Ariel: He’s not interested in anyone else. We both know that. Make Mom and Dad see it.
Me: Hard thing to accomplish.
Ariel: I’ll be there in thirty.
Me: Hurry.
My phone drops off my bed. I bend over and pick it up, but I lose my balance and fall to the floor. I search for my phone, catching a glimpse of the pink and purple striped box. Crawling army style, I dig under my bed for the box wedged between yearbooks and memory boxes.
I pull it out and lift the lid more hastily than usual. In the last two years, I normally take a few deep breaths before gaining the nerve to travel down memory lane.
My fingers brush along the stack of T-shirts—My Boyfriend Can Hit More Strikes Than Yours, I Love Number Twenty-Two, My Heart Belongs to a Baseball Player. Each T-shirt looks worn with the printing cracked and faded.
The white jewelry box sits on the bottom, and my eyes acknowledge its presence, but I don’t reach for it. Not yet anyway. They were surprises for the boys winning state. Kedsey and I had scoured Pinterest and stayed up the whole night before making sure the boys would love them. Cheap and probably tarnished now, just like us.
A picture of Crosby and I at senior prom lies under my dried up corsage. In the photo, I’m trying to pin on his flower, but I’m laughing too hard to concentrate on the task. His parents are in the background, smiling on. I look closer, seeing Spencer and Ariel sitting on the rock in front of my parents’ house, talking. I must have been too preoccupied with my own life that I missed the signs of their budding relationship.
My heart aches for Ariel. Her last two years of high school weren’t carefree and filled with good times. It took time for this town to heal, and they haven’t completely finished grieving. If being at Bishop’s was any indication of the progress this town had made, I’d say they were still pointing the finger at one person. That includes my father, who I’ve always looked up to. He was someone who stood on his own and didn’t follow the pack.
Ariel has lived in my shadow since that night. My needs came first, and hers were second. It’s not fair that she’s can’t announce the fact that she’s found this guy who lights her up. Then, there’s Spencer, who was ripped from his hometown to start new somewhere else. Neither one of them deserve to keep a hidden relationship.
A determination sets in, and I need to make sure she doesn’t have to deal with what I did moments ago. I cover the box and stand up. Squaring my shoulders, I walk out of my bedroom door.
My feet hit the last step of the staircase when Ariel barrels into the driveway, gravel spitting up from under her tires. I wait by the door as she grabs her bag, swings the keys around her finger, and walks to the house.
Her hair is lighter than mine, but we share the same color eyes as our mother.
“Hey,” she says, her arms wrapping around my shoulders.
“Hey.”
She drops her bag on the floor, and our parents emerge from the kitchen to greet her.
“Ariel,” my mom says, looking her over, similar to the way she did with me when I stepped off the train, “you look really happy.”
My arm flies up in the air and slaps my leg on the way down.
Ariel glances over to me and back to my mom. “Thanks.”
My dad hugs her and walks out of the front door.
“Dinner’s in an hour, honey,” my mom calls out. Then, she swings her arms over each of our shoulders. “The cookie dough is ready.”
The three of us walk into the kitchen where she has cookie sheets set out along with a bowl of raw cookie dough that could take all my problems away.
“So, how’s Ridgemont?” my mom asks Ariel.
Ariel glances at me from the corner of her eye. “Good.”
My mom hands the spoons out to us, and we start scooping.
“We aren’t going to sit around here and act like the elephant