list just in case she forgot something but to be honest the list was for me. So that I'll get distracted from the thought of her leaving because it still hasn't sink into me that she's going to a new place without me. Without her bestfriend.

"Well Giselle is just worried about you honey. In fact we all are. You're going there all by yourself, are you sure you don't want me to come with you for a week until you really get settled in?" Auntie Kim said as she caressed Winter's hair. Her parents and her brother are here with me to send her off. I kinda get where her parents' worries are coming from since this is really the first time that Winter will be going away for a long time without anyone she knows coming along. Without me tagging along with her.

Winter let out a deep sigh but smiled nonetheless. "Mom you're treating me like a kid. Really, I'll be okay over there." Her eyes were warm and reassuring as she held her mom's hands.

"Well considering your height, you can probably pass as a high school student." Her brother chimed in making all of us laugh except for a very pouty Winter.

"Yeah old man? I'll be away for three years and if you still don't have a girlfriend when I come back I swear I'm taking half of your inheritance." Winter said challenging her brother.

"You can't even take half of my height, my dear sister." Her brother replied playfully laughing off her empty threats.

"Well yeah c—"

"You two, stop it. Your bickering knows no bound it seems." Uncle Kim cut them off. He looked at his children with fondness in his eyes albeit to his words.

"Love, let them be. Bickering is their sibling language." Auntie Kim said as she tapped Winter's back. As if knowing that arguing with her wife will led him nowhere, Uncle Kim shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

"Gi?" Winter called out.

"Yeah?" I answered her with the sweetest smile.

"Don't miss me too much okay?" She said trying to sound confident but the shakiness in her voice gave her away. She's trying her best not to tear up and in return I held my tears too. I can't let her see the sadness that her absence is going to bring. The hole that only she can fill up. This is the first time that we are really going to be separated ever since we knew each other.

"You dumb dumb I should be saying that to you!" I hit her arm playfully to lighten up the mood. She threw herself at me in return and embraced me in the tightest hug that she have ever given me.

"I'll miss you." She whispered.

"Same here dumb friend. Are you sure you're going to be okay?" I asked in return.

She pulled away this time and gave all of us a small smile before saying, "I'll be okay."

And with her longing eyes and deep sigh, I knew that it was not just about her going to Chicago. Her answer also included her heart.

That night when Winter talked to Karina about her admission on the Chicago Art School, something changed and the way that she shut the door behind her let me know that it didn't go as planned.