The Grave Mistakes of Emerson Darcy

4

Cleaning out Kate’s room had been therapeutic if I was being honest. I mean I had kind of assumed that it would be emotionally traumatizing or something. It took two days to empty the whole the room. The second day was mostly cleaning out Kate’s clothes, while we were going through her closet Jethrow stumbled acrossed my sweater.

“This is yours right?” he said handing it to me.

“How’d you know? I haven’t seen this years.” I questioned, taking it from him. I fingered the soft knitted gray fabric.

“It was your favorite, wasn’t it? You wore every night we were in South Carolina.” Jet kept his voice and face rock steady.

“I guess I did.”

His words tossed me back into yet another memory. Kate and Jet had already turned 14, Kate’s parents took us to South Carolina for a month. They rented a house on the beach and everything. Kate rarely ever left the house though, she said it wasn’t worth sweating. I spent every night walking on the beach. After the sun went down it actually got pretty chilly so I donned on my faithful gray sweater. I never told Kate that those walks always came with a silent escort in the form of her cousin. She would have killed me as would her parents. It didn’t matter that we didn’t exchange a single word, just staring out into the vast dark ocean created a connection between Jethrow and I. At least I thought it did.

“That was the trip you had to get stitches! How’d you do that any way?” I asked taking my mind off the beach.

“Ha, that would be all Kate’s doing.” He bitterly responded.

“What? Why on earth would she do that?” I was genuinely confused.

“She threw a rock at me. She thought I was spying on you two.”

“And were you?” I asked, suggestively arching my eyebrow.

“I never spied on Kate.” Jethrow replied seriously.

I paused, making eye contact with him. Was Jethrow implying he had be spying on me? Jethrow held my gaze for a few heartbeats.

“Do you want something to eat?” He asked glancing down and rubbing the back of his neck.

“No, but I could really use a drink.”

I followed him to the kitchen, still hung up on his earlier statement.

“Do you have any green tea?” I asked before Jethrow could even open his mouth.

He walked over to a cabinet and looked up, furrowing his brow.

“How about peppermint tea?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

“I guess I can settle, I mean I’ll never be able to thrive under these absolutely inhumane conditions but I think I’ll survive.” I said with loads of melodrama as I flung myself across the counter sighing. “Oh hey, you can totally ride to school tomorrow with me and Brennan if you’d like.” I tried to keep my tone casual but I really wanted him to ride with me.

“No, it’s cool. I’ll ride my bike.” He said waiting for the tea to steep.

“Come on! You can’t ride a bike! You’re a senior, have some self-respect!”

“Get off my ass, Emerson.” He snapped at me.

“I’m just trying to help you make a good impression! It really wouldn’t be a big deal if you rode with us.” I suggested again, I just couldn’t let it go.

“I’ve got a ride, ok?” Jet finally turned to look at me.

I just nodded my head, reaching out for my cup of tea. “Did you put honey in this?” I asked after taking a sip.