Don't Get Sentimental On Me

"I'm going to fucking miss you," I cried as I wrapped my arms around my best friend's neck.

"I'll miss you too!" she said.

"I'll see you though? Spring Break right?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world!" she said before pulling away, turning to John.

"I'll...ugh...miss you, John," she said, extending her hand.

"I'll miss you, Jamie," he said, grabbing her into his arms to hold her for a brief moment.

"I'll be back...you'll call...right?" she asked, biting her lip nervously.

"Of course. Every week," he said, sadly.

"Good bye Jared...Garrett...cousin," she said, saving Kennedy for last for some reason.

She approached him and hugged him, pulling him down so she could whisper into his ear.

"Have a nice ride, Jamie," Kennedy said, eyes squinted in a curious fashion.

"Bye, Adrian," she said, wrapping her arms around me again.

"Bye, James," I said simply before letting her go.

As she climbed into the car, she kept looking back at me and then John. She climbed into the passenger seat of the car with my mom before driving away. I chased after the car until I couldn't keep up and then I watched my mom's old Ford Anglia turn into just a speck on the right side of the road.

"I'm going to miss her too," John said from behind me as I turned to hug him.

We went back inside my house, moping as we thought about the missing member of our little group of misfits. Yeah. That's right. She became part of the group. Kennedy had been avoiding me all week - or at least since that day he had come over to watch that movie. He didn't want to miss saying good bye to Jamie though.

Christmas was only a few days away. I had already bought presents for all the boys. I could not have cared less if they had bought anything for me. My mom wanted to have a dinner party for my friends and their parents. I knew that máma missed cooking for a large number of people. She missed her family in Mexico. Even though I didn't really look forward to the party, I knew it was important to my mother that we have it.

"What do we do now?" Garrett asked.

"Garrett!" John said before punching him in the shoulder.

"Do you think Jamie would want us to sit here and mope around all day?!"

"Actually, she probably would," I giggled.

"What do you suggest we do?" John asked.

"Play in the snow?" he said.

"What? Garrett, it doesn't snow in Arizona..." Jared said.

"Make our own snow?" Garrett suggested.

"How?" Pat asked.

"Be creative guys!" Garrett said, "We can use my sno-cone machine!"

"The idiot may have something..." John said.

"Well, I would, but I promised Haley I'd hang out with her today," Kennedy said, standing to leave, "Have fun, you guys."

"Kennedy," I called after him, "you're still coming to my mom's Christmas party...aren't you?"

"Of course," he smiled down at me before leaving.

We got into the van and went to Garrett's house. In my few months of knowing him, I had never been to his house before. Infact, I had only been to Pat's and John's houses before. They all came over to my house frequently. When they did, it was hard to get rid of them.

Garrett's house looked similiar to every other little Tempe house. We pulled into the driveway and booked it inside the house.

"I have the ice!" Pat said as he pulled out all the ice cube trays.

"I've got the rest of the ice that Pat can't get out," Jared said as he pulled out the freezer's ice cube holder.

"Are we going to need the syrup?" John asked, digging the cabinets.

"Ugh...yeah. Grab it incase," Garrett said.

"So what are we doing exactly?" I asked.

"Well, I figured we could just put all of this crushed up ice in this tub and dump it outside when we were done..."

"Let's get to it," I giggled.

"Holy shit, what are you doing?!" a boy, older than Garrett, asked from the kitchen entrance.

"Making snow," Garrett replied innocently.

"...Why?"

"Because we were bored..."

"Who's your friend?" he asked.

"Trey, this is Adri. Adri, this is Trey, my older brother," Garrett said.

"Wow, you're really pretty."

"Thanks..." I sighed.

"She's taken, bro," Garrett lied.

"By who? You?" he laughed before turning to me, "You could do so much better."

"Back off, Trey," John said, laughing at the situation.

"I'm just kidding. Don't make a mess, bro," Trey said, ruffling his little brother's hair before leaving.

We had a whole tub filled with crushed ice. We ran out of ice shortly after. We couldn't even touch the stuff without it melting in our hands. I knew that this wouldn't last long.

We spread the ice across the Nickelsen's nice lawn and started running and jumping in it immediately. It was about sixty degrees outside. I got the bright idea to throw a snow ball. After forming one in my hands I chunked it at Garrett's head.

"Hey!"

"I'm not going to appologize for being a ninja!"

"This is war," he said, eyes narrowed.

"Snowball fight!"

This quite possibly diminished our snow more quickly, but it was more fun this way. There were only a few scoops of the ice left. Garrett put it into a cup and squirted some of the syrup into it. We split it between us as we tried to get dried off with the towels Trey gave us.

And for a little while, I could just live without Kennedy.