Summer Girl

Summer Girl - Chapter 30

Chapter THIRTY 

"Think it was meant to be this way?" Aaron asked me, two days after I arrived at his apartment, in downtown Tampa.

   He told me it was only a few blocks from the house that we - he - grew up in. He asked me if I wanted to go see the house, drive by just to see it, but I declined. Nothing about Tampa was familiar to me, and that was okay. Everything was busy and fast, so different from Siesta Key.

   Aaron told me about when he was five years old, and our Mom was pregnant with me. She was beautiful, he said. I could tell he was still - over fifteen years later - hurting. I could see it in his eyes. He told me I was lucky that I didn't remember our parents. That was what affected me the most.

   "Maybe, it was meant to be," I said, petting his cat, who was curled up on my lap. She was fluffy and grey, and was purring in her sleep. "I mean, you left at eighteen, I left at eighteen."

   "You'll go back, though," he said, as if there wasn't a question.

  "I might."

   "You will."

   "You're only my first stop in my Florida adventure," I told him, smiling. "Thank you for letting me come and stay with you for a few days."

   "I told you... I wanted to call you, for awhile. It's just been... busy." I knew he meant this.

   "I get it," I said, shrugging. "I've had a kind of crazy summer, too."

   "You want to tell me about it?" he asked, unsure.

   "Do you want to hear about my first boyfriend, my first actual best friend, my first -"

   "Never mind," Aaron laughed, holding up his hands. "Jessa should be home soon."

   Jessa was his girlfriend, of two years. They had been living together for over a year and she was really sweet, as far as I could tell. She also seemed strangely okay with the fact that his little sister texted him randomly, asking for his address. And now, I was sleeping on their couch.

   Seeing Aaron again after all these years was like something out of a movie. I was just a kid - twelve - when he left Siesta, so being a grown up and seeing him as twenty-four year old adult was mind blowing. I saw him in a different light. He was mature, and smart and had a great job as a graphic designer. I didn't understand why he ran away so many times, or why he left the very moment he was able to. I didn't ask how he survived out on his own, at first. I didn't even ask if he missed me at all, over the past six years. I was just happy that he was happy now.

   "Your phone's been going off like crazy," Jessa told me that evening, sitting down on the patio chair beside me. We were out on their balcony, but down below was not the beach, or the water. It was a busy street, cars flying by.

   "Oh, that doesn't surprise me. I should just turn it off," I replied, shaking my head.

   "Who's trying to reach you?" she wanted to know.

   "Well, I told my Aunt where I am so it's not her. And my friend Cay, she's not worried about me."

   "So..."

   "My boyfriend, and his brother... I haven't talked to them in a couple weeks and..."

   "You just haven't talked to them?" She was curious, I could tell.

   "Well... it's kind of a long story," I sighed.

   "I have time. If you want to tell me, I mean."