Chapter Text
My sophomore year of high school ended on a bright, cloudless day in the middle of June. It was hot, as East Highland is always hot in the summer. The bell sang its shrill song, and the dam burst. A thousand pairs of feet surged into the corridors. I never stood a chance. A great tidal wave of students swept me up in its current. I was buoyed, helpless as a child, towards the nearest exit. There, as we stepped out, I was able to break from the horde. I stood still for a moment and breathed in a cool breeze. Then I got moving again.
I weaved through the exterior pathways, sheltered from the blazing sun by dense concrete, dented in some places and cracked in others, above my head. Everything in East Highland is either cracked or dented. Or both. I’ve never minded it, though. It was only a short walk to the bike racks on the far side of the building.
Rue was there waiting when I ducked under the poly-carbonate shelter. She leaned against a metal post. Her bike was lying at her feet. “You’re late,” she said. Blunt, as always. I have known Rue for half a decade, but that time has bought me neither patience nor sweet words. Rue is Rue, and I have learned to accept that.
She was wearing the hoodie again, the maroon and well worn garment that had once belonged to her late father.
My jacket was black. One thing you should probably know about me, I almost exclusively dress in black, or dark shades of gray or navy. I’m not some goth or anything. I just like dark colors. Of course, if you're a goth, that's fine. I don't judge.
My sweatpants were also black. The three stripes at my waistband continued up the side and underarms of my jacket.
I neither like nor understand high fashion. Nike and Adidas, or their ilk, are more than fancy enough for me. I’ve never really understood the need to get all dressed up for school. It’s hardly a formal event. Though, when it is a formal event, I go hard. One day, inevitably, somebody will invite me to their wedding, and I will look like Bruce Wayne. Fucking stylish.
But anyway, back to Rue.
“By, like, two minutes,” I said. I crouched and slung my backpack off one shoulder.
“I don’t care by how long. Next time, I leave you.” An empty threat she has made near on a thousand times and never once followed up on. I doubt she ever will.
The zip of my backpack’s front pocket came apart with a loud ripping sound. I plucked out the key and inserted it into the lock of my bike. One twist and it came apart. I placed both lock and key back into the pocket and zipped it once more. Rising to my feet, I put my arms through the backpack straps again. “Right,” I said, my mouth melding into the faintest of curves. “Of course you will.”
Rue’s eyes narrowed into a glare, but she did not deign to respond. She bent, lifted her bike to a standing position, and swung one long, denim clad leg over the frame. Rue’s pretty tall. I mean, not quite as tall as me, but close. “Come on,” she said.
I mirrored her position and put my sneakers to the pedals. It was slow going at first as we maneuvered our way off of campus. As soon as we hit the street, our pace picked up.
East Highland isn’t a coastal town, but it is close enough to the Pacific that seagulls are not a rare sight. It would almost look idyllic, from a distance. In the nicer neighborhoods, the streets are lined with trees and the lawns are well maintained.
Neither of us wore a helmet. Call it the folly of youth, I don’t know. If Lexi was there, she would have insisted upon it. Neither of us would have listened to her. We never have. While I wouldn’t describe myself as a rebel, wearing a bulky helmet to ride a bike is a step too far for even me.
“I told her we’d be there by four,” Rue said, as though she could read my mind. She has always been eerily good at that.
Rue and Lexi are both my best friend. I would be hard pressed to choose between them. I guess I owe Cassie for both of them. We’ll get to Cassie, don’t worry.
At the corner, Rue cut across a short stretch of suspiciously stiff lawn. “You really shouldn’t do that,” I said disapprovingly.
She scoffed. “Grow up.”
“I’m just saying… it’s disrespectful.”
“It’s fucking grass.”
“Technically, it isn’t. AstroTurf is composed of synthetic fibers… it’s basically plastic.”
“I didn’t ask for the lecture.”
I felt myself smile. “And yet you enjoyed learning anyway.”
Rue was silent for a long moment, before, “shut up.”
I absolutely love a fun fact, and have amassed a library in my mind of trivial knowledge that is largely useless in day to day life. You never know, though. It may come in handy one day.
***
The road splits as it nears the Howard house, curving inwards and running parallel with itself on its way to the garage. The front door step meets it, its lip lying mere inches from the asphalt.
By nightfall, the three of us were huddled on that doorstep. The sound of heavy rain buffeting against the wooden overhang was oddly calming. I have always liked rain.
The two of them pressed in close on either side of me. It was a little cramped, but I was okay with that. I have whatever the opposite of claustrophobia is. Claustrophilia, I guess. Enclosed spaces have never bothered me. As long as it is wide enough to turn around, I’m good.
“Wait,” Lexi said, leaning back on her hands. “Where are you going?
“The Yukon,” I answered.
“Like Canada?”
“You know another Yukon?”
“There’s a Yukon in Florida,” Lexi said. She looked extremely pleased to know something I did not. “It’s basically a ghost town now, but George Smoot was born there.”
“Like the scientist?”
“You know another George Smoot.”
I sighed, my shoulders slumping. “Canada,” I confirmed.
A stirring to my left. “For two months?” It was the first thing Rue had said in at least an hour.
I turned my head to look at her. Rue’s eyes are brown, but sometimes I think I see something else in there. Hazelnut, maybe. Whatever it is, it is lighter. “Yeah,” I said with a nod.
The corner of Rue’s mouth twitched. “That’s cool,” she said, suddenly seeming very interested in the nearest puddle. It reflected the headlights and vibrant paint job of a passing car. Whatever front she put on, I could tell she was affected, at least a little, by my nearing absence.
“I’ll be back before our junior year,” I assured her. But I won’t be back for Cassie’s birthday… I won’t be able to ask her to dance with me.
“Mars,” Lexi said suddenly. Her tone was careful. “Are you sure you’re the kind of guy your uncle wants working in a quarry?”
Mars. Oh, yeah. Now would probably be a good time to tell you that my name is Marston. Yes, Marston. And, yes, before you ask, my parents are incredibly pretentious. Their only son couldn’t have a common, normal name. No, it had to be special. If you think my name is funny, that’s okay. Everyone at school certainly found it funny. Until Maddy got to them, I guess.
It was Cassie who started calling me Mars. Lexi had adopted it soon after. Marston is the name of an eighty year old lawyer, not a teenage boy.
I felt my shoulders tense. “Why not me?” I asked curtly. I was prepared for this question. Of course it was coming.
“I don’t know,” Lexi said slowly. “Just that you’re kinda, you know…”
“Scrawny,” Rue finished for her.
“I am not scrawny,” I insisted. Not for the first time.
“Your arms are skinnier than mine are,” Rue pointed out. Her voice was dry, without a single trace of irony or jest.
Lacking a proper retort for that, I settled for a glare.
Before Rue could say anything more, Lexi cleared her throat. She pushed a strand of brown hair off of her shoulder. “It just… it sounds like a physical job.”
“I can handle physical. Just you watch. When I come back, I’ll be so jacked. Rocks are heavy.”
Rue scoffed again. She has an annoying habit of finding everything I say comically ridiculous. “You are literally going to die. But, hey… at least Cassie will look pretty crying at your funeral.”
Lexi exhaled, retreating from the conversation.
Despite myself, I perked up. “Crying, really?” I asked. Too eager. “You think so.”
Rue gave me a long, pitying look. “You’re pathetic.”
“So I’ve been told.” By you, constantly, went unsaid. “Now answer the question.”
“Yes, you freak. She’d probably be crying.”
I nodded, satisfied. “Good… that’s good.”
“You’re not going to die, Mars,” Lexi said.
I managed a weak smile. “Thanks.”
“So, what,” Rue said, raising a knee to rest her chin on it. “You come back, you’re all strong, and you think Cassie will magically want you?”
I shrugged. “Stranger things have happened.”
Rue’s brow furrowed, as though I have just said something deeply stupid. “You couldn’t get a girl like Cassie in a million years.”
When Lexi sighed again, it was louder and more pointed. “Are we seriously having this conversation again?”
“Yes,” Rue and I said at the same time.
Lexi sighed for a third time.
“We’ll keep having this conversation until he stops being delusional,” Rue continued.
“I am not delusional,” I said firmly.
“While you’re freezing to death in Colorado, Cassie is going to see a thousand guys here. Guys who are already hot in real life, not their fantasies.”
“Canada.”
Rue exhaled. “That isn’t the point of the fucking sentence.”
“You know what, Rue?” I said quietly.
“What?”
“When I come back, and I look like Superman, I’m not even going to say ‘I told you so’.”
Rue tilted her head to one side. “When you come back, and you still look like a scrawny nerd, I am going to say ‘I told you so’.”
***
Near midnight, Lexi hugged me and slipped inside. As Rue and I mounted our bikes, the door opened again. “Mars?” This voice was smaller, softer, and achingly familiar.
I glanced at Rue. “Um, go on ahead,” I said. “I’ll catch up.” Rue gave me a skeptical look, but rode away. I turned my gaze to the girl on the doorstep.
Bathed in the golden glow of the porch light and backed by dark wooden paneling, Cassie Howard looked, as she so often does, like an angel. Her hair was still damp and dark from the shower. Her pajamas were a pink so pale it was almost absent. They looked soft. All of her looked soft. There has always been something hauntingly sad about Cassie’s beauty, but on that night it seemed lesser, somehow.
Cassie was the first person in this world to ever be kind to me, and for that I have always loved her. She was my first friend, my oldest friend, but I have spent every moment of that friendship praying for more.
“Yeah?” I said, my throat suddenly feeling very dry.
“Lexi told me you were going away?”
“Um, yeah.” I nodded, the apple of my throat bobbing as I swallow. “Canada.”
“How long?”
“Two months.”
Cassie digested that for a moment. She hesitated. One glance at the rain, and she seemed to make her mind up. She stepped out into the night, her bare feet making a pattering sound as she approached me. She stopped inches away.
The height difference meant she had to crane her neck to look up at me. Cassie is nine inches shorter than me, but at that moment we probably weighed about the same. “I’m gonna miss you, Mars.” The five words that kept me warm in the great white north. When the weather was below freezing, the thought of Cassie would embolden me. To know that, at that exact moment, while I was missing her, she was missing me as well. Not in the same way, maybe, but it still counts.
“Really?” I whispered.
Cassie laughed. Her laugh is the single most melodic, harmonious sound I have ever heard. It is sweeter than honey, warmer than fire, and softer than powder snow. “Yeah, of course.”
I did not have time to react before her arms were encircling me. I could smell her shampoo mingling with the acidic, oily scent of the rain. I could feel her breasts pressed against me and her slender fingers brushing just barely against the nape of my neck. I could not say, after, how long the hug lasted but to me it felt like an eternity and still too short a time.
There was a flush on my cheeks by the time she pulled back. Cassie had the grace to pretend she hadn’t noticed, though I was sure she had. Her hands lingered on my shoulders. “Just… come back to me, okay?”
My mind raced. What did she mean by that? The dreamer in me hoped she meant it in a romantic way, the logical part knew she did not. Slowly, I nodded. “Okay.”
Cassie smiled. My heart began an almost dangerous pace. “I should probably…”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You should probably.”
Cassie leaned in and kissed my cheek. Her lips were soft as sin. I stood frozen as she turned and walked away. At the door, she paused. She glanced over her shoulder. “Two months, Marston… or I come and get you myself.”
I managed a grin. “Deal.”
She laughed again, and disappeared into her house. The latch clicked behind her.
As I rode away to rejoin Rue, I knew only one thing. I was going to get fucking ripped this Summer.
And I did.