Far From You

54

ONE YEAR AGO (SIXTEEN YEARS OLD)

“Why are you so late?” Mina demands as I get out of my car. She’s perched in the back of Trev’s truck on a plaid blanket she’s spread carefully over the peeling paint. Her legs swing off the edge of the tailgate, a daisy flip-flop dangling from her foot. In front of us, the lake stretches out for miles, nothing but blue water reflecting sky and mountains. The sun’s starting to fade, and we have at least a half hour before the fireworks begin.

I get the plastic bag I’ve stashed in my backseat. “Fourth of July traffic,” I say. “Is Trev here?”

“No, I borrowed the truck,” Mina says. “What’s in the bag?” She makes a grab for it, and I step back so she can’t get it. She pouts, her strawberry-red lips sticking out. “Mean.”

I just smile and set the bag out of her reach before boosting myself up beside her.

Mina sinks down, lying on her back in the truck bed, and I follow suit. We pass a bottle of Boone’s Farm back and forth, the fruity sweetness clinging to the back of my throat as Mina traces clouds with her fingers, rings glimmering in the dying sun. She describes shapes to me, each more fantastic than the next.

“Soph, do you ever think about what’s going to happen when we leave?” she asks.

I tilt my head to the right so I can look at her. My hair and hers, blond and brown, are twined together on the blanket, and she’s careful not to meet my eyes.

“You mean for college and stuff?”

Mina nods, still staring up at the darkening sky. The crickets are starting to sing, and their chirps echo across the water, blending with the frogs and some distant laughter from a houseboat out past the harbor.

“It’ll be weird, right?” Mina asks. “Not to see each other?” When I don’t answer, she turns to look at me, rolling from her back to her side, our faces inches apart. “Won’t it be?”

“I don’t like thinking about it,” I say.

Mina bites her lip; I’m close enough that I can smell the strawberry gloss. “Sometimes it’s all I think about,” she says, so quiet I almost don’t hear her. She sighs and reaches out, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. Her hand lingers for a moment on my skin, settling into the little crook under my jaw where my pulse thumps.

There’s a pop-pop-pop in the air, breaking the spell. Sparks light up the night sky in a dazzling cascade of red, white, and blue. The reflection of the fireworks on the water stretches out until it feels like we’re surrounded by light.

“It’s starting!” Mina sits straight up and hops out of the truck, clapping her hands like a kid, and I smile as she watches the show, as transfixed as I am by her.

After the final firework has been shot off, the night settling into hints of smoke and ash, Mina stands there, eyes fixed on the sky, waiting, like there’ll be one more just for her.

While her attention is on the sky, I reach back and pull out the plastic bag I stashed earlier. When she turns around, I’m sitting on the edge of the tailgate, a lit sparkler in hand, my offering to her.

She beams at me, and I beam back.

Instead of taking it, she wraps both hands around mine, and we stay there, me sitting on the tailgate and her standing in front of me, the sparkler showering light between us, popping and hissing in the air. Shadows play across her face, the light illuminating her in fits and starts, and I’ve never felt more sure, and she’s never looked more beautiful.

Long after the sparkler’s fizzled out, Mina’s ash-smeared hands hold mine between her palms.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she whispers.

I hook my thumb around hers, and our matching rings click against each other, the unspoken promise of forever…someday.