Reggie and Lilac used to be best friends. But after an unspeakable incident the summer before high school, they haven't spoken since. Unless you count all the snide comments and bitter words they fire at each other.
And then Lilac comes home one da...
I remember the summer I was six and lost my two front teeth, I refused to smile for any pictures until my new ones came in. My mom wasn't happy about this at all and tried anything and everything that she could think of to get me to smile. Nothing worked.
It wasn't until I went to spend a weekend with my grandma that I finally started to smile. She took me to Pat's with her to grab some milk and considering that I lived off of nothing but soggy cereal and bananas that summer, she had to stock up.
Any time I went to the store with my mom I had to hold her hand and stay by her side. I hated it. But my grandma was different, she didn't demand that I hold her hand or stay right beside her, she let me run around and do whatever as long as I came back in one piece.
"Alright Lilac-Honey, I'll make you a deal," she told me as we walked through Pat's. There were only four rows, each barely taller than my grandma herself, and she had them all memorized to the point where if it was a slow day, she would put things away for Pat.
"You can get anything you want in the whole store," she paused and looked both ways before whispering to me, "even the stuff your momma says will rot you from the inside out."
"Really?" I gasped. "Anything?"
"Mmmhmm, but you gotta take at least one big, open-mouth smile with me and your mom later," she told me grabbing a jug of milk. "We gotta deal?"
I didn't need to think twice before I answered, "Yes!"
Before my grandma even knew it, I was sprinting toward the candy aisle. I knew exactly what I wanted: sour Skittles. They were my favourite candy and my mom only let me have them during Halloween, and even then I was only allowed one of the mini packs. She claimed that they would rot my teeth and my stomach all at once.
Later that night, when my mom came to get me, I followed up on my end of the deal. I took a picture with my mom and grandma and gave the camera the biggest, widest smile that I could.
"What did you do, Mom?" My mom asked completely astonished. She was staring at the picture of us with wide eyes. Still to this day, my mom had that picture of me and my two missing front teeth framed on the mantle.
"Oh you know," Grandma waved her off. "I guess you can just chalk it up to my grandma's powers. I'm sure that you'll understand one day." She shot me a quick wink behind my mom's back.
And every time after that, when my grandma would take me to Pat's, she'd always let me get a pack of sour skittles and have a couple with me out on the dock as we watched the shore come in and out. In and out, in and out.
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