Embracing Rain

23 - Noah

A/N: Yes, this is from Noah's POV. Again. Because I started writing the chapter in Chance's POV, accidentally switched to Noah's POV in the second paragraph, and didn't notice until I'd already finished. And I was too lazy to go back and fix the whole chapter, so I just fixed a paragraph or two. Anyway, this is the last chapter (!!! aksjdhf) but stay tuned for an epilogue ^-^

2 3 - N O A H

Chance's moving day comes far too soon.

When I arrived at his house this morning, there was a moving truck in front of his house and workers in the living room. Now, there's still a moving truck in the driveway and workers in the house, but the living room doesn't look like a living room anymore—more than half of the furniture is gone, as is any sense of homeliness. The house is just an empty shell now, devoid of memories. Devoid of warmth.

It's hard to imagine that tonight, he'll be sleeping in a different bed in a different house in a different city. In a different city two hours away where I won't be able to pop over to his house whenever I want to. Where I won't be able to come over and make him hug me when I need a hug. It's hard to imagine because I don't want it to be true. It feels so wrong.

His door creaks when I push it open. "I finished helping your parents with the kitchen," I announce quietly. He looks up from where he's sitting on the floor, surrounded by piles of stuff. "Want help getting your stuff together?"

He glances at his cast with small trees drawn all over it, wincing at the ache. "Yes, please. That'd be nice. But let's take a super long time so we don't have to leave so soon."

"But then you won't be able to unpack everything tonight."

"I don't care," he insists with a stubborn pout. "I don't want to go."

"I don't want you to go either. But you can't avoid it."

He slumps, as if hearing me say it out loud makes it more real. "Yeah."

Instead of hugging him, I take his arms and wrap them around me. After all this time of me being the one to hug and comfort him, it feels nice for him to hold me. Especially because he's much taller than me, so I fit in his arms much better than he fits in mine. And the tighter his grasp gets, the more comforted I feel. It's like he's squeezing all of the sadness out of me, at least temporarily.

"We should really get my stuff together," Chance says unconvincingly, not moving at all. I just hum. Eventually, he does move, but he doesn't get up and start packing. He just turns around to face me, his eyes staring into mine.

"I'm going to miss you," he whispers. His breath puffs lightly across my face, sending a shiver through my whole body.

"I'm going to miss you too," I murmur, pulling him in for a kiss. And suddenly all I care about is how close I can pull him in and how tightly I can hold him there. And then I try to memorize the feeling, soaking everything in until I think I have to break away because I'm out of air—but even then, I don't pull away. Until his mom walks into the room.

"Oh my," she says, covering her mouth. "This is awkward."

"It is," I agree, my cheeks on fire my voice coming out breathy. "Sorry, Veronica. We'll start packing now."

"Thank you," she says, relief evident in her voice as she bolts out of the room, not so discretely slamming the door behind her. Chance and I stare at each other for a long moment and then break out laughing.

"Oops," Chance says through a fit of giggles. "I wasn't expecting that to happen."

Because I'm not able to think straight, my mind goes straight to the fact that when we get married, we're going to have to kiss in front of more people than that. And then I start chiding myself for even considering that at a time like this. At a time when there's no way of knowing for sure that we'll even stay together, let alone keep in touch. But I'm trying to be optimistic.