Weathered Love

SPRING

"Nick's stopping by," my mother stated before she left for work. It was a few days before I was supposed to head back to school to finish up my Junior year. I wasn't sure how I was going to get through that semester, but I was determined to stop running away.

"Why?" I asked, a little worried as to his reason for coming over. We'd barely spoken, although all our conversations had been nice. He just wanted more of Ivan, and I wanted the same, so we fed each other's appetite to feel some sort of remaining connection to Ivan.

"I'm not sure," my mother responded. "You'll have to ask him when he gets here." I nodded and watched as my mother dashed out the door to get to work. I sat at the kitchen table, moving around the food I had on my plate. Some days, I was so ravenous that no food was safe. Those days, I liked to think Ivan had possessed me because he missed earthly food and was using me to get a taste of what he used to enjoy regularly. But then, other days, food held no appeal to me whatsoever. Today was one of the latter types of days.

The doorbell rang and I was thankful for the interruption. "Hey Nick," I stated as I stepped inside to let him in.

"Hey," he responded, rubbing his shoes on the carpet. "I'm not here for long, I just wanted to stop by and see how you're doing."

"I'm as good as I can be," I admitted.

"That's good, I guess," he shrugged. "Look, my parents are giving away Ivan's stuff. What they can give to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, they'll give away. I don't know what they're going to do with the rest. I just wanted to give you a chance to come and get anything you wanted to get. Don't worry, they're leaving the basement untouched," he stated, no doubt in response to my expression. I was wondering about it. "But everything else is probably going to go."

"I understand," I sighed. They were trying to move on. Plus, it didn't make sense to keep stuff they weren't going to use anyway. "I'll stop by today."

"Actually, I was hoping you could help me out with it now," Nick looked at me expectantly. I didn't have anything to do anyway so I nodded, grabbed a jacket and headed out with him. We took the short walk in silence. I was so happy I'd taken the chest already and it was safely tucked away in my closet.

After we finished going through Ivan's stuff yet again, putting most of it into bags to be donated, we stepped outside to walk Munch and have a smoke. "How was your birthday?" Nick asked.

"Uneventful," I shrugged.

"Didn't you turn 21?" he pressed.

"Yeah. Guess I won't need my fake ID," I commented.

Nick stopped in his tracks and gave me a surprised expression. "You have a fake ID?"

"Yeah, it turns out I'm not the goody-two-shoes everyone assumes that I am," I casually replied, trying to shrug it off and hoping Nick wouldn't press the issue further. I still remembered my promise not to tell him about it.

"So you didn't do anything special?" Nick continued.

"It doesn't feel right to celebrate," I admitted. "Besides, I've had a drink before. I've gotten drunk before. I didn't think it'd be a big deal. And no one I know can go out with me anyway," I pointed out.

"Except me," Nick conceded.

"Please. You wouldn't go out with a kid like me," I disbelievingly stated. "You'd feel like an old creep."

"I never said I'd take you out. I just pointed out that I'm older than 21, unlike the rest of your friends," he responded.

"Aw, you consider me your friend?" I responded with exaggerated flattery.