𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 - Chris Sturniolo

𝐨𝐧𝐞

15 years ago

,,Mom, why are you setting the table for 7 people?" asked 3-year-old Loureline.

"Because today my friend Mary-Lou is coming with her sons". Answered her mother.

"Can I play with them?"

"Of course you can. And you know what? You will go to kindergarten with the three of them. Isn't that great, you'll already have friends." said her mother and bent down to stroke her daughter's cheek.

Loureline nodded and began to smile.
"Get changed, they will be here soon. STEVEN, WILL YOU HELP YOUR DAUGHTER GET CHANGED?" Her mother yelled to her father.

Her father and her decided to dress Lourenline in a cute purple dress with butterflies on it and then the doorbell rang. Taylor, Laurenline's mom, opened the door for them and little Laureline hid behind her dad's legs.

Mary-Lou came through the door with her sons and greeted Taylor, and Laureline looked up at her father. "They all look alike." She noted.

"Yes, sweetie, that's because they're triplets." Answered her father.

Loureline was too shy to go up to the boys and say hello and none of the boys noticed her until Mary-Lou walked up to her.

"Hey, you must be Lori. I'm Mary-lou." Laureline came out from behind her father's legs, nodded and started talking to Mary-Lou.

The adults walked out of the room, leaving the children standing in the hallway. Lori stood there all alone, not knowing what to do or say. Until one of the boys came up to her and held out his hand.

"Hey, I'm Chris and what's your name?"

"My name is Loureline." She said and shook his hand. 

"If we are going to be friends you need a nickname. I'll call you Eline." And so started the friendship between Loureline and the triplets.

The drive from Austin to Boston was long and boring, especially with a father who barely talked when he drove. I spent my time reading but kept losing focus on the book thinking about what it would be like to live back in Boston.

I hadn't been there in two years. My dad had been there from time to time to put distance between him and my mom, but I had never been there in the time.

When I moved to Austin I missed Boston for a long time but that went away after a while.
I would graduate with the people I had left 2 years ago.

I thought about Matt, Nick and... Chris. I wonder if they know I'm coming back.

"Lori?" said my father sitting next to me,

"Yes Dad?"

"Are you sure you want to live with me in Boston?" he asked sadly.

"Yes. One hundred percent. I can't even look mom in the eye because I'm so angry and disappointed. And I'm not interested in living in a house with her new lover." He just nodded and it got quiet again.

I was just finishing the book when I looked up and we passed the house of the sturniolos. A stab went through my heart. So many things and memories I connected with this house.

2 minutes later my father parked in the driveway of our old house.

"Home sweet home, I guess." I said and got out of the car.

My dad got our suitcases out of the trunk and together we walked across the porch to the front door of the house. He unlocked it and we stepped inside. It smelled the same as it used to and tears came to my eyes as all the memories came flooding back.

I walked up the stairs to the end of the hall where my old room was. I stepped inside and it looked exactly as I had left it.

The walls were painted light green and the furniture was white. Above my desk were Justin Bieber posters from my Justin Bieber phase and on my shelf were pictures of me, my family and my friends.

I looked at them, the first picture was with my mom, I picked it up and threw it in the trash, the second was with my dad and my cousin Vivien. And the third one was me and the boys.

I was standing between Chris and Matt, who was standing next to Nick, and I had my arms around the boys' shoulders. Everyone was looking at the camera and laughing, except Chris, who was smiling at me like I was gold or something.

Tears came to my eyes again. We had been such close friends for 13 years and now we were strangers again, and it hurt me so much. I took the picture and put it in the bottom drawer of my dresser.

I started to take my clothes out of the suitcases and put them in my closet. I tore the posters off the wall and hung a few of my drawn pictures. I wanted to put my make up in the drawer of my desk but when I opened the drawer there was a photo.

This time it was one from kindergarten, I took it in my hand and looked at it closer. Amber, the boys and I were on it to see how we two girls squatted on the swing and the boys made us swing.

14 years ago.

Chris and Loureline were lying together on the lawn of the kindergarten and looking up at the sky.

"That cloud there looks like a engagementring, don't you think?" Chris asked his friend.

"Yes, you're right. You know What, someday I'm going to get married and I'm going to have a ring like that." Little Lori fantasized.

"Why should you wait when we can get married today?" He asked

"When we get married, will you make me swing on the swing?" asked Loureline. Chris nodded.
Together they ran to Nick, who was to marry them.

Nick was playing with Matt in the sandbox.

"I want to get married too" said 3 year old Matt when Chris told him he was marrying Eline today.

" Wait Matt, I'll find you a bride and we'll have a double wedding". Lori decided and looked around.

She saw Amber sliding down the slide alone and ran to her.
"Hi Amber."
"Hey, Lori."
"Do you want to marry Matt?" Lori asked directly.

"I don't know."
"Come on say yes, me and Chris are getting married too and Matt said if you marry him he'll swing you on the swing later" Amber couldn't say no to that offer.

So they got married the day this picture was taken. Amber and Lori had been best friends since that day, until Amber stopped contacting Loureline after she moved.

I put the picture to the other picture in the last drawer. I felt lonely and alone, so I decided to go downstairs to my father.

He was sitting on the couch, sighing and drinking a glass of scotch. I got myself a glass and poured myself something too.

"It's a tough time for both of us, isn't it?" he said, and I nodded, finishing my glass in one gulp. When I think that in two days my senior year will begin, I could cry.