Page 34 of So Long, Honey

She thought about it for a moment,really thought about it. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she looked around at her room behind her.

“Rae, look at me,” I said to her. When our eyes connected, the world slowed down around us, the birds grew quiet, and the clouds stopped spinning. At that moment I figured out that it was possible for love to move heaven and earth because every time she looked at me with those ocean eyes, it did. Heaven spun in different directions, and the world stopped to watch her with me. “They don’tdeserveyour obedience, so get dressed and climb down here because we have things to do.”

“Climb down?” She panicked instantly and looked at the distance between us. “Absolutely not!”

“Well, you can’t walk out the front door…” I laughed at her.

“Yes, I can,” she said with a huff, pulling back from the window and gently shutting it. The next ten minutes of waiting for her felt like an eternity, and I almost chucked the few rocks I had left up at the window to check in on her.

“Stop it,” she chuffed as she rounded the corner of her house into the confined space between the siding and the fence.

“I was getting worried,” I tossed the rocks aside.

“What was so important that you just had to plan a prison break?” She asked me as I reached out and felt the long wig between my fingers. I hated that thing. When I didn’t answer she wrapped her hand around my wrist and smiled up at me. “Ryan, focus.”

“There’s a beach party. They’re throwing it for Coop’s birthday.”

“Mark Cooper?” She scoffed.

“...Yes,” I laughed at the way she had reacted to it.

“You realize all of those people hate me or pretend I don’t exist?” She said as I linked our fingers and quietly led her back around the fence.

“Dinner first, and then the party.” I ignored the worry in her voice. “Mary will probably be there. You like her, don’t you?” I asked her. I had seen them together occasionally at school. Mary considered them friends, but I wasn’t sure Lorraine even knew that.

“I… yeah, I guess so. This is still a bad idea,” She said.

“Yeah, but there’s no fun in playing it safe, and I won’t let anyone say anything to you.” I turned on her before we broke out onto the street and dropped to her eye level. I won’t let anyone ever make you feel small again. Okay?” I said to her. She paused for a moment before nodding. Still unsure, the trust was slowly bridging the gap between her nervous concern and my reckless abandon.

“Okay.”

FIELD

After a quick stop at Duke’s for fries and a shake, Ryan took my hand and led me back down through the gates toward the Cooper house. It was one of the only ones that looked out over the small lake that separated our town from the next. Most families had vacation houses; otherwise, the Cooper house would have always been dubbed the party house when their parents left.

Until that night, I had never thought about what Mary did during those. She didn’t seem like the type to enjoy her older brother's shenanigans, but what did I know? We had only spoken once or twice before, and I was making the same assumptions that everyone had made about me.

The house was already packed with people, but Ryan bypassed the steps and wandered around the side of the house to a small wooded path that led down through some trees to a private section of sand with a raging fire and only a handful of people from school.

I recognized a few of them. Landry tossed a football in the sand with a few of the other baseball players. His older sister,Margaret, was settled into a chair with her boyfriend and a few of their friends, laughing and drinking loudly.

“Look,” Ryan pointed down the beach a bit to where Mary sat, her toes tucked into the sand, staring out over the water with a book in her hand.

The fact that he had noticed the budding friendship left a warm feeling in my chest as he pulled me toward Landry.

“Hey, you made it. I was worried there for a second that Mayor Field locked you in his dungeon,” Landry joked and gave Ryan a pat on the back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a party, Lorraine,” he said to me, and I braced for the joke. “It’s nice,” He said instead and pointed to something behind me. “There’s drinks in the cooler. We tried convincing Mary to play, but she flipped me off and wandered the beach. You should see if you can get her to join us,” he smiled at me and jogged a few steps back before slinging the ball over his head to his friend.

“You want anything to drink?” Ryan asked, nudging my shoulder, and I shook my head at him.

“I’m going to make a friend,” I smiled at him, and his mouth turned upward, mirroring mine.

“That’s my girl,” he teased and released my hand. “Here,” he knelt down in front of me and patted his knee for my foot before untying my laces and slipping them off with the sock. “Other one,” he hummed and repeated the process. He gently gripped my calf with an encouraging squeeze before rising and kissing my forehead. “Have fun,” he added, kicking off his boots before ducking toward the cooler with my shoes in his hands.

I walked through the warm sand toward Mary, whose attention was on her book. I sunk into the sand next to her. “Hey,” I said, and she looked up at me with confusion painted across her cute round face.

“Hi…” she said slowly as she closed her book. “You came to a… party?” She said.

I laughed at her hesitation, “Ryan snuck me out.”