Chapter Thirty-Two Sera
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sera
I wake to a pounding headache and a stuffy nose.
My luck. Just as things seem to be looking up, I get hit with a summer cold.
I’m glad that Luke is off to his orientation for the weekend and Maddy’s got work so I can focus on resting.
Luke texts me from the sad, gray-looking dorm he’s been put up in and asks if I want to help him with plans for the Northport Labor Day picnic when he’s back on Monday.
Sera
of course, maybe we can sneak away and spend the night at the beach at the end of the universe?…I miss you
Luke
I miss you too—my roommate for the weekend is trying to get me to help him pick up girls at a party tonight…
Sera
you should go! Maybe dance on a table and come back with a good story!
Luke
No way
Sera
fine deprive me of my entertainment
btw, I’ve got some really really good news to share.
I’ll tell you in person when you’re back!
Luke
news?! I can’t wait that long!
Talk later?
Sera
tomorrow—enjoy your night!
Mom comes up with soup and crackers. She takes my temperature and checks my vitals. Everything seems fine, the temp is low, and there are no erratic beats from my heart in the hour we sit together. I’m just tired.
“It’s just a cold, Mom. Also, look.” I show her the messages from Dr. Lee. Mom stares in disbelief for a moment while I grin, her lawyer eyes skimming the text to confirm meaning. “It’s real,” I say.
“Oh my god, honey!” She wraps me in a tight hug and won’t let go.
“Mom, you’re suffocating me,” I say, laughing. She pulls away reluctantly and a new email notification pops up on my screen. It’s from the fellowship in Paris.
“Oh—the fellowship just emailed me.”
“What does it say?”
I sit up and run a hand through my tangled hair. “This is not how I pictured getting good news,” I say, looking down at the pj’s I’m still in.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mom says. “Open it!”
I open it.
Dear Mlle Watkins,
We are thrilled to welcome you to the 2028 Paris Artist Cohort!
Your work shows great promise. You are exactly the kind of artist we like to nurture and support here at Le Jeanne Fontaine Collaboratif.
The details of your acceptance and the timeline for your stay with us are attached.
Please let us know your acceptance or your regrets by October 1.
“I’m going to Paris! I’m going to get a new heart and go to Paris!
” This all feels so unreal in my stuffy head but no less delightful, even though having to decide by October seems impossible.
I have to tell Iris. I have to tell Luke!
And Maddy! I pull my mom into a crushing hug and start dialing Maddy before I remember she’s at work and text her instead.
I text Luke too, a quick notice of more good news, asking him to call me.
Maybe I can get him to come visit next summer too.
However, instead of all this good news calming my mom, it makes her a little more anxious.
“I wish you’d let me take you to the ER, just to make sure,” she says, smoothing my sticky hair off my forehead.
“I’m okay. Really. I don’t want to be in the hospital for no reason. It’ll make me worse. I just need to rest. Thanks for the soup, though.”
She leaves me alone, and when she comes back for my dishes later, I ask her to stay. We pull up old movies on my laptop and I fall asleep on her shoulder, the smell of her perfume in my dreams, the sounds of old Hollywood accents in my ear.
When I wake up, it’s dark and my phone is buzzing. Luke’s calling. I answer in the middle of a yawn and hit the video button.
“Hey,” he says. He’s outside somewhere, sitting against a brick wall. His hair is getting too long and keeps falling in his eyes.
“Hi.” I climb out of my bed. “Give me a second.” It’s almost midnight. I start digging around on the floor for more clothes.
“Where are you going?” he asks as I almost drop my phone while pulling on his baseball hoodie and heading downstairs.
“To the tree house. I’ve been inside all day.” He looks worried, and I tell him to stop. The latest dose of cold medicine kicked in hours ago, and I feel good right now. “I’m fine, it’s just a little cold. And I don’t want to wake anyone up. I can make it to the tree house just fine.”
Outside it’s humid and hot, the air heavy and still.
I’m grateful Luke helped Adam and Oliver restore the regular ladder to the tree house so I don’t have to use the rope one.
I heave myself into the small structure.
They’ve redecorated a little, but it’s still the space Luke and I made our own, with a scratched-up painting of the night sky on the roof.
I can see the ghosts of our kid selves snuggling up underneath it and talking about all the adventures we’d go on as we grew up. Always together.
“You there?” Luke asks. I pull him out from the pocket of the hoodie and prop him against one wall, leaning back against another.
“Yeah, I made it. It’s tiny.”
“We were tiny,” he says.
“Minuscule,” I joke.
“Sera, you’re keeping me hanging here. What’s the news?!”
“Oh, right. Sorry. Well, it’s twofold. First, I got into the fellowship!”
Luke grins, looking proud but not surprised. “I knew you would.”
“I have to reply by October if I’m going.
” Luke’s face falls. We’ve been avoiding all reminders of my ticking clock, and talking about specific dates in the future always brings it up.
“But I heard from my doctor last night, and I’ve moved up the list. It might not be by October, but there’s a better chance now. ” My heart flutters with nerves.
“Really?” Luke says. The hope in his voice brings tears to my eyes.
“Yes. Really.” I suddenly want to hug him so badly. I wrap my arms around myself, the smell of his hoodie enough for now. “I wish you were here.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Maybe, when I’m better, we can go to one of those fancy Airbnb tree houses,” I say.
“That’d be fun.” He yawns.
“You’re tired. How was the party?”
He shrugs. “Fine, same as all parties. Though I wasn’t the only one not drinking, which was a nice change.”
“Hey, I never drink.”
He laughs. “Yeah, but you don’t like those parties anyway.”
“True. Bad music.”
“Don’t let Cam hear you say that. I think he played a house party in Falmouth last night.”
“Oops.” I laugh.
“Are our oaths still there?” Luke asks, leaning forward so more of his face takes up the screen.
“Our oaths?”
“Yeah, in the back corner, closest to the trunk.”
I shuffle over and move the beanbag Oliver and Adam have stored up here and find the scratched-in words Luke is talking about.
“I forgot about these.” My voice is a whisper.
I run my finger over the words there and read them aloud.
I, Luke Tisdale,
will always be there for Sera Watkins,
who saved my life.
I, Sera Watkins,
will always be there for Luke Tisdale,
a part of my heart.
“What saps,” I say, wiping my eyes.
“It’s still true, you know,” Luke says.
“I didn’t save your life,” I argue.
“You did. You and EBE together. And this summer, well, you’ve reminded me that it is my life. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Sera.”
I let the tears welling in my eyes fall and say the first thing that comes to mind.
“I love you, Luke.”
The words float out of my mouth and through the screen. Luke smiles the widest smile I’ve ever seen.
“I love you too, Sera.”