Open When I'm Gone

14. Cannon Beach.

"Simon, wait up!"

Despite my best judgment, I can feel myself grinning as I turn around to meet Jolies bright eyes.

"I need your help," She breathes out, grabbing my arm for support as she heaves for breath, laughing. "I am so not prepared for callbacks later."

She smiles at me like I'm her whole world as she asks, "Simon, can you help me get ready for later?"

I grin, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. Her hair smells like vanilla and strawberries, and I inhale the smell deeply.

"Of course." I tell her, "You don't need my help, but if it makes you feel better, you can come with me back to my house right now and we can run through the slides."

"Really?" she's so excited it's almost like she expected me to say no. So I grin back at her, hiking my backpack up on my shoulders and breaking into a jog toward my house.

"Hey!" She exclaims, footsteps pounding behind me as I pick up the pace, a smile creasing my face. "That's not fair!"

I'm heaving for breath by the time I'm jogging up my driveway, Jolie laughing behind me.

"You're a jerk," She scoffs at me, smacking my chest with both hands. "I hate you,"

"I know," I smirk, leading her into my house.

I didn't think that any of my family would be home, but when we walk in, my mom is sitting on the couch surrounded by test papers, her reading glasses slid too far down her nose to ever be effective. When we walk in, her head perks up, her mouth open as if ready to offer me food or ask me how my day was. But she shuts it quickly when she sees Jolie timidly following behind me.

"Oh!" She exclaims, grinning like us being there is the best news of her day. "Simon, I didn't know you were having friends over. Hello, Jolie, dear."

Jolie offers my mother a small wave, grinning.

But the gesture catches me off guard, so off guard I can't help but ask, "Have you two... met before?"

My moms smile tightens with the same tension I feel in Jolie next to me.

"We met at the hospital," My mom puts simply, pushing her glasses back up her nose and going back to grading her tests without another word.

My chest feels tight as I look at Jolie, shrugging off the awkwardness.

"Come on," I sigh, gesturing my head to the stairs. "Let's go work on those pieces. We've only got an hour or so before we have to be back at the school."

She nods, following me down the hall to the stairs.

"Wow," She laughs, taking in our wall of photos that line the stairwell, "You were... So cute as a kid,"

That sends her into a fit of giggles, pointing at one of me hanging off of my moms back, tongue out and eyes shut tight.

"Eh," I shrug, trying to pull her up the stairs. But she resists my pull, her eyes gazing with such wonder over our wall of pictures.

"I like looking at your family photos," She smiles lightly, letting her fingers graze one of the frames of the photos of Abby and I. "I've never done family photos, but I always thought they must be fun."

"Never?" I can't help but laugh, "I wish I would never have done family photos. They're so chaotic."

She shakes her head to pull her gaze from the photos to my eyes.

"You have those memories though," She says softly, "You have the family to take photos with year after year."

And the embarrassment that was wrestling for a place against the anxiety in my chest suddenly falls to my feet and straight through the floor. How could I have forgotten? She's lost all of her family, and I'm just over here complaining about mine.