Letting Go

November

I was sitting in class, learning the proper way to determine the difference between bone and sand, when a piece of crumbled paper hit my hand. I open the paper and see Cherish’s swirly hand writing.

My brother’s in town! You should come over and meet him!

I smile and write back.

Why would I do that? I don’t want disrupt your family time.

She makes a funny face and writes some more.

Oh, please. I expect you over so that you can protect me from all his annoying bother/sister bonding time he’s going to force upon me.

What am I supposed to do? I write, Take you to the movies?

Well, no. I‘m grounded, which is why I know he’s going to insist on bugging me the whole time. I was thinking you and him could go and do something.

I was about to write back, but the teacher called the class’s attention.

“Okay, you’re homework is to memorize all the terms on page 74.”

She turned and shut down her computer while all the students packed up.

“Come on, please?” Cherish whined as we walked out of the class.

She was only 17, still in high school, but taking college classes to improve her transcript.

“Why are you grounded?” I ask

“Your mom called mine and told her how I helped you get into the race.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little guilty because I was the one who talked her into helping me, “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Thank you!”

~*~

I stood in front of Cherish’s door, hesitating a little before I knock.

The door swings open and Cherish runs out, giving me a big hug.

“Thank you so much! I know how you feel about guys and dating and such with you having cancer, but don’t worry, this is just a one time thing.”

I sigh, this better be a one time thing.

“Come on, everyone’s in the kitchen.”

I follow her and am greeted by her mother.

“Oh, Amelia! I’m so glad you could make it. When Cherish said you were willing to show Nik around I thought she was just trying to get herself out of being grounded.”

I give Cherish’s mom a hug, “You really should be more lenient on her, I did force her to do it.”

Mrs. Chance nodded, “I’m sure you did, but she could have told you no.”

I smile and turn to the man sitting at the talbe, he looked around my age, “Hello, I’m your tour guide today.”

We shake hands, “Nik.”

“Well, what would you like to see first?” I ask as we walk to the door.

He shakes his head, “I don’t know why they insisted on having you show me around. I’ve been here before.”

I laugh as I start the car and pull out of the drive, “Maybe they think it’s changed so much that you need a refresher course?”

“No, I think I know why they did it.”

“Hmm?” I pull into town.

“They think my last girlfriend broke my heart.” He said with no emotion and a shrug.

“Oh, well did she?” I glance at him

“Nope, and even if she did it was over a year ago.”

I pull into an ice cream shop, “And you haven’t found someone since?”

“Nah,” he said as we exited the car, “I’m trying to focus on school and my career.”

I nod, and after we get our ice cream we sit at one of the patio tables since it was a nice day out in southern Arizona.

“So, tell me about yourself.” He took a bite of his sundae.

“You mean Cherish hasn’t spilled all yet?”

He laughs, “She’s been uncharacteristically silent about you.”

Do I want to tell him about my cancer? Normally I’m pretty forward with that information, it’s not something I try to hide, but for some reason I don’t want to tell him.

“Well,” I hesitate, “There’s not much. I’m in Cherish’s Paleontology class, I work at the county library, and I support the cause for breast cancer research.”

Okay, that sounds good, I’m not lying, a lot of people support breast cancer, I’m just omitting some information.

He nods, “I’m in pre-med now.”

Crap, “What area?”

He smiled, “Pediatrics, I love kids.”

Whew, that was close, “That’s great.”

Maybe this’ll work after all.