ᴊᴜɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴏɴᴅ ʙᴏʏ
"june, wait!"
i ignored james' calls for me as i began walking down the street. the anger inside me scorched so hot that i didn't even know what to do with myself. i felt betrayed by both of the boys i cared about most.
i stomped my way home, tearing the graduation gown off somewhere along the way. once i made it to my house, i noticed my uncle's car in the driveway, signaling that they'd already gotten home, probably because i told them i'd just get a ride home from hayden or james.
my walk home was fueled with anger but as soon as i shut the front door behind me i slid down to the floor and cried out of exhaustion, confusion and pure sadness from tonight's events.
"june?" i heard my uncle's voice through the hallway. a few seconds later i was being pulled into his arms and having a full on mental breakdown. "i know, it's okay." he whispered while stroking my hair.
suddenly a familiar sense of comfort washed over me.
two strong arms wrapped around my waist and sat me gently on the ground behind the stand to rest for a second. i couldn't even tell who it was, but the voice instantly told me.
"i know, i know." james whispered as i buried my face into my hands and sobbed.
remembering the small moment between james and i at my mother's funeral only made me cry more.
after a few minutes of crying in taylor's arms, he told me to go upstairs to my room and he'd have tracy bring up some dinner and medicine for a headache that i'd probably have later from all the crying. i didn't say anything else as i walked up the stairs, but my heart swelled up at the love my uncle showed me just a second ago. i'd never felt that kind of love from a man before. not from my dad, not even russell. it really made me think about tracy and taylor's relationship. they'd been together since before i was even born, and they've had no problems since.
after i got up to my room, i got the perfect chance to ask about it, because my aunt walked in with a plate of food and some water. "thanks." i said. my voice was hoarse from how dry all the crying made my throat.
"mhm." she smiled softly at me, placing it on my bedside table followed by some medicine. she opened the door to leave but turned back when i spoke up. "hey tracy?"
"yeah?"
"can you um.. just like— tell me a little bit about you and uncle taylor?" i asked. she broke out into a grin and hopped on my bed next to me.
"okay, so it was 1960. just two years before you were born." she said. i nodded and adjusted on the bed to listen more intently as she told me all about her and my uncle's love story.
"so your mom, grandpa, grandma and i all went to new york that year to spend christmas. it was grandma's idea 'cause she thought it would all be rainbows and sunshine, but it actually began disastrously. once we got off the plane in new york, all our luggage got lost and so— yeah, that was a whole thing." she waved her hands around as she spoke.
"anyways, so then it took like twenty minutes to find our luggage, then another forty-five minutes to find the stupid taxi that was supposed to take us to our hotel— which was also a complete disaster. when we got there, the receptionist had just started working there and so she sucked ass at the job, and put our names in wrong and told us we didn't even have a room, sooo... yeah. then we got that all figured out and it was pretty late in the day once we finished dealing with all that bullshit, but i was so eager to get out and see stuff while your mom just moped around in the hotel room, upset over some boy who lied to her or something." she paused and took a deep breath. i played with my shoelaces while i thought about how similar my mom's situation might've been to mine.
"so i went out to this cute little diner while loren's lazy ass stayed in and ordered room service." i laughed loudly at that. "and i'm actually kinda glad i went alone, cause as i was sitting there..." she lowered her voice and leaned in a bit. the suspense was killing me. "then this guy pops up and he's like 'hey, what're you doing alone?'" i bursted out in laughter again.
"okay, okay, that's not what he really said." she admitted. "he complimented my jeans— and they were actually your mom's jeans that i stole from her, but i wouldn't tell him that after he complimented them! anyway, so i said thank you, then blah blah blah, we shared some small talk, then we decided to take a walk around the park, and eventually he told me that he was an artist who was like— touring the world or some crazy shit like that." she said. "anyways, skipping to a few days later, we began talking more and more and i actually fled the christmas party so i could see him again. and boy, i'm glad i did." she said. i widened my eyes. "what? what happened?!" i pushed her to go on.
"he told me that he was leaving to go to europe." my mouth fell open. "and so of course, i was heart broken. i felt played and completely betrayed— yes, by this random dude i met like three days ago, but that's not the point! i thought we'd fall in love and have children."
"and you did." i said. "without the children, at least." she nodded. "anyway, so that's where i revealed that i wasn't actually from new york, so he turned the tables on me and made me seem like the bad guy when really—"
"you were the bad guy." another voice came from the doorway. we both whipped our heads around to see taylor standing there with a grin on his face. "hey, get out!" she threw a pillow in his direction. "you're interrupting girl time." she said.
my uncle put his hands up in defense and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"...aaaanyway. so he left for europe and we left to go back home and even though i never expected to see him again, i gave him my phone number." she paused.
"then what?"
"then just a few days later i got a call saying someone was coming back to america, specifically..." she cleared her throat. "the bay area." she emphasized.
"oh my god." my mouth fell agape.
"so once he got here we started hanging out again, and we started going steady for about two months 'til he told me that he had to fucking leave again." she rolled her eyes. "and this time it was for a year."
"nuh-uh." i shook my head. "yes! i was devastated. heart-broken. completely gut-wrenched. it was horrible. so i acted like i was okay with it for a few days, but eventually it got to me and i told him that maybe we should just break up, cause i didn't think i could be away from him that long." she took the water from my nightstand and took a long sip. "and for some reason he agreed a little too easily which seemed a little weird to me but... whatever... so yeah he left and then when he came back, things just weren't the same. i started college and he was doing all his crazy art shit, so it just didn't work, and we cut off contact for like six years,"
my mouth fell wide open. i never knew about all this stuff. i'd always thought they were the only functional relationship in our family.
"but one day we crossed paths again, and the spark that was there when we were teenagers suddenly appeared again. it was like right when i laid eyes on him for the first time in six years my soul left my body and rose to the heavens. of course i didn't show that to him, cause i was worried he forgot about me or he was living in the suburbs, happily married with three children and a dog, but he wasn't. so we had dinner that night and then everything fell back into place..."
"from there, we swore that we'd make it work, even if the difference in our lifestyle tried keeping us apart."
"wow." i shook my head in amazement. i hoped to find a love like that one day. a love so strong that nothing could get in the way of it. a love strong enough that it could break through 'the way life goes' bullshit.
"wait and you said it all started just two years before i was born?" she nodded. "so when you guys reunited i was like.. five years old?"
"mhm." she hummed.
"oh." i shrugged. "i thought you guys were married like— before i was even born."
"probably cause i never shut up about him. i was so pissed that your mom and i switched places. she was always the hopeless romantic and i was the romeo and juliet typa girl, then she met— this guy, and i was still on about this random dude i met on our christmas vacation five years before."
"my dad?" i asked.
she nodded. "it was.. before.. you know." i nodded in understanding. "now im gonna go heat this up again, it's probably cold." she grabbed the plate from my nightstand and left the room, leaving me to reflect on her love story.
if it weren't for how drained i was i probably would've cried even more from how miserable her story made me. it was a beautiful story, but it only reminded me that i wouldn't find a love like that. i swore the universe had been against me as soon as i turned nine years old.
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