Page 86 of Finding a Melody

Micah didn’t seem too excited but didn’t say anything as I led him over to sit with me. Still, none of the guys said anything. Bryan was back to scowling at Micah.

“Everyone, this is my childhood friend, Micah. He moved to town last week. Micah, meet my friends.” I pointed out each boy, saying their name. I wasn’t sure how much of it Micah was going to remember. He nodded politely to each of them with a weak smile, his hands under the table, but I could feel his leg shaking slightly from his nerves.

“Hi.” Paxon was the first to talk. He seemed a bit confused but at least he was willing to try. I gave the others a warning look. “How do you guys know each other.”

“Arts summer camp,” I said, pulling out my sandwich.

“Art... camp?” Toby said slowly. “How does that work?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean I feel like those two things shouldn’t be a thing. Art and camp just don’t go together.”

Micah snorted. “Well, it’s a thing. Look it up.” He smiled. “This nerd was all about the music classes while I did all the drawing and writing classes.”

I sighed, finally caving. “We probably wouldn’t have met since we were in different groups, but I managed to get myself stuck in a tree.”

“Stuck in a tree?” Justin asked. “How?”

“Climbing up is easy, but coming down is a bit scary,” I said.

That got some laughs from the boys as they began relaxing.

I went more into the story. “We’re broken up into different groups, I was in Group A. We played outside and then it was dinner time. But when everyone left to go eat, I was still in the tree, too scared to call out. Micah was in Group B, so their group was still outside. He was the only person to notice.”

“We were only six at the time,” Micah said. I was looking for something to draw for an assignment when I noticed this little girl up in the tree, huddled together. I didn’t realize she was stuck in the tree until I climbed up to talk to her. She just looked lonely.”

I laughed, remembering that day so clearly. It was just too ridiculous, but it became a cherished memory of mine. “And then we both got stuck in the tree.”

“You climbed up after her without knowing how to get back down?” Toby asked in complete disbelief.

Micah seemed embarrassed. “I didn’t realize I wouldn’t know how to get back down.”

“But at least he wasn’t as scared to get people’s attention. Micah is absolutely terrible at singing, but he got me going too and we both began singing at the top of our lungs until we got attention. And then finally an adult got us down once they realized we didn’t know how to do it on our own.”

“They were not happy.” Micah chuckled. “But I got a best friend out of it.”

I smiled at him, my cheeks hurting from how hard I grinned.

We told a couple more stories about our antics in summer camp, the guys seeming more than happy to listen to them. It seemed like they warmed up a little bit to Micah. Not completely, but they accepted that he existed in my life. Hopefully. Though Bryan was still glaring at him. I’d have to talk to Bryan separately. I knew he didn’t like strangers and wasn’t the easiest to accept new people into his life, but Micah was part of mine and that wasn’t going to change. Bryan was going to have to accept that and understand that I wasn’t going to accept any bullshit from him.

“By the way, Mom wants you to come over again, but actually stay for dinner this time.”

“Really?” I asked.

I knew I shouldn’t feel surprised by the invite, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t used to parents asking me to be around. I wasn’t used to parents being around in general. I was slowly learning through the boys what having a parent was like, but it was still weird. Even when Lindie was around to act the role, she wasn’t. I did everything on my own pretty much.

“Yeah. I haven’t told her about anything that has happened to you yet, though. Just so you know.”

“Are we hiding it from her?”

Micah thought about it for a moment. “If she finds out from the rumor mill rather than from you or me, she’s going to be furious. I’ll talk to her today, break it to her gently. Just be prepared.”

“For what?”

“The instincts of a mother.”

I had no idea what he meant by that nor knew what to expect, but I trusted Micah not to cause anything weird to happen.