Chapter 1

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One week Earlier...

"What we've been wanting to say all week is that . . . we're moving to Alaska."

Her syllables painfully hung in the air while no one said a word for a few seconds. The peas on my fork rolled off onto the plate. I blinked once, twice as I continued to stare at the painting behind her head. The colors were faded away making it look as lifeless as the atmosphere around us.

Damon broke the silence, interrupting it like a drop, rippling in a peaceful pond. "We're moving to Alaska? The state?"

There was something unrealistic about the sentence making it seem like a joke. But it wasn't a joke. My parents were sober, their mouths set in a grim line. 

"Yeah." Elyse's face was expectant and her eyes were anxiously wide as she watched my swallow the food in my mouth.

Hearing the confirmation out loud was like a slap to the face, making me look away from that damn painting. 

When I finally found my voice, I glanced at the expectant face of my mother and said the only two words that I could say. "We can't"

It was timid and small, but inside, I felt a monsoon starting from the tip of my toes to the edge of my hair, slowly whirling around my organs.

Mom shook her head with a deep, worn out sigh. "It's happening. I know this is really hard for you, I really do, but this is going to help our financial issues. It's such a huge promotion."

"Are you serious?! But what about school?" Damon scoffed with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You will be going to a new school. It's bigger and way more advanced," Dad replied with a smile in hopes of making better of the situation.

"And where will we live?" He was frantically searching for reasons to why we shouldn't suddenly be living across the continent.

"Well, we bought a house a couple of months ago. And, hey, Sarah's gonna be there!"

"A couple of months ago?" I could hear the anger slowly creeping into my tone.

"Ash, it's not the end of the world," Dad said in a finalizing tone, seemingly not finding a single problem in their plan. "It's just a change for everyone's benefit."

I angrily curled my hands into fists, feeling my nails dig into my palm.  Yeah, easy for you to say. You're the one getting more money while I have to leave my childhood behind.

"Dad, this is not a change of dinner, this is not Thai or Pizza. This—this is everything. We spent our whole lives here, for God's sake! So yeah, forgive me if I didn't take this as calmly as you thought I would." I shook my head and pushed the half-eaten plate of food away from me, not finding the appetite anymore.

Before waiting to see their reaction, I pushed my chair out, making it creak against the wooden floors and ran up the stairs.

Slamming my bedroom door shut, I rushed to my phone and called Reece. If there was anyone I would want to be complaining to right now, it would definitely be her. Although we had just gotten into a fight yesterday, it was washed away by the new information I had in my head. She was always there for me; she was the person that would hold my hair as I threw up the alcohol into the toilet. We'll figure something out.

"Hey, Ash. I was actually calling to apologize. I know I stepped out of line, but I wasn't thinking straight. I've canceled my plans and talked to Gwen, and I'm getting dressed n-"

I felt a sob wreck my upper body as it escaped.

There was silent static on the line until she spoke again, her voice laced with guilt. "Oh my God, Ash I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd be that bothered-"

"No, no, it's not that." I took a deep breath, calming the havoc in my mind. "Just. . . come over. We need to talk," I said before cutting off the line.

My eyes were focused on the window, and not 2 minutes later, Reece's knuckles rapped across the glass. Her window was right across mine. Just as I was letting her in, Damon walked into my room as well, without so much as knocking.

I didn't reprimand him for not knocking but stayed silent as I made space for both of them to sit. Reece's glass blue eyes were looking at me intensely as she tucked a blond curl behind her ear.

Before she breaks into a rant about how sorry she was, I interrupted her with a wave of my hand. "It's not because of our argument. This is more important."

A flash of relief played on her features before they were etched into worry again. "I haven't seen you cry like that since your 8th-grade breakup with Judgey Von Holier-than-thou. Ash, speak to me, what's wrong."

My lips turned up in a small smile. No matter how serious things got, Reece always had to spit a joke. 

"We're moving to Alaska," I finally said, my voice hoarse.

Reece's face was blank at first, and I thought she hadn't heard me, but then she broke into laughter. "You got me so worried and rushed for a prank? Jeez, we could've made up some other way."

  Once she realized that we weren't kidding and that this was not a joke, she stopped laughing and slowly, a frown etched its way on her face.

"Oh." Her thick brows furrowed as she registered what I said. "For good?Is this finalized? What about- what about school?" 

"I don't know." I didn't know what to say. There was nothing to say. It wasn't like there'd be gift-cards saying, 'I'm sorry I have to move across the continent and leave you after 17 years of being together, but here's a pretty card.'

I brought my knees to my chest, and tucked my chin between them, wrapping my arms around myself. 

"You don't know? When was this decided?" she asked in disbelief. 

"We just found out over dinner."

No one said a thing for a while as the three of us sat on the edge of my bed. There was nothing to be done, we were officially moving, and all we could do was go along with it--go along with the waves. It didn't matter that I'd be leaving my best friend and my home. The memories didn't matter, they would simply go along with me. I couldn't swim against the tide. I could on swim with the flow of the water and hope for the best. 

Damon knew how hard this was for both of us, and squeezed himself between Reece and me, putting his arms around our shoulders.

"So what is it? The Vow, or High School Musical?"

Anybody that knew me would know that I was a last-minute person. I'd do my homework, studying for tests, packing for long trips, and everything you can think of right at the last minute. And packing for our long trip to Alaska was no exception.

But this time, my procrastination was with a purpose. I had so much time on my hands to pack, but I didn't bother. Packing was like the thing that officially marked leaving for good—the last straw.

  "So, Alaska, huh? Couldn't you have gone to a closer state? Alaska's, like, on the other side of North America." Reece handed me another bunch of shirts and I folded them neatly before placing them in the bag. She was sitting cross-legged in my walk-in closet, spending the last few hours together helping me pack.

   "I don't know. Dad said that this was gonna help us a lot, and we'd be living happier." I scoffed and zipped up the bag before lying on my back on the bed, eyes staring at the ceiling.

Before Reece can reply, there was a knock on the door before Elyse walked in. She eyed us with sympathy. "Are you ready? We have to get going or we'll miss the flight."

I turned to Reece, studying every single feature of hers. I took in every sharp angle of her nose, chin, and cheekbones. Her messy light hair framed her face as it fell from the loose ponytail she had styled. I took in the scar above her lip that always gave her a dangerous look, and etched the memory of her face in my braind. She had gotten it after betting she can skateboard down the stairs for 50 bucks from Damon. There was a burning behind my eyes, tears clouding my vision as I realized I won't be able to live crazy moments like that with her again.

Reece didn't cry. It wasn't something that she did often, but her face broke for a second at the sight of my crying before going back to her usual crooked smile. "We can do this. We'll skype twice every week and text every day. We'll stay partners in watching Grey's Anatomy and we will forever hate Shonda Rhimes together. Nothing'll change, Ash. It'll be alright"

  We both knew that wasn't true; that everything was going to change, but we chose not to acknowledge that for now.

She leaned in for a hug and I finally let my tears flow freely after trying so hard to stay composed. We weren't the hugging type—at all. Crying wasn't our thing, either. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony, and soon enough, Reece joined in as well.

   "I love you and all, but I don't want you guys to miss your flight," she stood up, "come on, up you go."

   "Too eager to get rid of her, Reece? Come give your mama a hug," Elyse said with a teary laugh opening her arms wide. Reece went in with a sob into her arms before hugging Damon as well.

 Everything after that was a blur and soon enough we were in the airport boarding our flight. We did the usual procedure that you'd do at an airport—stamp the passports, send the bags to the plane, board the flight, and, as usual, eat McDonald's at the airport. Fortunately, nothing could've stopped me from enjoying a nice McDonalds meal.

   "Ash Brooks?" The lady behind the counter's eyes roamed our faces trying to target the picture on the passport.

   "Yes, that's me." I stepped up and she nodded before stamping the passport.

   "Damon Brooks?"

   "Over here."

   She handed us our tickets after stamping Dad and Elyse's passports, and we followed them to the plane.

 I loved airplanes, but weirdly I hated airports. It was always so crowded and babies were crying everywhere. Then, you had the meet ups between families or couples, and the happiness was just so annoying. The goodbyes were always the worst—the crying and hugging always made me emotional.

Once we were in the plane and everyone had gotten their seats, I plugged in my headphones and closed my eyes, shutting out everything and everyone else. . .

"Ash . . Ash . . . ASH!"

   I woke up to Damon hissing in my ear. Scrunching my eyebrows, I 'instinctively' smacked whatever was in front of me, which just happened to be his stomach.

   "Was that really necessary?" Damon hissed in pain.

   The flight attendant's voice rang through the plane and I rubbed my eyes, trying to get rid of the sleepy haze.

   "Thank you for choosing Arizona Airways, and we hope you enjoyed your flight. Please buckle your seat belts as we prepare for landing, and close the portable mine table. This is from the crew and we hope you have an enjoyable stay at Fairbanks, Alaska."

   I grabbed my stuff that somehow ended up being sprawled on the floor and stuffed them into my backpack.

  I winced as the pressure made my ears pop, and a headache started forming in the back of my head. If I didn't go to the bathroom instantly, I might throw up the McDonalds meal that I had before the flight all over Damon.

Great.

   Pushing my way to the back of the plane, I ran to the nearest bathroom and threw up everything in my stomach. The pain in my head started to intensify as the tears escaped from my eyes.

   I washed my face with cold water and looked in the mirror. I hated getting motion sickness, and I always got it. My hazel eyes were puffy and my face red from crying. I fixed my burgundy hair that got messed up while I was asleep.

Taking a deep breath, I looked one more time at my reflection before leaving the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Dad asked me.

I smiled assuringly to him and hung the straps of my backpack on my shoulders. The doors to the plane opened up, and everyone started making their way to the front.

As soon as I stepped outside, the shocking, cold weather almost made me fall back on Elyse. I knew Alaska was cold, but seriously? It must've been 30 degrees here.

After we got our bags and waited 15 minutes for Damon in the bathroom, we were finally ready to leave the airport.

The weather was drastically different than Arizona's hot dry climate. Outside the airport, a crowd of people layered in clothing, stood there, waiting for their loved ones. My eyes roamed around, searching for the familiar blonde with pretty blue eyes.

"Ashie-pie, is that you? Look at you, all grown up now—a lady!"

My head snapped to the source of the voice. We all headed towards Sarah, my aunt, and I was the first to hug her.

"Oh, my God, I missed you so much," I laughed and breathed in the familiar scent of her classic Chanel perfume.

"I didn't even recognize you!" Her eyes were wide with happiness.

Ashie-pie was the nickname that Sarah gave me when I was younger, because I was chubbier and had braces. Also, pie was my favorite food at the time. I had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I still could today.

"And Damon, my sweet, handsome boy. I can already tell you got skills with the ladies like your Aunt Sarah." She winked at him and I couldn't help but laugh. It was true, though.

After getting over the greetings, we all headed to her car and started the trip to our new house. Elyse and Sarah were all chatty the whole ride; the sisters had a lot to catch up on.

Sarah was married, divorced, and then remarried again, but she also split up with her latest husband. The sisters were inseparable; just like Reece and I. Well, not anymore, I thought with remorse.

  
The trip wasn't long, probably half an hour or more, and I took my time to admire the pretty landscape. All the trees were already coated with snow and the air was crisp cold. We passed by a sea port that had many boats ready to sail, with little kids running up on the port with kites in their hands.

In Arizona, we didn't have any of that. We had hot days, and the sky was always a very light blue with the sun scorching in the middle. Sure, we had trees, but they were desert trees. The change was indescribable.

Alaska had many pretty small houses, with pretty neighborhoods, but, more importantly, no pretty memories.