Chapter 22: Surprises

Shortly after the Halloween party, Dave decided that he was going to move back to Arizona. I tried to talk him out of this, throwing every excuse of why to stay at him. But his mind was made up. So I did all I figured that I could do...I tried to spend as much time with him as I could before he left. I went to see him at work everyday after I got out of school and we would all hang out on the weekends sometimes. I started to think that he was moving for a reason and this was going to be good for me. Obviously although I thought I was winning the battle, I wasn't. He was going to move and if he couldn't deal with a relationship in the same city, there was no way in hell that he could do a long distance one and frankly I didn't want that either. I tried to pull back feelings and tried to just stay on the friend level. We all know that's much easier said than done!

About a month before he was to leave, Kenny, Kayla and I decided that we would all drive down there with him. We didn't want him to have to drive for 12 hours by himself and they were really upset he was moving. (Kenny is his cousin, Kayla his sister) I had another motive...I had decided that if I stayed here, he was leaving me. It would feel like there were so many unanswered questions and I would also cling to the what ifs. But, if I went to Arizona with him, I would be the one leaving him there. It would be my way of saying goodbye and letting go. When I left, all my feelings and everything for him would have to stay behind with him. This was seriously my logic...looking back I might have been a little crazy at this point.

We decided that we would throw him a surprise going away party. I called his dad and we were able to have it at his house. Teela, Monica and I planned it all out and it was going to be perfect. I was going to go to the shop and ask him to help me with something and then we would go to Fernley. Everyone would already be there...I didn't count on one thing. When I got to the shop, someone wanted to have a little sexual before we went on our way to Fernley! Hmm...I looked at the clock...I had plenty of time and who was I to pass up sex with him before he left! Teela kept calling me and calling me and I wouldn't answer. God knows he didn't make this one a quickie...oh no he wanted some romance! Hello did he not know I had a surprise party waiting for him in Fernley...oh wait right he didn't. Teela covered for us as long as she could and by the time we arrived 2 hours late (OOPS!) everyone knew that there was clearly something going on. We made him this great book and filled it with pictures of all of us. Everyone wrote him some goodbye message on their page and we put this roast of him in the front. It was a lot of fun, but it still didn't mask what was really going on...he was leaving and I wasn't sure how to cope with this.

There was one more surprise in store for me. A week before we were all to leave, Kayla and Kenny backed out. They decided that they weren't going to go and that left just me to go. I thought for sure that he would say that he would be fine by himself and that he didn't want me to go. Imagine my surprise when he said he didn't care and if it was ok with me that I should still go.