I Promise

40

One Year Later

Senior year passes by in a blur. I play soccer, try hard in school, and I'm even more close with Scarlett now. Matt disappeared from Topmore High School for the rest of junior and senior year. Just like that, he was gone with the wind. I walk by his house sometimes, and I almost expect him to walk out with Zeus, smiling ear to ear. But he never does. His car isn't in the driveway anymore, and a new different family moved in . I can't believe that he was only in my life for three months. It seems like we spent years together.

Nana recovered from the heart attack and if anything she's even more active than before. She's on an extreme health kick, urging my mother to buy healthy groceries. She takes walks with Peyton and the twins every morning on the weekends, and then when I'm at school she walks Forrest, my dog. He's a German Shepherd, just like Zeus. I always wonder if Zeus would like Forrest. I think they'd get along great.

I haven't spoken to my dad in over a year. The divorce was finalized, and I only came once before the holidays to collect my stuff. I left him a long letter, telling him how I got a full soccer scholarship to Stanford, and how I didn't really want to see him.

I have a small scar on the top of my lip from my fight last year. My bruised cheek healed pretty fast and so did my arms. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, and I'll think about what happened that day, and then I feel like calling Matt, but I know he's gone. I don't know where he went, but some part of me always hopes he'll return.

Scarlett got the same scholarship to Stanford, and Coach Nobelton threw us a party because she was so proud. She even cried. I've never seen her cry before.

I don't cry anymore when I take a shower. My mother and I are still tense around each other, but I'm not as mad at her as I was before.

I actually ended up calling Graham, and to my luck he was the new coach for the women's soccer team at Stanford. We run every morning and do drills in the school field. He's getting me and Scarlett really prepared for the season. I'm on good terms with him, and amusingly, he has become kind of like a life mentor to me.

I still visit Brent once a week, but not because I still have to as per Coach Nobelton's orders. I like talking to him, and he's helping me heal. The day after Matt left and never came back, I had my appointment with him. He came in wearing the same pants and shirt, the same necklace too.

"he left," I tell him when I sit down on the couch the next day. My life seemed to be at a loss of words, because I didn't feel like doing shit. Matt just left, and I let him because it was the least I could do for all that he gave me.

Brent sits cross legged on the couch, thinking. "I know," is all he says.
"How?" I ask, incredulous.

"When I saw him, I could tell he wasn't happy. There wasn't much for him to do, and you helped him out. A lot, really. His moods were more constant after you came into his life. But I think he realized that he hasn't come to terms with his past. And I could see that in him, every time. he was bound to leave, bound to go and find himself, his inner peace."

"I can't tell if that's you actually telling the truth of if you're spitting out some hippie bullshit because you're wearing those pants and are barefoot," I say. He laughs for a good solid two minutes after I say that, and I can't help but smile in return.

"You did the right thing, letting him go. He knew he was going to be gone for a long time, and he didn't want that to hurt you, or for you to try and help him. He has to do this on his own."

I nod. Somehow, Brent always made everything make sense. He was like the Wizard of OZ, who knew everything and exactly what to say in the right moment.