Chapter 4 14 Years Ago
CHAPTER 4
14 YEARS AGO
August
The kindness of Wes’s mom browbeat my parents into submission. After promising to make good decisions, we were released into the wilds of Pike Bay. The three of us tumbled into a routine that first summer. We’d hang out in the late morning—pulling out the pedal boat, roaming around Secret Island, pretending to be explorers. When the sun got too hot or if the clouds began to spit, we’d go to Wes’s place. Rows and rows of well-loved books with cracked spines and stacks of teetering board games and DVDs lined the Forests’ basement, a perfect hangout haven. Even better, Ms. Forest had a different approach to supervision than my mother, which meant plenty of snacks and little interference. Before bed, Wes and I would wish each other good night with a flicker of our lights through our windows. I’d never had a friend like Wes before.
“You win again,” Mel groused, sitting back after yet another round of Monopoly. It was a muggy week. We’d been trapped inside more often than not, and the storm outside was dragging down our joy.
“She always wins.” Wes’s smile looked forced.
“We need more snacks.” Mel danced up the stairs, not noticing Wes’s mood even though it was all I could see.
“What’s up?” I asked. “Are you mad that I won again?” When he didn’t look at me, I poked my foot across the debris of Monopoly, jabbing his jean-shorts-clad leg until he looked up.
“No, it’s not about losing,” he said, leaning over to dump the Monopoly pieces into the box.
I crawled over to his side, my thigh brushing his as I reached over to gather the money. “Not like that,” I said, organizing and stacking the bills in order before handing them back to him. “You know you’ll hate it next time you open it and it’s a mess.” Even though the basement was dim, I could count the freckles on his nose.
His fingers lingered against mine for a few seconds too long before he pulled away. “Do you ever feel trapped?” he asked.
I followed his eyes to a wooden photo frame. A young Ms. Forest, an equally young man with a stern face and a cherubic blond baby. Ms. Forest gazes at her boy like he’s her world, while the man stares straight through the camera, as if waiting for the gallows.
“Is that your dad?” I blurted. When his eyebrows went up, I backtracked. “Sorry. I’m being nosy.”
“It’s fine. Today’s my dad’s birthday. I had to speak to him, but I didn’t want to.” Wes stopped himself, so I nodded encouragingly. “He cheated on my mom and left us to be with another woman. When my grandmother died, he didn’t even bother to come to her funeral. I hate him.” The words poured out of him like a pot boiling over.
“I’m sorry,” I said, twisting my thumbs. “He sounds like a dick.”
Wes’s laugh came out as a snort and he packed away the Monopoly box. I followed him towards the shelves in the back of the room.
“What?” I asked innocently, even though I couldn’t hide my smirk. No one expected good girl Lia to sprout profanities, especially me. With Wes, though, it felt like I could turn the filter off.
“You’re full of surprises.” Wes tilted his head to better examine me, as his sullen expression lifted.
Mel stomped down the stairs, the reverberations breaking the pull between us.
“We should watch a movie,” I blurted. I reached carelessly on the shelves, pulling out a random DVD and handing it to Wes.
He looked down at my selection, raising his eyebrows as Mel arrived, bag of chips crinkling in her grasp.
“I didn’t know you liked horror.” Wes brandished the case in front of me, grinning. My heart sank, what had I chosen?
Mel snatched the DVD from Wes. “Lia picked The Ring ?” she cackled.
“Yes,” I bristled. How scary could a movie called The Ring be? Maybe it’d be like The Fellowship of the Ring ? Hobbits were something I could get into.
We sat together on the sofa, me sandwiched in the middle with a blanket over us. “My friend said she peed her pants during this movie,” my sister announced gleefully. Mel loved scary movies.
Somehow, I managed to keep it together as we watched. At least at first. But as the movie unfolded, my body tensed, my heart galloping. I didn’t want Mel or Wes to laugh at me, but when the phone upstairs rang, I jumped. I took a heavy breath, forcing myself to calm down before anyone noticed, but my spine seized with the sudden rumble of thunder.
Wes inched closer to my side, slowly pressing himself against me like a reassuring blanket. I inhaled cotton and sunrise, and my tight muscles unwound. When I glanced up at him, his brow furrowed. He wasn’t looking at the screen, but at me, concern emanating from him.
A frightening girl with thick black hair appeared on the screen and I grabbed Wes’s hand, and his eyes flicked to where we were joined. “Sorry,” I muttered, grip loosening.
“It’s okay,” he told me, tugging my hand under the blanket so my sister couldn’t see. His hand wrapped around mine, my thumb skittering against his knuckles while the creepy music ebbed around us. I didn’t know if it was fear or Wes making my heart beat quickly. As the movie continued, little jolts of fear tightened my grip, but Wes didn’t flinch as my fingers dug into his palm.
Finally when it was over, we let go, though he stayed at my side.
“You did it,” my sister said at the end, with a look of begrudging respect.
“Are you a horror movie aficionado now?” Wes joked. He got up to turn on the lights and then settled back at a reasonable distance from me.
“You know it,” I said, letting a smile come to my face. When he laughed, I continued, “But, actually, I am never watching one of those ever again.”
I had nightmares for days afterwards. Still, it was worth it. Especially because I could still feel where Wes had held my hand.
The sun was stark in the sky when Wes, my sister and I pedalled out to Secret Island with a large throw blanket and books protected in a plastic tote. We wanted to bake there in the sun and read for a couple hours. Though the sky was clear, August had crept up on us and the approaching end of summer was a black cloud that shrouded my mind. It didn’t help that I’d gotten my period overnight and my sleep had been fitful thanks to the lack of summer breeze. Secret Island was also hot and uncomfortable. The ground was hard even underneath the blanket we’d brought to lie on, and my mood was as dark as the flies buzzing around us.
By the time we got back, we were exhausted and Mel went home to nap. Not wanting to end our summer on a sour note, I went to Wes’s place to grab a book. The shade and the oscillating portable fans were a relief after the unrelenting heat.
Ms. Forest was in the kitchen, hair brushed out of its usual ponytail, bright smile lighting up her face. “Short shift today,” she explained, coming over to give Wes a kiss on his cheek.
“Mom!” he protested, but it was half-hearted. My gut tugged. I wished my parents would give unassuming affection. There was always a because to their overtures. A hug for getting an A in math, a proud grin for winning an award.
My stomach was still crampy, and I wanted to grab a new book and go home so I could mourn the end of summer privately.
“We’re going to the basement,” Wes said to his mom.
I followed him down the stairs. “I’ll just pick one and go?” When I noticed Wes’s face crease, I continued, “It’s because I’m cranky and want to hide under a blanket.”
“I don’t mind if you’re cranky. You can hide under a blanket here if you want? No pressure, though,” Wes said.
I considered it. If I went home, I might get roped into running errands anyway and wouldn’t be able to read. “Okay. We could watch a movie? As long as it’s not scary.”
His grin was hopeful and earnest. “I’ll get us a snack.”
I sighed, plopping myself on the sofa as I waited for him to come back downstairs. Fifteen minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen carrying s’mores on a baking tray. “My mom makes me these when I don’t feel well,” he said shyly. “They cure almost everything.”
My eyes widened in delighted surprise as I took my first bite of the gooey chocolate sandwich. Wes was right, s’mores could fix almost anything. He popped on an action movie and sat on the couch, only inches away from me. The s’mores settled in my belly, but the heavy weight of summer ending still rested on my chest.
Partway through, Wes paused the movie, the main character frozen mid-flip.
“Why’d you turn it off?” I asked haughtily.
“You seem to be in the throes of mild despair,” Wes said, nudging me with his socked foot.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Mild despair was the perfect way to phrase it. I wanted to be here, in the summer, spending the days with someone who was becoming my closest friend, away from school and the pressures of trying to be perfect. “I’m sorry,” I blurted, a stray tear at the corner of my eye. “I just don’t want to go home and back to school. And it’ll suck when I come back next summer and we’re not even friends anymore because you’ve forgotten all about me and we don’t have any reasons to talk.” I sucked in a big breath, lungs deflated after blurting my worries out.
He stared at me. A beat passed as heat rushed to my neck. I shouldn’t have said anything. I was coming off as needy and insecure and that was how you lost friends.
Wes cleared his throat. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been here a year and haven’t made any friends as close as you. You’re basically my best friend,” he whispered. His confession soothed my self-doubt.
“You’re mine too,” I replied. “But I’ve never had a friend live so far away from me before.” I looked down at my foot, striped with a flip-flop tan from our sunny adventures.
We stayed silent, both of us thinking about the miles that separated Pike Bay from Toronto until finally Wes hauled me up, hands warm and firm against mine. “I have an idea,” he said. He dropped one hand but kept the other in his grasp as he dragged me to the bookshelves. “Why don’t you grab a bunch of books and take them home with you, so you’ll have to return them to me next summer? And we can message about them over the year. I’ve read most of these.”
I brightened. “Okay,” I said, leafing through the shelves. The books were all out of order. Fantasy mixed in with young adult and sci-fi. Well-loved books with pastel covers and fancy fonts interspersed with ones depicting men holding women in draping gowns. I picked a few of the latter, showing them to Wes. “Were these good?”
“Those were my grandmother’s,” Wes said, a strange look on his face. “You sure you want those ones?”
“Yeah? You read them, right? What did you think?” I dumped them in my bag.
His ears grew pinker as he spoke to his feet. “Yeah, I liked them.”
“Okay, so I’ll read them too.” I smiled at him, heat radiating through my chest. This would be a way for me to be close to him, even though we’d be far away. “And then next summer, we can hang out and read on Secret Island together.”
“Yeah,” Wes said. “I’ll try to bring chairs or something so it’s more comfortable.”
“I love it there. It’s comfortable already,” I said. What I didn’t say is that I’d love anywhere with him. “Let’s finish the movie.”
The next week, I left with Wes’s instant messenger information and the bag of books in the trunk, as well as the promise that we’d keep in touch.