Lavender Monarch has Exactly Thirteen Fears

21. mint julep

"Celebration?" I ask and he grins knowing exactly what I mean. The two of us race down the kitchen and I open the fridge and pull out the condensed milk while he grabs the bananas. We both slam them on the counter.

"Banana split time!", we say in unison, "Jinx!" We both erupt into a fit of giggles and then set about making our special banana splits. I sit up on the kitchen bench with my legs dangling over the edge and June perches on a stool. We dig into our bowls and I let out an involuntary moan. Whoops. It just tastes so darn good.

"Thank you again," I say to June as he leaves. He just insists that it was no trouble but spending two hours helping me, certainly feels like it was. Gee, he's such a good friend. The fights we had seem to far in the past and insignificant now even though they were only weeks ago.

It's only then that I remember Patty. He said he was going to text and call me. I run upstairs and retrieve it from the bottom of my schoolbag. I have a missed call and two texts.

(1) Hey, I just arrived. The house looks pretty nice and I actually think this might not be so bad.

(2) Neighbour is nice! I take it back about it not being bad though, the heating here is shit!

I smile at that. I shut my door and lie back on my bed and call Patty back. It goes to voicemail. I guess this whole keeping in contact thing might be a little less simple than I thought. I send him a text apologising for missing the call and letting him know I'll have my phone on me for the rest of the night.

Thankfully, it's less than twenty minutes later that he calls back.

"Hey," he says. His voice sounds husky over the phone.

"Hi," I say and smile up at my roof.

"So how is everything?" I ask Patty over the phone.

"It's actually great. The house is really fancy, it makes me feel rich or something," he says. I laugh at this.

"Patty, you are rich," I roll my eyes. I can hardly imagine a house that is fancier then his old one.

"Everyone is so nice too. I met this girl, Rachel. She's so sweet." I pause for a moment, what?

"You met a...girl?" I question, my brow furrowing.

"Oh shit, I didn't mean it like that," he quickly amends, "she's just my neighbour and she gave me a tour around the neighbourhood which was kind of her is all." I relax a little. I need to calm down and not jump to conclusions so quickly.

"What about your dad's job?" His dad left a week early to start.

"He says it's really good. My parents are really happy."

Patty and I ended up talking on the phone for several hours before I drifted off to sleep in a state of euphoria and bliss. What is it that they say? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? It just might be true.

The next day at school, I'm sitting in Biology next to Jade. Our teacher is handing out the reports for our research assignment and I'm sitting nervously on the edge of my seat. A paper lands on my desk and I grab it eagerly, my eyes are immediately drawn to the letter circled in red pen. A. I silently thank June.

I notice Jade is writing a note with her bright pink sparkly gel pen and a wicked smile on her face. She keeps glancing up to check the teacher isn't watching and then she slides it over to me. It's the details about the concert she invited me to go to with her and Indigo. I scrawl back an enthused reply.

We immediately confirm plans to go the following Friday. I think I'll need to go shopping before then to get some sort of edgy outfit. I'm going to feel incredibly out of place in jeans and some lame shirt when everyone else looks as cool as Jade and Indigo always seem to. It'll be nice to get to know Indigo a little more too. Even though we've hung out a few times, I still don't feel that close to her. And now that she and Jade are getting more serious, I want to get to know her a little more.