Flying French Fries | ✔

Nick

Nick stayed alone looking at all of his friends leave. "Seems that you're alone bro," a voice was heard behind him. "My god George, you need to stop stalking people, you know that," Nick said as he turned around to face his bigger brother. "Just so you know we can spend the night together, let that be a brother to brother time." he proposed, to which Nick agreed.

They took some ice cream from a stand near the band and sat on a bench to eat it. "So what are you going to do?" Nick asked George, "I don't know, the guys will go to a new bar that opened at the neighbouring village but I am not into it right now," "I mean with your future" Nick made his question clearer. "Oh, I spoke to dad about this two-year program for web development and design and he agreed to help me with the tuition. I'll also start working in a cafe downtown, partime, to cover my tuition," he said proudly.

"You know what George, I am really proud of you. If you had asked me this May what I thought about you, I would probably say that you will become the alcoholic uncle of the family, living from the money mum and dad gave you every month, you have really transformed over this summer"

"You have changed too Nick. You have grown and matured over the span of this year more than I did during my puberty. You're no longer the small little kid that my brother used to be. Also, I think the seat for the alcoholic uncle is already reserved for little Anna" George said laughing.

"I'm really glad that you're doing something that you love George. It took you quite some time but you finally did it." Nick said. "I'm really happy for that, I think I finally have a tool to prove that I'm not worthless, that I can actually do some good in this world," "You really don't have to prove anything George, not to me or dad or anyone. You have to only prove to yourself." Nick said as he finished his ice cream.

"And don't worry about your friends getting girlfriends. It's just the natural order of things, something will come up to you sooner or later, just when that happens, don't forget to grab the opportunity," George said patting his brother in the back. "I'm not worried about that, I just fill like I am losing them, I fought with Luke this summer, badly, and I had never fought with Luke in my life,"

"Sometimes you need to let things go their way. People change paths, especially at this age that you go threw. You will need to let go of some people and who knows, maybe your paths will reunite in the future. You can never know and that's the magic" George said, trying to calm him down. "and what if I'm left all alone?" "You will never be alone bro, just as when you were starting to ride a bike and you were always falling off, I was always lifting you back on your feet."

Nick hugged George tightly, "I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you all these years," he said with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry I was that big of an asshole this whole time," George said hugging him back. "It's good that that's left behind"

They found their mother half an hour later, "boys, we need to go. Dad has short of gotten drunk and he's not well at all, let's go at the car." They followed her finding their car with Anna fast asleep on the backseat and their father singing random songs at the front. They sat silently at the back of the car while listening to bad parodies of all the songs you could imagine.

Nick sat on the little staircase that led from their driveway to the beach. The waves were splashing some meters away from him. They would forever, he thought. They won't care who lives on that land, if it's a forest or a city, they would continue splashing on the beach rhythmically as they always did.

"Hey Nick," he heard a voice from behind, it was Jim. "So why did you call us?" he asked as he sat down next to him. "It's our last night, at least we can make it worth, make a fire or something..." Nick explained. "Good, I smuggled some supplies from home," he said and passed him a bottle of beer. "Hey, guys" Luke's voice was heard.

He was looking rather tired but he seemed really happy. "Why is your hair so wet?" Jim asked, "Yeah and why are you so happy?" "Chill guys, we can sit down and I will talk," Luke said and walked down the stairs.

They made a small fire on the beach, big enough to provide some light and heat. "So what happened after you left from the fair Luke?" Jim asked impatiently. "Okay, so Helen and I went to this little beach that she showed us this summer and..." Luke paused laughing from embarrassment. "No, you didn't," George said, "yes we did..." Luke admitted laughing. "I guess you had no idea that this would happen," Jim said. "No, not at all," Luke said laughing.

"What did you do Jim? What was that rush in the afternoon all about?" Nick asked changing the subject to something more talkable. "I actually made out with Nadia at the festival," Jim said. "Oh, great. Everyone had the time of their lives and I was stuck with my drunk dad..." Nick complained and everyone laughed.

"It's so weird that this summer ends," Jim said as he passed a beer to Luke. "It passed by so quickly," "Yeah but we didn't do little this time," Nick said happily. "I guess we did..." Luke admitted. "I wonder if we're changed after this experience, you know, see things differently," "Totally," Nick answered, "but we're always changing," "What do you mean Nick?" Jim asked.

"I don't think we're the same people we used to be, long before this summer began. We two fought, we had never done that before. I have that fear that we're slowly falling apart. Moving forward." Nick said. "We will always be friends Nick. Even if time passes, even if we won't talk for years. I'm not giving up on this friendship, not yet." Jim said. "Let's just promise that we'll be there for each other. For the big things at least..." Luke added. "I agree with that," Nick said with a peaceful smile on his face.

The first morning light found the three of them on the beach. Jim had fallen asleep and the fire had burned off. "I think it's time to go..." Luke said, waking Jim up, and guiding him towards their trailers. "Are you coming, Nick?" "I think I'll stay a little longer," he replied as he sat watching the small cliffs of the peninsula at the other side of the bay getting shaped by the sun.

He climbed the small metallic stair and went in the main gate of the camping. He sat on the other side of the road, where they used to place chairs and umbrellas for campers to sit on the man-made balcony above the sea. He leaned on the railings and watched the day taking form. "It's quite late for you to be awake, or too early to wake up," Nick turned and faced Mr Yannis, who was walking towards him. "Hello Mr Yannis, we haven't seen you a lot this summer," Nick said with a smile.

"Well things aren't as good as they used to be around here..." he admitted. "I got fired this morning, but that was no surprise. This whole thing was kind of my fault," "What are you going to do now?" Nick asked curiously. "I think I'll just leave, I feel, after all those years that I'm in peace" Nick didn't quite understand him. "Before I go, I just want to thank you, kids. You did a great good, even if you didn't quite know it. I'm sorry if I scared you, I didn't intend to, but you closed a chapter in a very bad fairytale and I must thank you for that. Also, some things can't be proven, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, so I suggest you don't look into it that much."

Nick had now fully realised what was happening. He blinked his eyes to double-check, but then the man was gone. Nick checked around but Mr Yannis was nowhere to be seen. He was all alone, but this time not scared.