Dear Diary,
This morning it was Rooftop Stars that startled me awake, filling my room with the music that always feels like home. It's Vanessa's ringtone.
The first time it came on the radio, I was thinking I love this melody just as Vanessa took her hand from the steering wheel to turn it up. We had never heard it before. It was so sad and happy at the same time, the kind of sound that gives you goosebumps and reminds you of that feeling you can't put your finger on.
The lyrics told a story of two girls who were best friends and would sit on the roof of a house looking at the stars. As the lyrics went on, we kept looking at each other, not saying anything. Our most special thing in the world was the roof of the shed in her backyard. It was our special spot. We would write things on the roof of that shed, the names of boys we liked, dates that meant something to us, just anything that was important to us at certain times in our life. We couldn't even remember what some of the initials and dates referred to as time passed. The things that seemed so important to us, the boys we couldn't stop thinking about, they all seemed to fade away. But one thing always stayed the same: Vanessa.
Every day after school we would grab snacks from the house and go and sit up there, talking for hours, playing music that reminded us of certain things. Every time she didn't want her mom to see her crying after a fight, we'd go up there. My absolute favourite was when we'd grab the big king size comforter from the cupboard in her basement and take it up on the roof at night and just look out at the stars and talk about everything. Things we'd talked about a million times before, things we'd never told anyone. I think about that comforter when I'm feeling particularly stressed, it's my happy place. Ugly and beige with burgundy triangles and patterns. It smelled like cupboard and Vanessa, and was so warm and comforting on those really cool nights. A picture of that comforter is forever stamped on my timeline.
In the story of the song, the girls separated when one of them went off to college, but every year they would come back and sit on that roof together to catch up. We vowed that day in the car, the very first time we heard Rooftop Stars, that if we ever got separated, we would do the same thing.
The day that we came home to find the shed torn down and replaced with one that had a pointed roof, is a day that we still can't talk about. We both cried, and Betty, her mom, shrugged.
It was just gone.
The song is still our special song, and my ring tone for Vanessa, and hers for me. I can't help feeling relief every time I hear it.
I read her message, she's asking me to hop video chat.
She's typing something at her desk when I hit accept and she fills my screen. I see the empty spot where the shed used to be from the window behind her.
"Helloooo!" She says when she realizes I'm there.
"So?" I ask, but her smile is already giving her away. She wasn't a smiley person, but when something good happened, she couldn't help herself.
"She offered it to me on the spot." She shrugs with the toothy-est grin.
"Yes! I thought they would. How many people are coming in with a year of schooling already? Plus your portfolio shows that you actually know what you're doing."
"I don't know, I was doubtful. I wasn't sure if they'd be like, obviously she's going to school because she wants to go out on her own, so she's just taking advantage of us."
"Maybe they don't mind being taken advantage of."
"Or maybe they know it's really hard to start your own interior design company and figure i'll be there for many many many years."
YOU ARE READING
That One Summer
Teen FictionJane was raised by her free spirited uncle, but when he moves to Paris she is forced to live with her grandpa for the summer in a small town where she finds romance and secrets to her past that she never knew were there.
