Dear Diary,

Well, this was unexpected.

I just got a text a little bit ago inviting me to a party this weekend… Not that weird, right? Mila always has people over, and Greta keeps promising she’s gonna have some massive party the next time her parents are away.

But it wasn’t one of my friends who texted me this time. It was ZAYNE.

I seriously had to check about five times to make sure it was actually him and he was seriously inviting me to his own party. And he was!

So now I’m sitting here still debating how to reply.

I mean, my first thought is “Why me?” With how he’s been acting lately… I dunno. He’s got that whole “I’m so cool because I hang out with uni students” attitude every time we talk to him (Which is totally ridiculous and honestly getting pretty damn old). So you’d think the last thing he’d do is invite one of us lowly plebs to his party.

Of course, another part of me is honestly impressed that he’s gotten to the point where he can actually host his own party.

I won’t lie – at first I was expecting him to crash and burn with this whole ‘living on his own’ thing. But I’m really glad he hasn’t. And not just for all the selfish reasons either.

He wasn’t doing so great at first, but from what I’ve heard, his grades are going up a little, he’s been paying his bills on time, and he’s making tons of money at his job (he was even able to afford Christmas gifts for everyone this year! Small ones, of course, but still.) I know he really wanted this, and he was so determined to prove to everyone that he could do it. I guess he really was ready for this after all… And I’m really happy for him.

But yes, there are some other plus sides to this whole thing too… And it probably makes me a selfish bitch for thinking them.

It’s just really nice to have mom not worrying as much about Zayne. I mean at first, she worried constantly. It was worse than when he was living here at home! But I think she’s finally used to him not being around anymore. Of course, she’s still over-the-moon every time he stops by for a visit… But I don’t mind that.

I guess it’s the little things. Like, mom makes her special brussels sprouts with dinner now. Zayne hates them, so she never used to make them before. Now she’s been making them about once a week. And we don’t have to deal with her nagging Zayne or talking about him all the time either. He always used to be the center of like, every dinner conversation. But not anymore.

But I think the best part is that mom’s been spending so much more time with us than she used to. “Girls Days”, we call them. Seeing a chick flick, getting our nails done, going shopping… Mom never wanted Zayne to feel left out, so we’d have to pick a day when he had plans with one of his friends, or when Mark or Opa could do something with him. Now, we have them whenever we want.

Anyway, the bottom line is, Zayne moving out has been really great – for all of us.

But I’m still pretty interested in seeing how he’s doing on his own.

I haven’t even been over to his place since he first moved in. Might be nice to finally get to see where he’s been living for all this time, right? And it’d be pretty cool to hang out with Remi and River too. I haven’t seen them in a while…

And I’m definitely interested to meet some of these new uni friends Zayne’s been making. I guess part of me is a little jealous about that. Not that I’m not grateful for the friends I’ve got… But I’ve met a couple of Remi and River’s friends before, and they’re so cool. I kinda can’t help but wonder what it’d be like to hang out with those kinds of people all the time.

Finally going to my first-ever uni party will be some decent practice, huh? Guess I’ll have to let Ben know we’ve gotta bail on Finn and Julia this weekend.

We have a party to go to.