Prologue
2008
"I'll only be gone for a month, and when I come back, we'll tell our parents what we decided. Then we can spend what’s rest of the summer celebrating." Elijah plants a soft kiss on
my neck before pulling me in closer to him and wrapping his arm around me enveloping me in his familiar smell. The calmness that comes over my body when he hugs me, makes having to say goodbye so soon not so hard.
"You really think your mom will be okay with it?" I know the answer to that question,
but I can’t stop myself from blurting it out. The answer is a big fat no! Defeated, I turn my head to get a good look at him and find his smiling as he looks down on me. He’s such an optimistic about everything, and I wish with everything that I could be too. I have a bad feeling about this, and it’s making it hard to keep anything down. Just thinking about anything going wrong makes me want to puke.
“Of course, she won't have a choice because I'll have done what she's asked of me." I've seen how his mom looks at me and the things she says to me or about me are never nice. He doesn't know, but I've heard her tell him that I'm dirty. All because I don't come from money like him. I’ve heard her say that my black mom and Mexican dad gave birth to a mutt, in those exact words. Elijah defends me as much as he can, but it doesn’t change how she sees me. I’ll never be good enough for her son, no matter how much I try to get her to like me. Eventually I just stopped trying. I avoid any interaction with her and act like I don’t see the faces she makes my way.
“I’m really going to miss you.” I whisper and look at the ground. Elijah and his mom
made a deal. If he can stay away from me for a month with no contact while he’s at football
camp, then she’ll leave us alone and accept our relationship. I doubt that she’ll keep her word, but Elijah has convinced me to go along with it. He thinks it’ll get his mom to back off, but I know better.
“I’m going to miss you too, but I promise to make it up when I get back.” He hugs me a little tighter and I am enveloped by the feeling of being safe, of home. My whole body relaxing into his and I just enjoy his company. This right here is perfect, I close my eyes and try to commit this moment to memory. I want to be able to conjure this memory of just the two of us. Sitting here under this huge tree with no one to intervene. Just us, the summer breeze, and sunrays peeking through the leaves. He’ll be heading off to college in a week’s time and I’ll have to stay behind waiting for him to return. This summer is going to be fun...NOT!
