“I think I’ve grown a little since the last time I was up here.” He leaned against the wall beside her, putting the grocery sack he managed to carry up the ladder between them.
“You think?” She pursed her lips, as if fighting a smile. Looking at the bag, she asked, “What is this?”
He smacked her hand as she reached for it. “Not yet. Not until we talk.”
Lila shifted to the adjacent wall to face him more and crossed her legs beneath her. “About what?”
“Why did you run out of work so fast when we were talking to Kaley?”
Lila’s brow scrunched. “I was just tired. It was a rough shift.”
Gavin looked at her for a minute. She had teased him about being tired. Her excuse didn’t add up. “Are you nervous about Bennu?”
She was always so confident and perfect. It was hard imagining her scared of anything, but that was the only other reasoning he could think of. He watched as she picked at her shoestring. When she finally met his gaze and nodded, he wanted nothing more than to reach out and reassure her that everything would be all right.
Instead, he said, “Well, we have two weeks for you to make the most out of your summer. I know you’re iffy about a truce, but I really want to do this. And I think deep down you do too.”
“Gavin…” Her words trailed off.
“Can we please put the past behind us and just focus on having a fun couple of weeks?” The rest of his plan to fix their friendship depended on getting her to agree to the temporary ceasefire.
Lila looked at him, hesitating and biting her bottom lip. She took a deep breath and nodded before sticking out a hand. “Okay… We can be friends for two weeks.”
“You’re killing me, Weston.” He grabbed her hand though, ignoring the electricity flowing into him with the simple touch. “Fine, now you may open the bag.”
He picked it up and tossed it into her lap. She pulled at the plastic, freezing when she looked inside. With a laugh she pulled out the box of pink hair dye and three bags of sour gummy worms.
“We work in an ice cream shop,” she said, throwing him a bag. “Do you not get enough sugar there?”
He gasped and held a hand to his chest in mock betrayal. “How dare you? There is no such thing as enough sugar.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You missed me, and you know it.”
Lila rolled her eyes, lifting the box of hair dye. She flipped it over, looking at the directions in the dim light. He took a chance with the color. The list only said pink. He had searched up and down the aisle for ten minutes before picking that bright bubblegum shade.
“What do you think?” he asked, tearing open the bag in his hand and shoving a few sour worms into his mouth.
Lila looked from the box to Gavin, shaking her head as he ate more candy. Despite the hurt itching to come out with him there in her spot, she didn’t mind his company. Though, she would take that secret to her grave. That’s all she’d wanted for years—for him to show up. How could she push him away when he finally did?
The truth was, as soon as she said they could be friends for two weeks, she believed it herself. She didn’t want to hate him. It was exhausting, and she didn’t want to fight anymore. He sat quietly waiting for her response. Glancing back down to the bright pink shade of dye, she finally allowed herself to smile. “It’s perfect.”
“Yeah?”
She met his gaze. “Yes. It’s almost exactly what I had in mind.” Butterflies filled her stomach as he beamed across the small space at her. The color was too light for her brown hair. She’d need to bleach it to turn out anywhere near the color in the picture, but she couldn’t tell him that. For once, she wanted to keep the happy mood. And it would still redden her hair some. “Will you help me?”
“Of course,” he said, pulling the grocery bag open to put everything back inside. He squeezed in close to her to lift the door up and then dropped down to the ground. “Come on.”
Laughing, she turned to use the ladder. She stopped to grab the lantern and passed it down to him before closing the door. When her feet hit the grass, she took the light back. “I didn’t mean right this second.”
“Why not?” He led the way back to their yards. Night had fallen, encompassing them in darkness. She lifted the lantern higher, willing the panic to subside. Gavin slowed to walk beside her. “Your house or mine?”
Lila stopped. “Um… actually, can we go to yours? My mom is out for the evening, and I don’t know how my dad is going to handle pink hair.”
“Fine, but if he gets mad, I was not involved.”
She laughed. Neither of her parents would truly care, but of the two, her dad was the strict one. “Deal.”
They made their way into his empty house, as familiar as her own. Flicking on a kitchen light, he grabbed two Cokes before leading her upstairs. She turned off the lantern and sat it on his nightstand. As he placed the bag of candy beside it, she looked around his room.
All of the movie posters of superheroes and cartoons had been replaced with bands. A solid blue comforter covered his bed, and a desk took up the place where a bin of toys once sat in the corner. She stepped closer to look at the collage of photos on the wall above it.
Dozens of pictures showed Gavin smiling and having fun with Dylan and other kids from school. At the lake, in a field, at baseball games. A pit formed in her stomach. She had pictures with Beth Ann, but most had been taken from one of their houses or at the Scoop. She never went to any of the games or participated in extra curriculars, so she didn’t have any mementos from such activities. In the corner, an older photo caught her attention. With huge grins, Lila and Gavin stood hand in hand behind their shared eighth birthday cake.
Gavin watched as Lila lifted a hand to the photo on the wall. He didn’t need to move closer to know which one, but he walked up next to her anyway. When he reached her, she dropped her hand.
“This is why I made that list.” Her quiet voice made him lean closer. She turned, and he saw the tears brimming her eyes. He fought the need to wrap his arms around her. “I don’t have photos like this. I want to create memories like these, so I have something to look back on.”
“Screw it,” he muttered under his breath before pulling her into a hug.
She stood stiff as a board in his arms. He smiled when she finally relaxed into him and returned the embrace. After a moment, she said, “I spent so much time focused on school and the future that I forgot to enjoy the present.”
He reluctantly let go. “Let’s do this then.”
Smiling, she went to grab the box of hair dye. She tore it open and dumped the contents onto his bed. “Okay, we need to mix the color first.”
“Don’t you need to wash your hair?”
Lila shook her head. “No, it works better unwashed.”
Gavin shrugged and sat on the bed, looking at the different items from the box. Lila pulled on the gloves and poured the color into the developer. At least that’s what the directions he briefly looked through said.
“You know how to do this?” His phone dinged, and he dug it out of his pocket.
“I used to help Beth Ann dye hers all the time,” she replied.