Chapter 17

Maddie

Today was bitter sweet, we had to say goodbye to my big brother as he went to college. I thought I would be glad he was leaving but a part of me really wanted him to stay. Watching him leave like that made me realize that I did love my brother no matter what a scumbag he is, no matter how we don't see eye to eye. After he left I went to Claudia's house. She was so heartbroken. I found her crying in her room. 'Hey_' Before I could another word she ran to me and embraced me. 'Its okay, it's okay' I reassured her. I sat her down on the bed and continued rocking her in my arms. 'What if he forgets about me?' 'My brother loves you Claudia and I really don't think you are that fast to be forgotten.' She finally broke off the hug and wiped her tears. 'Do you think so?' 'I know so, moreover we can always visit him or he can visit us. I really hate to see you crying, it really breaks my heart.' I was fighting back my tears. She finally stopped crying. 'Thank you for been here for me.' 'I am glad to be here for you, and no matter what time is it; if you feel overwhelmed just give me a call. I will be here for you.' 'I love you Madelyn Fader. I really envy the person you are going to be with.' 'Why?' 'They are really going to be lucky to have you, you have such an amazing soul.' 'Now you are gonna make me cry.' I could feel tears forming up in my eyes. 'Let it out my child.' She said in a old crusty voice mimicking the lady from one movie we once watched. 'You really do sound like her.' I laughed, she also joined in. 'Lets watch a movie, I will go make the popcorns.' 'I am hungry too.' 'Popcorn and food coming right up.' I got out of bed and went to the kitchen. I got out patties from the fridge and make some burgers but since Claudia was lactose intolerant, I added a fried egg to hers, well I added one to mine too. I made some green salad, Claudia loved it and I am sure it's was going to make her happy to have it. After making the food I carried the tray to the room. I found her crying again. My heart sunk, I instantly put the food tray down and went to her. 'What happened, why are you crying?' 'Look at this.' She said handing me her phone. 'Are you sure you are okay? Are you really crying because of this?' 'Look at how cute they are, they look so fragile.' Turns out she was crying because of some video she saw, a video of pups cuddling all up together. Yes, they are cute and all but I wasn't expecting her to be crying because of this. 'Here is your burger, the egg is not half cooked, I know you hate it when it's like that, so I made sure to thoroughly cook it.' 'Thank you, you are the best.'

We ended up watching the Korean series we once watched together, the night Claudia and Henry returned from Namibia. And again Claudia fell asleep. I must have fallen asleep right after she slept as well.

Claudia

Today Ken left for college and it hurt to see him leave. After saying our farewells, we went back home and I went straight to my room and cried my eyes out. Maddie came in a few minutes later and she managed to cheer me up, I don't know what I would do without her. We watched the K-drama series, I don't know when I fell asleep, I was woken up by my little brother calling my name.

As I opened my eyes, Maddie was fast asleep as well. She looked so precious in her sleep. I slowly got out of the bed not wanting to wake her up but as soon as I got out of the bed, she woke up. 'What are you doing?' 'I didn't want to wake you up so I tried to leave silently as I can, Henry is home. 'You know I am a light sleeper. What's the time?' 'Uh, my phone is under the pillow, check the time.' I left her and went to my little brother, I found him in the kitchen. 'Hey, how was the sleepover?' 'It was awesome, we made an erupting volcano.' He ecstatically said. 'Wow, an erupting volcano!' Maddie who happened to have heard him amused. I prepared him something to eat with Maddie's help obviously while Henry told us about his sleep over. It got me reminiscing about the sleepovers Maddie and I had in the past.

Maddie

I ended up sleeping over at Claudia's. We made dinner since her parents were going to be home late, I helped Henry get ready for bed, read him a bedtime story. He really enjoyed it when I read him one. After he fell asleep I went to Claudia's room and we chatted to kill time, we were waiting for her parents to come home. They came at around twelve midnight. They had their dinner and we chatted for like thirty minutes before we called it a night. In the morning we went to the mall to get school supplies since schools were about to open. It still feels surreal to me that this was our last year in highschool. It was Uncle Henry day off at work so he took us to the mall. Henry Jr bought his school supplies in spiderman theme. His school bag, lunchbox, stationary, he seemed to be in his spiderman era. Claudia bought her school supplies in purple. She has been fond of color purple for as long as I can remember. After buying the school supplies, Uncle Henry took us to a movie; after a long debating on what movie to watch we need up watching We can be heroes. We went back home at round six. Uncle Henry dropped us home and went to the hospital to pick up his wife. Before he left he made sure to order us some pizza, we were just too tired to cook. I went home, my mom and dad must have missed me so much. I found them watching tv, I sat in between them in a little huddle. 'How is Claudia?' my mom asked. 'She is doing great, yesterday was a little bit hard on her but now she is fine. How are you, with Ken not here?' 'I still can't believe he is already off to college. I was looking at his childhood photos and I realized how time flies, soon you will also leave for college and we will be left alone.' There was so much hurt in her voice, I wish there was something I could do or say to make her feel better. 'I will still come home on weekends, and I am sure he will too.' 'Yeah.' She hugged me close to her.