Seasons (10 page)

“Pinky promise?” he asks and I laugh out loud.

“Pinky promise,” I say, locking my pinky finger with his and kissing it.

“I love you, Brynn,” he whispers in my hair before kissing my forehead.

*   *   *

Bright lights. Why are there sun rays on the other side of my eyelids? I open my eyes and remember where I am. The sun has come up and it’s a very bright morning. Charlie is spooning me from behind, his right leg wrapped over both of mine. He startles when I move. I roll over to face him and smile. “Good morning.”

He smiles back. “Morning.” This is when I notice little Charlie is already up and ready to party. I giggle and we have a repeat session of the previous night before getting dressed and going to see what the rest of the gang is doing. We spend the day almost exactly like the day before, drinking beers, swimming, canoeing, followed by a night of lovemaking. I have only been camping twice before this, but this will go in the books as the best camping trip of my life, by far.

If I had thought Charlie and I were inseparable before, this multiplied that feeling exponentially. Sex didn’t really change anything per se, but I just felt so much closer to Charlie. After the first time, all bets were off. We had always been unable to control our PDA, and that’s when it was just petting and kissing, but now we really could not keep our hands off each other.

The next week, school started. It felt weird at first going back to school knowing Charlie had graduated. He started at a private, local college the following week. Melanie seemed down that first week. I think she missed Austin, though I don’t think she would admit it for all the money in the world.

Charlie and I fall into an easy routine. He drives me to school and picks me up most days. We eat dinner at his or my house, and we do homework or study together on the nights he doesn’t have to work. He picked up a part-time job at a small hardware store a few nights a week. We make love whenever we’re left with a quiet house or even just find a dark street to park on. Yep, we do it in the truck, every chance we get! Just like a couple of horny teenagers, which is exactly what we are, so I figure things are just how they should be.

Before I know it, it’s Christmas. We spend time together with both of our families for the holidays. On my birthday, Charlie took me to this beautiful Greek restaurant downtown. It was fancy and romantic and we enjoyed a meal and the view of each other at a quiet table. After dinner, he gave me my present—an Irish Claddagh ring. The focal point of the ring is a heart-shaped ruby, which is held by two hands with a crown on top, all in white gold.

“The legend of the Claddagh ring is that it represents love, loyalty, and friendship. The heart represents love, the crown loyalty, and the hands friendship. You can tell if someone wearing the ring is single or taken based on which way they wear the ring,” Charlie explained. “If you wear the ring facing away, it means you are single. If you wear the ring with the heart facing you, it means you are taken.” I slipped the ring on facing toward me, smiling brightly at Charlie. It fits perfectly, just like us.

*   *   *

The school year continues and we maintain the same routine. I spend time with Melanie when I can, and I talk to her every day at school. She has found a new guy named Dave, who goes to school in a neighboring town. We are still just as close, but we start to see each other less and less as the school year comes to an end.

With Charlie’s help, I make it through my senior year of high school. Mom, Brett, Charlie, and his parents are there cheering for me at graduation. I can’t help but feel a small sting that my father isn’t there. It’s not as if I had expected him to show up. He wasn’t at Brett’s graduation two years ago either, but I still feel a loss at him not being in attendance.

I have already been accepted to the University of Southern Maine about an hour and a half from home. They have even offered me an academic scholarship that covered my room and board and half of my tuition. Mom was so proud. She bought me a gently used car for a graduation present. Charlie planned a big, secret day for us as a graduation present. He would not tell me where we were going, just that I had to get up early and bring a sweater.

He planned it for a week after graduation. I woke up when it was still dark out and got ready. I remember the last time he had surprised me with an early morning trip when we went fishing a year earlier at West Lake. It had been amazing. Charlie was always coming up with sweet gestures and amazing surprises to show me just how much he loved me.

I didn’t hear him pull up, but I heard the storm door slam when he walked in. I come down the stairs and hear Mom and Charlie whispering over coffee. I try to listen in before they catch me eavesdropping.

“Good morning, B,” Mom says without even turning to look at me.
Crap
.

“Morning, traitor.” I kiss her cheek before turning to Charlie. “Hey, babe. So, where are we going?” I ask, grabbing a mug and filling it with coffee.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he says, flashing dimples. I just roll my eyes and groan in response.

We grab to-go mugs of coffee and start heading toward the shore.
Hm, where is Charlie taking me?
We park in a huge parking lot and he comes around to open my door. He opens the door, shimmies in between my legs and I lean forward giggling before I kiss him. He lifts me up off the seat, and I wrap my legs around him still locked at the lips. A moment later, he sets me down on the ground pulling his lips away from mine. I pout for a split second before I notice he’s looking over at the docks. Charlie smiles a nervous smile, only partially dimpled. I notice for the first time he’s jittery and seems excited. He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the dock. We stop in front of a huge boat, and I read the writing on it in disbelief.
Whale Watch Tours
is painted on the side.

Immediately, I jump up and down and squeal. “Charlie, you didn’t! We’re going whale watching? Oh, my God!” I jump into his arms. A quick kiss, before he leads me onto the boat, showing the guy helping people onto the ship a ticket. We grab a spot at the edge of the boat in the front. A half an hour later, the vessel leaves the dock, and I beam up at Charlie over my shoulder. He’s standing flush up against my back with his arms wrapped around me.

It’s still fairly early in the morning, so it’s cool out and even more so on the water. It’s perfect, sailing all wrapped up in a Charlie blanket. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe there was a time before him. We go so naturally together that it feels like we have always just…been. After a while, the boat slows and then stills. We are floating in the open waters for a while with a bunch of conversations going on around us. I’m snuggling into Charlie admiring the gorgeous view when I see the first glance of a whale. It catches me by surprise when I see something slowly peek out of the water and then disappear back below it, just as quickly as it appeared. It was just the tip of the tail, but it was exhilarating!

I smack Charlie. “Did you see that?” I squeal. Not even a minute later, likely the same whale’s side fin comes out of the water swimming by as if it’s waving at us. By now, people are clapping, oohing and awing all over the place. We snap some pictures before the whale disappears again. A few minutes after the whale disappears under the water, we all calm down. Just when the people on the boat go back to conversations, a humpback whale comes out of the water about thirty-feet from the boat breaching and misting us with water. It’s one of the coolest things that I have ever seen! Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of the whales that day. I thank Charlie about a million times excitedly for taking me as my graduation present. It was amazing, and I’m so glad I was able to experience it with him.

The rest of the summer dulls in comparison to whale watching, but Charlie and I enjoy being able to spend time together before school starts up again. It has been over a year, since we went from friends to more, and things are just as hot and heavy between us as ever. When we’re together, there is almost always some point of contact between our bodies, even if we’re simply studying, watching TV, or having dinner. He has become my very best friend and everything else all rolled into one.

One morning, a few weeks before college starts, I come down the stairs and find Charlie and Mom chatting over a cup of coffee. This is not an unusual scene. They have become pretty close over the past year, and I know Mom sees Charlie as one of her own. When they hear me walk in, they stop talking, deadpan, and look over at me. Now that right there was unusual. I have an awful feeling deep in the pit of my stomach, much like I had right before Mom told me Dad was moving out.

“What’s up, guys?”

“Morning, baby,” Mom says getting up from the table. “I’m going to go get ready to go to the store. Anything you can think of that we need, Brynn?”

I cock my head at her confused. Something is definitely up, but what? “I don’t think so. I’ll text you if I think of anything,” I respond. Mom makes a beeline for the stairs and she’s gone in a flash. I look back over at Charlie, who is staring down at his coffee with some foreign emotion on his face that I don’t recognize. What the hell is going on? I go sit down in the chair next to Charlie and take his hand. He still doesn’t look at me.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” I ask turning his head with my pointer finger so he’s forced to look at me.

“Brynn…” He pauses for a beat before continuing. “Can we go somewhere?”

Panic sets in. “Charlie, what’s going on? You’re scaring me!”

“Let’s go to the cliff. Can we do that?” And then he says the four most dreaded words for someone in a relationship to hear. “We need to talk.”

My heart sinks at those words. “Talk about what?” When I say it, tears are threatening.

“Baby, please. Just get dressed and let’s go somewhere we can talk, okay? It’s not that big of a deal. I promise,” he says looking at me reassuringly and kisses my forehead.

I run upstairs and change into the first pair of cutoffs and tank top I can grab. I throw my hair up in a messy bun, slip on some flip-flops, and run back down the stairs to go
have the talk
.

We drive just down the road, pull up on the side of the pine trees, and park. My stomach is in knots. I’m glad I didn’t eat breakfast because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to keep it down at this point if I had. We get out of the truck. I don’t wait for Charlie to come over to my side. I usually do, simply because I’m rewarded with an amazing, world at a standstill kiss when he opens my door. I walk in front of Charlie through the pine trees and sit down. He sits down next to me and tension is radiating between us, only it isn’t the good kind that’s usually there. I think he can feel it because he reaches over and puts his arm around me and pulls me to him, holding me tightly, and kissing the top of my head.

“Charlie, please…” I beg. For what? For him to tell me? To not tell me? To pretend this isn’t happening? “Just tell me,” I finish.

“Brynn, it’s my dad…” he trails off.

I push away a bit so I can look him in the eye. “Your dad?” I ask confused. What does his dad have to do with anything? “Is he okay?” I ask worried.

“Yeah, he’s fine. It’s his job. He was offered a great job, and he and Mom have decided to sell the house and move for his job.”

“Okay…I’m not following. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“The job is in Seattle,” Charlie says flinching.

“Seattle, Washington?”

“Yeah.”

“The Seattle, Washington that is on the exact opposite side of the country from here? That’s, what, like three thousand miles away?” I ask in disbelief.

“Three thousand two hundred fourteen miles.” He sighs.

“But you’ll be so far away from your parents! Where will you live? You commute. Would you get a dorm? Maybe Mom would let you stay with us. Brett’s room is free, he’s gone at school.”

He interrupts me. “Brynn, I’m going with them,” he states as fact, not even looking at me.

My heart drops right out of my body. If it actually stopped beating the moment my brain comprehended the words that had come out of his mouth, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“You’re going to Seattle?” I ask in a barely audible whisper. I’m trying with every single fiber of my being to hold in the tears that are cresting my eyes and starting to blind me. He doesn’t respond for what feels like a few hours, but I’m sure, in reality, it was more like a minute. When someone is ripping your heart right out of your body, reality doesn’t matter much.

“Brynn, I’m nineteen. I don’t know how to live on my own an entire country away from my parents. They want me to go and I’m going with them. I’m transferring to a school out there. You could come with?” he offers.

“How long have you known?”

“Brynn…”

“How long!” I shout at him.

“A couple months.”

“You have known you were leaving me for a couple months, and you didn’t think you should maybe, I don’t know? Fucking tell me?” I’m full on screaming, but it doesn’t last. “I thought…” I manage before a sob breaks free from me.

“Baby, I didn’t know. I knew it was an offer and a possibility, but I never thought he would take it. He and my mom just discussed it and decided to make the move this week. I just found out, too.” He moves as if he’s going to reach for me, but I back away. I’m not sure what to do or how to handle this. How do I make this stop? He has become my best friend, the person I go to when something is wrong—he’s my everything! He’s my safe haven, my home. He’s leaving me? Just like that?