Operation Beautiful

Chapter 46: we've thought about it, obviously...

Chapter 46: we've thought about it, obviously, but we haven't really discussed it

“So...what made you want to hang out at this absurdly early hour?” Trevor asks as we meander through the downtown sidewalks.

“Nothing. Just bored and I thought you’d be up. Heard anything from Haley yet?” We pause at a crosswalk.

“Yeah. She called last night when she landed and then again this morning.” He looks at me quizzically. “She said she was going to email everyone.”

“I haven’t checked, to be honest. I, uh, I took Emma ice skating yesterday.”

Trevor raises an eyebrow. “Really? Are you guys going out now?”

A grin breaks out on my face as I nod as nonchalantly as I can manage. “Pretty much. I had to sit through her dad’s grilling this morning.”

“Ouch,” Trevor says sympathetically. “Well, parents can go a little overboard sometimes.”

“Oh no!” I say quickly. “He was really nice about it, surprisingly.”

“Well, considering you were at the hospital with Emmaleigh more often than he was, it’s not too surprising,” Trevor points out. “Though that wasn’t really his fault.”

But the mention of my conversation with Mark makes me think of something else. “Hey...have you thought about next year?”

“What do you mean?” The signal for us to cross lights up and we begin to walk across the street, the incessant beeping of the signal following us.

“Where do you want to go to college?” I ask him.

Trevor barely considers the question. “Harvard, hopefully.”

“And Haley?”

He frowns for a moment, thinking about it. “She applied all over the place, but her mom wants her to stay close to home, even if she does stay in the dorms.” His face clears. “Oh! That’s what you’re worried about.”

I shrug. “Well, Em’s dad brought it up and I can’t stop thinking about it now.”

“Dude,” Trevor says, clasping me on the shoulder. “Stop. It’s March. You have plenty of time to think about this stuff. You and Emma got together this morning. Be happy for a little bit before you start worrying about something four/five months from now, okay? Let’s talk about something else.”

“Are you worried?” I ask.

“About what?”

“About you and Haley. If you’ll be in different states.”

Trevor stops me on the other side of the street, both hands on my shoulders. “Stop. Let’s talk about something else, okay?”

“Okay,” I say, trying to think of something else to talk about. Well, since we’re already talking about Haley... “Did Haley say anything interesting on the phone?”

He shakes his head. “No. She just wanted to tell me she’d reached. And then this morning she called to tell me that, uh...” he scratches the back of his head.

“That what?”

His words come out hastily, like he’s trying to reason away his sentimentality. “I gave her something that I thought would help with her nightmares and she called to let me know that it had worked.”

A curious smirk comes over my face. “Really? What did you give her?”

“Hey, look at that!” Trevor says quickly, pointing off into the distance.