Letting Go

Eight

The part when Laine looks up from the pharmacy counter is featured in this chapter's media section!

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Blue jeans, white shirt

Walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn

Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey

Laine.

The first time I spoke to Adam was at Bonfire Nite, a miserable copycat of Lollapalooza.

Bonfire Nite was an annual music thing managed by high school seniors and alumni who were home for the summer. It was freshman year when I first attended. I'd been dragged by Meredith so she could go meet her crush, and I'd cringed at the sight of so many drunken people. It was disgusting.

Meredith left me by myself at a circle while she wandered off to meet her beau. I struck a conversation with Suzy Dunne, the epitome of gossip, and several other kids I knew from homeroom. Suzy Dunne was telling me all about Derek Hough's encounter with a junior girl when some dumbass puked in front of us, masking the air with a pungent smell.

I was almost ready to throw up myself, but someone stopped me before I could spew chunks all over my new Margiela sneakers. It was Adam.

"You look like you need fresh air," he'd said. Bonfire Nite was held at a camping gound on Crest Hill, a hiking site, so there were a lot of tall, looming trees and animal sounds buzzing all around us. He led me to a path nearby the clearing that overlooked the city. I remembered feeling less nauseous as soon as I inhaled.

Turned out that we had History together, but we haven't talked to each other since it was only the beginning of the schoolyear. We'd engaged in small talk about homework before he told me that one of my girlfriends had been pursuing him relentlessly, which was wigging him out.

We got a good laugh out of that, and we eventually became friends on Facebook and real life. We'd talk to each other when we pass by and occasionally chat on IM, but that stopped when I started seeing Quentin. Whaddup's turned to Hi's, and Hi's turned to glances, and eventually glances turned to nothing at all.

"Remember that time we started talking again?" asked Adam casually. We were lounging by my swimming pool and he had his arm slung around me. We were killing time before school started; he purposefully left his house early after praying so he could have breakfast with my family.

"You hit me up on Facebook non-stop!" I exclaimed. I dragged my index finger on his face, counting every little freckle. "As soon as I dumped Q, you were like, 'Hey,' 'Hi, Laine,' 'Sup?' every single day."

"How do you remember every single thing I said?"

"Because I freaked out when you used three Y's," I explained. "That's a major sign that a boy likes you."

"Where did you get that from?" asked Adam. He added sarcastically, "Oh, let me guess. Cosmo? Seventeen?"

"Shut up! You were totally into me."

"Yeah, I was," he finally admitted. He brushed a piece of lint off the cashmere Rag and Bone sweater he got me for Christmas. "I mean, at first I wasn't. But then we stopped talking, and I guess I realized that I missed you."

"I didn't like-like you at first either," I said. "But then -"

"Kids!" Mom called out from the living room. "You're gonna be late. Get going."

Before we left the patio, Adam grabbed my elbow and pulled me closer. He leaned in, brushing a lock of hair away from my face, and -

"Laine, Adam! Hurry up!"