Middle of the noght

“Lilie, wake up! It’s November 17th! Happy 12th birthday!” a cheery voice called from beside my bed.
Involuntarily, my balled up hand shot out from under my covers, hitting something that made a loud, “Ooff!”
I opened my eyes to see what I’d just hit, and laying there on the ground was my best friend, Jacob Black.
Jacob and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. Whenever I asked my dad, he said Jacob was there the day I was born. We did everything together; we had a secret club in our tree house, went Trick-Or-Treating together, we even had a band! In our band, I sang, and wrote songs, Jacob and I both played guitar, our friend Quil Ateara played drums, and our other friend, Embry Call, played bass.
“Oh my gosh, Jacob! Are you okay?!”
“I’ll be fine,” I moaned, gripping his stomach.
“Here, let me help.”
I gave Jacob my hand and pulled him up. We ran downstairs and were greeted by our fathers. Billy and my dad were talking about going fishing tomorrow. When they saw us they looked down to notice our hands that we were still holding together then looked back at each other in a way that made me suspicious.
“Happy birthday, Lillian,” Billy said, rolling his wheelchair toward me.
“It’s Lillie, and thank you!” I said, hugging him.
“Here Lillie,” he said, pulling onto his lap. Yeah, I’m twelve now and I’m still small enough to fit in his lap. “Jacob made you something for your birthday.”
Jacob blushed, I think; it was hard to tell with his dark skin.
“Here,” he said, holding out a multi-colored woven bag.
“Wow! Thanks, Jacob!”
“It’s in the bag….”
“Oh. I feel like an idiot.”
I opened the bag and inside was a heart made out of wood on silver chain. It had curly-Qs on it and seemed a bit girly for me. But it was beautiful. It was made out of deep russet wood and had a fancy J and L intertwined on it.
“Jacob,” I gasped. “You made this?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled, embarrassed.
There was a low thud as the mail came through the mail slot. Dad went to go get it.
When he came back he was smiling to himself.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“You know that British school for the arts that was touring here a few weeks ago, Lils?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, they were handing out applications and I filled it out for you. And apparently, you were accepted!”
What? No! I couldn’t go to a school for the arts! I mean, I like singing and dancing and playing guitar and writing songs and stuff like that, but if I went to England, I’d never see Jacob again! Who would play tackle football with me? Or make chocolate chip cookies with nutmeg, cinnamon, and extra brown sugar? Or a million other things?!
I’d never seen my dad so proud of me. I couldn’t say no to going to this stupid school.
So, a few days later, I was on a plane, going off to a place I’d never been to, all alone.
Jacob and Billy had come with Dad to see me off. Jacob had taken me aside to talk to me.
“I’m gonna miss you, Lils. A lot.”
“I’m gonna miss you, too. Jacob, there’s something I wanna give you before I go,” I’d said, hugging him close to me.
“What?” he’d begun to say, but all I’d heard was “Wha-?” because I’d cut him off with a short kiss.