26. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #4
Stanley shouts, “Take care of my house!”
Aspen pats his stomach.
“The house of national champions, baby!” Stanley bellows and points at the ceiling.
Benson pulls Blue into a hug first. “It’s been a good run, brother.”
Stanley carries Percy around the room, and Percy lets it happen.
Benson shakes Rowan’s hand and then pulls him into a hug. He steps back and says, “Glad you’re here to look out for my sister. I can’t think of a better man, Laurens.”
Rowan nods. “I’m gonna miss you, brother.”
“Same.” They hug again.
Benson bops my nose and then starts hugging the girls.
He finally gets to Percy and hugs him. “Keep it up, Deveroux. I’ll put in a good word.”
Stanley joins them. “I will too, buddy.”
Penelope walks over and hugs me. With her head over my shoulder, she says, “Thank you for being such a good friend.”
I squeeze her. “I’m going to see you around, right?”
She pulls back and nods. “Yeah, Percy will still be here.”
“Thank God,” I exhale with my hand over my heart. “You got me for a second there. I thought you were moving or something.”
I hug Aspen next. I’m about to tell her how thankful I am for her, and then Stanley grabs her from behind, pulls me up with them, and runs around the house. I laugh my head off, then he pushes Aspen out of the way and says, “Let me hug my little sister.”
Stanley hugs me for one second and steps back. “I made new rules for Hawthorne.”
I grin. “You did?”
He talks quietly, “I hid the whiteboard in the garage, so when you come back in the fall, make sure to put it on the wall.”
I high-five him. “You’re going to be deeply missed, Stanley.”
He pulls Aspen under his arm and says, “There’s only one me, and I know it.”
“In all seriousness, Stanley, you’re going to do amazing things. We’ll try to make your games, okay? I’m planning to go to a few of Benson’s.”
He nods.
The hugging takes about ten more minutes, and it’s starting to get ugly. Melly cries when she hugs Aspen. Mara cries, which nobody expected. Aspen doesn’t cry. I’m bawling my eyes out watching the guys hug each other again.
Percy hugs Stanley for a long time and says something in his ear in French, and Stanley — who has been an absolute clown for six straight hours — has to go and stand in the kitchen by himself for a minute.
Benson is teary-eyed, grabbing Rowan again.
And I realize that all these moments we’ve had together are now just moments of the past. It’s a funny thing to be living through it and not realize that once it’s in the past, it’s gone, and there’s no getting it back.
My brother is moving on, and it breaks my heart in a way I didn’t know was possible.
He hugs me last. He’s literally my brother, and I’m crying the hardest. This is the hardest goodbye. Whenever I pictured him in college, this house was part of that vision. Whenever I pictured him playing hockey, it was in a Camden jersey.
“I’m going to miss you,” he says, kissing the top of my head.
I almost laugh. “Now you know why I came here.”
He pulls back and pats my cheek dry. “I know, G. I’m glad you did.”
And hearing those words makes me cry even more.
I nod and shake my head at the same time. “Of course. You’re not getting rid of me.”
He pushes me. “Stop pretending this is goodbye. I don’t drive until tomorrow, and I’m staying at your place.”
“Yeah, but this is your goodbye to Hawthorne.”
He looks around and nods. “One last picture, everybody. Come on!”
I don’t care where Rowan is. I stay next to my brother with tears in my eyes.
Stanley makes some stupid joke about these pictures coming back to haunt us because we’re all crying, and my mom takes a dozen anyway.
She tells us to squeeze closer, so we do.
Arms go around shoulders and waists. Benson pulls me tighter against his side.
Somebody behind me is still crying. Stanley says something that makes half of us laugh right as my mom takes more pictures.
And I think maybe this is what Hawthorne House was always supposed to be.
Not five guys or five rules or a hockey season. Not the parties, the fights, the girlfriends, or even the national championship they somehow managed to bring home.
It was a place we all walked into at different times for different reasons and somehow found each other inside.
Next year, there will be different people in some of these rooms. Someday, none of us will live here at all. The couch will be replaced. The walls will be painted.
But there will always be a version of Hawthorne House that belongs only to us.
The one where Benson was captain and Stanley never shut up. Where Percy found a family, Blue found somewhere to belong, and Rowan stayed. Where we fell in love and grew up and showed up for each other over and over again.
I don’t know if any of us understood we were building a life while we were living it.
I think we thought we were just having one.
My mom takes the picture while we’re all still laughing and crying, and for once, I don’t ask to see it.
I already know what it looks like.
It looks like home.