Meet You There

Epilogue: Summer

Three months later – August

Surprisingly enough, it didn't take long for people to stop caring about Brody and I being together. Every now and then, kids still sneer and laugh as we walk by, but after everything we've been through, neither of us care.

Anthony and the other guys who attacked me were suitably punished, the court ordered they spent four months in juvenile hall. Their whole summers. After that, they had another four months community service.

Anthony apologized to Brody, Megan and I and asked if there was any way he could make it up and be friends with us. Brody and Megan forgave him but told him there's no way they would feel comfortable with that, seeing as he committed hate crimes and abused Megan. Anthony agreed to leave us alone. He stopped hanging around with his usual gang of cronies and now has one or two friends. He also started going to counseling for his anger issues and to try and come to terms with his sexuality.

Ranley Community Center is more alive than I have ever seen it. Brody, Megan and I spend a lot of time there, now. It's cooler in here than it is out there. The air conditioning actually works, now.

“Another game of pool?” I ask Brody, poking him in the arm with the cue to get his attention.

“Maybe in a sec, just reading this chapter,” he says. He's sitting on a coffee table and reading a book I have never heard of. This is the third book on the Stanford English Literature reading list. As soon as he got his acceptance letter, I went online and got him the first five for a birthday present, since I could actually afford to. I've always been in to computers, so while volunteering as a youth worker at Fairchild Haven, I work at home for Google. My job with them pays a lot more than working on the farm did. I can afford a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally have been able to.

“Brody, Get your ass off that table, or so help me,” a voice says from behind me. Kyra. “I just cleaned that thing. I don't need your butt all over it.”

Brody smirks. “Sorry, Ky,” he says, getting off the table. There's no more seats left for him to sit on, that's how crowded this place is. People love it so much, especially teenagers looking for some way to kill time.

“Calm down, Kyra, there's nowhere else for him to sit,” says Lily, the newest addition to our little group, putting her arms around her girlfriends waist. Lily is here all summer, visiting her grandparents, Luke and Jane, more commonly known as the priest and his wife. When she came out as pansexual to her grandparents, Luke was fine about it, but Jane was a little iffy at first. Luke and Lily spoke to her about it, and she eventually realized what Luke did when he first met Kyra in California.

After Megan and Kyra met at Beth's Near Year's Eve party, her and Kyra exchanged IM addresses. They started dating about a month ago after talking constantly online. We could never get Kyra out of her room.

“Guys, what are we doing when Kyra is finished with work?” Megan asks, skipping around the corner.

“I don't know. Going for a dip in the lake? It's that hot outside that I think it would do us some good,” Brody suggests jokingly.

“That's not actually a bad idea,” Megan says.

“You do know I was kidding, right?”

“Yeah, but now I wanna do it.”

“You're ridiculous,”

“I'm with Brody, that sounds like fun,” says Lily, smiling, putting a strand of orange hair behind her ear. “You up for it, Ky?”

Kyra rolls her eyes. “Stupid idea, but whatever. I finish in like fifteen minutes.”

When we leave the community center, it's 6pm and hotter than I've ever known it to be. Perhaps a dip in the lake really will do us good. “I blame global warming,” Brody says.

On the bridge that crosses the lake, we stand there side by side looking in to the water. “Well, who's going first?” Megan asks.

“Not me.”

“Not a chance.”

“Nope.”

“Megan, it was your idea, you should go first.”

She rolls her eyes. “You guys are all wusses,” she says, stripping off to her underwear and jumping straight off the edge of the bridge in to the water.

After Megan, Lily and Kyra soon follow suit, hand in hand. The three girls swim in to the middle of the lake and splash at each other and squeal. That leaves Brody and I standing on the bridge alone.

“Well, it's now or never,” Brody says.

“Not really, I'm here for good,” I say, wrapping my arms around him.

“I'm not. Stanford, soon, remember?”

“Hey, we still have the rest of the summer.”

“True, but let's jump in this lake now,” Brody says, taking his shirt and jeans off. His bruises from years of his fathers abuse are beginning to fade. Frank won't dare hit him now, not now that he knows I know about it and could rat him out to George or Luke or anyone at any time. The weight that he lost from stress, he is starting to put back on. He looks incredible.

“Your turn,” he says, helping me pull my own shirt off.

“I can't believe I'm doing this,” I say, pulling my jeans down and climbing up on to the walls of the bridge, ready to jump. Brody joins me and holds my hand.

“After three?” he looks at me and smiles, squeezing my hand.

“Yeah.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

The water is freezing cold, but in this heat, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

“Hey, guys, took you long enough,” says Lily, splashing Brody and I.

“My makeup is actually in my eyes,” says Megan. “I should have warn waterproof mascara.”

“Hey, Megan, this was your idea!” I remind her, laughing.

She pushes my head underwater for a few seconds.

“Hey!” I shout when I surface, and splash her.

“Uh, guys?” says Brody.

“Yeah?”

“I just realized I can't swim.”

I look at him, confused. “Well, you're managing to stay afloat, so you sort of are swimming.”

“Really? Huh.”

“Guys, wanna go for a drive tonight?” Megan asks. Ever since she got her license, she's constantly looking for excuses to drive.

“Sure.”

“I'm gonna miss you guys when I have to go back home. We have two weeks left,” Lily says sadly.

“Two weeks is plenty of time. Besides, there's always next summer. You're coming next year, right?”

“How could I not?” Lily says and kisses Kyra.

“I know I say this a lot, but I love you guys,” Megan says, sliding between Brody and I and putting her arms around our shoulders. “I couldn't ask for a better group of losers to hang out with.”

“Me neither,” I say.

“Group hug?” Megan proposes.

We all groan, but we hug. “Losers.”