Youth Unsupervised

Chapter 23- Stone Skin

Less than a week after summer break started, Saki barged into my room and shoved a restaurant flier in my face. Her visits were sort of random that way. Since she had a key to my house and no phone, she just sort of showed up whenever she wanted. I didn't really mind. I was always happy to see her.

I pulled myself up from the slumped position I was sitting in and took the flyer. "Hi, Saki."

"Hey." She crawled onto the bed next to me and leaned her back against the wall.

"The Weeping Willow." I studied the flier promoting the restaurant's new specials and extended summer hours. The information was surrounded by an interwoven vine style boarder and a weeping willow tree at the top. "You want to go here?"

"No, idiot." She taped the bottom of the paper where it said they were hiring seasonal employees.

"You want a job here?" I looked over the flier again, thinking I'd missed something. "Doing what?"

"Waitressing, probably," she said.

I bust out laughing. "You want to get a job as a waitress?"

Her face turned sour. "What's wrong with that?"

"I suppose you plan to win them over with your fantastic charm and cheery personality?" I almost started laughing again.

She snatched the flier out of my hand. "I can fake it pretty well sometimes."

"For a whole shift?" I asked.

She let out an irritated sigh and slid off the bed. "Fine. I'll go without you."

"Wait." I shot forward and grabbed her arm as she tried to walk off. "I'm sorry. I was just teasing. I'll get a summer job with you, if that's what you want."

She stared at me for a minute, as if weighing her options. "You owe me spicy potato chips."

I smiled and released her arm. "Of course." I sat back and patted the bed next to me.

She returned to her seat. "They have a position open for a part time cook, too, you know?"

"I don't know if I'm good enough to do anything like that," I said.

"You are," she said. "And it would be selfish of me to keep you my private chef forever."

I smiled. "Thanks. I'll try for it then. Why the sudden need for money, anyway? Something you want?"

"It's to save for later," she said. "I need a little something for when I move."

"Move?" I asked, my voice rising. "What? When? Why?"

She laughed. "Calm down. No need to panic. I mean, after we graduate and I move away from here."

My pulse quickened.

Was she serious? This was some sort of sick joke, right? Move away?

It never really occurred to me that she'd go anywhere. I thought things would stay pretty much the same after high school. Since neither of us had any aim for higher education, we'd both get jobs we'd hate and get together after work and on days off to complain about how crappy it was. I couldn't picture a future without her in it.

"Where would you go?" I heard my own voice tremble.

She smiled and shook her head. "Stop worrying. I won't go very far. We'd still see each other." She nudged me with her shoulder playfully. "I couldn't leave my wife behind."

I exhaled deeply and lay my head back against the wall with my eyes closed. My heartbeat started to slow.

"That joke still isn't funny." I opened one eye and looked at her. "You mean that, right? We'll still see each other?"