Lark (First & Forever 5)

“Okay. Well, see you in a bit.” I started to head for the door, but then I turned back and said, “Please don’t leave the tree’s carcass lying in the gutter for trash pickup. That would be so sad.”

“We won’t. We promise,” JoJo said.

“What are you going to do with it?”

Yolanda muttered, “Best not to ask.”

“Yeah, you’re right. See you soon.” I took a last look at the tree before heading out.

The sky was really blue and the sun was shining. It was on the cold side though, so I pulled up my hood before making the short trek to Theo’s house.

My path took me through Delores Park, which was almost empty. I paused to take a photo on a park bench, because my unicorn horn hoodie with its big fabric ears was pretty cute. Then I posted it to my fan page.

I’d never been the kind of person who loved to take tons of selfies, but the thing about having followers was that they constantly wanted new content. I didn’t do much that was interesting. It wasn’t like I was always jetting off to exotic locations or anything. For me, just leaving the house was an event, so I took photos whenever I went anywhere.

Once the photo was posted, I clicked over to check my messages, but there were none. I considered sending Hawk a good morning message, but maybe that would be weird. He already had one unanswered message from me, so it was probably best not to let them pile up.

I logged out of my fan page, then decided to send a text to my younger brother Logan, the last member of my family who still spoke to me. He’d only been twelve when I was kicked out. It wasn’t like pre-teen boys were great about sending messages and staying in touch, so we’d drifted apart over the years.

But I was trying to rebuild our relationship, so I’d begun texting him pretty regularly. This one said: Happy New Year, Logan! I hope this year is fabulous for you! That was followed by a bunch of emojis.

He replied a few moments later with: HNY

I tried not to be disappointed. That was something anyway, even if he couldn’t be bothered to actually write out “Happy New Year” or ask if I was okay. I decided to try for a bit more and wrote: How’ve you been?

A minute ticked by before he responded: Just super tired. I’m walking into work right now so I’ll TTYS

I wanted to ask if he wanted me to send him some money, but when I’d offered before he’d just seemed offended. He worked three jobs and was trying to put himself through college without racking up a ton of student loan debt, and I felt bad for him. His life definitely wasn’t easy. He still lived at home to save money, and it wasn’t like our parents were warm and loving. Plus, he was always either working or in school, so no wonder he was tired.

I felt a bit deflated as I got up and continued on to Theo’s house. This year wasn’t off to a great start. But when I arrived at my destination, I stuck a smile on my face. There was no reason to drag my friends down with me, just because I felt off.

Theo lived in a stunningly beautiful pearl gray Edwardian that he’d inherited, which looked like a big doll house. Casey answered the door when I knocked and gave me a hug before leading me to the kitchen.

This was my first time visiting, since Casey and the doc were a fairly new couple. I looked around curiously, taking in all the details. There were tons of books, sometimes stuck in random places, and more houseplants than I’d ever seen. A mini forest was positioned in front of every sunny window.

Casey’s plant-loving boyfriend was dressed in jeans and a heavy metal T-shirt, which was way different than the buttoned-down doctor I was used to. He handed me a hot chocolate as soon as I entered the kitchen, and I thanked him and said, “Everyone else should be here before too long.”

“Yeah, Yolanda messaged us,” Casey said. “We actually wanted to talk to you about a couple of things, so that works out. Let’s go have a seat in the family room.”

I knew what was coming. He was going to tell me he was moving in with Theo, I was sure of it. Since I was the emotional one in our group, I was getting the news separately. But I wasn’t going to cry and make this about me, even though splitting up our pink Victorian family was hard to take.

There was a bunch of food set up on a sideboard in the den. The cozy room was just off the kitchen, and it had comfortable furniture, big windows looking out over the backyard, and of course a ton of plants.

They invited me to help myself to the buffet, but I told them I’d wait for the rest of our friends to join us. I took a seat on a dark blue club chair while Casey and Theo sat down on the couch. Between us was a coffee table loaded with books and one stray houseplant.

“We have a favor to ask you,” Casey began. Okay, maybe this wasn’t going where I thought it was. “I’d mentioned Theo and I were planning a trip to Hawaii, as we finally settled on the first week in February. We wanted to ask if you’d be willing to house-sit for us while we’re gone. You could either stay here or come and go, whatever works for you. We just need someone to look after things and water the plants, and obviously we’ll pay you, so—”

I blurted, “You don’t have to pay me, and I’m thrilled to house-sit! Wow, I can’t believe you’d trust me with such a big responsibility.”

“Of course we trust you, Lark,” Theo said. “It should be pretty straightforward, too. I’ll write up instructions for what to water and when. Other than that, it’d be great if you could bring in the mail and, like Casey said, just generally keep an eye on things. I’ll feel better knowing the house isn’t sitting empty while we’re gone.”

I took a sip of my hot chocolate before saying, “This is fantastic. I thought you were about to break the news that you were moving out, Casey.”

“Actually, that’s the other thing I wanted to tell you.” Oh yeah, he’d actually said there were a couple of things, hadn’t he? “I paid my rent for January, but I’m officially moving in with Theo this week.” The couple exchanged the sweetest look as they joined hands.

That made my heart hurt, but I smiled at them and said, “Congrats! I knew it was just a matter of time. Do you need help moving your furniture? I’m stronger than I look, and I’d be happy to lend a hand.”

They seemed surprised by my reaction. “Thanks for the offer,” Casey said, “but I decided to leave it behind. Yolanda can charge a bit more rent if she offers the room fully furnished, and I won’t be needing any of those things once I move in here.”