The summer we turned thirteen (Published)

Chapter twenty-one: Unforgettable memories

James

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"Okay, I'm in,"

I told Harlee as the two of us sat on my lawn.

Much to my surprise, she wasn't angry at me for the incident at the Dairy Jester earlier that week. When I came home from the arcade Friday evening, she was waiting for me in my living room.

Stupidly, I ran her away at first with my rude attitude towards her. She literally ran out of my house but only got as far as my front yard. Because I followed her, and then I apologized fervently for the way I'd been treating her lately.

Thankfully, she told me there was a way I could reconcile things.

Then she proposed a sort of truce for all the drama that had unfolded between us recently. She had created a list of some of our most memorable times together during our birth weeks from years past.

And now, she wanted to relive them.

I agreed to it for a plethora of reasons, but the main one was probably evident.

After all, it had been plaguing me the entire day.

The entire time she and I had been apart, it had been plaguing me.

I missed having Harlee Ramirez in my life.

Terribly.

And if this was my opportunity, to at least try and make things right with her, I knew I ought to take it.

After I agreed, our phones buzzed simultaneously. We unlocked eyes and looked down at them. It was a group text from Evan that read:

Party is postponed until Thursday, everybody! My dad is taking me for a helicopter ride tomorrow! Yeet!

Harlee laughed and said,

"Typical Evan to postpone a party the night before it's supposed to happen. I guess we'll have to reschedule our week together 'til the week after so the party won't be in the way."

"Typical Evan, to end a rescheduled invite text with the word yeet," I remarked.

She giggled, and I smiled at her, feeling a bit relieved.

With everything that had been going on, I hadn't been in the headspace to put much thought into Evan's gift. This would give me more time to pick out a better one for him.

I voiced this to Harlee,

"I'm glad they rescheduled. It'll give me time to pick out a better gift for him."

Harlee nodded like she understood.

"Yeah, Rachel and I just got his gift today. He wants her to come to the party too. So, we got him one together since she and I are going to it together. What did you do today, James?" she asked me.

"Um...I just...you know, stuff." I shrugged.

The idea of Harlee finding out I'd spent the day with Hyland made me feel sick inside. I just knew she would be deeply hurt if she found out I was spending time with someone new while avoiding her.

Fortunately for me, she didn't ask anything else about my day.

Instead, she asked me,

"Do you remember the first time we talked at our windows after finding out we were neighbors?"

A smile spread across my face at the vivid memory.

Instantly, my mind flashed back to that day.

The summer we spent at Fairington had come to a close in early July.