Chapter Tree - Goodbye Pancakes

She started her ranting. Her look of fright was only momentary, but it was just enough time for me to begin unraveling the mystery as to why she was scared at all.
“Alright, well I came to say you guys need to get out quickly,” Ms. Vauche said, sounding quite rude, which seemed to take back my mom.
“What? Our house isn’t even on the market!” Mom said.
“I understand, you’ll move and we’ll rent it out. Oh, I’m sorry, you’ll rent it out.”
“But I’d like to sell.”
“Well, when someone gets interested we’ll let you know. It’s Monday, you need to be out by Friday.”
“We don’t have any arrangements. Hell, we haven’t even looked at houses.”
“Taken care of. We’ve already got a moving truck. My company is taking care of it.”
“And the house?”
“We’ve got you guys in an apartment. You’ll be able to look around once you’re there.”
“But how will we just leave the house. The reason we need to move is because we can’t afford it. How do you expect us to pay for an apartment and a house?”
“I’ve already talked to a couple. They are in their early 20’s. They sound interested. Oh, and by the way, you might want to say your goodbyes.” She was leaving for the door, but I caught her.
“How come you’ve made all of the arrangements without consulting us? And why is your company helping?” She looked like she had been punched in the face. She took a step backwards, still heading toward the door.
“We’re just trying to help – you know, the media and such. I know you’re tired of them. And your mother, I don’t know how long she can take living here.”
“Don’t drag my mom into this. What is the real reason? And more importantly, why are you afraid.”
“I will assure you, I am not afraid. I have to go.” With that she slammed the door and drove off.
“Well that was a bit odd,” Mom said.
“Yeah, it was.” That is when it hit me. I still had to call Suzy. My phone was found lying on my nightstand, exactly where I had left it the night before. I pressed and held the one – speed dial.
She picked up on the third ring.
“Hey Erik.”
“Hi, guess what?”
“Hm?”
“I’m moving on Friday. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“What, you can’t…”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it,” I interrupted. “I was wondering if you had any idea of what we should do.” By saying this, I meant whether or not to break up.
“Hell, I don’t even know what to wear in the morning.” There was a pause. I broke the silence.
“Suze?”
“Yeah?”
“This isn’t going to work.”
“Why?”
“We are moving to North Carolina.” By this I was saying there was no way for us to stay together.
“Oh - but we will stay in touch. You have my cell and home, along with my address.”
“Definitely,” I said, feeling bad that I wasn’t sounding too enthusiastic.
“How about you come over for breakfast tomorrow. We can make some of those blueberry pancakes you love.”
“Yeah, sure. What time?” I asked.
“Nine-ish?”
“Super.” I hung up.

The alarm rung at 8:00 sharp. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to get ready. I told Mom about this outing, but regardless if she remembered or not, I was going.
After a brief “clean-up”, which involved me cleaning my face, and brushing my teeth, I grabbed a jacket and headed out the front door. There, I bumped into my mom as she was bringing in the paper.
“Where… Oh, yes, Suze’s.”
“Yes, I’ll be back by, eh, ten-ish.”
“Sure. Call if you wind up staying or whatever.”
“Of course.” I walked to my half open garage and pulled out my bike. Haven’t used it in ages. My life strictly revolved around swimming. That is until my father. My mom pulled me out of it faster than you could ask her otherwise.
I pulled the bike out, and hopped on when I had wheeled it to the edge of the curb. Surprisingly there was dew on the tips of the grass blades – LA doesn’t see that too much. A small phenomenon that I simply set aside.
I peddled the bike into the center of the street, and then veered it to the right, so I was riding along the edge of the curb. Suze didn’t live too far from me, only a few blocks – a five minute bike ride – no big deal, or as she would say, deal-lio.
The air was unusually chilly – not something you would expect on the outskirts of LA. The five minute bike ride that followed was five minutes of uneasy silence. As I rode past the rickety houses, I thought about how many memories these streets had given me. I was dreadfully nervous as to how I was going to hold onto these memories.
I pulled into Suzy’s apartment complex – Angeles Apartments – clever – and parked my bike along the side of the building, not bothering to tie it up or anything of that sort. Her apartment was on the 3rd floor. Her complex was the type with the wooden staircases that led you to the multiple floors. I climbed up three flights, and loped to 312. There were 15 apartments per floor, and none were what you would call fancy. I knocked three times, and I heard commotion from behind the door. I assumed one of them was looking through the peep-hole. The door opened and I met Suzy’s face.
“So where’s your dad?” I asked, all-knowingly.
“How’d you know?”
“Cuz, if he was here, he would have answered the door.”
“You’ve got a point,” Janine, her mother, said.
“So… I’m starving. I can’t wait to dig into those pancakes.”
“Thought you’d say that. They’re already on the table!” Suze said, half laughing at my statement. I walked into her apartment, scanning for anything new - there was nothing.
“So, really, where is your dad?”
“He’s at a job interview. If he gets the job we’ll be able to move out of this dump,” Suze said, trying to not let her excitement make her giggle.
“Well, we never said that honey,” said Janine.
“You know that’s the case just as well as I do,” Suze replied. We took a seat around her table. It was brown, and round, with four chairs evenly spaced around it. Suze’s dad had OCD, big time – everything had to be perfect.
“Ms. Long, I have to say, these pancakes smell delicious,” I said to Suze’s mom.
“Thank Jim; he came up with the perfect recipe.” There was a moment of hesitation, but then Suze broke it with the sound of fork-in-waffle. I followed her lead, as did Janine.
“So, are you guys flying?” asked Suze.
“Psht, are you kidding me?” I asked, making her sound insane.
“Well, I don’t know. It’s a long drive.”
“Yeah, ‘bout three days or so - I wish we could afford to fly.”
This time it was Ms. Long who spoke. “Well, at least your mother will be happy. Where are you guys planning to go in NC?”
“Er… I think a town called Davidson. I doubt it though. I looked at it last night online, and it was pretty expensive. Our house is more, but still, it’s not cheap. Our best bet is probably Huntersville, a town right outside of it.”
“Is that expensive?” Ms. Long asked.
“Well for the amount we paid for our current house, we could get a house twice the size in Huntersville. I don’t know. I’ll have to let you know when we get there.”
“When are you guys leaving again?” Suze asked. I knew that she knew, but she wanted her mom to hear for emphasis. She did things like that.
“Friday…”
“This Friday-” said Ms. Long. I cut her off before she got out Friday.
“Yes, this Friday.” I looked down at my plate and realized that I had already shoveled down one of the two waffles that were placed on my plate.
“Wow,” she said in response. Yeah, it was a statement worth wowing for. It was quite sudden. I surely wasn’t ready to leave, nor was my mom. It was just her subconscious that was telling her to get out of this city.
We all completed our pancakes in silence, presumably because we were all taking in the utterly horrible reality, that I, Erik Richards, Suze’s boyfriend, was moving, and it was final.
“Can I get your plate?” Suze asked once she noticed that I had cleared it.
“Sure,” I said, pushing the chair away from the table, causing in a screeching noise to fill the apartment. I arose from the chair, to push it back underneath the table, this time creating less noise than before. I continued: “Well what can I say? You guys have been great to me, and it has been a pleasure to date your daughter. Thanks for breakfast. Tell Mr. Long I said goodbye.”
“Sure, and thanks,” said Ms. Long, sounding as if she was suggesting that she wanted me to stay longer – this I knew I couldn’t do, for I would become to attached to the situation, which would make it all the more painful to let go of when I really did have to part from their lovely company.
I backed away from the table, eyeing Suze, who still hadn’t left her post at the sink, thoroughly washing the dishes. I slowly turned around to face the door, and walked toward it.
“Wait.” It was Suzy’s voice.
“Yes?” I said turning around to face her, and away from the door that I wished to walk through. There was a silence, and when she didn’t respond I took a step backwards, grabbed the door knob, and swung the door open. I still faced away from the outside world.
She just kept staring at me, and when I took another step back, she took one toward me. I knew what she wanted, so I simply granted her request. We each took one step toward each other, embracing when we met. I allowed my hand to stroke the back of her hair, as she softly patted my back – something us middle schooler’s call love tapping.
I let my mouth come close to her ear, so I could whisper something to her. Apparently she was using the same plan. She beat me to it.
“I’ll miss you,” she said, choking back tears.
“I’ll miss you. Thank you for being so great to me,” I replied in a way so that she knew that this was our final goodbye. I heard sniffles, and felt a teardrop run down my neck. She was crying – I could not allow myself to do this. I loosened my grip on her fragile body, and she followed my lead.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. I nodded, unable to say anything back. I glanced to the back of the apartment to see Ms. Long give me a slight smile. I managed to get in a small smile in return.
I then turned toward the door, walked out, turned to face into the apartment, and shut the door. For a moment I stayed there, staring at the red door. When I finally felt satisfied, I walked to my left, toward the stairs, and onto my bike.
As I hopped onto my bike something was haunting me. I had made a promise, a promise to give her the first kiss that she desired. I couldn’t believe that I had allowed my own emotions get in the way. I pulled into the street, wondering why I couldn’t have given her the kiss she desired so deeply.