The Way We Say Goodbye

Chapter 29

Evangeline kept her word and let me have a small party. I invited Marco, Joshua, Violet, Bowie, Arvin, and Osbourne. While awaiting the guests, Phoenix and I kept busy cleaning and fixing food. He and I decided we wanted to have one last time cooking together, but Evangeline wanted the house to look nice for the guests. It was a small party with simple foods, but Evangeline seemed nervous about having my friends over.

"Don't worry, Del. Mom always freaks over meeting our friends."

I looked over at Phoenix. "What do you mean?"

"She's always afraid they won't like her. She likes making a good impression on people."

I chuckled. "Trust me, my friends will like her just fine."

"Hey," he began, looking nervous.

"What's up?"

"Okay, don't take this the wrong way, but you didn't invite the people you were with when you got arrested, did you?"

I smiled at him. "No. I didn't invite any of them."

He sighed. "Good."

"When I sat in that interrogation room with your dad, he was right when he said those people weren't my friends. They just left, and I was the one who got caught."

"What a bunch of shitheals."

I laughed harder than I had in a long time. "What the hell, Phoenix?"

"What? That's what Dad calls the people he doesn't like at work."

I smiled at him. "Well, maybe don't call people that around your parents, and definitely don't say that in front of Destiny."

He shrugged and mumbled, "Okay."

We pulled the first pizza out of the oven when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Evangeline called as she made her way to the door.

She quickly led Marco and Joshua into the kitchen. I smiled and wiggled my fingers at them. "Hi, Marco. Hi, Joshy."

The boys smiled back and said, "Hi, Del."

"I'm glad you guys could make it."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Joshua commented.

"I don't know about that. The world is a big place, and there's lots of things in the world. I mean, Del's great and all, but there's lots of things in the world."

Joshua smacked Marco on the back of the head and mumbled, "Shut up."

I chuckled at them and hurried over to them, pulling them into a group hug. "I'm going to miss you idiots."

"We're going to miss you, too," Joshua mumbled into me.

"Great, you guys are being all sweet and cuddly without me."

I pushed the boys away to squeeze the life out of Violet. "Vi! I've really missed you."

She laughed and hugged me back. "I've missed you too, Novak."

We pulled apart, and she shook her head at me. "You're really leaving us all behind, and it's not even graduation yet. Overachiever."

I smiled at her sadly. "Well, you're the luckiest girl in the world because there's no way in hell I'm not keeping in touch with you."

Tears filled her eyes as she pulled me in for another hug. "I'm going to miss you so much."

I whimpered out, "I'm going to miss you too."