Luke
"Hey, Luke?" Miles asked as we finished washing the dishes from dinner.
"What's up?"
"Mother's Day is Saturday... I was thinking we should do something for your mom," he suggested, rinsing the last pan and handing it to me to dry.
"That's a great idea, bro. Do you have any ideas?" I wiped my hands on the dry towel, throwing it onto the counter.
"Not really..." Miles said. "I haven't had a mom to celebrate Mother's Day with in a long time."
I nodded. "We'll think of something good. We have the rest of the week."
"Miles, have you spoken to William?" I asked, perching on a stool at the counter. I wasn't sure what to call him anymore – "your father" didn't seem right anymore, but I sure as hell wasn't going to use the word "our."
He laughed out loud, grabbing a cookie from the plate on the counter. "Fuck no. I'd rather lick the sidewalk."
I wrinkled my nose. "That's disgusting."
"So is he." He sighed. "He's called me every day since Saturday, and I've just let it go to voicemail."
"I don't blame you."
"Well, you shouldn't. Because honestly, you have more of a reason to be pissed than I do," Miles said, and I considered this.
"I see your point," I agreed, nodding slowly. "I could fucking kill him for what he did to my mother."
"He's evil," Miles said, brushing crumbs off the counter into his hand and tossing them in the trash can.
"You know, it makes me wonder what else he's done and gotten away with," I mused.
Miles shrugged. "Honestly there's no telling."
"And I also wonder... did your mother know any of this?" I asked.
Miles shook his head vehemently. "No way. There's no way she would've known about this and let him get away with it. She was a saint."
"I wish she were still here... it would make things a lot easier on you," I said.
"Yes and no... I'd have her to fall back on, but all of this would break her heart."
"True. How's Rachel doing with all this?" I asked, folding and unfolding the placement in front of me.
"She's bothered by it... I can tell. It really hurts my heart because I can't help but feel like she looks at me differently now."
"Why do you say that?"
"I don't know... sometimes I'll catch her looking at me with this inexplicable look on her face."
"That doesn't mean she sees you any different, Miles. She loves you."
"I know..." But he still looked troubled.
Brooke
The gulf breeze blew my hair over my shoulders as I jogged down the beach, my bare feet slapping the sand.
I hadn't intended on jogging, but when I started walking, I just couldn't stop myself. My ankles were probably going to kill me later. I had almost reached my house when I saw Rachel out on the sand.
I waved at her and she waved back, half-heartedly.
When I reached her, I pulled my earbuds out of my ears and kissed her cheek. "Hey Rach," I greeted her, out of breath.
"Hey Brookie," she responded, and her voice was dull.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting down on the sand and pulling her down next to me.
She shrugged. "I don't know."
"Come on... you can tell me."
Her head snapped toward me. "I can't... because I honestly don't know. Something just feels off..."
I sighed. "Look, Rachel, it's May 9th. We graduate in 16 days. That's enough to make anyone have an existential crisis – then you add all the other stuff that's going on: finding out that Luke and Miles are brothers, that William is a rapist, not to mention the fact that your brother was killed 8 months ago in an unsolved vehicular manslaughter. Your life hasn't exactly been easy since September."
She raised her eyebrows. "I didn't think of it that way."
"I didn't figure you had..." I said, winking.
"There's one other thing that's been bothering me..." she started, trailing off.
"What's that?" I asked, picking up a handful of sand and letting it fall through my fingers.
She inhaled slowly. "I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"... of how much I love Miles."
I looked at her, my eyes searching her face for any trace of jest. I didn't see any. "What do you mean? Why would you be scared of that?"
She stood up, pacing in front of me, throwing her hands in the air as she spoke. "Because of what you just said, Brooke – we graduate in 16 days."
I stared at her blankly. "So?"
She rolled her eyes. "So! Everything is going to change! We won't be students at Bay High anymore and living with our families. We will be on our own... in college."
"I'm still not understanding you, Rachel. You and Miles both want to go to college, right?"
She nodded. "But I decided to go to Florida State."
"Ahhh," I said, finally understanding what she was saying. "And Miles is going somewhere else."
She held her hands out, palms up in a "duh," gesture. "Yes."
"Have you guys even talked about this?" I asked, suddenly glad Luke and I were both staying in town to go to Gulf State for at least the first year.
She shook her head. "No. I've been too afraid to bring it up. The last I heard, he was going to Bama to play baseball. But we haven't actually talked about it. So I've just been stewing on it. And it's getting to me."
"You have to talk to Miles about this, Rachel. I'm sure he's noticed that something is off. You don't want him getting the wrong idea."
She nodded. "You're absolutely right. I'm going to go to talk to him right now. Thank you, Brookie." She hugged me swiftly and ran up the sand dune to her car.
Rachel.
As soon as I got in my car, I called Miles.
"Hey baby," he greeted me, his voice husky. I felt my stomach flip.
"Hey... can you meet me?" I asked, hating how desperate I sounded.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice raising an octave.
"Yes – yes. I just need to talk to you."
"Okay... our place?"
"Perfect. See you in 10."
***
When I walked down to the beach at St. Andrews, Miles was already sitting on the wooden chair where we had almost had our first kiss.
I snuck up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing his cheek.
"Oh – hey you," he said, turning and kissing me deeply, and I realized right then that he was struggling as much – or more – as I was.
"Mmm," I hummed against his mouth, breaking the kiss reluctantly. If we kept that up, I wouldn't be using my mouth for talking.
"You look beautiful," he said, his eyes roaming over me.
I wasn't wearing anything special – just some leggings, a Pineapple Willy's t-shirt, and black flip-flops. "Thank you, babe. You too." I glanced at his bare sandaled feet and winked. "Thanks for not wearing socks," I teased.
He laughed. "So what's up? What did you need to talk about?"
I took a deep breath. "I wanted to talk about us," I started, and the horrified look that crossed his face made me realize that probably wasn't the right choice of words. "No – no!" I exclaimed, putting my hands on his cheeks, feeling his stubble under my fingers. "Not like that."
He breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't scare me like that," he said, running his hands down his face.
"Sorry. No... I wanted to talk about college."
"Oh. College... what about it?"
"Well, we haven't talked about it at all... So I guess we could start at the beginning... where are you going?" I asked, biting the inside of my cheek.
"Well, I haven't committed yet, but the plan has been the University of Alabama," he said, and my heart sank. "What about you?"
"I got a free ride to Florida State..." I said, trailing off, my eyes filling with tears.
"That's great, baby. Why haven't you told me this before?" he asked, taking my hand.
I looked at him incredulously. "Miles. Where is the University of Alabama?"
"Uh, Tuscaloosa?"
"Okay. And where is Florida State?"
"Tallahassee, I think?"
"Right," I said, nodding slowly, waiting for him to connect the dots.
"I don't understand the issue," he said.
I huffed, pulling my hand from his and standing up, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I typed something into Google.
"Tuscaloosa is five and a half hours from Tallahassee," I said, holding my phone out so he could see.
He looked at the phone and then to me, and finally, he understood. "Oh."
"What are we doing, Miles? We graduate in 16 days, then we have a couple months of summer, then it's off to college – off to a new life. And you're going to go be a big shot baseball player at Bama, meeting girls left and right. Meanwhile, I'll be at Florida State double majoring in English and Pre-Law, only going out to go to the library – back to my old nerdy self." I was babbling, and he was watching me with amusement on his face. "What could possibly be funny right now?"
He stood up, taking both of my hands in his. "There's an easy solution to this, Rachel."
A bark of laughter escaped my throat. "There is? Really?"
"Mmhmm. It just so happens that I was also accepted to Florida State."
"That's not an easy fi—" I started, then I realized what he had said. "Excuse me?"
He grinned, his white teeth nearly sparkling in the dusky sunset light. "I got accepted to Florida State," he repeated. "They offered me a baseball scholarship too."
My breath caught in my throat and I think my heart stopped. "They did?" I whispered.
He closed the gap between us, brushing a tear away that had fallen onto my cheek. "Yeah. And I haven't signed anything with Bama. I don't care where I go to college, Rachel. A state school is a state school. They both have civil engineering programs. I just want to be with you," he murmured, running his hand through my hair. "All you had to do was ask, baby."
My heart started again – and I felt my apprehension dissipate.
He kissed me for a moment but then looked at me searchingly. "Is this what's been bothering you?"
I nodded. "Yeah... I didn't want to bring it up because you already had enough on you."
"Well, I'm glad you did. I'll call the recruiter from FSU tomorrow morning. Consider it done."
I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Now, instead of dreading May 25, I was ready.
"I love you more than you'll ever know," I whispered.
"Oh believe me... I know," he breathed, kissing me again.