Bye Eugene

So I've been eying an OCT competition which I know will take up ALL MY ART TIMES. But he has good reason to leave too.
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Finally, the Winter Ball was over. All the stress of preparing for the darn thing was out of the way and reality could be faced. Everyone else was so happy, so carefree. They didn't have real worries. They could go on living in that glass bubble, wrapped up in childish cares. 'I never got to feel what that's like. To worry about nothing except passing a test or hoping someone liked me. I guess some of us never get to be in that bubble or it breaks when we realize that this life doesn't last forever.'

That phone call came not long after the letter from the lawyer. His father had re-written his will again. Then came the phone call. Why did the news have to come from HER? Was he really still angry with her?

'Only three months left to live and she made me stay here until after that gawdang ball!? What is wrong with that woman? He's my father for Chrissakes! He is all I have left in the world after you took off with that man.'

'It doesn't matter now. Nothing matters. I'm dropping out of school and going home to be with him. I will take care of Dad in his last days. I'll be 18 by the time he passes away so I will legally be an adult.I'll keep the ranch going.'

His duffel bag was packed. The boxes he shipped out the day before. He told the head of the house that he would be leaving. It was a strange feeling leaving the school. His ears no longer itched or appeared like a bear's. He felt like a man again. Eugene stepped into the plane that would take him back to Montana.