Page 27 of Never Forever

I missed you.

You’re so fucking beautiful.

I watched your show on repeat.

I haven’t kissed anyone all year. Have you?

“I’m back.” She rocked back on her feet, making the skirt of her stripped blue dress wave. Her shoes were red and so were her fingernails. She looked…not fancy. Expensive. I felt stupid in my too-big baby poo green uniform. I felt stupid in general.

“You are.”

“You got taller.”

You got even more beautiful.

“I did.”

The smile dropped from her face. Because this was uncomfortable. Weird. I was making it weird.

“How long are you home for?” I asked, forcing myself to act like a normal person.

“A while. The show-”

“Got cancelled. I saw online. So you’re staying? In Calico Cove. Cool.” The words poured out of me. I was not being any less weird than when I was silent.

“For a while, anyway,” she said. I wanted to ask what that meant. A while? Like a week? Where was she going? Anothershow? “I’m going to head out to the bandshell. Probably. Tomorrow. You know, just to see it again.”

“Yeah, you should.” I opened my mouth to say more, but then her mother walked up behind her pulling a suitcase on two wheels. It clanked over the boards of the dock.

“Matthew,” her mother said. Cold as ice.

“Mrs. Sullivan,” I nodded. “Let me help you with that.”

I took Carrie’s bag and brought it on board the ferry. I rolled it to their usual spot at the bow, nodded at them, like the servant Mr. Piedmont thought my dad was.

Idiot.

But Carrie’s beautiful lips were curved into a smile that her mother couldn’t see.

I went up to the helm where my dad was shaking his head at me.

“You going to say something about them being cursed?” I challenged him.

“No, son,” he said with a sigh. “Those days, I think, are over.”

I could see Carrie and her mom at the bow. Spray filling the air around them with sparkles. Carrie looked out over the ocean like she couldn’t get enough of it.

When she wasn’t looking at the ocean, she looked back up at the helm where I was working.

Three times.

I knew because I counted each time.

Of course,it rained the next day. Pouring rain. So hard there was absolutely no reason for Carrie to head out to the bandshell.

But there was no way I wasn’t going to go and at least see.

Dad wasn’t working so I took the truck instead of running.