“Right—my name is Holly.” I stammered over my words, and I’m pretty sure I blushed.
“Nice to meet you.” His nodded and looked towards the street. “I was just about to go for a jog—maybe I’ll see you around!”
“Maybe…” I watched as he walked to the sidewalk and stretched his legs before he started to run.
Everette’s eyes were turquoise-blue—that was the only part of him I hadn’t been able to see clearly when I spied on him the previous night. His chestnut-brown hair had a bit of a wave to it, and it was lighter than it appeared to be when he was fresh out of the shower. His beard was a darker shade of brown and fairly thick, but it was neatly trimmed. It was hard to speak to him without remembering how gorgeous he was underneath the clothes he was wearing—hell, he was gorgeous in a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt.
“He wants to see you around.” Amelia grinned and unlocked her car. “That’s promising.”
“I’ll be gone in a couple of days.” I shook my head back and forth. “I probably won’t even see him again before I leave for college.”
“I would go out of my way to see him if he was my neighbor—don’t forget about the tree house.” She opened the door and sat down in her car.
“We really shouldn’t have done that,” I sighed as I sat down in the passenger seat.
“Oh come on—it’s his fault. He was the one walking around in front of an open window.” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“I’m positive that he had no idea anyone could see him.” I turned my head towards Amelia. “And we’re never going to talk about that again.”
“Fine, we’ll put in the vault with the rest of our secrets.” She cranked up her car, but the grin didn’t disappear from her face.
My trip to Amelia’s house went about how I expected it to go. She wanted to play around and avoid packing her stuff, while I just wanted to get it over with. Her parents wandered into her room a few times and tried to help, but she was quick to usher them out the door. She made a few comments about Everette once we finally started working. I didn’t need her to remind me that he was gorgeous—the image of what I saw from the tree house was seared into my thoughts, and it was all I could really think about. I replayed the conversation we had that morning over-and-over, and it made me mentally cringe. I was barely able to greet him—didn’t even tell him my name until I was prompted by Amelia.
He probably thought I was an idiot…
“I guess we’re done.” Amelia wiped some sweat off her brow and looked around the room.
“Do you want me to help you carry some boxes to your car?” I sat down on the edge of her bed.
“Nah, my dad will take care of that.” She shook her head back and forth.
“Alright.” I nodded. “It’s nearly time for your parents to take you to dinner—you might as well drop me off on the way.”
“I wish we could hang out again tonight, but they really want me to spend some time with them.” Amelia sighed. “Like I haven’t been doing that for the last eighteen years…”
“Maybe you can come over tomorrow?” I raised an eyebrow. “My parents won’t back home until Monday.”
“Yeah, I should be able to come over.” She sat down beside me. “I can’t believe this is the last time you’ll be in my room.”
“We’re going to college—not dying.” I shook my head back and forth. “We’ll still see each other when we have a break, plus we’re both going to be home for Christmas, and before we know it, it’ll be summer again.”
“I guess so.” She sighed. “I’m going to miss you, Holly Pierce.”
“I’ll miss you too, Amelia Hartley.” I leaned my head against her and laughed.
Amelia and I had been saying goodbye with our first and last names since we were kids—but those goodbyes didn’t have much weight behind them. We were always going to see each other at school or on the weekends, and it was a guarantee we took for granted. The true weight of our next goodbye started to resonate between us as we sat there on her bed. It was going to be the longest stretch of time we had gone without seeing each other since we were in elementary school—we weren’t kids anymore. High school was over. College was the next step in our lives, but even that was a glimmer of what was yet to come.
“Do you think we’ll be like all of those friends that lose touch after high school?” Amelia leaned forward and started to stand.
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “We’re different.”
In the back of my mind, I wondered if what I said was really true. Other people probably said the same thing right before they wandered into the next chapter of their lives and got lost in it. I wasn’t going to be able to run to Amelia every time some guy I was interested in looked at me—or god forbid—spoke to me. There would be no more late nights spent watching movies our parents would have never let us watch if they were supervising us—no more teenage debauchery or rebellion. We were officially going to be on our own, and that meant a lot of things would have to change. I was going to have to learn to stand on my own two feet—face my problems alone—and navigate my way into my early twenties as a woman instead of a girl. I might even find love or a distraction until the right guy came along.
Maybe I should actually consider baking some cookies for my new neighbor…
Chapter Two
Everette