Gus tapped mindlessly at my fingertips. “Do you miss him?”
When tears started to rise to my eyes, I was actually a little shocked. It’d been over four years since I saw Deon last, and it’s been almost as long since I’d even thought about him. My mom told me to write it off, that sometimes the people in our lives were more important to us than we were to them, but I couldn’t get him out of my heart so quickly. Even though it was a bad idea, I kept an eye out for him in the neighborhood. I even asked some of the other kids about him, but I got nothing in return. Deon was gone, never to be seen again, at least by me.
“No,” I lied to Gus. “He didn’t want to be friends anymore.”
Gus flipped around and looked into my eyes with his now wild and wide eyes. “How could someone not want to be friends with you? You have all the cool kids as friends.”
“That’s true,” I said. Gus looked truly bewildered, and it made me smile. “Sometimes, people just don’t want to be friends. It’s part of growing up.”
Gus poked out his bottom lip. “I don’t wanna grow up then.”
“You and me both, kid.” I tapped his arm. “Come on, let’s go eat before Mom flips.”
There was a dull thud as Gus hopped out of my bed and scuttled from the room. I took a few moments after he was gone to stretch and try to shake my sudden memories of Deon and the last day I saw him from my mind. No good came from considering the past, I’d learned, and I had more than one thing to focus my attention on, so I packed my Deon memories into a mental box, used a little too much duct tape to seal it closed, and then stuck it up on a high, out-of-reach shelf, never to be pulled down again.
The covers around me tried to suck me in the more I tried to get out of them, but I fought against their pull and slid out. My PJs were enough to get me through the morning, so after unplugging my cell phone from its charger on the bedside table next to my bed, I walked out of my bedroom. All of the bedrooms were on the third floor of the house, so I made my way over to the staircase and down to the second floor, where my parents’ offices and Gus’s and my playroom was situated, then continued down to the first floor, where the living room, kitchen, and other such family meeting spaces were located.
The dream with Deon hadn’t just brought back my memories of him. It also brought back memories of the conditions we used to live in. Our old home had two floors, with two bedrooms and a single bathroom on the top floor, and a small, open living room and kitchen on the main floor. It wasn’t the extravagant home we lived in now, but I liked how contained everything was. Unlike the average teenage girl, I actually enjoyed sharing a room with Gus, and what our old home lacked in expense, we made up for in being a tight-knit family.
Then my dad got his promotion. It was relatively out of the blue, shocking even him when the president of the company claimed that he’d come across some of my dad’s work and wanted to promote him. My dad went from a cubicle to an office overlooking downtown in less than a week, and a few months after that, we were packing up and moving out to upscale Postings, Maine, where all the richest people in our city lived.
“Good morning, sweet girl,” my mom greeted when I padded into the kitchen.
“Good morning.” I relented to her forehead kiss as I walked past, then slid into the kitchen nook next to Gus, who was already well into a plate full of delicious-looking breakfast foods.
My mom pointed at a collection of pans situated on the six-burner stovetop. “We’ve got pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, toast, and a fresh fruit bowl. What would you like?”
“Doing it up big, huh?” I joked.
“Well, there’s only a week left before you kids are back off to school and doing quick grabs on your way out of the door. And as for you, Miss Senior, this is my last summer doting on you, so just take it.”
“If it makes you feel better, I will be coming home from college for your breakfast a lot, so you won’t miss it as much.”
“Ha, ha,” my mom replied flatly.
“Eggs, sausage, hash browns, and fruit, please,” I said.
My mom nodded and went to work, piling the things onto a plate. “Coffee?”
Gus scoffed. “Gross.”
I nudged his head before saying, “Yes, please.”
My mom finished the plate and then poured a cup of coffee and set them both in front of me. She stepped away for a second and then came back with a fork, napkin, and the creamer for the coffee. “Bon appetit.”
“Thanks, Mama.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome, baby.” She turned, and her grin got a little bigger. “Hey. You look great.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw my dad walking into the kitchen. He did look nice, done up in a fresh suit. “Yeah? Thanks!”
He wrapped an arm around my mom’s waist and pulled her into a kiss. The love they had was the most beautiful I’d ever seen. I’d always dreamed of being in love like they were, but I had failed miserably in that department.
My dad turned and greeted me, setting one of his hands on my head. “Hey, squirt. Last week of your last summer before graduating. How’s it feel?”
“Weird,” I said, “but exciting.”
He grinned at me. “It’s very exciting. Between your grades and The Royal Court, you’re gonna have your pick of the colleges.”
“That’s what I hear,” I grumbled.
“Hey, bud,” my dad said, turning his attention to Gus. “Slow down, or you’re gonna choke.”
“It’s really good,” Gus replied with his mouth full of food.
My dad laughed. “Well, I’d better get some before you eat it all.”
Both of my parents got plates of their own and joined Gus and me at the table. We discussed a few different topics, how things were going for my dad at work, my mom’s progress on her current writing projects, how Gus’s summer assignment was coming along. Mostly, I listened and was happy for my family’s ability to stay the kind of close that lack of wealth necessitated, even after transitioning into a wealthy situation. When my phone eventually rang, causing me to get up and leave the table, I was actually a little sad, but I got up anyway, dropped my plate in the sink, walked out to our house’s backyard, and sat by the pool to answer my phone.
I lifted the phone in front of my face since it was a video call and answered it.
Avery, my best friend, appeared on the screen. She must have also been outside where she was because her beautiful light cocoa skin was glowing in the sunlight, and she had her curly black hair up in a bun on top of her head.
“Ugh, I will never stop being irritated at how you can just wake up stunning,” she said.
I laughed. “You’re one to talk.”
Avery tilted her head. “You okay? You seem off.”
I scooted up to the edge of the pool and dipped my feet in the water. “Yeah. I just had a crazy dream.”
“Oh, really? What about?”
Avery was my best friend and had been for the past four years. She was the only person I’d gotten as close with as I used to be with Deon, and I’d told her nearly everything about me. I had, however, kept everything about Deon to myself. Part of me didn’t want to succumb to how embarrassed I was that I’d been ghosted so suddenly.