Summer Days to An End

Chapter XIX.

As the final days of August drew on, not a moment passed where the entire group wasn't occupied, seeing as they would all be off to their colleges within a week. For Lo, however, turning the otherwise tedious activity of packing and boxing all of her things into something enjoyable was simple; that is, with the right people.

Wrapping a thin, black belt around the waist of her skirt, she took one last glance at herself in the mirror, before grabbing her phone and heading back into her room to meet Miyo and Selah, who were both busy scanning through her numerous outfits to see what they could acquire.

"How does it look now?" She asked, gesturing to the skirt she had shown them a few minutes before, the only difference being the addition of the belt.

"It's not worth it, the belt doesn't help as much now that I see it," remarked Selah, and Miyo nodded in agreement as Lo quickly changed out of it and back into her original pair of pants, as well as tossing the rejected skirt into a pile of clothes labeled by a single sticky note reading, "Not Keeping".

"If only we were the same size, I'd be able to take some of this stuff with me to Japan," Miyo lamented as she looked through the seemingly endless rows of clothing.

"Take whatever you want, even if it doesn't fit. I'm certain that I haven't worn half of this stuff in months."

"I hope you don't mind, but I'm definitely taking these boots. They'll be perfect for walking the streets of London," said Selah as she reached for a pair of knee-high black boots at the edge of the bed, before catching a glimpse of a white and green jacket on the other side of the room.

Curious, she stood from her spot on the rug and walked over to examine it, lifting it from the ground as she turned it around to see the back.

"Lo, why do you have this?" She began, holding up the jacket as she turned the backside to face her, on which was the name "Bartlett" and the number "7" below it. For a moment, Lo was silent as her eyes stared widely at the forgotten jacket.

"Oh, I can hardly believe I still have that. I've had it since the tenth grade when I went to one of Finn's games, and since it was a bit cold that day, I was wearing it during the time he was playing. When he saw me wearing it, he could tell I was cold and he let me keep it. After all this time, he never asked for it back." Lo explained as she took the jacket out of Selah's hands, tracing her fingers over the soft exterior of the material before throwing it over her shoulders.

"In a way, it still smells like him, with a warm, gentle scent of his cologne," she commented as she sat back down on the bed.

"You know he would only do something like that for you, don't you?" Miyo said with a smile, and Selah shot her a glance as the two nodded in agreement with each other.

"I know I thought that at the time, and I like to think that now, too. Still, I wonder about all the things that come to his mind when he thinks about me."

"Lo, I have to ask you something," said Selah.

"What is it?" Lo responded, tucking her hands into the pocket of the jacket as she laid back on one of the pillows on the bed.

"That night at my house a few days ago, you and Finn took quite a while to come back inside, and Finn said it was because you were in the bathroom. Was that true?"

Before answering, Lo let out a soft chuckle.

"It's impossible to trick you, isn't it?" Lo said with a smirk before continuing. "At the moment, it was a good enough lie, but I suppose it only worked for so long. You're right, I wasn't in the bathroom, Finn and I were talking just outside of the room when you guys called for us."