Chapter 16: Packing Light
The suitcase sat open on Sheik's bed, half-filled, half-forgotten.
He stood in front of it, one sock in his hand, staring like it might offer him a reason not to go. But it didn't. It was just a sock. And the suitcase didn't care where it went.
Andrea lay sideways across the edge of his bed, arms dangling off the side, watching him in quiet amusement.
"You've picked up that same sock like three times," she said.
"I'm deciding if it deserves to come with me."
"It's a sock, Sheik."
"A very loyal sock."
She smiled, but it faded quickly. "So… two weeks."
"Yeah."
"Feels like more."
He didn't respond right away. Instead, he dropped the sock into the suitcase like it had betrayed him.
"I keep thinking I'll feel different," he admitted. "Like excited or nervous or, I don't know, ready. But all I feel is like I'm leaving behind something I didn't even realize I'd built."
Andrea sat up slowly. "You built a lot."
He looked at her then. "We built a lot."
Her eyes dropped to the floor.
The silence stretched, filled with everything they weren't saying. The fear. The hope. The questions with no good answers.
Sheik knelt beside the bed and rested his forehead against her knee.
"I don't want this to change anything."
Andrea ran her fingers through his hair, slow and gentle. "It already has."
They didn't pack much more that day. But they held on a little tighter.