Broden

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

“Mother…Mom,” My muffled voice is barely audible as she continues to keep me in a head lock, with my face pressed into her neck. My father finally takes the initiative and pries her off me.

“Honey, he’s going to miss the flight,” My father puts as gently as possible, so as not to send her into another fit of hysterics.

“I can’t believe my baby boy is leaving me,” She holds back a small sob as she peers up at me with an already tear-stained face. “What am I going to do…I don’t see why you have to leave in the first place. Why? Why do you have to go to another province to get a job?” At this point, I’ve decided that it’s best to just let her try to convince me not to go as much as she feels necessary because it’s not like I’m actually going to change my mind as I stand here at the security gates, my life packed away into boxes in a van somewhere between here and Ontario, saying farewell to my parents.

“Mom, I’ll call you as soon as I get to Toronto.” I give her an encouraging smile in hopes of lightening the mood. It doesn’t seem to work. I turn to my father. He smiles his warm, contagious smile but it’s much sadder than usual. With one swift movement he wraps his arms around me, gives a squeeze and finishes with a hearty pat on the back.

“Good luck,” I can’t help but notice the slight glint of a tear in the corner of his eye.

“Thanks Dad. I love you guys.”

As I sit on the plane, I adjust my button down shirt, run a hand through my bristly brown hair and smile broadly at the hot stewardess as she walks by.  My mind wanders back to my parents. They seriously think their world is coming to an end. Well, my mother in particular. Their only child is moving away to a completely different province, practically across the country. Honestly, I can’t quite figure out what the huge change will be. It’s not like I was living at home. I’ve been on my own for over three years, and even though I was only fifteen minutes away from them, I probably spoke to them one or two times every couple of weeks. Of course, I would see them on holidays and special occasions but other than that…I was living my own life. Honestly, they don’t realize that hardly anything will change.

I, on the other hand, will be a new man. Yes, this is my chance to start completely anew. I’ll have my new apartment, my new job at an up and coming law firm and most importantly of all, there will be plenty of new women.

As I stare out at the majestic landscape falling away below me (or, more accurately, the stewardess’ backside as she adjusts a passenger’s seatbelt), I think to myself: ‘Goodbye, Whistler, British Columbia; Hello, Toronto, Ontario’.

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PLOT
Four people leading four separate lives...for now. Three of these characters leave their homes in three various parts of the country; British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Quebec. They all venture to the big city, Toronto, to discover what life has in store.
Sooner than later, their lives will begin to intersect with one another's in unlikely ways.

CHARACTERS
Broden - leaving BC, has a new job as a lawyer with an up and coming firm, still relies on his parents' trust fund, believe's himself to be a 'ladies man'.

Leslie - leaving Nova Scotia, an artist, an individual, has been living on her own for some time as her parents are hippie travellers, outgoing, can sometimes be fanciful and is easily caught up in dreams

Matthieu - leaving Quebec, a guy's guy, looking for something 'more' than his current situation, rough on the outside but not such a bad guy on the inside.

Samantha - lives in Toronto, practical, seems to find herself on the bad end of things often, (very) recently broke up with her boyfriend, not sure where she'll go from here.

ADDITIONAL
Each chapter should be told from one of the four character's point of view. The sequence does not need to stay in the order that has been already laid out, just as long as a character does not get forgotten along the way.
As you can see from the end of Samantha's chapter, the characters are beginning to cross paths. Where things will go from here is completely up for grabs. : D

updated Jul 12 by Jillian