Chapter 1
“Have you started your essays yet?” I asked Bram as I reached for one of the berries in the container.
Bram was about to answer my question when Laura cut in, “No. We have one more day to enjoy ourselves without talking about school. Can we please respect that?”
Bram turned to me and shrugged. I threw a strawberry into my mouth and laid my head on Bram’s chest. Cody finished his sandwich and said, “I second that.”
Kyle looked up from his phone and announced, “Ricky just canceled the party. Apparently, his parents came home early.”
He took a bite of his sandwich while the rest of us just shrugged. When we didn’t react the way he thought we would he looked up puzzled.
“We weren’t planning on going,” Bram told him what we were all thinking.
“I’m sorry, what?” He looked at each of us in turn.
“Aria just got back home, I was hoping to spend time with her tonight before we’re swamped with school stuff,” Bram replied while I looked up at him from his lap.
Cody, not to be upstaged, pulled Laura in close, “A friend of ours invited us to a show just out of town.”
Kyle then laid back on the blanket and looked at his phone, “Guess I’m free tonight.”
Laura turned to me, “How much you want to bet he’s texting Addison?”
Kyle mockingly repeated what she said before turning to her, “I’m texting Kimberly.”
Cody pushed Laura to the side, moving closer to Kyle, “No shit. You got her number?”
Laura rolled her eyes at them and turned to where Bram and I were sitting, “I’m dating an idiot.”
“He’s only an idiot seventy-five percent of the time,” I replied while leaning back into Bram.
“And Bram? I assume you don’t care about this Kimberly chick.” Laura asked as she reached in for some chips.
“I’ve got everything I need right here.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead as he said it and I smiled warmly before it turning smugly to Laura.
The pride in my man was short-lived when Cody called out, “Dude, she legit just invited him over.”
The fall was short and I found myself lying on the blanket as Bram moved over to look at Kyle’s phone. Laura raised an eyebrow at me while I sat up and threw the boys a dirty look, “They’re both idiots.”
They seemed to be praising Kyle on scooping up yet another fine girl, a comment Cody immediately apologized for when Laura hit him upside the head. Bram knocked him too for good measure but they started to brainstorm conversation topics for Kyle to use later that day.
Laura looked down at her phone and I laid back to look at the sky. It seemed as if summer had only just started and yet here we were celebrating a new school year. Seniors. We would now be at the top of the metaphorical food chain and trying to pack as much fun in an already busy year while waiting for the day we finally graduated into adulthood.
When others talked about senior year they made it sound so important but to me, it just sounded like another school year that would lead to another, except in a different location with different things to learn. And so the vicious cycle would continue until it didn’t but by then we’d have new worries.
Then again that was a morbid way to think of it. As far as I knew, my senior year would be when I got to do things for the last time. Wherever I went next it wouldn’t be the same, and so my biggest priority was to make this year count. And obviously to get into college but I digress.
Even now as I laid on the blanket with my friends I knew without a doubt, “Aria are you listening?”
My train of thought was broken as I turned to where Laura repeated, “Debate? Are you rejoining this year?”
“Oh yeah. I need it for my application.” I angled my body toward her.
“I don’t think I’ll have time for it this year. My Abuela says she needs me to work weekdays this semester.” She scrolled through her phone and laid near me.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, one of her assistants is going on maternal leave.” She put the phone down and looked over at the boys, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with that one.”
I followed her gaze to where the boys were now playing a game of fetch. I noticed Laura look at me from the corner of her eye before turning away, “Have you guys talked about what you’re going to do next year?”
I was quiet for a bit wondering if I could just dodge the question. In the end, I sighed, “No we haven’t but we’ll figure it out.”
She nodded, “Cody and I talked about it but we didn’t really get anywhere. I guess I’m just scared about what happens after graduation and we end up going to different schools.”
I was more content to listen than air out my own grievances, I hadn’t thought much about it this summer. Laura didn’t seem to mind, “Every other person I’ve talked to has told me long distance doesn’t work but I’m wondering maybe it just doesn’t work for them you know. Every time I bring it up with Cody he deflects or says we can talk about it later but that doesn’t actually help me.” Laura turned to me, “What do you think is going on in his head?”
I took a second to think about it, to really think about it. Cody was an easy going guy, he was always cracking jokes and trying to make everyone else feel better because that’s just the kind of person he was but of course that didn’t always translate well, “I think that maybe he just wants to enjoy the time you guys have left without all this looming over your head. And he probably just doesn’t want to think of a potential break up.”
The last party I could relate to but Laura shook her head, “That isn’t what I want to talk to him about though. I just want us on the same page or in the same book at least. I’m navigating on blind right now.”
I shrugged, “I don’t know but I can say without a doubt that he’s probably dodging it more because he’s afraid of what you might potentially ask him. If you hadn’t noticed the boy is smitten with you.”
Laura turned to the boys before turning onto her back with a defeated sigh, “Why is liking someone so hard?”
“If I knew I’d tell you,” I replied while looking at Bram. He turned to me and gave a goofy grin before going back to his game. They were now playing touch football and Kyle had grabbed the ball while he was distracted.
I was about to lay back when I felt a drop of water on my shoulder. One drop turned to two and soon I couldn’t count them anymore as the rain began to fall. I looked at the sky and saw that it was rapidly becoming darker. Laura sat up as she both made quick work of packing up our picnic.
I got to my feet and helped as the boys ran over. We all rushed to pick everything up before running back to the parking lot. I jumped into Bram’s car and Kyle went to the back. Laura and Cody had a long way to go and we watched them rush over. Bram joined me in the front before passing me one of his spare shirts.
I took it and patted myself down before taking his hoodie. Kyle didn’t take the shirt because he was mostly dry. He’d taken the picnic blanket for cover before running off without the rest of us. Bram started the car and immediately I turned on the heat while he drove out of the lot.
We passed by Cody’s car waving at them while Cody tried to locate his car keys. I chuckled at Laura’s annoyed face as she asked where the keys were. As we pulled out, Cody found the keys and went to open the door but dropped them. Kyle burst out laughing while Bram called out to ask Laura if she needed a ride.
I saw her flip him off from the review mirror but soon enough we were on the road back home. Kyle leaned to the front, “Drop me off at Kimberly’s house.”
I turned to him and asked, “Already?”
He shrugged as he sat back, “I’ve got nothing better to do.”
I drummed my fingers against the dashboard while looking out the window, “So what’s she like?”
“Honestly I barely even know. I talked to her at Dalton’s party last week.” I heard some ruffling from the back and turned to Bram.
“Is that true?” I asked Bram.
Bram looked in the review mirror and smirked. I quickly looked back and found Kyle shaking his head at him. I looked between the two and waited for Bram to say something but he didn’t, “What are you not telling me?”
“Nothing.” They both said at the same time.
“I’m not stupid. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Bram shrugged at me and I knew that was him saying this wasn’t his problem.
Kyle threw him a look before sighing, “I’ll tell you another time, cool?”
“Is it serious?” I asked getting a bit concerned.
“Definitely not.” Kyle replied honestly and I felt the weight that was building up on my shoulders fall.
“Fine,” I replied and turned to look out the window. We were getting closer to her house and Kyle began to sit up. The rain was still pouring so he had to run to her front door while Bram and I watched.
When Kimberly opened the door he threw an ok sign at us and we drove off. He was getting a ride from her later on so he didn’t need us to come and get him, with that we drove toward the city center. I turned to Bram while he drove and stared for a bit. He caught me from the corner of his eye, sighing dramatically, “I knew this was going to be a problem.”
I put my chin in my hands while still staring and asked, “What?”
“You dating a devilishly handsome guy quite like myself, I’ve broken you and now you can’t stop staring.” He made a show of how much it pained him.
“Wow... why do I have such bad taste in men?”
“I can sue you for defamation of character.” He replied not missing a beat.
“That wasn’t defamation of character that was the truth.” I didn’t bat an eyelid either, we’d had this discussion too many times to count.
Soon we were parked outside my house, I had a few more minutes before my mom deemed it was time for us to part ways because technically, it was a school night. We talked about summer break and everything that we’d done that we hadn’t already gone over on the phone. We made jokes, playfully argued, and soon it was time for me to head inside.
“My mom’s going to be upset you didn’t come in to say hello.” I looked down at our hands.
He played with my fingers as he said, “Tell her I’ll come over for dinner this Friday.”
“When was this decided?” I looked up at him.
“If you don’t want to come that’s on you. More food for me and your parents.” He replied shrugging at me.
“I’ll just go to a movie with your mom then.”
He stuck his tongue out at me, “She’s going out of town for business. So you’ll just have to stay outside until we’re done, then again your parents might ask me to stay over.”
I glared at him, “You should stop coming over. You’re taking over my family.”
“I can’t help my charm and I don’t expect anyone else to. I mean you couldn’t either,” He leaned in toward me but I flicked his forehead.
“I really need to knock some sense into you.” I leaned away from him.
“That hurt.” He pouted at me but I just glared. He continued to pout and even started making little dog noises and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Trey would be disgusted to hear you do that.”
“Only for you.” He winked at me and I laughed again before turning to the door. Before I could open it he yanked my arm back, “I think you’re forgetting something.”
I raised my eyebrow at him before looking around, “Nope. I think I got everything.”
He suddenly pulled me in for a hug and I fell into his arms while still facing the door when he did it. I wriggled around but he didn’t budge at all, not enough for me to try and escape or get into a more comfortable position. “I missed you this summer. I tried not to but I couldn’t.”
Instantly I stopped struggling and let silence fill the space around us before, “I missed you too. There were so many places I saw that wanted to take you to.”
“Maybe someday, if we’re lucky.” The silence filled again as we both contemplated those words, ‘if we’re lucky.’ As in if we were still together then, if we were able to make it work.
I let it sit before I tapped his arm and he loosened his hold so I was able to turn and give him a proper hug. “Hopefully.”
He pulled away a bit and leaned in. Our lips met and at first, it was just a small peck but it got a bit more heated. My hands around his neck, I played with the kinky hair at the base of his skull. His hands were much lower but they were rested around my waist, no funny business at all. We were so wrapped up in our little moment, we didn’t notice my mom walk up to the car. We jumped away from each other so fast when she tapped on the window.
She gestured for Bram to roll the window down, “I noticed you guys parked out here for a while, you can come in you know? I was just about to serve dinner and you’re welcome to join us, Bram.”
Bram and I sat as far as we could from each other and I turned to hear his answer because I couldn’t look at my mother’s knowing look anymore, “That’s fine. I’m supposed to head over to my dad’s place and he probably has something prepared.”
“He said he’s coming over on Friday for dinner,” I told her as I opened the door.
“Really? I’ll be sure to buy some beef then, we can have a barbeque.” She said referring to Bram’s favorite meal my mom made him.
“That would be amazing.” The way he looked at my mother made it seem like she had offered to give him the answer to all of life’s questions. Then again food was the answer to life’s problems.
“Well, you should get going. I’m sure you and Chaeyoung said your goodnights.” I looked away from her as she said that and Bram just cleared his throat.
“Yeah, we did.” He started the car and turned to me, “See you at school tomorrow. Goodnight Mrs. Park.”
He then drove off as my mother turned to the house. She then called me over in Korean, “Chaeyoung dinner is ready, I’m sure your dad is already waiting.”
I nodded and turned to follow her inside when I noticed something across the street. One of the bedrooms that faced our house had the curtains open and from where I stood I could someone moving around inside. I don’t know why it bothered me so much to see someone inside, maybe it was because there was rarely ever anyone inside that room or maybe it was because the owner happened to be in another state.
Of course, it could have been any other member of that family and that’s what I told myself I as started to turn back to my house. However, as they turned to close the curtains that same person turned out to be a friend I hadn’t seen in a very long time. A friend who’d moved to New York for school and I’d assumed I’d never see again. A friend I still missed even if it had been years already since she’d left.
