One More Day (Counting on Hockey #2)

Chapter 27: 8 Days

Dad and I go to the store today to buy packing boxes. I'm emancipated from my parents at this exact moment, but I'm not moving back to Maine until after Thanksgiving now, not Christmas. They figured that I move everything out during Thanksgiving break and then start school after. Cole is absolutely thrilled that I'm moving back to Maine, and I am too. Why wouldn't I be excited?

I pack all of my clothes in boxes except for clothes for the next 8 days. I drive out to Maine in exactly one week. My parents are packing their van with pretty much everything else besides all of my personal things, like clothes and shoes and stuff like that, which will be in my car. My furniture is being moved by a moving van, and should be there a day after I get there, so I'm staying in a hotel with my parents for a night.

We come back home and load the boxes from Dad's truck into my room. I hear a knock on my front door. I listen to Mom open it from the top of the stairs. She greets the person then calls for me. I rush down the stairs and into the foyer.

"Aiden", I greet him with a smile. A guy is standing next to him. I've seen him in pictures before. "Eric!"

"Meredith, this is Eric, my boyfriend. Eric, this is my best friend for one more week, Meredith", Eric and I shake hands. "We are here to help you pack. You hadn't met Eric yet, and we thought since I promised to help you pack and I have hockey camp tomorrow, I should bring him along with me".

"Yeah, of course. Well, it's great to finally meet you. Come on in. We should probably go upstairs then".

I lead the guys up stairs into my room. I shut the door so my parents can't eavesdrop on anything, because they always do. As much as they let me pretty much do whatever I want outside of the house, once I'm in the house, it feels like I'm under house arrest with them watching my every move.

Aiden and Eric help me tape the bottom of all of the boxes and we stack them in the corner of my room. I have smaller boxes for the delicate things, and the larger boxes are for sheets and blankets and clothes.

I pick out outfits for the next week and pack the rest in boxes. The hangers fit in right at the top of one of the boxes. We talk and laugh for what only seems like a few minutes, but when I look at the clock, it's been almost three hours. As everybody says, time flies when you're having fun. Guess it's true.

As we reach the three hour mark, and most of my room is in boxes, Aiden turns to me. "Okay, we didn't just come here to pack. We are taking you back to my house and Addi is throwing you a going away party. I guess, because it's the week before Thanksgiving, not many of our friends are going to be at school, so they want to say goodbye now".

I think for a moment, but I know I'm not going to say 'no'. "Can I change first?" I look over my outfit, which is yoga pants, a raggedy tank top and Uggs. Aiden nods with a laugh.

I go into my 90% empty closet and pick out a casual shirt and jeans outfit with a cardigan to go over it. I put on my navy blue Converse to finish off the outfit. I run the brush through my hair quickly and I'm ready to leave.

We all take Aiden's car back to his house, because my Beetle is too small for 3 people. The ride takes about 10 minutes. We park and walk through the front door. Aiden leads me and Eric in. As soon as I walk through the door, I hear a little bit of shuffling, then quiet. A second later, Addison and all of our friends come running out from all different directions. "Surprise!" They all yell.

"Addi, it wasn't a surprise, you know that", Aiden laughs.

"Yeah, well, that was fun, so eff off", Addison says back, rolling her eyes playfully. "Oh, hey Eric"

"Hey Addi", he smiles back.

Addison turns back to me. "Okay. Since I'm going with Becca on Wednesday to California for Thanksgiving, we thought it would be nice to have a little get together for you since you are going back to Maine", Addison's voice cracks a little. She's about to cry. "I know we haven't known you for long, and so much has happened in our little so called love triangle, I consider you my sister. I'm going to come visit all the time, and I hope to get into Boston College and I'm going to visit you everyday", a tear falls from her eye.

"Addison, stop crying. We are going to talk everyday and it will be like I never left. We will Skype and call each other. I promise you", I take Addison into my arms. "if you don't stop crying, you are going to ruin your makeup".

"Okay, fine. Lets get this going away party started", Addison laughs a little.

The 10 or 12 us go into the living room and all take our seats in different places. I sit with Addison in the window seat, Aiden and Eric sit on the floor a few feet in front of us, Becca and Tif sit on the smaller of the three couches, Marcus's and Aiden's hockey friends, whom I can't remember their names at the moment, take the larger couch on the back wall farthest from us.

We all sit and talk, and somehow, we get to the topic of telling either the most embarrassing stories about me, or the funniest. Addison goes first, then Aiden. Her story is about something I did in Calculus class a few months ago. And, it was quite embarrassing.

Aiden clears his throat, "So, we were sitting in hockey practice and it was Meredith's turn to play music. Well, it's always her turn, but anyway. So, then, all of a sudden, Justin Bieber's song Baby started playing, and all of us hockey players couldn't stop laughing. We all laughed so hard, practice stopped for like 15 minutes because we couldn't breath from laughing so hard", once again, our entire group laughs.

"Okay, in my defense, I haven't a single clue how that got on there. You can go through every single song in my music, there is no Justin Bieber", I laugh. I take out my phone mockingly.

I'm going to miss this. Their outlooks on life are so different than the guys on the hockey team back in Bangor. But, I'm so glad to be back there soon.