The Trouble Is

Chapter 21: Mid-Summer Night

There's a "mid-summer night's blowout" at the lake tonight to celebrate the halfway point of our break. I am reluctantly attending. It's reluctant attendance because I'm just not a fan of the blowout, but I want to be there for Katie. The whole thing can be chaotic and dirty. I mean real dirt, not cute dirt or sexy dirt.

As we walk up, I can already see a group of kids playing messy Twister, which consists of adding washable paint onto a Twister mat so everyone can get drunk and fall all over each other more creatively. Everyone seems to already be covered in glow-in-the-dark neon paint, even though it's a bit too early to glow. There are also several Slip 'N Slides that run from the front row of chairs down to the edge of the lake. A couple of guys are busy covering them in shaving cream.

I'm standing there thinking of the top ten ways someone could get seriously hurt out here, when East takes my hand. He looks amazing. He looks like he's been just hanging out with the guys, all chill and happy, doing nothing in particular or reading the latest novel at a coffee shop all afternoon. However, I know he worked all morning at the summer camp, had to go check on his uncle's place and do some chores there, and then wrapped up the day with mowing a neighbor's lawn. Somehow, he still looks like life comes easy for him. This makes everyone want to be near him, to be his friend, to bask in the glow of all things East. And by everyone, I mean me. It seems that all I want to do is bask.

Here are ten things I have learned about Theodore Easton so far:

1. East's middle name really is Ronald. His parents were thisclose to getting it right. He would have had the coolest name on the planet, but then they slammed "Ronald" in the middle of it. Humbling, isn't it?

2. He hums a lot. I'm not sure he realizes this. It's cute in both kinds of cute—the baby-duck cute and the stranger-on-a-plane cute. Maybe it's more than cute; maybe it's endearing. It endears him to me. (Take that, SAT prep!)

3. He is an only child.

4. He has two heterosexual parents who are still married to each other. They moved here because they wanted a small-town life for themselves after East goes to college. I've met them a few times, and they seem OK as parents go.

5. East is going to college this fall. He will be at Texas A&M University, which is over three hours away from here. I will still be here, in high school with the same people who are currently flying head first on a shaving-cream slide. Texas A&M might as well be on another planet. I'm pretty sure my parents will never let me go see him. I am trying not to think about this at all.

6. He tastes like summer: warm and kind of salty. Seriously. I can be standing in line at Wal-Mart and think about his kiss and practically taste it.

7. He can't sing very well; however, that does not stop him from trying. He can really belt it out when he's in the mood. Some nights, we just go driving down obscure county roads, listening to music. He likes the Avett Brothers. I'd never heard of them before I met East. I think he imagines himself one of them—a brother in the band. He also likes the Kings of Leon. Also Band of Brothers. There's definitely a theme here, I think. We are drawn to what we don't have.

8. He wants to be an architect. He was a student worker at an architectural firm in Dallas last summer. So I guess he has some basis for wanting to become one. I can picture him doing that—building things.

9. He is calm in that totally "Keep calm and carry on" royalty kind of way. I'm pretty sure that's why I was drawn to him in the first place. He has this core of quiet about him. My life is loud and chaotic everywhere I turn. My family is loud, even when they are quiet. My best friend is loud in all aspects. She constantly exhales a blaring need to be heard and an unending quest to be noticed. East is peaceful. He is peace. Lately I have become a seeker of peace.

10. He loves me. He told me this exactly twenty-four hours ago. And I believe him.

The summer blowout is minor compared to prior years. The music is no louder than normal, and there are just a few water balloons in flight right now. Katie heads straight to the Slip 'N Slide, throwing aside the sundress that's covering her microscopic bikini as she heads toward the front of the line as if it's her birthright. East and I stand there watching her, and I can't help admiring her Tyra fierceness. She doesn't even balk as she takes off in a sprint and then dives with arms stretched way out in front of her, catching her fall. I watch her in that moment, with the fading sun blinking off the beads on her bathing suit. It seems like it's all out there, waiting for us. The future is ours, and all we have to do is grab hold.