In the blink of an eye, my entire youth seems to disappear as my last note to Ross demolishes into ashes over the fireplace. The phantom note calls for me to come and retrieve the words that once meant something. Now, my mind breaks down as my feet carry me as fast as possible upstairs and into my bedroom with the slam of the door.
I look around. Boxes tower to the ceiling. The mattress that once laid on the springs of my bed is rolled onto the floor. The glorious green walls are tattered and torn off the original layer. Childhood memories have been stored into one of the many boxes. I collapse onto the ground in tears. Cries escape my chest as fast as possible.
"Laura." Vanessa's voice echoes outside my bedroom door. "Can I come in?"
My voice staggers as I speak. "Y-yeah." The door creaks open, and in a matter of seconds, my sister has gone from being on her feet in the doorway to on her knees at my side. "Why aren't you mad at me? I'm leaving. Doesn't that upset you in the least?"
With her beaming smile, my sister shakes her head and gives me a warm hug. "If there's one thing I know, family doesn't have to worry that you won't return. You always return to family. Boyfriends will come and go, but family is forever."
"Why are you the logical one," I ask with a laugh. My voice is nearly breaking. My sister Vanessa always knows the right thing to say. If there's anything I'm going to look forward to when I come back to Los Angeles it's her.
"Because I'm going to college to become a therapist," Vanessa says with a scoff.
As I wipe the last of my tears away, her and I share a good laugh until I'm breaking down into tears once again. "Vee, I'm gonna miss you so damn much." Her and I hug once again and we pull back laughing for no reason whatsoever.
"I know what we can do," Vanessa says with a smile. The last time she wore that smile was right before we were grounded big time. Despite being grounded and all, it was one of my favorites times ever.
At the same time, her and I say with undying laughter, "Let's make Mom and Dad super angry one last time!" We get to our feet and race each other to our parent's room. Above the kingsized bed are the antique swords my parents got from the Renaissance Faire. That's actually how they met. Now it's an annual tradition.
I climb onto the bed and pull one of the swords from the metal stand on the plaque. Vanessa takes the other sword and we bound downstairs into the kitchen swinging at each other.
"My name is Iracebeth. You shoved the tart crumbs under my bed." I give my best battle cry the metal clashes together. "Prepare for my army."
"My name is Mirana," Vanessa replies and I duck below her swing. Instead her swing misses and knocks my mom's priceless vase onto the floor, shattering into a quintillion tiny little shards. "I see you are evil. Prepare to be stopped."
"Girls," I hear Mother from the living room. "What's going on in there? Are you playing around with your father and I's Renaissance Faire swords again? You do realize that those are priceless antiques. They've been preserved from the Renaissance Era itself."
Still, we proceed swinging at each other. "You said I ate the last tart!"
"And we are reciting lines from a movie," Vanessa chuckles. I hold my sword on her shoulder as we take a breath for a moment. "How desperate do we sound now?"
"Pretty desperate," I offer and raise my sword into the air with a smile painted across my face. In response, my sister smiles too. "Continue anyways?"
"Continue anyways," Vanessa declares, and swings at my side, I back into the drawers, most of which are open, and send the silverware clanging on the ground. At my feet the forks, knives, spoons and more scatter across the tile and chime as they hit the ground.
That's when our mother comes in, face red and hot as lava. With her unbeatable force, she removes the swords from our Vanessa and I's grip as she storms by. Her feet are like the thunder - loud and powerful. Her eyes are like lightning. "How many times have I told you, leave your father and I's swords alone?" As Mom raves on, my sister and I share a quick smile. "Just - ugh! Just clean up this mess."
Vanessa falls to her knees as she gathers the fallen silverware in her shirt. Meanwhile Mom gets a glass of water and then adds, "Laura, are you finished packing?"
I shrug a shoulder and sigh. "I still have pack my clothes and memory book." I drag my fingers down my eyes and storm upstairs to my room. I throw my drawers onto the floor and pile all of my clothes into a small box. In one of the drawers is my memory book which I flip through quickly.
I stop on the last page, where I find the picture I retrieved when scavenging through the box of photos of Ross. It's the one where him and I are hanging out in the treehouse a week before graduating. Sunlight radiates from our smiles. I still find it very hard to believe that this guy, the sweetest guy and safest driver I know is dead. Just like that. And I'm leaving.
I curl up into a ball and just rock back and forth against one of the boxes. I feel the pain for one last time. I erase every tear shedded in this room because of this summer. I efface the heartache, the depression, everything. Connecticut is on the other side of the country. Connecticut is my fresh start. I don't have to experience any of this again.
I feel my phone buzz in the back of my pocket. I reach for it and examine the notification on my screen. Maia has texted me. I read what she says:
Meet me outside in the treehouse, pronto.
My feet take off like a horse at the derby. The wild stallion inside me has taken over and makes my brain go spinning in circles. I don't even realize I've made it to the treehouse in just about a minute. I stop to catch my breath. I look around awaiting for some sort of remark to come screaming from inside the Lynch's house. Today, it's absolute silence. Even the crickets are too scared to make a sound.
With a grunt I pull myself up the rope ladder step by step. My arms climb higher with each second. Every moment, I'm a little farther away from the ground, but no matter what, I don't look down. My feet begin to cry when I reach the wood platform. Somehow, someone has managed to decorate the tree house with dim lanterns and cover the surface with rose petals. They weren't here when I came by a few hours before.
"Maia," I call out. My voice is quiet, but nevertheless trembling. You never know if the Lynches are preparing a sneak attack. There's no answer. Just solitude, and a soft rattling coming from the ceiling, which sound oddly close to crawling. "M-m-Maia, where are you?"
Slowly, I scamper over to my favorite spot in the treehouse - the corner, which now happens to be the only area not infested with lanterns and rose petals. Instead, my feet step on something else - a piece of creamy paper with words written perfectly in calligraphy. My eyes squint as I make out every word on the page.
Step 1: Lead the girl to believe you've disappeared. She'll be all sad and start coping with your "disappearance" by writing little notes to you in hopes that you'll read them.
Step 2: Lead the girl to believe that your mother is going to destroy your favorite place - in this case, it's a treehouse. She'll be set on saving it so she can hold onto your memory.
Step 3: Once you're sure that the girl is ready to save your favorite place, make sure your siblings reject her the same way people rejected ordering cookies from her in Girl Scouts. She'll be vulnerable and left alone to reflect on memories of you and her's relationship.
Step 4: Have the mother of your best friend push the girl to her breaking point by saying the one thing she refuses to believe - that you're 'dead.' She will lash out, probably say the theory is hogwash and storm out with her dignity intact.
Step 5: Have your favorite brother compose a response note that provides the one thing that is only between you and her - in this case, it the secret nickname you've given to her. She'll freak out, believing that you're on your way home and will hand it into the police department. Have a staged police officer turn her theory down and call you her and fiance and fiancee. She'll probably break down.
Step 6: Once the girl recognizes the handwriting is yours, she'll go and take out her anger on the one person she knows who could've wrote the note - your favorite brother. He will cover for you and claim he wants to be on team "save favorite place."
Step 7: Have the girl even more angrier at your favorite brother by having him ask her out on a date. If she says no and swears at him, you've completed this task successfully.
Step 8: The same night your favorite brother asks the girl on a date, have your light turned on and walk pass by so she'll get paranoid and then filled with doubt about your 'return.'
Step 9: Have the girl abandon the idea that you're still 'alive' by having your mother hand over a sacred text of yours - in this case, it's your journal. After having your mother bring up topics such as your 'funeral' and 'autopsy,' she will pass out.
Step 10: Make sure the girl finally agrees to go out on a date with your favorite brother.
Step 11: After a successful date, have your favorite brother invite the girl to a gathering with your siblings and best friend.
Step 12: Once you have her there, make sure your sister gives an insult, and your best friend breaks her that night by bringing up a memory that embarrasses her - in this case, it's prom. She has no idea that you know she wanted to be the one in your arms that night.
Step 13: Have your favorite brother and the girl argue. In result, they will kiss and thus a 'romance' will bloom.
Step 14: Have your mother actually almost go through with destroying your favorite place. She will read your journal and break down. In response, your mother will dig the real reason for her persistence on preservation. This will lead to, your favorite brother and the girl finally becoming a 'serious relationship' when they say they love each other.
Step 15: Have the girl believing she's spending a romantic week with your favorite brother but ends up having to spend the week with your mother and sister planning your 'funeral.'
Step 16: Have your sister pull a prank on the girl so she'll get angry and hurt her heal. At the hospital, she will receive a threatening text message from a mysterious number who just happens to be your ex-girlfriend. Little does she know, your ex-girlfriend has leant you her phone and that you're the one who actually wrote the text messages.
Step 17: Make sure one of the texts convinces her to break up with your favorite brother. She will become miserable.
Step 18: Have her convinced that your entire family now hates her.
Step 19: Get her into the place where it all began.
Step 20: Reveal yourself.
I feel a hard vibration on the platform. My body whirls around to see the last face I'd ever expect to see again. Ross Lynch. I collapse onto the floor. My throat is heavy. It feels as if there's a rock down in there. "You - you were dead. Now-now you-you're alive. W-why?"
"Because Laura," Ross says. His voice is low like the lights set out across the treehouse. I examine the scenery around me and take in every clue. It has almost every aspect of setting the mood for a fairytale proposal: the candlelight, the rose petals. The only thing missing is the suit. Ross steps into the light and I see he's wearing a suit and tie. That settles about everything.
"What the hell," I scratch under my breath. Ross's cold hands help me back to my feet. My thighs shake and he holds me close. Right there, I know that he isn't hugging me as a friend. Still, I'm already a step ahead of him. "You're proposing." Ross's eyes go wide but with a gleeful gleam in them. I give a slight smile back at him in response. "I'm going to Yale. I'm not an idiot. Although, I have one question - how can you propose to me if we haven't ever dated?"
Ross gets down a knee as he removes the velvet container from the pocket of his suit. "I know we've never dated, but I have always loved you. Before I met you, some part of me was empty, and now that you're here, I'm complete and I don't wanna live without you. Lauretta Scarlett Adela Marano, will you do me the greatest honor of becoming my wife?" After a second he adds, "Also, if you say yes, I will go with you to Yale."
My tears are so heavy, I can barely speak. I just nod yes and put my lips on his. Tenderness in greatness and beauty in the spark and magic. That's all there is to it.