34: Goodbyes

                                    

                                          
Diego POV.

It was my last day in New York, so we took full advantage of it. 
Eli's brothers surprised us with tickets to go see Chicago on broadway, which got Eli fangirling hard. Musicals were always Eli's and Carlos' thing, but I loved the tradition, that they had become.
We went to the met and the museum of modern art, before walking around time square and then central park. I could see Eli's brothers tire down, after the first hour of me running around the modern art museum and gawking at the works. The sheer amount of famous paintings I had always wanted to see, in the same place was astonishing.
Time square was exactly, how it's portrayed in the movie we watched. It was full of lights and crowded with people. Eli never liked crowds, but I liked it. I loved being around so many people, it made my life seem so insignificant. I was just a tiny little dot. Given, that I was a tiny little dot, walking around with the most influential people in the world.

I knew I would be going back to New York to see Eli, so it wasn't so much of a goodbye. IN a whole other sense, it was more of a goodbye, than ever before. 
We were both going to live lives, that existed without the other one. Eli was going to live with their brothers, and I was going to live with Ida. I didn't need them like I always had, and they could live without having to worry about me as much. We were going to have separate, healthy lives. I never thought that would happen, as we always talked about Eli adopting me and us riding off into the sunset, but I guess those dreams had to change.
I knew I would still always have Eli to lean on and vice versa. Still, I didn't want it to change, or I guess, I was just too scared of it. I was scared, that I was losing a part of my life. The chapter was closing, so to say, and it was scary as hell. My brother died, and Eli was all I had, so I guess closing that chapter was also closing the one that was still connecting me to the life I had with Carlos.
My head was a fucking mess, but one thing was clear, as Eli took my hand in theirs. I would never be able to lose them. 

"How did you get these seats?" I asked as we sat down on the stall seats.
We were so close, that I could touch the stage if I tried to.
"I made a couple of calls," Alessandro said with a stone face.
I looked to my right to see Eli practically jumping up and down in their seat, as the show was about to start. I swear, sometimes it felt like they were the eleven-year-old.
Well, I guess they never got to be one, so I just let them beam and gasp as the curtain opened.


Lorenzo POV.

I had asked Alessandro about us taking Diego in, but after a lot of talking, we came to the conclusion, that Diego would be better off in Chicago with his friends and caretaker. We made sure, that Ida Willams was good enough to take care of Diego. 
She was a retired teacher, with a perfect record. She seemed like a lovely old woman, and there was no reason for us to worry. I ended up calling her, just to be sure, and she sounded very understanding even with the second degree I gave her. She wholeheartedly laughed and I could hear the warm smile on her face. She also assured me, that she cared a lot about Diego, and she would take good care of him. I explained our decision, to pay for Diego's school, to which she thanked me profusely, and invited us to go over to her place, so she'd make us her famous apple pie.