I could only stand there and blink at her stupidly. I didn’t think I’d have an option of not liking my new roommate. She wouldn’t allow me any time to think about whether she annoyed me or not. Hell, she already exhausted me and it had only been five minutes.

“I think that’s our cue, Laura,” my dad said, putting his hand under my mother’s elbow. I braced myself for the waterworks. I could see Mom’s eyes glassing over and I worried that if she started, I would start and then there would be the two of us, crying like idiots, while my crazy happy roommate alphabetized my paperbacks on the shelf.

But my mother was strong just when I needed her to be. She pulled me into her arms, holding me tightly but with the intent that she was letting me go.

“I love you, Maggie May,” she said quietly and I could hear the effort it took for her not to cry. My dad’s arms came around both of us and I hugged my parents, wishing irrationally that they’d bundle me up and take me home.

I was hit with the fact that this was it. My parents would leave and I would be left here on my own.

Well, not entirely on my own. I had Miss Perksalot to keep me company.

“I’ll take care of her Mr. and Mrs. Young. We’re going to be the best of friends. I can just tell,” Ashley said, breaking my moment of self-pity. And I was grateful for the distraction from my sudden and overwhelming homesickness.

My mom gave me a final squeeze and then she and Dad released me. My dad sniffed and I grinned at him.

“Are you crying, Dad?” I teased and my father gave me a wry smile.

“No way, there’s just a lot dust in here,” he joked, kissing the side of my head.

“Bye sweetie, call us later, okay?” my mom asked me. I nodded as Dad took her by the hand and practically pulled her from my room. And when the door closed behind them, I wasn’t quite sure how I was feeling.

Sad? Yeah. Excited? Maybe a little. Scared out of my freaking mind? You betcha.

“They seem really nice, Maggie!” Ashley chirped after they had left. I turned back to her and tried not to sigh. She already had her hands back in the box on my desk, pulling out the rest of the items.

I thought about telling her to get her hands off my stuff but telling her off would be like stomping on a puppy. There was no sense in imposing any personal boundaries where this chick was concerned. They’d be ignored the very next minute.

This girl was no Rachel, who instinctually understood every nuance of my moods. The sign of an easy friendship that came from a shared childhood and history.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate what this girl was so freely offering. I picked up the pile of sketchbooks Ashley had unpacked and sat on my bed. I thumbed through the first few pages and smiled.

Clay had given them to me before he left for Florida four months ago. I had taken to looking at each and every picture before going to sleep at night. Staring at the small indentations from his pencil where he had bled his heart and soul onto the pages.

It was like having a small piece of the boy I loved with me.

These pictures were Clay’s promise to me. That no matter what, we’d end up where we belonged. Together. For always.

“Oh my God, Maggie! Who is this?” Ashley cooed, holding up a framed photograph, her mouth slightly agape.

I took it from her hands and sat down on the bed, a goofy smile on my lips. Ashley sat down beside me, encroaching unapologetically into my personal space as she looked at the picture in my hands.

It was one of my favorites. Rachel had taken it after Clay had moved back to Davidson earlier in the year. We were sitting on the steps in front of the high school. Clay’s arm was slung around my shoulders in a manner both protective and possessive. His face was slightly turned as he looked down into my upturned face. A smile unlike anything I had ever seen in my entire life lit him up from the inside out. He was beautiful, even in two dimensions.

I pressed a fingertip to the glass. “That’s Clay,” I answered her, my throat feeling uncomfortably tight.

“Is he your boyfriend? Because damn girl, he is gorgeous!” Ashley squealed. I couldn’t help but smile with pride. Damn straight he was my boyfriend. He was the boy who loved me with absolute completion. He was the person who I would spend the rest of my life with.

But I didn’t tell Ashley that. Instead, I simply nodded. “Yeah, he’s my boyfriend.” As if that title could ever truly define what he was to me.

Soul mate. Love of my life. My reason for breathing. Each of those seemed to make a lot more sense.

“Where is he going to school?” she asked, already moving on to the rest of the stuff in the box.

“Florida,” I answered shortly, not even contemplating sharing with her what he was doing over a thousand miles away.

“Wow, that’s really far away. Is he going to come up to visit? I sure hope so because long distance relationships rarely last,” she quipped a little too enthusiastically for the less than happy turn of the conversation. Because she had unknowingly given voice to my deepest fear.

That despite everything, that even after we had fought so hard to be together, a few thousand miles would destroy it all.

I didn’t know if Clay would come to see me. I wasn’t sure he even could. He had promised to include me in every step of his treatment and so far he had done just that. I had no reason to doubt his intentions or his love but I was a teenage girl, damn it. And insecurity was as easy to slip on as the freshman fifteen.

“I’m not sure,” I said vaguely, not wanting to talk about Clay visiting or whether our relationship would last with a girl I had only known for a few seconds.