Special Friend

Chapter Five

2 Months Later
. . .
Oakland: Nothing could be more beautiful than what's standing before me. Her eyes, her hair, her perfect skin, everything about her is perfect. She's wearing that summery, white, lace dress I love so much. Not because it's short and revealing, but because it hugs her body just right. I love how confident she feels in it. That's my favorite part. Her smile grows by three times when she wears that dress. She's finishing up tying her chucks, and starts slipping on a light sage green hat.
She turns around and sees me staring at her. "Hi," she giggles.
"Hi," my words barely forming, sounding almost like a whisper.
She goes back to adjusting her hat, bending in front of her vanity mirror to get a better look. Her faces scrunches a little, meaning she doesn't like how it looks. She sits down on the small foot stool, which she has converted into a vanity chair, sitting in front of her vanity, and takes off her hat. Her hair is slightly frizzy, which I love. I dislike when her hair is so put together, it doesn't look natural. She sighs because she hates how frizzy her hair gets when she takes off any type of hat that has been set on her head, even if it was there for just two seconds. Grabbing her brush, she aggressively rakes through her newly knotted hair. After many failed attempts of different hairstyles, she finally gives up. She throughs her hair in a claw clip, right above the nape of her neck, and stands up, grabbing an off white tote bag with an embroidered lilac on the side of it.
Her body turns towards me. "Ready to go?"
I nod. Not being able to speak over her beauty. She smiles and my heart feels like its going to explode. She reaches out her hand, I grab it, and she pulls me off of her bed, downstairs, through the kitchen and out the front door.
"Bye Mr. Beckam!" I yell on the way out, to which I hear him laugh.
She leaves me standing at the beginning of the driveway, grabbing our bikes from the side of the garage, and wheeling them out to the end of the driveway. She stops them, puts the kickstands down, and comes to grab me.
"Come on, let's go!" She snickers, "stop dragging ass. We've got somewhere to be!"
She pulls my arm, leading me to the bikes. I snap back into my own body and get on my bike, when I notice something on one of my handle bars. I inspect it for a quick second, my face drops, and I turn to her.
"Oh no you didn't," I say to her.
"Oh yes I did," she starts to smile, but bites her lip to keep it back. I stare blankly at her. "What? It needed some spark to it!"
"You put tinsel on my bike!" I hold back a smile, leaving my mouth slightly ajar.
"Now it looks pretty!"
"It didn't need to look pretty! It's got a pretty rider."
She snorts.
"What?"
She eyes me.
I gasp, "you don't think I'm pretty?!"
She bursts out laughing. "I'm sorry! One of you has to be pretty, I can't be the only one. It was you or the bike. There's no fixing—" she gestures to my face and with her hand, moving it in circles "—that. So, I decided to fix the bike instead!"
I drop my jaw practically to the floor. "I can't believe it." I sniffle, "you just called me ugly." I wipe a fake, imaginary, tear off my cheek, "how hurtful of you."
She laughs so hard she almost falls of her bike. I burst into laughter, joining her. We sit there and laugh together. The warm summer breeze flows past us, carrying our laughter through the wind. The blistering sun above us, practically baking us like bread, doesn't seem as hot. I look over at her, studying her face, seeing how happy she is. I want to stay in these moments for the rest of my life. I don't ever want to leave. In these moments, time slows. She feels special. She is special. She's my special. I need her, and these moments, to stay with me forever.
Snapping back to reality, our laughter has died down, and we're getting ready to take off. I kick up my kickstand and take the lead, to which she follows me. I'm not riding in front of her for long, as she comes up next to me. We pedal all the way through town, only stopping for some water. After about 30 minutes of pedaling, we finally make it to the beach. We set our bikes on a bike rack in front of my step-brother's smoothie stand.
He comes out of the small shack and sees us. "Hey Akla!"
I roll my eyes. 'Akla' is a nickname he gave me when I was like, 10. We've been step-brothers since I was 7. He's 5 years older than me, which currently makes him 22. "Hey Scout."
He laughs. "When are you going to stop calling me that?"
"When are you going to stop calling me 'Akla'?"
He sighs. He notices that someone is with me. "Oh, hey there pretty lady!"
She giggles. Finishing locking up our bikes, she comes over. "Hey there Alder."
"So, what trouble are you guys trying to cause today?", he asks.
"No trouble, just want to have some fun is all," she tells him.
He eyes us, then shrugs, turning back to his shack and raising his hand, signaling us to continue with what we were doing.
"So, I never got to know the story behind 'Akla'," she presses.
I look over at her. She smiles. I grin and shake my head. "And you won't ever know."
She frowns, "you can be a real boring guy sometimes."
I through my hand over my heart, acting offended. My dramatic response is interrupted by someone calling us. Well, not 'us', but her.
"Babe!" a guy yells.
God, I hate his voice. I roll my eyes and she hits my arm. She mouths be nice to me.
"Hey," he says. His voice is now right behind us.
We turn around, finding him standing annoyingly close to her. My fist clenches, my body tenses and I feel a vein bulging in my temple. The sight of him just burns my eyes.
"Hey gorgeous," he says, pulling her in with one hand wrapped around her waist, the other on her cheek as he presses a small kiss on her lips.
She smiles, returns the kiss, and wraps her arms around his neck. They finish they're affectionate greeting and turn to me.
"Hey Oakland," he says in a tone he knows bothers me.
I grit my teeth, forcing a small smile, "Allen."
His presence makes my skin burn. I wish I could punch him square in the face. I would if I had the chance.
"Ahem."
I look over at her. She prompts her eyebrows and quickly shifts her eyes to him and then back to me. This is her reminding me to be nice. I roll my eyes. "So, Allen, how's—"
Someone interrupts me. I would appreciate it if I wasn't interrupted anymore today, its getting annoying. "Oakland!"
Oh god. I shift my head, looking over at the voice hollering my name. Just great.
Tiara is running over, and once she reaches me, she throughs her arms around me. I don't return the embrace, for the simple reason of we broke up.
She let's go of me, "why aren't you hugging me back?"
I scoff. "You're joking, right?"
She looks at me, confused, playing dumb
"Tiara, we broke up. A month ago," I tell her. "You fucking cheated on me."
She laughs. "What're you talking about?"
"Don't play this game with me," I shake my head.
Allen steps in, "hey man, are you okay? I think you're having delusions."
"Fucking, don't Allen," I tell him.
"Don't what? You're accusing her of cheating on you, when maybe you're the one who cheated on her," he says.
Suddenly, he's taking a few steps back, his hand on his cheek. "Don't accuse him of cheating on her. We both know she cheated on him. And I think it's clear we all know who cheated with."
Now all of us are confused. What in god's name is she talking about? Even I don't know who Tiara cheated with.
She pushes Allen off of her, as he'd still been holding her waist with one arm. "You. It was you."
My jaw drops. Like, actually drops.
"Babe—" he tries, but she interrupts him.
"Don't call me that," she says to him.
Allen grew furious. I knew I might have to step in soon. "You were just fine a minute ago. If you knew, why were you acting like you didn't?"
She chuckles. "I was planning on getting revenge on you with some stupid prank or something, but that wouldn't be enough to satisfy me. So, I acted like nothing was wrong, like I didn't know. I was waiting for you to slip up Allen. As soon as you did, that's when I was going to come for you." She takes a breath. "You're a shitty boyfriend. You've hit me, more than once. You cheated on me, more than once. And I am so done with you—" she turns to Tiara who's standing beside me "—and you and your fucking games. You won't him so badly? Have him. He's all yours sweetheart."
It's silent for a second. Nothing but the sound of seagulls squawking above us and the waves crashing down onto the shore in the distance. After a hot second, Tiara finally has something to say.
"Aw, poor Gracey. Did she get her feelings hurt?" Tiara mocks her.
I turn and step closer to her, my figure towering over hers. "Don't ever fucking talk to her like that." I narrow my eyes at her. She's afraid, but she isn't letting it show. Petty as ever.
I shift and walk off, grabbing her hand on the way past her. "Let's go."
Just before we're out of ear's reach, she yells, "My name is Grace you bitch!"
I let out a snort, but keep the rest to myself. She turns back around and starts laughing.
"Finally! I'm a free woman!" she says, mostly to herself.
We grab our bikes and head back into town. Our planned beach day is ruined, but the day is still young, so we decided to walk around town. Grace loves to visit the little shops, even though she's been to every single one of them a million times. She visits them so much the owners and all the employees know her name. I mean, who wouldn't want to know her name?
. . .
The next morning, Grace and I were going to meet up at our old childhood treehouse. It's in my backyard, so I technically didn't have to go anywhere. I woke up an hour earlier than usual to make pancakes for when she got there. I almost burned myself. Twice. She's gonna kill me for not being careful, but what she doesn't know can't hurt her, right?
I'm just about finishing up the last pancake when I hear knocking at my back door. I turn off the stove, grab the pancake and set it on the stack of them on a plate to the side. I take off my apron, and head to the back door. When I open it, Grace is standing there with a huge smile on her face.
"I smell pancakes!"
Before I could even say 'hello' or 'come in' she bolts past me and into the kitchen. I close the back door and make my way after her.
Once I get to her, she's already place herself on the counter top with a pancake in hand.
"You know, I never understood why you don't cook more often. You're really good at it," she says, stuffing another bite of bread in her mouth.
I sigh. "You know, I never understood why you don't use the front door more often. It's much easier and more accessible. Plus, every other sane person uses it."
"What can I say? I like to be different."
"Uh huh. Well, you know what I can say?"
"What?"
"I can say that I want you arrested. For trespassing. To the cops," I grin.
Her face drops. I burst out into laughter. She flips me off and throws a piece of her meal at me. "I'll try to use the front door more often. As long as you promise to cook for me more often."
I look at her. She's dead serious. "Fine, deal."
She smiles and shoves two more bites of pancake into her mouth before hopping off the counter and making her way outside again through the back door. I follow her and we reach the very back of my backyard, where our treehouse and it's memories are hidden.
She looks over at me and says, "race you to the top?"
I don't even respond to her before I take off, headed for the climbing ropes. She takes for the ladder, which is decaying and extremely rickety. I shimmy my way up the climbing rope, when I'm halfway up, I see she's still at the bottom of the ladder. "Hurry up slow poke!"
She finally steps onto the ladder and carefully yet hastily makes her way up. By the time I reach the top, she's almost right behind me. I reach the deck and climb up on it, right as her hand touches the deck.
I tease her, "I always win. You'll never be fast enough."
She rolls her eyes, shoving me lightly. "Oh shut up."
We make our way inside and it's liking stepping back in time. All of our stuff is still here.
"All our stuff is still here" she says, like she can read my mind.
I smile, then start to rummage through everything. I'm not sure why I never took anything out of here. I kept everything the way it was, nothing was allowed to move.
"I remember one time my dad tried to take some stuff out of here, sell it, make some money." I smile to myself, "I wouldn't let him near the treehouse, let alone the 15 feet of it."
She laughs, and it fills my stomach with butterflies. I'm not sure why. I've heard her laugh before, but this time, it's different. Something feels different. Something is different. I can't put my finger on it, but I can feel it. I know it.
"Hey," she says, snapping me back to reality.
"Yeah?"
She nods her head towards an old bean bag that we used to sit on and talk about our futures. "Penny for your thoughts?"
I smile lightly. We both sit on the slump of foam beads, miraculously it holds both of us with room to spare, and take a moment to think about what we're gonna say. It's quiet for a second. It feels nice. The silence is soothing.
Grace places her hand on top of mine as she rests her head on my shoulder. "I'm going to miss you."
Confused, I ask, "what do you mean?"
She sighs.
"Grace, I'm not going anywhere."
"I know. I am."
My heart stops. "What?"
She doesn't say anything.
I shift so that her head is no longer on me and our hands aren't touching. "Where are you going?"
She stares at the floor. "Colombia University School of Nursing."
Now, I stand up. I can't sit next to her right now.
She starts to panic slightly. "Oakland, I wanted to tell you sooner but—"
I interrupt her, "But what, Grace? We have two weeks left of school. Then what? You just take off?"
"No, no. I still have the summer. We can spend the summer together. I don't have to take a summer course, I can stay here with you."
I shake my head. "No. You need to go. Go take your summer course. I'll be just fine without you."
I can't believe the words that had just escaped my mouth. Truth is, I wouldn't be just fine without her. I'd crumble without her. I wouldn't make it.
She stands up now, meeting my upset gaze with her pleading eyes. "Please. Let me be here with you for the summer."
I shake my head again. "You should put your career first. It's not like you were thinking of me anyway when deciding not to tell me up until now."
She wraps her arms around my neck, trying to get me to look at her, but I keep my eyes away from hers. If I look at her, I'll break. I can't break. Not in front of her.
"Look at me," she says.
I avoid her gaze.
"Look at me, Oakland. Please," she now whispers, her voice shaky.
I fold, meeting her eyes. For what seems like a million years, we stare into each others eyes. There's so much, yet nothing being said between us. I want to say something to her, but I can't.
She moves closer to me, our bodies pressing against each other. I can feel her every curve, every bump, every single thing on her. I move a strand of her long, brunette hair out of her face. She runs one of her hands through my hair. There's just inches in between us. I want her to give in.
"I want you to give in," I whisper.
And she does. She gives in. So do I. Our lips meet, as I feel my cheeks flare and butterflies fill me up, I pull her in by her lower back, though there isn't any space between us left for her to fill. She presses against me, hard. We're engulfed in each other. Her lips are soft, like clouds. We stay like this for a second, before I pull back. I don't open my eyes. I can't look at her. I'll kiss her again if I do. She's my best friend and I don't want to ruin our little time left.
Her head rests on my chest, I hold her close to me, never wanting to let her go. I want to stay like this for the rest of my life. I want her with me, for the rest of my life.