Ketchum, ID

ch 28 - jo

 I woke up the next morning with a heavy heart. We had stayed up late reliving all of our favorite moments from the past few weeks, and I went to bed with my beautiful girlfriend. We escaped from the others earlier than they were going to bed so we could have a little extra alone time to finish what we had started before Alex so rudely interrupted us, and I went to sleep with the sweetest woman next to me. I woke up knowing that was the last time I'd get to sleep next to her for who knows how long, and immediately felt tears come to my eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey," Julien said, slightly scaring me because I did not know she was awake. "I'll see you soon, I promise," she said as she wiped tears from my eyes.

"You can't promise that," I sobbed. "You guys are going to be so successful and I'm so proud of you, but I'm going to miss you so much."

"I'm going to miss you too, sweetheart," she said as she hugged me tighter.

"I'm sorry to start your morning off like this, I just don't want you to go."

"I don't want to go either, but I will see you soon. And until I see you, I will call you everyday. You'll hear from me so much you'll be sick of me," she said with a small smile.

"I don't think I could ever be sick of you," I said honestly.

We stayed in my bed for a few more minutes, our bodies tangled together, until we heard movement out in the living room.

"They probably want to head out of here soon. I'm sure they'll have me be the first one to drive," she said, rolling her eyes, causing me to let out a sad laugh.

"Well let's go see what's going on out there," I said, reluctantly untangling our limbs.

We got up and got dressed, stopping a few times to share a quick kiss, and made our way out into the living room.

"Good morning, love birds," Lucy said as she held up a heart with her hands.

"Shut up," Julien groaned as she rolled her eyes again.

"Are you okay with being the first driver, JB?" Phoebe asked, causing Julien to look in my direction with an "I told you so" face which made me laugh.

"Only if you let me aux," she said.

"I mean that's fair," Lucy said.

"Well the car is all packed," Phoebe said trailing off.

I immediately felt the tears forming again, so I walked over to Alex and stood next to them. They wrapped their arm around my shoulder in their best effort to comfort me, but I could see that they were tearing up too.

"Well we'll see you out, I guess," Alex said in a sad voice.

The five of us started walking out to the car, and I heard everyone trying to hide their sniffles. Once we made it to the car, we all stopped in our tracks. It was really happening; they were really leaving.

"I'm gonna miss you guys so much," I said, breaking into a full sob.

We all moved together into a group hug, and we stayed like that for as long as we could. It finally came time for them to get in the car, so we went down the line and gave each other individual hugs. I hugged Lucy first, and her height advantage on me reminded me just how great of a hugger she was.

"I'm gonna miss you, Jo, but I know she's gonna go through it," she said in my ear, making me even sadder than I already was.

"Take care of her for me please," I said as I stifled a sob back.

"You know we will," Lucy said with a sad smile.

Then I went to hug Phoebe. Since we were about the same height, we struggled with who was going to hug on top and who was going on the bottom, which caused us both to let out sad laughs. I ended up wrapping my arms around her shoulders and she wrapped hers around my waist and she squeezed me so hard I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" she said to me. "And we'll look out for her."

"Thank you," I said, having to swallow the lump in my throat again.

Then came time for the goodbye I was dreading the most. We stepped toward each other and her arms were immediately wrapped around my neck. We stood there and cried together for a minute, until I saw that Alex was standing there stalling Phoebe and Lucy for us. We broke apart and rested our foreheads on each other.

"I'll see you so soon," she said in a sad voice.

"I know, but that doesn't stop me from missing you," I said.

"I'll call you every 15 minutes," she said in a joking tone, but I knew she would do it if I asked.

"I'm so glad I met you, Julien Baker."

"Same to you, my love."

"What do you say we take one last group selfie, for ol' times sake," Lucy said.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and lifted her arm up to take a picture of the five of us. You could tell we had all been crying in the picture, but it made us all smile. We took a few, including one where we all showed off our tattoos, and then Lucy airdropped us the pictures.

"One last group hug?" Alex said.

We all stepped together to embrace one more time, and then it was time for them to get on their way. They got in the car and started backing down the driveway. My phone started buzzing in my back pocket as I watched their car back up. I pulled my phone out and answered without looking at who was calling because I didn't want to take my eyes off the car pulling out of my driveway.

"Hello?" I said in a sad voice.

"We missed you already," Julien's voice rang through my ears, making me smile.

I removed the phone from my ear and put it on speaker so Alex could hear them too.

"We miss you guys too," I said with a smile on my face.

"I know you said you'd call her every 15 minutes, but this is crazy," Alex said, causing everyone to laugh.

"I miss my girlfriend, is that a crime?" Julien asked in a hurt voice.

"Yes," Alex, Phoebe, and Lucy said at the same time.

"I love you guys," Alex said as they turned off of our street and we couldn't see them anymore.

"And we love you," Phoebe said as we walked back inside.

And then it really hit me. They were gone.