Cruel Summer | ✓

epilogue

eleven months later

"I could never get sick of this view." I lean against the wall on the roof of the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles spread out before me. My legs are aching after the hike it took to get here from the Hollywood sign but it's worth every cramp. Tay and I took an Uber to Lake Hollywood Park and got as close as we could to the enormous letters of the sign, marveling at the view of the reservoir and the city and the iconic letters, and when we were that high, the hike to the observatory didn't look too far. It only took us about ninety minutes – which, in LA, is probably the amount of time it would've taken to drive – but the up and down of the mountains has done a number on my calves.

"Pretty cool, isn't it? Bit of a vibe shift," Tay says, leaning next to me.

"Major vibe shift. Fisher feels a long, long way from here."

"I googled it: you could fit fifty Fishers in LA."

"Whoa."

"Probably about five hundred if you account for the fact that most of your town is a bigass lake," Tay says with a laugh, turning her back to the wall to face me. "I know I've said it a bajillion times, but I'm so fucking happy you're here. Even if you are about to ditch me."

This is my first full week off since I started working at Cafe Au Late and I have made the most of it. I spent the first three days in Yellowstone with Ashley and Connor, after we talked about it for almost a year, and after a day in Portland with Ashley, I came here three days ago. Now it's the last day of my trip. Tomorrow I'll be back in Fisher, and I can't wait to see Lou again but I've had the time of my life. I have never been more tired, but I have never felt more alive.

My three days in Yellowstone were long and intense and filled with some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. After we first discussed it last year, the trip was starting to seem like one of those things that would forever be a pipe dream, something that would never actually happen, until the pieces started to fall into place around us. Riley was pressuring me to take a full week off work so I requested a random one when no-one else was off – the end of July and the beginning of August – and it happened to be when both of my cousins were free too.

"I'm not ditching you." I push her shoulder and laugh at her pouting lips, her dramatized disappointment that my trip is coming to an end. "You'll just have to come to Idaho. There's plenty of space for you. My entire town could probably fit on your block."

"I will. God, I've missed you, Charlie." She throws her arms around me, pulling me tight against her little body. Over the past year, our lives have gone from parallel lines to diverging tracks: while everything has come up roses for me, finding my feet in Fisher with Lou and getting a job I love, Tay has spent the last two months in a crowded apartment with five strangers after her boyfriend dumped her for an aspiring actress. Which, in this city, could be anyone.

We hug for a long time. I've missed Tay's hugs so much. This isn't the first time I've been to see her since I've been in Fisher, but it is the first time since Danny broke her heart. She has picked herself up remarkably well considering she came all the way out here for him: she has thrown herself even harder into her work at a PR firm that handles several high profile clients, her career on the up while her love life spirals.

"Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think I can handle much more walking. My poor little legs are too short and I spend all day every day on my butt. Wherever we go from here, it's on wheels."

We take in the view for several more minutes and by the time we leave to catch the DASH, I've seized up. Every bone and muscle in my legs is taut and aching and Tay laughs at me as we hobble to to the bus stop. It's a relief to sit for the fifteen minutes it takes to get to Vermont and Sunset, where we switch to the B line that carries us into the city itself.