Chasing Dreams

April 2029 - Arcadia, North Carolina
Gates-Watson - Shelley is 40, Logan is 39, Lily is 18, James is 14

“What is this supposed to be?” Logan asks, staring at the strings of paper shapes his wife had just hung on the windows.

“It’s to celebrate Easter and spring,” Shelley tells him. “It tells people that we’re happy for the season changes and welcome them inside to join us.”

“People already know they can come in,” Logan says. “We advertise online on Simsbook all the time. You’re always commenting on people’s posts and you have our logo as your profile picture. And how many friends do you have now?”

 “Eight hundred thirty-five,” she says. “Advertising is good, but it doesn’t leave that personal imprint.”

 And maybe Shelley is right, he thinks later. They have an increase in the traffic coming into the restaurant that day.

 

 Shelley always knows what she’s doing, she thinks to herself as she mixes the drinks at the bar. Maybe Logan will learn to take her advice without question one of these days!

 

 Aside from running the restaurant, Logan tries to help the kids with their schoolwork as much as he can.

The restaurant keeps him busy, but his kids’ education is important to him. He didn't go to college, but he's been saving up the money to send them so they can reach all their dreams in life.

The restaurant isn’t the only thing that has kept the family busy. Back in the fall, Shelley and Lily took a trip together overseas, to Windenburg, Germany.

It was a trip that Lily couldn’t wait for. They visited Windenburg University, which sat in an old building right in the middle of the city.

The university was full of old furniture and paintings. It gave off that old style vibe that Lily was excited for.

 “What do you think?” Shelley asked her daughter.

“A million things are running through my head right now,” Lily said. “I think I’m in love with it.”

 It really was a place that left a lasting imprint on Lily’s heart.

 

Their exploration of Windenburg lasted all day. Walks along the river, through town, from museums to clothing stores and more.

 

“So you’ve made your mind up?” Shelley had asked. “This is where you want to go to university?”

“On one hand, yes,” Lily had told her.

“On the other hand?”

 

“I’ll be so far from Ethan,” she had said, an aching feeling starting in her heart. She didn’t like thinking about this part of the opportunity she had.

“He’ll be waiting for you,” her mom had told her. “If he loves you, he’ll wait and let you follow your dreams.”

Lily hoped that her mom was right. She still hopes that as the days together grow less and less. She knows she has to tell him her plans for the next four years, she just doesn’t know how he’ll react to it.

***

 

Lily and Ethan like to hang out at the game rooms at the mall, especially the bowling alley.

They spend a lot of Saturdays out there playing against each other for fun.

 

But this trip out is about more than just bowling. Halfway through the game, Lily grabs Ethan’s hands.

“I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Ethan asks. “Is something wrong?”

 

“No,” she says slowly, “but remember when my mom and I went on that trip to Germany a few months ago? Well, I didn’t tell you but we went to Windenburg University.”

“Why would you go there?”

She takes in a deep breath. “I applied to that school…and I was accepted.”

Ethan looks confused. “I thought we both were going to Foxbury. That’s been our plan for two years now.”

“I planned to go to Foxbury if Windenburg didn’t accept me, but it did. And so things have changed.”

 

 “Obviously they have,” Ethan snaps. He steps back from her. “You don’t want to be close to me anymore. We’ve lived next door to each other all our lives and now you can’t wait to get away.”

“That’s not true,” Lily tells him. “I’ll be upset being so far from you, but I’ll also be upset not taking this opportunity and seeing more of the world around us. I have scholarships there to pay most of it and my parents can pay the rest because the restaurant is doing well. I need to do this while it’s being handed to me.”

“That’s great,” Ethan says through clenched teeth. “I’m going to Illinois and you’re going thousands of miles away to some other world. Why don’t we practice being apart right now? That’ll get us used to what’s coming up, won’t it?”

“Ethan—”

But he turns and heads toward the door, leaving Lily standing alone.

***

 “He was so angry,” Lily tells her mom. “He looked like he would either cry or shout.”

 “Ethan had an idea of what his time at college would look like,” her mom says. “He thought the two of you would be together there too. Now he’s afraid of what might happen the next three years.”

 “I’m afraid too,” Lily says. “But I don’t want him to leave for college still angry like this.”

“Then you need to tell him how you feel and what you want over the next few years,” Shelley says. “He’ll learn to accept it if he really loves you.”

Lily tries to be more optimistic about her mom’s words, but she’s still afraid that she may have hurt Ethan too much keeping all of this a secret for too long.

***

“I saw you walk by while I was talking to mom last night,” Lily tells her brother the next morning. “So what do you think?”

“About your fight with Ethan?” James asks.

Lily cringes. “It wasn’t a fight…just a disagreement. Ethan wants me to go to Foxbury with him. But part of me really wants to go to Windenberg, and I don’t want to miss my chance.”

James shrugs. “Then do what you want to do. Ethan will get over it someday.”

“You give the greatest advice, little brother,” Lily tells him. “You’re just saying what mom said in your own words.”

“Then maybe you should actually listen to your little brother for once,” James tells her with a grin.

***

 

Lily meets up with Ethan that afternoon out at one of the local parks. She wasn’t sure that he would come, and so she sighs with relief when he walks her way.

“I’m so sorry,” Lily tells him. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away.”

“I don’t want to be mad at you,” Ethan says. “But I had all of these plans for us for the next few years. And now they’re all gone because you didn’t tell me before now.”

Lily’s eyes sting with tears as she looks at the expression on his face. He doesn’t look angry, he looks hurt.

 

 “I was worried about how you would react to this,” she says. “I was afraid you wouldn’t want to be with me anymore for the time we have left.”

 Ethan sits on a nearby bench and lets out a long breath.

“I do want to be with you,” he says. “I want all these minutes we have left before we both leave.”

 Lily smiles as he leans toward her, squeezing her hand tight in his. “That’s what I want too,” she says. “Every minute with you.”

—————

Next round Ethan will head off to Britechester, Illinois, and Lily to Windenburg, Germany, so they’ll have to try to make a long distance relationship work.

While Lily and Ethan were making up and getting close, Ethan’s mom Carol showed up and sat down next to them

“Don’t mind me, just drinking my coffee.”

Of course you are, Carol. We all know you’re not here just to keep an eye on your son, right?