REALLY ✓

41: The Gone Guy

"But—" Gabe and I protested in unison.

"No buts. You're asking Maddie to the prom, Serrano. And you," Hallee motioned her finger to me, "Judah will be back before then. Have some faith in him, right?"

Faith... right.

*

After school that day, Hallee was busy with prom stuff as she was in the dance committee, and Gabe had to go home to record some Youtube stuff. All alone by lonesome, I found myself walking around Judah's neighborhood. I was just entertaining myself with the thought that I might run into him there.

Instead, I came across an old, familiar-looking playground next to an elementary school. This was the playground where Judah and I first became friends. Although, I suppose his name wasn't Judah then. The boy never told me his name though. He never said one word to me.

Yeah, I thought he was a weird kid. But I was also weird. So we matched.

"Come on, let's be princesses today. I'm gonna be Ariel," I remembered I told him once.

He never protested. He just quietly obeyed whatever it was I wanted to do that day. One time, he even let me paint his face with markers because I was trying to turn him into the Beast. We were re-enacting Beauty and the Beast that day.

Talk about best-friend material. Or boyfriend.

Remembering him like this got my heart aching. I missed him so bad. Yes, he had turned my life upside down. From lies, to fights, to love, and trust. But life without him was just no life at all.

The sun was setting now and I found myself wandering in front of Judah's house. I remembered the first time I came by here, asking for some extra-credit kissing lesson. Boy, was he shocked to see me.

I was amazed at how good he was at kissing. I had even wondered how he learned it or if anyone taught him, or if Ava was a good kisser too.

Sure, call me petty and jealous. But I'm a girl. Do the math.

"Taya?" Jenny's voice suddenly broke through my daydreaming. I didn't even realize that she was inside, looking right at me through the glass window.

Quickly, I mustered up a smile and a wave to her. She motioned her hand for me to come in and I replied with a nod.

"I didn't know you're coming over," she greeted me as she swung the front door open.

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on it," I said and I paused for a beat before saying, "Any word from Judah?"

"That's what I was about to ask you," she chuckled, with a glint of bitterness there.

"He only called once, three days ago. Left me a message, saying he was out of town and that he'd be back soon. Pretty much what he told you," she said again.

"I see,"

"Are you hungry? I'm about to make dinner," Jenny said as she turned towards the kitchen.

I ended up staying around for dinner. It was impossible to turn down dinner from Jenny as she was making her famous homemade pasta. And as she was cooking, she couldn't stop dishing out stories about Judah's childhood. At one point, Jenny even got out the old photo album. Judah would yell at her if he was here, sharing all his embarrassing moments to me. But I was loving this.

"That was him after he got chased by a goose at the lake," Jenny pointed to a photo where a little boy was crying his eyes out, clothes all torn and muddy.