Summer Milestone

Bye

Chapter 33

~JOSH~

When I wake up in the morning, the couch in my bedroom is empty and Zack's belongings are all packed up in a suitcase. Zack, however, is nowhere to be found. I search the house from top to bottom but I don't find any sign of him. I start to get worried and so I text him but when he doesn't fucking reply after ten minutes, I call him, to which I go straight to voicemail. I try again about half an hour later but it's still the same deal. Obviously, he hasn't left yet considering all of his stuff is still here, so where the fuck is he?! I drive myself crazy all day, wondering where the hell he went. From what I recall, his flight was supposed to be at five in the afternoon but given that he hasn't come back to retrieve his stuff a little after six, I'm starting to doubt that. I spend the whole morning searching the town for him but by the afternoon, I just give up and assume that he has to come back for his stuff at some point.

It's not until the end of the day that I finally come up with an idea for where he might have gone. I remember how he always liked going to Poplar beach to watch the sunset and so that's my best bet for where I could potentially find him.

Around 7:30, I head out there myself, not even bothering to drive there since it's pretty much within walking distance from my house. And sure enough, that's where I find Zack, sporting a new haircut as he stands by himself on the cliff, looking into the orange oceanfront.

"Thought you could leave without saying goodbye?" I say to him as I approach from behind.

"I was gonna come back. I just had some errands to run before I left. Had to tie up a few loose ends," he says with a hint of sorrow as he turns around to look at me.

"Nice haircut. You look like a real soldier now," I comment, unable to get past how those sexy blond curls are officially gone. It's like he's a completely new person now.

"Thanks. My head's a bit cold now," he says, running his fingers through the freshly shaved buzz-cut.

"Thought your flight was at five? It's almost eight now," I ask him, looking at my watch to see the time read: 7:50 p.m. Pretty sure that flight's long gone by now.

"Got delayed till nine."

"Guess you better get going then."

"Yeah. I just had to come out here to watch the sunset one last time. We don't have sunsets like this back in Jersey."

"Yeah," I say, fighting with all my might to hold back my tears. "Well, come on. You don't want to be late, I'll drive you."

"Thanks, dude, but I'm taking a shuttle bus. Thought it'd be too emotional for the both of us if you went and dropped me off. Ya know, don't wanna cry in an airport in front of everyone," he says, somehow staying strong, despite the affliction that I can most definitely see in his eyes.

"Doesn't change how emotional this is, though," I say with a voice crack.

"Yeah, well..." he just shrugs. "Oh! I almost forgot..." he adds, walking over to me and pulling something from his pocket. "... I wanted to give you this." He hands me a banged-up pack of gum and I feel like I'm about to start balling my eyes out, recalling how this stupid little pack of gum is what started it all.

"Let me guess, you found it on the ground?"

"Yeah... something for you to remember me by."

"I remember I ended up getting one of these strips of gum stuck in some chick's hair, back in the first grade."

"Oh yeah! And I tried to help her get it out but just made it worse," he chuckles.

"Haha, yeah! We were wild animals, weren't we?"

"We always were."

We don't say anything more and just simultaneously clash into a hug, one of the longest ones we've ever had.

"See ya, Josh," he says calmly as he pulls out of the hug and ultimately walks away.

"See ya, Z," I reply softly as I watch him disappear from the site. He's probably going back to my house to collect his things and by the time that I catch up with him, he'll probably be gone, and so I stick around at the beach, dreading the moment that I'll have to walk back into my room to see that he's not there. Despite how emotional I am, I don't shed a single tear. In fact, I keep my cool.

I head over to the edge of the drop-off and look out into the sea. I probably should be crying, knowing that I won't see my number-one best friend and first love for a very long time, if at all, but I choose to stay strong because I know that it had to happen and there was nothing that I could do about it. It's like they say, if you love something set it free. It also makes me think about Zack's speech when he said, "You have to let go of the people you love because we all have our own lives to live." It's too bad though that I didn't realize how much I loved him until it was time to let him go. But nonetheless, I'm still content with the way things transpired in the end. What we shared at the swimming hole was definitely one of the most "magical" moments of my life and I'll remember it forever. I'll remember this summer forever, as I hit one of the biggest milestones in my life.

I hold the pack of gum tightly in my hand as if it meant the world to me. And in a way it does, as it symbolizes the beginning and the end of my friendship with Zack. I smile at the thought to avoid from crying as I look up to watch the sun drift below the horizon as if it was slowly bidding a farewell to summer.

THE END