Page 26 of Never Forever

I did.All the time. It got harder when the show aired in May, only months after they shot the pilot.

She took my breath away the first time I saw her on television. Dad let out a low whistle.

“She’s something else, that is for sure,” he’d said when the show was over.

Everyone involved in the project had been so confident it was going to be a hit, the entire crew had stayed in Vancouver shooting the next six episodes.

I sawit on Reddit first. Someone on set had filed a complaint against Roger Towson, star of the new hit TV dramaFamily Line.

It was Carrie’s show.

School was almost done and I was sitting at the kitchen table reading how Roger Towson had groped his make-up lady and threatened to have her fired if she told anyone. Apparently, the woman had recorded him with her phone and now it was all over social media.

Guys didn’t get away with doing shit like that anymore. Women fucking called them out on that every time. It didn’t matter who you were, or how famous.

Roger was going to get fired from the show.

Which meant…Family Linewas going to be cancelled? That’s what the Reddit thread indicated.

“What you reading there, boyo?” Dad came in, buttoning up his uniform over his white undershirt.

“I think Carrie’s show is going to be cancelled. Apparently, the star is some kind of pervert douchebag. You don’t think he would have messed with Carrie, do you?”

“Hmm.” Dad filled a plate with eggs I’d made and sat down beside me. “Doubtful. Carrie’s a star on that show. Anyone can see it, just in the first few episodes. Men who take advantage don’t often go for the powerful. They like to prey on the weak.”

“That’s fucked up,” I said.

“It is.”

“You think…you think she might come home?”

Dad looked at me and sighed. “Remember when I told you not to get involved with the Piedmont girls?”

“I’m not involved. I’m asking a question.”

Dad shoveled some eggs in his mouth and looked at me with eyes that knew me down to my socks.

“I’m not!” I shouted, and took my half full plate to the sink and left for school.

Two weekslater

A heat waverolled through town. The sky bleached white and the water turned a deep blue. The beaches were packed and the line for ice cream at Scoops was out the door, every day. The city was actually paying me this summer, I had a uniform and everything and I took my job seriously.

I was double-checking the dock lines when I heard my name.

“Matt!”

That voice. Her voice. I would always know that voice, deep down in my gut. Even if I lived to be a hundred years old.

I turned and she was running down the docks toward me. Her red hair was tied back in a ponytail. She looked different than she had last summer. More grown up. Taller. Thinner. Like she’d been peeling away her childhood.

I beamed when I saw her. I could feel my cheeks, I was smiling so hard.

She stopped right in front of me, her breath panting. Her cheeks flushed. Eyes…God, her eyes.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” I said. It was the only thing I could say, really.