Stolen California Promise

“I’m so excited for this summer!” My friend Natalie exclaims as we both make our way towards Autumn’s blue sporty Convertible. It was the last day of school, me and my group of friends were going to drive over to our favourite Cafe, “White Leaf Cafe” “Hey Julia, hey Natalie.” My other friend Autumn greets us once we approach. “Hey.” Me and Natalie chorus then hop into the car as Autumn cranks up the volume on her stereo and we’re off. Everyone in the car gets into a conversation about what they’re all doing for summer break and as I listen to them, I can’t help but feel a little jealous. Natalie is off to New York for a wedding for her aunt, Autumn is going to Texas for a visit to her dad, Chloe is going on a trip to Mexico, and Rachael is heading to Idaho on a trip to see her grandparents. And where was I heading? Nowhere, I’m stuck here in California. I mean summer in California is great, don’t get me wrong, but I have to stay home with my mom who is always so busy, and my step-father Steve, who I don’t get along with at all. I try to ignore my thoughts of jealousy and focus on having fun with my friends. Besides, it’s the first hours of summer break and I’m here to enjoy myself...right?

It’s around 5:30 p.m. when Autumn drops me off at my house after our girls’ day out. I walk up the driveway and open up the front door and am surprised to see Mom not there yet getting dinner ready like she normally does. Instead, I find Steve sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV, while munching on some chips. He must’ve heard me come in, as he turns around, looks at me then goes back to snacking, barely acknowledging me. “Not even a ‘hello’? Or ‘How was your day’?” I think. “Where’s mom?” I ask. “She’s working late.” Steve replies, still looking at the T.V. “I’ll start dinner.” I mumble and head to my room to put away my stuff. I put my bag down in the corner of my room, then take off my jacket and toss it into my closet. Then I put on a cleaner T-shirt and put my hair up in a bun, then go to the kitchen.

In around 30 minutes I whip up some baked lasagna and salad and then pull out our cheesecake from the fridge for dessert. “Dinner’s ready!” I tell Steve. “Nah, I’m not hungry,” Steve says, waving me off. Great, I got a whole meal ready and he tells me he’s not hungry. It’s not like I can eat it all myself! “Well maybe if you weren’t snacking on chips and juice! I just prepared a whole meal while you sat there doing nothing!” I tell Steve, getting angry. At this, Steve gets up and glares at me saying, “You’re making it sound as if I don’t do anything around here! I spent the day working, while you spent the day hanging out with your rich and spoiled friends!” I knew for a fact that Steve was not working, and he was acting like hanging out with friends was a bad thing! Besides, what did my friends have to do with this? “It’s because you don’t do anything! You got fired from your job 2 days ago! And don’t bring my friends into this!” I say, raising my voice. “Don’t raise your voice at me, Julia! I’ve been trying to find myself a new job, and your attitude, rudeness, and the way you’re acting are not helping at all!” Steve says back, raising his own voice. “I’ll raise my voice at whoever I want, and my attitude and the way I act have nothing to do with you finding a job!” I yell. “Julia, I am warning you, I will ground you!” Steve bellows. He can’t do that to me!! “I don’t know why my mom even married you in the first place!” I yell at him. “Julia Ambers!” Steve shouts. “Just leave me alone!” I yell and run off to my room slamming the door behind me. “BAM!”

My cat Apollo jumps up from his nap when he hears me and runs under the bed in a panic. I’m not sure how long I spent on my bed crying, but I knew I didn’t want to go back out and deal with Steve, so I just sat there crying. Eventually, Apollo climbs out from under the bed, hops onto my bed, and curls up next to me, I sit petting him while thinking of how I miss my real father. When I was younger, we were so close! My relationship with my dad was important and special. He’d always shown me how much he loved and cared for me, by throwing me the best birthday parties, getting me exactly what was on my wishlist for Christmas and just being the best dad I could ask for. Until when I was 12, that’s when he left me and my mom. Me and my mom were heartbroken, and my dad meant so much to me, so when he left it felt like he left a hole in my life. I felt like a puzzle with a missing piece; incomplete. I thought my world had ended. Then I started shutting people out, I became quiet in class, I quit talking to people and when I was home I hid out in my room refusing to come out to eat so my mom started bringing my meals to my room and it continued like that until I was 15 when my mom met Steve, then married him when I was 16. By then I’d gotten better at not staying in my room, and I started making new friends when it didn’t hurt me as much when my dad left. But even when mom married Steve, it’s just never been the same for me.

At about 7:30, I hear the front door open and someone shuffles into the house. “Mom’s here!” I think and dash out of my room to say hi to her while Apollo follows close behind. “Mom!” I say as I give her a hug, while Apollo rubs against her purring. Steve had already gone upstairs I guess. “Hi Julia, how was your day?” She asks me. I smile and say, “It was good, how was your day?” At least someone cares to ask how my day was. “My day was a bit busy, you know the usual.” My mom says, brushing her light brown hair out of the way, bending down to pet Apollo. “A bit?” I ask, “Ok, a lot busy,” My mom replies, chuckling. Then she puts her jacket on the coat rack and slips off her boots. “What did you eat for dinner?” she asks me. “Oh, I didn’t actually eat yet,” I tell her. “Why not?” “Um, I kind of got into a little argument with Steve…but it’s all fine. Come on, I know you haven’t eaten yet either.” I say taking her hand, leading her to the dining table, shooing away the mention of me and Steve’s “argument”. It wasn’t even an argument, it was a full-on yelling match. But mom doesn’t need to know that, the last thing I want is to stress her out. So instead, I told her I prepared dinner all by myself, but briefly mentioned that Steve didn’t eat. She seems pretty proud of me that I prepared dinner, and says, “Aw, you’re growing up so fast Julia, I feel like it was only yesterday that you were still crawling around in diapers.” I laugh and say, “Mom! I’m almost 18 now!” My mom just smiles at me, sighs, then asks, “What will I do when you go off to college?” “Beg me to stay?” I joke. At that my mom playfully swats me on the arm, making me laugh, and responds with, “Oh Julia!” “Well you’ll still have Apollo maybe” I say while bending over to pet him. “I guess that’s true, come on now, let’s eat, I’m starving!” I nod in agreement and we both eat our dinner while talking about school, summer, work, and other stuff. It’s nice when I get some one-on-one time with my mother, which I have to admit is rare since she’s always busy and on the go, but either way, I’m grateful for the time I get with her.

By the time me and my mom finish eating, then washing and putting away our dishes, it’s almost 9 and we decide to head to our rooms and call it a night. “Goodnight Julia,” My mom says before turning out the light. “ Night Mom!” I call to her as she walks down the hall to her room. I’m about to fall asleep before I realize that Steve might tell my mom about our fight! I might get into trouble! But I’m so tired that I decide I’ll worry about it in the morning, just then I hear Apollo come into my room, then he gets onto my bed, meows, then curls up beside me, and then like Apollo, I fall asleep.

I wake up the next morning to the sound of birds outside my window. I climb out of bed, go over to the window, and pull the curtains open, while temporarily blinding myself for a second as the sun shines brightly into my eyes. I can smell that breakfast is being made and I head to the kitchen. “Morning Mom!” I say, giving her a kiss on the cheek before going to fill up Apollo’s food bowl. “Morning Julia,” My mom replies as she sets down a plate of sausages, pancakes, and egg, with a glass of milk. “Thank you,” I say, just then Steve comes into the kitchen and sits down across from me. “Morning hon,” my mom says to him and she puts down two more plates of breakfast for herself and Steve. With coffee for him and orange juice for herself, then she sits down. Steve looks at me and I simply nod my head in acknowledgment. My mom looked at me and then said, “Julia we need to talk to you,”

“It’s about the argument, isn’t it?” I ask, looking at my plate. “Yes, it is,” My mom replies. “Steve tells me there was some yelling, is that true?” My mom asks calmly. “Yes, but I didn’t mean to yell, I was just frustrated!” I say. “Ok well, what were you frustrated about?” My mom asks. I sit there fidgeting with a napkin for a second before responding, “I don’t know, it’s just that I’ve been feeling a little…envious, of my friends because from what I’ve heard, and what they told me, it sounds like their summers are going to be loads of fun compared to mine…” Steve clears his throat, “What about their summers is so exciting?” He asks, deciding he wants in on the conversation. “Well they’re all going on trips to places, and I’m stuck here!” I say. “Well hon, you know we didn’t plan on going anywhere this summer,” Mom says. “I know,” I mumble. “But the best we can do is save up for a trip next summer.” My mom explains, I just nod without saying anything. “Now Julia, I would like you to apologize to Steve, and he’ll do the same.” My mom says to me. And as much as I didn’t want to apologize, I also didn’t want to be grounded. So I look at Steve just enough, but not meeting his eye, and say to him, “I’m sorry Steve, for yelling at you…I’ll try to not do it again,” Steve clears his throat again then says to me, “And I’m also sorry Julia for raising my voice and I’ll make an effort to not do it again either,” “Right, so we’re all good then?” My mom asks us. Me and Steve nod and I ask, “So no grounding?” My mom looked confused then said, “Yes, no grounding, why would we do that?” I look pointedly at Steve, then my mom looks at him. “Steve! Were you going to ground Julia?” Steve shakes his head saying, “What? N-no I didn’t….” he stammers. My mom just shakes her head at him. I laugh then quickly finish the rest of my breakfast feeling giddy, I am on summer break after all!

I throw on my sweater, grab my bag, put in my water bottle, and my phone, and then put on my sunglasses. “Mom, I’m going to the cafe!” I call before heading out. It’s a really nice day out, and maybe a bit too warm for a sweater, so I take my sweater off, tie it around my waist instead, and walk over to the cafe. The bell gives a little “Ding-a-ling” when I enter, and the smell of cupcakes, donuts, cookies, and other pastries waft up to my nose making my mouth water, as I slip into line to order. When it’s my turn I’m greeted by a boy my age, who has sand-colored hair, an undercut hairstyle, blue eyes, freckles, a pierced nose and he has on a light blue shirt with light brown shorts.. “He’s pretty cute,” I think, then I almost blank when he asks for my order but I manage to say my order, not messing up. Then he hands me my apple juice and cupcake, but as I go to sit down, I can’t help but notice how weirdly familiar the guy looks. That’s when it hits me, like a ton of bricks. It’s Nathan Hayes, my childhood best friend!

Me and Nathan had been friends since we were 9. We met at a baseball game my dad had brought me to, I’d never been a big baseball fan though, but I’d gone anyway. My dad told me we were meeting up with one of his friends, then I saw another man who I assumed was his friend, and a boy my age trailing behind him. My dad introduced his friend to me and his friend -Mark- introduced me to the boy who I later learned was Nathan. I don’t know what it was, but Nathan and I immediately hit it off. He was nice, funny, and kind of goofy, in a good way, and he told me his favorite baseball team was the “Toronto Blue Jays”. And since then, we would go over to each other’s houses and hang out a lot. Not long after Nathan’s dad enrolled him in my school, I was pretty happy to hear that news. Over the years, me and Nathan had grown to be really good friends…but when my dad left, I stopped talking to Nathan, he noticed and tried to get me to talk to him, and I refused. Then one day Nathan marched into my room and said, “Julia, I’m not leaving until you talk to me!” I was hiding under the covers and said, “No!” Then I heard Nathan sigh, then he came around and tried to look at me through the covers and said, “Julia, you know you can talk to me whenever you want about whatever you want!” Then he asked, “Can I come in?” It took me a few seconds, but eventually I lifted up the blanket and peeked out at him then nodded. Nathan climbed onto the bed and sat next to me, then looked at me then said, “I want you to know that I’ll always be here and I’ll help you get through this,” When he told me this, I burst into tears and Nathan hugged me as I cried. He wiped away the last of my tears and held me. When I stopped crying he then whispered, “Don’t worry Julia, I won’t leave you, I promise.”

That was the day when we became best friends. And when we were 13, that’s when I knew, I thought of Nathan as more than a best friend. But I never told him my feelings, afraid if he didn’t feel the same way, our friendship would be ruined, so we just continued being best friends. But when we were 14, that’s when Nathan told me he was moving, I was so shocked and then asked why he had to go and he said, “We just have to move, I’m sorry.” Then turned to go, I grabbed his arm, tears streaming down my face, “You can’t go Nathan! You told me- you promised you wouldn’t leave me!” Nathan looked back at me with a pained expression then pulled me in for a hug and said into my hair, “I know what I said, and I’m really sorry, but no matter what, we’ll still be best friends, so don’t worry.” Then before he left he gave me a sad smile then said, “We can still text or write to each other.” And with that, he was gone, and what do you know it, it felt like my dad leaving all over again just without someone there for me. But I managed to get through it and I’ll admit, I did write to Nathan and he wrote back a few times. And we texted often, but often became sometimes, and then sometimes became occasionally, and then we just stopped altogether, it lasted for a few months, barely even a year. And now I find myself merely staring at him from across the cafe in shock that he’s back! I have no idea what I should do, should I go talk to him or should I just hide and pretend I don’t know him?

What I end up doing is finishing my juice and cupcake then leaving the cafe as fast as I can and running home, hoping mom would be there. Just my luck when I get there, she’s lying on the couch watching a ROM-COM with Apollo on her lap. She must’ve seen me stumble into the house as she looked up at me and then said, “Oh hey hon, are you okay?” I just look at her then blurt, “I think I just saw Nathan at the cafe.” At this, my mom looks surprised and says, “Your best friend Nathan?” I nod. “That’s great honey! It’s been years since you last saw him!” My mom says. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room. Under the covers.” I say then leave.

I don’t actually hide under the covers. Instead, I pace frantically while thoughts run through my head: “How am I gonna do this? Do I even want to try talking to him? What if I do something stupid and ruin this?! Wait...does he even remember me? Of course, he remembers me, it’s only been 3 years...Do I still like him? Maybe I do....or not? I don’t even know!” But after 5-10 minutes of pacing, I decide that I’ll go to the cafe tomorrow, then I’ll casually go up to Nathan and start a conversation and impress him with my humor and style. Then when he asks for my name, bam! He’ll remember me and we’ll be best friends again!... Right?

At around 9:30, I end up falling asleep. Then I wake up the next morning and open my closet to find a cute outfit, then braid my hair, take my purse, and go straight to the cafe. To my disappointment, though Nathan’s not at the cash register, instead it’s a blonde girl with a pixie cut, hoop earrings, a crop top, and shorts. But I put in my order, a cup of coffee and a sprinkled donut. (I love sprinkles!) Then find a place to sit. But not long after I see Nathan and keep thinking of how attractive he looks...“You haven’t even talked to him yet!” I remind myself. He walks in and then goes to talk to some of his co-workers (I’m guessing), waiting for his shift. I take this as the perfect opportunity and casually stroll over to him with my coffee. He sees me approach and I say, “Um...hi, you work here, right?” Nathan just nods then points to his shirt, “White Leaf Cafe” Duh! I mentally kick myself in the shin. I sip my coffee trying to play it cool, “So, I take it you’re new here, I’ve never seen you around before.” Nathan just nods again...this doesn’t seem to be working. “OK cool, I just wanted to say hi since you’re new, but since you have your next shift...“I say slowly backing away. And just my luck, someone behind me spills their cup of water and there’s barely enough time for me to hear Nathan say, “Watch out!” Before I step back, slip and fly backward, crashing down onto the floor. “Crash!” Not how I was hoping this would go.

I was a bit dazed, then surprised to see Nathan got down on his knees and was kneeling next to me. “Are you ok….?” He pauses for my name. “Julia…Julia Ambers.” I mumble, still embarrassed. I’m even more surprised when Nathan smiles at me and says, “I know, here.” Offering his hand. I take it and get up. “H-how did you know?” I ask. Still smiling he says, “I already knew it was you, Julia, just by how you looked, and I know how clumsy you can be sometimes.” Nathan says, teasing me. “So would it be weird to say, I know you’re Nathan, Nathan Hayes?” I ask. “Nope,” Nathan says while I notice he’s still holding my hand. But then, he must’ve noticed that most of the people there were gawking at us since he let go of my hand and then cleared his throat, “Um, I should probably go to my shift, but we should catch up sometime.” He says before going back to work. And like last time, I took my stuff and left the cafe quickly.

2 days later, I’m sitting on my bed reading when my phone buzzes signaling I got a text. I expect it to be one of my friends calling to say how fun their trips are going. But nearly fell off the bed in surprise, to see it was a text from Nathan. I open it, curious as to why he was texting me:

Nathan: Hey, we should meet up sometime

Me: When were you thinking?

N: When I don’t have work

Me: And when would that be?

N: “Mon, Weds, Friday, and Sun. Why don’t we meet up on Mon?

Me: Sure, where? Any place in particular?

N: How about the pizza place next door to the cafe at 1?

Me: OK sure, that works