After moving to a small town for a semester and a half, Camilla Adams is relived about how great the new place and school seem to be, and how nice some people were.
But then she notices the way students treat one particular quiet guy, some horribly...
Announcements are made on the intercom every few minutes as people bustled around dragging suitcases and their luggage behind them, loud chatter and the sound of kids coming from the waiting area as Kaylee, Ryan, Ethan and I stood in the middle of it.
Mr. and Mrs. Blair aren't here, unsurprisingly. But Kaylee said they'd said their goodbyes at home. I can't believe how fast this week has passed, with helping Kaylee pack and finally deciding that I was going to sit out from college for a semester. As for Ethan, he hadn't been planning on going to college or doing anything at all, for that matter, but now that he's having the surgery, he said that he will continue on living and figuring out what he wants to do whether the surgery worked or not.
"So..." Kaylee starts, glancing at each of us, "I guess this is goodbye."
The word goodbye alone brings me to tears and I throw my arms around her in a hug. She staggers back, unprepared, but holds me tightly. "Whoa, there. Easy." She says, her voice coming out soft instead of her usual joking tone. I hug her tighter, sniffling into her shoulder.
I suddenly let her go and start rambling, "Call me. Whenever you want. And eat well, and sleep well. I'll video call you so you better not lie to me. And take pictures, and call me. And I'll call you. And-"
"Cam, I get it. I swear I'll call you, to the point where you'll start telling me to piss off. And duh, of course, I'll take pictures, that's why I'm going in the first place." She rolls her eyes, and I crack a smile. "I'm gonna miss you."
She smiles and grabs my shoulders, "And I'm gonna miss you," She hugs me one more time and kisses my cheek before nudging me aside, and opening up her arms, "Come here little bro." Ryan doesn't waste a minute and sweeps down to lift her off her feet in a fierce hug. Neither of them says a word, and when they let go, they exchange one look that carries a million words between them. Next, she hugs Ethan, and when she lets go, she grabs him by the shoulder and looks him in the eyes seriously, "Take care of my best friend, but don't forget to take care of yourself, too."
Ethan nods and smiles, "Go live your life,"
Kaylee grins, "Oh, I will."
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I run a hand over the package Kaylee gave me before she left and wonder what it is. I turn my gaze to Ethan sitting beside me on our porch steps and he motions me to open it. She'd told us to open it together.
I turn it over and start peeling away the brown wrapper. I find a blue photo album underneath, and open it to the first page where the first photograph greets me. I see me and Ethan in the school's parking lot, me holding out his infamous black headphones to him and smiling at him while he looked at me strangely. Above the photo is written in Kaylee's cursive handwriting: The First Meeting.
The second photo is of me and Ethan in the school library, with both our hands up as I mimicked him in signing something for the first time. The warm sunlight hitting us from the window and casting us in light against the dull library lights. My eyes are locked on his hands in the photo, and now that I look at Ethan's expression in the photo, I notice something I hadn't noticed in that moment while I was too busy looking at his hands instead of seeing the soft smile he's directing at me. Beneath it is a post-it note.
