Keep You Forever ✓ | AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AS A PAPERBACK/EBOOK! [Sample]

01 | moving away

 a/n: Thank you for reading xx

The day has come. These are officially the last few minutes I get to spend in peace inside my comfortable, small-but-well-decorated bedroom. After which I'm going to be stuck inside a quiet town I have absolutely nothing to do with—and newsflash, I don't even know what I'm going to be spending my time doing for all the six months I'm trapped there. I hope the people at the Jordan house like me. 

A little bit, at least. 

I start pacing around in my room with my hands crossed over my chest, trying to console myself. I assure myself that whatever is about to go down in Juniper Hills might actually go really well. I mean, what harm could come to me in six months? How boring could living in that town be? I might enjoy it. There's a slight chance I might even make friends. 

Oh, who am I kidding?

Like all those high-end, snobbish town kids would want anything to do with an ordinary city girl like me.There can't possibly be any common ground between us. From what Mummy tells me about that place, people there are known to be rich, conservative, studious and way smarter than me. I can't discuss the latest fashion gossip with people who want to talk about the History of Mankind, can I? 

Who knows, I might join a yoga class. Or something a little more dramatic, I suppose? According to me, the best way to survive this is that I change my name to Paolo and move into a small cottage in Spain, where I could possibly buy a tiny farm and milk fat cows to earn money. 

Sounds great. 

I should try and relax. 

Maybe I'm just overreacting. And borderline hyperventilating. 

I try to look at the bright side. I'm studious too, and now I might finally encounter sane humans who won't call me a nerd simply because of that. Plus, I'd rather embark on this journey with a fresh mind. A clean slate. For all I know,I could have it all wrong about that place and the people who live there. Things might've changed since my parents visited last time. Posters of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and the happy FRIENDS team look back at me from where they're hung up on my wall, as though they can sense my misery. 

Maybe they can.This room is my life rolled up inside four walls.And I'm this close to leaving it. 

Ugh.I can't imagine not sleeping inside my bed with my penguin—her name is Hugsy—for more than a hundred and eighty days. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate adjective to describe how much I detest this trip—or vacation, if you can call it that. Downstairs in the kitchen,I can hear my parents toiling to ignore each other. Papa is busy typing away on his old typewriter, while Mummy waters the plants for the fifth time today. I don't think the plants are going to last very long if my mother doesn't stop converting watering them into therapy sessions.