“That’d be nice,” I agreed.
Two hours later,I’d parked the van in front of Glen’s mansion block and tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, not quite ready to depart yet. Moving out was the right thing to do. I knew it. And it wasn’t like my parents were all that far away if I had a change of heart, like my mum kept wishing. I spent plenty of time at Glen’s to be totally at home there. Despite all of that, I had to take deep breaths and urge myself to let her know I’d arrived.
Dad wanted to help me bring my belongings up to the flat, but Mum whisked him away to the plans they had made. Henry was sent off to our aunt, with a frown and a ‘such an unnecessary hassle’ pointed towards me.
Deep breath. Freedom was right there outside this van.
I texted Glen. There, simple as that.
?
Mathematist—mathician...
“YOU EXPECT US TO?get all of that up to the twelfth floor on our own?” Glen stared at the assortment of items stuffed into the van in wide-eyed horror. The bed and the shelving unit being first to go into the van were neatly tucked furthest from the doors, while boxes of every size crowded the rest of the space.
I’d run a red light, being too late to stop, and swerved away from an eager driver crossing the same junction. As a result, most of my stacked piles had fallen over, making the task at hand look more challenging than it actually was. I should know; I dragged them all out of my bedroom just fine.
“We’ll just use the lift. We’ll be done in no time. Two hours, max.” I dragged one of the boxes out, feeling my arms protest a little.
I was already two hours in, and I’d been pushing myself harder at the studio these past days. Just two more hours. Piece of cake.
“Tell me again, why couldn’t your dad help us with this?” Glen huffed.
I gave Glen a raised eyebrow and nudged my jaw towards the boxes, urging her to pick one for herself. “He and Mum had plans. Socialising and such. Don’t ask, I’m just glad not to be babysitting.”
She scoffed and grabbed a box of shoes. “They sure do a lot of socialising.”
We made a little tower next to the lift before we called it down to pile it all in. I was already breathless and sweaty. The little rest I had, standing still in the lift, was well needed, but my body remained on high alert, and my heartbeat picked up as we rode higher.
Seventh floor. Eighth floor. Ninth floor. Tenth... and we passed it without a hitch. My nerves remained on the edge nonetheless, as we unloaded the lift, then dragged everything to Glen’s grandmother’s room—or, I supposed, my room now.
It had been dusted since our last visit and rays of sun brightened up the space, bathing it in a warmer light. The beige patterned wallpaper was old-fashioned and had faded with time. It was due for replacement, but it wasn’t a priority, and removing it felt like overstepping. It added character and a reminder of who this room used to belong to.
We were quite done with carrying things already when we reached the challenging items. The lift was getting tired of us, and I was more than tired of the lift. Especially since every ride up and down made my stomach tie in knots when we passed the tenth floor. Not once did we make an extra stop there. We did leave behind a family of four on the seventh floor once while going up, though. They couldn’t have fit in with our stacks of boxes even if they’d tried.
The bed was taken apart into smaller manageable pieces, but the bookshelf was still in one piece and the mattress? It had been hell to get that into the van even with my dad’s help. Glen and I eyed it together with reasonable trepidation.
