“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Three weeks later…
I had gotten off the hook with my parents with a warning, surprisingly. I had to be home by nine every evening, but otherwise everything was well at home. My mom ignored me, and my dad was doing everything he could to get her to talk to me. He’d tell her things about how I made dinner that night or make suggestions that we go out to the zoo. The only reply he would get was a shrug. After a week of her silent treatment he gave up on the idea of getting her to talk, and soon our family dinners were eaten in complete silence except for the sound of our silverware hitting the plates.
I hadn’t seen too much of Dylan and Crispin over the three weeks, they had told me that they were busy with other things and would come see me as soon as they could. Dylan had gotten his haircut and looked like a completely different person. You could see his chocolate brown eyes and his squared jaw now. He had also turned the majority of his fat into muscle; he wasn’t the next Abercrombie & Fitch model, but he didn’t look half bad.
Crispin was the same as ever, he looked a little more tired than usual, but he explained that it was from all his all-nighters with Dylan. He would be leaving back for London in a few weeks, and was cramming as many things as he could into his schedule. We had gone to a waterpark one of the few times I saw them over the three weeks. Dylan and Crispin had enjoyed racing each other around the lazy river and down the waterslides while I had laid sunning myself on the lounge chairs by the wave pool; that is until they both decided to grab either end of the chair and dump me into the wave pool. When I had gotten out, it is safe to say I wasn’t a happy camper.
The other times that I had seen them we just walked around or sat at the dog park watching Chewbacca and Luke play together and sniff the other dogs. It was simple and relaxing. None of us were really up for any type of extravagant adventure like our previous one.
“You looking forward to go back to London?” I had asked Crispin one day when we were sitting at the dog park.
“Somewhat. I’ll miss you and Dylan though.”
“We’ll miss you too,” I gave him a reassuring smile.
“Speak for yourself,” Dylan sniffed. I elbowed him in the ribs, and laughed, and smiled at Crispin, “you know I’ll miss you.”
“How could you not miss this dashing face?” Crispin did a model-like expression which sent us all into a fit of laughter.
I hadn’t heard anything from Xana in weeks. Neither of us had attempted to contact one another, and when I had seen her in town in passing, we both acted like the other wasn’t even there. We had come to a mutual understanding that our friendship had ended. It wasn’t necessarily on bad terms, but it wasn’t like we were going to talk to each other anytime soon or make up. I wasn’t upset about it, and Xana would find a replacement for me easily.
Crispin and Dylan had asked a few times if I was still friends with Xana and I merely shrugged it off, saying that we hadn’t spoken to one another in a while, and were happier that way. Dylan and Crispin just nodded in response and went back to whatever they were doing at the time to annoy the other.
***
“You sure this is the right way?” I asked Dylan for what felt like the hundredth time that day. We were looking for a place to throw Crispin his farewell party. Although it would be us three and Cindy, we still wanted to do something special for Crispin to make him feel appreciated on his way home to London in a few weeks.
“Positive. Crispin and I come down here all the time,” Dylan responded, his voice filled with assurance.
“And what’s down here again?”
“Just a quiet picnic area that we liked to hang out at when you weren’t with us.”
“Because you knew I wouldn’t find you here?”
“No, because we knew you wanted to be alone,” Dylan countered, and stepped on the back of my shoes making me trip.
“You know that’s getting really old,” I grumbled, catching myself.
“For you maybe. It could entertain me for hours,” he grinned, and marched ahead of me.
We came to a clearing a few minutes later, leaving the unmarked trail through the tall grass behind us. In the middle of the clearing stood an old weather-warn picnic table. It had obviously been forgotten about when the parks around town had opened up, and with the wild plants overgrowing onto the path to the picnic area, it made it difficult to get to even if one was to remember there was such a place.
“Isn’t it awesome?” Dylan stood next to me, pride ringing in his voice.
“It looks like an old picnic table…” I said, not the least bit amazed.
“Party-pooper.”
“Whatever.”
We walked over to the picnic table and sat on the table instead of sitting on the benches that were alongside it. I was careful to make sure no rusty nails or screws were sticking out, and made myself comfortable. Dylan was seated next to me, and I put my arms behind me supporting my back.
“So this is where the party is going to be?” I inquired.
“Yep. Crispin will love it here.”
“Will Cindy like coming back here?”
“No, but this isn’t for my mom. It’s for Crispin.”
“How about getting all the decorations and food back here? Won’t that be a challenge?”
“We don’t need decorations. Just the atmosphere is more of a decoration than any balloon or streamer could be. Trust me, with this less is more.” Dylan said, looking up through the trees.
“Okay,” I said, and looked up through the trees too. “I can’t believe he’s leaving in two weeks.”
“Me neither. It feels like he’s been here since forever.”
I nudged Dylan with my elbow, giving him a questioning smile.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it feels like I’ve known him forever, like he’s grown up here, you know?”
“Yeah, it’s going to be hard to imagine life without Crispin once he leaves.”
“Yep.”
We sat in silence for a while, happy with just each other’s presences. Dylan and I had become close friends over the course of the summer, and even though we still argued like an old married couple, we were best friends. I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d want to be friends with. He and Crispin were really the definition of what a best friend should be. They both cared about me and each other and they were always happy, and didn’t complain about their life problems. It was a simple and fun friendship. We were all happy with it.
“I’m really going to miss him,” I sighed, and rested my head on Dylan’s shoulder.
“I know, me too,” Dylan ran his fingers through my hair in a soothing way. He continued to do that a few times, then I felt him pull my hair roughly, making my head jerk back.
“What was that for?” I yelled, standing up and looking at him. My face was a mask of anger.
“You had a tangle,” he laughed.
“I did not have a goddamn tangle. If I did you wouldn’t need to jerk my whole head all the way back.”
“True. I just wanted to be rough.” He winked.
“You like it rough?” I pushed him off the table and then ran down the trail we had come, laughing, and listening to his curses as he chased after me.
He soon caught up with me. The working out at the gym had been good for him. He was in better shape than I was. I guessed he purposely had taken his time coming after me; just to give me a sense of thrill. He held onto the backs of my arms, and picked me up, I kicked and squealed laughing.
“Put me down, Dylan!”
“Nope. I think I’m going to take you home with me,” he said, throwing me over his shoulder and walking back towards the dirt road we had taken to get to the picnic area.
“Come on, put me down. All the blood is rushing my head,” I complained as he continued to walk down the dirt road.
“Not until you guess the magic word.”
“Please put me down?”
“Nope.”
“Dylan is so much better looking than Crispin?”
“Is he?”
“Yes,” I grumbled.
“You got lucky this time,” he said putting me down on my feet, “next time flattery might not get you as far.”
***
The day of the farewell party it was my job to make all the food and bring it to the picnic area with the help of Cindy. Dylan was in charge of keeping Crispin busy, which wouldn’t be too hard since they both had a knack for getting into trouble.
I had prepared potato salad, barbequed chicken, pasta salad, burgers, hot dogs, and a few other snacking foods for the party. Cindy would be by in a few minutes to drive it over to the picnic area where we would set it all up. Since it was just the four of us there wasn’t much need for a lot of food, or preparation time.
I had just finished putting the last of the pasta salad into its rightful container when Cindy knocked on the door. I quickly ran to the door, and she stood there, a smile on her face. She was dressed in a long pink sundress and flat sandals. Her hair was pulled loosely into a bun. She had a big smile on her face.
“Ready to go, sweetheart?”
“Yep, come on in. There isn’t too much food, we should be able to get it all to the picnic table in two trips,” I left the door open and Cindy followed me back to the kitchen.
“That’s quite a bit of food you have, it looks like you’re feeding an army,” she joked, and inspected the food.
“The way Dylan and Crispin eat it is like feeding an army,” I laughed, and pulled out four paper bags and started putting the containers that held the food into the bags.
“True, I can’t believe how much weight Dylan has lost though since he started going to the gym with Crispin. He looks like a new man.” Cindy started helping me put the food into the bags.
“He does. The haircut really helped too.”
“Yeah. I always hated how long he wore his hair. It looked… unhealthy. Maybe that’s just the mother in me or something,” she laughed, picking up a bag of food and heading towards the front door.
“No, it did look unhealthy. He looked like he should have been living on the streets or something.” I followed her out of the house and to her car. Her car was small and silver. It looked like a newer model only a few years old and barely driven. She opened the trunk and we put the bags of food into it. There were rolls of streamers and a sign occupying one corner.
“I thought Dylan said no decorations,” I questioned.
“He did, but he’s a man, he knows nothing,” Cindy sighed and headed back up the front porch steps.
Once we had the car packed with the food and beverages Cindy drove us to the where the forgotten picnic area was. It would be a little less than an hour until Dylan arrived with Crispin. Dylan had decided to take Crispin out to the beach to go looking for seashells and “beach babes” as he had said.
The finished product of our decorating the picnic area was simple but nice. The sign hung on the front of the table reading “We’ll miss you Crispin!” The streamers were hanging from the tree branches. After throwing them multiple times in hopes that they’d hang nicely, we had decided it’d be easier if I were to climb the trees and hang them by hand. Cindy was not for me climbing a tree in flip-flops and a skirt, but it had to be done.
“This looks amazing,” Cindy gushed, putting an arm around me and giving me a tight hug.
“It does, doesn’t it?” I smiled, returning the hug.
Over the past few weeks Cindy and I had become close. She was like a mother to me, I went to her when things were bothering me, or just to talk about things I didn’t want to talk about with Crispin or Dylan. She would listen patiently, give a bit of advice when needed or laugh along with me when it was impossible not to.
I had changed a lot over the past few months. I wasn’t the same Aislinn I was at the beginning of the summer. I wasn’t uptight and worried about what everyone was thinking about me. I didn’t buy name brand clothes anymore, nor did I buy the clothes that everyone else was wearing. I had completely redone my wardrobe. Cindy had gone out with me to the mall one weekend and with the money I had been saving for the past couple of years I bought things I actually really liked that I thought I would never wear before. I felt happier wearing these clothes than my old ones.
My diet had ended not even three days after the incident with the police. I was now eating plenty of simple carbs and had put on almost all the weight I had lost when I had started the carb-free diet. I had ended up joining the same gym Crispin and Dylan were attending and was in better shape that I had ever been which made me feel even better about myself and healthier. A crash diet is not something that makes you feel happy or even healthy.
The biggest change within me was that I wasn’t serious anymore. I constantly joked. I was laid back and could come up with witty remarks when Crispin or Dylan poked fun at me. I could laugh at myself as well as laugh along with others. If someone had told me six months ago that I would meet two people that were going to change my life for the better, I would have never believed them. This was by far the best thing anyone could hope for.
The time flew by fast, and it was only minutes before Crispin would be arriving, Cindy and I took our places hiding behind trees. We waited until we heard Dylan talking really loud and knew they would be in the clearing in seconds. When I heard Crispin let out a surprised “oh” Cindy and I jumped out from our hiding places yelling surprise.
“My god you scared me!” Crispin laughed, “What’s this?”
“Your going away party,” Cindy said, coming over and giving him a hug.
“You didn’t have to throw me a party,” Crispin scolded lightly. It was obvious he was excited about this though. His eyes gleamed with happiness.
“We wanted to though,” I smiled, giving him a hug.
“You did pretty well with the decorations,” Dylan said, walking around looking up at the streamers, “How’d you get the streamers up there?”
“Aislinn climbed the trees,” Cindy said following Dylan’s gaze.
“She climbed a tree?” Dylan stared at me in disbelief.
“Yep,” I smiled, crossing my arms in front of my chest, gloating.
“Learn something new every day,” he mumbled to himself and headed over to the table to look at the food.
“The food looks delicious,” Crispin commented, “can we start eating?”
“No, it’s just there to look pretty,” I said, my voice thick with sarcasm. Crispin laughed and sat down at the table, I sat next to him and Cindy and Dylan on the other side.
The meal was good, as well as the conversation during it. We recounted our favorite parts of the summer and our not so favorite parts.
“I still can’t believe you ran away from that cop,” Dylan laughs, putting more chicken onto his plate.
“I panicked okay?” I laughed.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on both of your faces,” Crispin piped up, “Dylan was so angry and Aislinn, you were scared and angry.”
“What about you? You looked like a deer in the headlights!” I laughed.
“Hey, I was just worried about getting deported back to England,” he shrugged.
“Suuuure.”
“How about some cake?” Cindy asked, heading over to the mini folding table we had brought.
Cindy had made a beautiful cake for this occasion. It was marble with white frosting and “We’ll miss you” written in blue frosting. Small flowers made out of different colored frosting were perfectly placed on the cake. Crispin stared at the cake, wonderment decorated his face.
“Did you make this, Cindy?” he asked, surprised.
“Yep,” she smiled proudly, “do you like it?”
“I love it, thank you,” he said gratefully.
Cindy placed the cake in front of him and began to cut it. As she was removing the piece of cake from the trey Crispin coughed.
“You okay?” Dylan asked concern heavy in his voice.
“Fine,” Crispin replied between coughs.
“Want some water?” I asked, heading over to the mini cooler that held a water bottle.
Crispin was coughing too hard to respond. He kept coughing, it sounding like there was liquid in his lungs, then it happened. Crimson red liquid came out of his mouth and into his hands, and he kept coughing it up.
“Oh my God!” I gasped, covering my mouth, “he needs to get to a hospital.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Dylan said, pulling Crispin roughly to his feet, and walked towards the road, Cindy and I trailing behind.
(Dun dun dun~ Cliff hanger. Okay, next chapter will be the last chapter, then there is an epilogue, and then a short authors note about the inspiration for this story, blah blah blah. I know you're probably going to say this is a rushed ending, but just a reminder, this is a rough draft so I know it probably isn't the best paced of endings. Okay don't want to bore you anymore! Comment, and maybe I'll update faster(; vote too!)