Okay … let me wrap this up for you …
I decided to finish high school at Pinehurst Valley because … well … because I wanted to be close to Hazel for another year at least. I’ve never had a friend like her before and ever since Eli … she’s the one thing that made my life seemed livable again.
We spent the rest of the summer in Goldstone with my dad’s charity program. We worked with under privilege children in the nook and cranny of the city. We volunteered at the nursing home. Hazel loved that one because I had to perform every week for the elderlies, they loved my singing, apparently they think I was adorable and reminded them of their grandsons. Made me feel less special knowing there are at least 7 kids that looked like me.
The whole program went well. She got extra points for her portfolio. So did I. Though it didn’t matter for me because I know I’m not going to Uni after this. I’m concentrating on my new channel which Hazel had agreed to help. She loved that too. Researching for new places to go and explore, find out the history of abandoned buildings and ghost towns. Looking into old cases that hadn’t been solved for years. It’s like we’ve found the thing we wanted to do for the rest of our lives and I’m hopeful that she will change her mind about UOG … she has to.
Theo was out of the picture. Though not really. Max called and told her they had a fight after Theo told him what happened. He was angry at Hazel too for deliberately going against his only rule not to date any of his friends especially Theo. But the shit had hit the fan.
The feud didn’t last very long. Their friendship was more like a brotherhood. I wonder if that applied to Hazel as well. Max finally came home after a few months of recovery. He was granted a month to go back home because he had missed the entire summer and spent it in the hospital. Max said that he had never seen Theo as devastated as he did when he came back to Gastonbury. He was never the same after that.
I told Hazel not to blame herself and feel bad about it. Theo made a mistake and he had to compensate for that. She agreed, of course, she’s smart but we’re talking about Theo. There will always be a place in her heart for that jock and I hated him for hurting her the way he did. No … I hate him period.
Max said Theo had buried himself in his sport. He became the star athlete at UOG and brought his team to victory time and time again. He was pitched to play professional at under 21 top clubs and was going for the national team. I guess heartbreak can be a good motivation to be better at what you love doing.
I got along fine with Max. We were acquainted in the month he was back. He was a jock too but not as annoying as Theo. He was a good big brother to Hazel and that made me respect him … brotherly. I missed having a brother. But Max is no Eli.
We go back and forth from my place to hers in our senior year. Kids at school thought there was something going on between us, yeah … it’s called friendship. I love her and she loves me and it’s purely platonic and it’s great. I think this kind of relationship is much stronger than romantic ones. Lovers could easily fall apart because of one stupid mistake.
She did eventually moved on and dated a guy from school. An exchange student from Amsterdam … Hugo Van Buren … never smoked a joint in his life. I mean … coming from Amsterdam and never tried weed? That is one boring guy I have ever met in my life. I don’t know what she saw in that guy.
They didn’t have sex. She didn’t have to tell me that, but she did. I wasn’t surprised, he must be awful in bed anyway … don’t get me wrong … if you read a chapter about this dude’s life … you’d fall asleep by the second paragraph. The guy is a bore and I knew from the beginning she would dump his ass before the next summer. And she did.
Then there was another guy. Loser. Not even gonna bother to tell you about that guy and the other one she dated a few times. None of them worked. Maybe she hadn’t moved on from Theo after all … I don’t know.
As for me, I dated a few girls from school. No one special. They were just small-town girls who were fascinated by what they think I had to offer. They were disappointed of course, I don’t do relationships, it just doesn’t work for me. I go to Goldstone every weekend and meet up with my friends there, stopped by for a quick fix and back again to Chestnut. Hazel thought I was a slut. She’s right. But hey … that’s what works for me.
I didn’t get emancipated after all. They thought I wasn’t responsible enough and with the help of Dr. Seymour’s observations of me, they dismissed the idea altogether. Apparently, I was too fragile to make that kind of decision. But I didn’t care, my parents had abandoned me long before I realized it. I didn’t need to be emancipated to be away from them, they had done that by themselves.
They continued their therapy until my mom was finally released from rehab. She stayed in Goldstone after that and swore she will never set foot in Chestnut ever again. She said she’ll die of boredom if she ever had to go back. Good for me. I stayed with the Williams and finally had a taste of what a real family should feel like. I wish they would adopt me … LOL … but I was already 18 and being adopted at 18 would be weird.
I love Claire. I wish she was my mom. She made me feel like I’m her son too, she treated me like one. Living with them for almost the entirety of my senior year in high school changed my perspective on life for the better. I’m glad I decided to stay.
Jan and Finn stayed together until graduation. We were like a foursome. Hazel and Jan were very close and it devastated her when Jan said she was going to Italy after graduation. Her dad was transferred to Rome for his job. I told Hazel we can always go to Rome whenever she wanted to visit … heck … we can go anywhere if she wanted to. Especially after her family took me in, my dad had offered Claire to travel anywhere in the world as a payback for what the Williams had done for me.
And then there was Lee. He graduated on top of his class from his camp. They recruited him into a K-Pop boyband, he was living his dream. The only downside was that they dressed him up and put a lot of make-up on his face which I have to say made his skin look flawless but … I don’t know man, … I guess some chicks dig that kind of look.
Hazel kept in touch with the dance prodigy. He had a new girlfriend, though he told Hazel that he had to keep the relationship a secret because his contract didn’t allow him to date. Talking about human rights violations…
He wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Which made Hazel feel a little relieved to have decided to break up with him. They really did go their separate ways but stayed in touch as friends. She was overwhelmed to watch him blossom in his element. That boy is going places, it was pretty obvious. She couldn’t be more proud of him.
So … the only thing left to see was if Hazel will decide to go to Uni at UOG as she initially planned, or will she decide to come with me to Goldstone and start her new adventure there with her good ol’ best pal … me …
That’s for another time.
As for now … it’s a wrap.