The Last Goodbye

Cameron

I pulled up to Bella’s driveway right as she was opening her front door. Perfect timing. She saw me and smiled. She was holding a bunch of bags. I really hope they’re not what I think they are. She walked over to my car and tried to open the passenger seat with her hands full of bags. I couldn’t help but laugh. I reached over and opened the door for her. She climbed in and put all the bags in the back seat.

“What’s all that?” I asked.

“Um, your presents.” She gave me a smile. I raised one of my eyebrows and gave her a look.

“You’re kidding right?"

Bella shook her head and said, “Nope.”

“How much did all of this cost?”

Bella sighed. “Does it really matter?”

“Yes, because I have a feeling all this cost way more than 100 bucks.”

“So?”

“So, I don’t want you spending all your money on me! If anything I should be the one spending so much money on you!”

Bella rolled her eyes. “I just wanted to get you something you’d like, but my crappy mind couldn’t think of anything that you wanted. So I just got things that I thought you’d like. I just wanted you to like them because it won’t fair if you gave me something amazing and I give you something crappy and you would hate it.”

I smiled at her. She always outdoes something to make a person happy. That’s always the case with her. “I don’t care what you buy me, because I’d love it anyway because a special girl, my best friend since I was in diapers, gave it to me. I could care less if it was even an onion!” Bella laughed.

“Maybe I should’ve gotten you an onion then,” she joked.

“Yeah, you should’ve. Sure would’ve made me smell good enough to make people cry.” Bella laughed. She’s so cute when she laughs.

“Well, anyway, I think we should go to your house and drop your presents there or something. You never know when kids want to come at you and grab a bag and run away.”

I laughed. “True, but we could just leave them here in the backseat or trunk.”

“Wow. Of course! Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you always think complicated.”
Bella nodded in agreement.

“What did you get me, anyway?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out.”

I sighed and looked at the bags. “Can I open them now?”

“Sure! They’re your presents after all.”

“Actually, let’s go to the park and open it there. It’s too small in this car for me to jump up and down like a little kid because of how much I love presents!”

“You don’t know what they are.”

“Yeah, but if you go out and buy presents that take up 3 bags, then it must be awesome!” Bella laughed.

“We’ll see,” she said smiling at me. I smiled back and drove out of Bella’s driveway and into the street. Then I drove to the park.

When we reached the park, I parked my car, and opened my trunk to get out a picnic blanket. Bella and I always go to the park. It’s like our thing.

“Let’s sit on that hill!” Bella said pointing to the hill. The Evergreen Abbey Park was huge. It was kind of like Central Park but a bit smaller. There was a playground, garden, hills, paths to walk in and so much more.

“Okay. Race you there!” I said, grabbing two of the bags from her hand, leaving her with one. I kept running with Bella only a few feet away from me. By the time we both reached the hill, we were laughing hysterically.

“I win!” I shouted.

Bella stuck out her tongue at me. I laughed and spread out the picnic blanket. We both sat down and I said, “So, which one should I open first?”

“You’re choice!”

“Alright,” I said as I picked the bag to the right of me. I put my hand inside and found a small box inside. I opened it and there was a cool watch inside. I smiled and said,” I love this, Bells! I so needed a new watch!” I put the watch on my wrist and Bella smiled.

“I knew you did. I’m so glad you like it!”

I smiled at her and she handed me another bag. I opened it eagerly and saw that there were two light sabers inside. “Light sabers!! NOW WE CAN FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER!”
Bella laughed. I took a light saber out of the bag and stood up. “I WILL DEFEAT YOU!”

Bella picked up the other light saber and stood up. Next thing you know, we’re fighting each other with the light sabers. Bella tried to poke me on the side but I moved and she missed. I tried to poke her, too, (lightly, of course) but she jumped back and I missed. Then, Bella cleverly faked a move to the right and I tried to avoid it but while I moved, she jabbed me in the stomach.

“I HAVE DEFEATED YOU.”

“NOOOO!” I said as I faked a death, falling down on the ground with my hand on my chest. Bella laughed and sat down.

“Okay, game over. I win! Now open your last present so that we can go to the fair!” Bella said.

I chuckled and patted her head. “Patience, young one.”

“This is coming from the guy who was waiting in line at midnight to watch the new Harry Potter movie, and almost knocked down a little boy , trying to enter the movie theater,” Bella said, giggling a bit.

“Shut up! You know how much I love Harry Potter!”

Bella laughed. “I love Harry Potter, too, but you don’t see me almost knocking down a boy trying to get inside a movie theater.”

I rolled my eyes and looked at the bag that Bella was handing me. It was huge. What the heck was inside it?

“Speaking of Harry Potter, I think you might like this.” Bella smiled at me. Now I was excited. A gift that had to do something with Harry Potter!? Yes!

I grabbed the bag out of Bella’s hand and peered inside. Holy Crap! There was a huge box with a Harry Potter set. I grabbed the box and ripped it open like a beast. There were quill pens, some fake wands, a Muggle T-Shirt, Harry Potter glasses, and Gryffindor robes with scarf’s and gloves, too! And there were even cookies with the characters of Harry Potters’ faces on them!

“Oh My God! Bella, this is epic!” Bella smiled wide. I put on the scarf and glasses and looked at Bella.

“Well, how do I look?”

“Like a Harry Potter dork.” She smiled.

“Epic.” I smiled and grabbed a Harry Potter cookie and bit it. Then I looked at the gifts around me.

“The gifts are awesome, Bella! I seriously love them! Thanks so much!” I smiled at her and gave her a hug.

She hugged me back and smiled. “Glad you liked them!”

“Do you want your present now or later?”

“Whenever you want to give it to me.”

“Maybe, I’ll give you the first present now and the other one later.”

“You got me two things?”

“Actually, three, but I think you’ll like them.” I smiled at her.

“Okay, so then give me my first present!”

I smiled and took out a small box from the inside of my jeans pocket. Bella smiled even wider and I put the box in her hands. We both knew what it was. She couldn’t be surprised because I give her one every year since freshmen year.

She opened the box and her face lit up. “You got me two?” she asked, still looking at the box.

I nodded with a smile. “Yup.”

Bella looked at me, smiled. “These are so beautiful, Cameron!” She said referring to the two charms I had gotten her. One of them was a silver crystal-pearl palm tree charm. The other one was golden with one single palm tree and two dolphins.

“Thank you so much!”

“Anything for you.” I replied, before even thinking. Then I realized what I said and looked at Bella who was staring at me. I blushed and said, “I mean I give you a charm or two every year so it’s no big deal. As long as you like it.”

Bella nodded and looked down at the charms in the box. I gently grabbed her wrist and put the charm with the single palm tree and two dolphins onto her charm bracelet. “This charm is for when you saw your first real dolphins last Sunday. The palm tree is for our special place by the palm trees.” She smiled and looked at me. I looked back into her eyes. We stared at each other for a moment.

“And this charm,” I said, breaking the moment, “is just basically for our special place. I wanted to get you a separate charm just for our special place by the two palm trees because I wanted you to remember that if you ever wanted to go anywhere to think or something, that’s the place to go to. It’ll always be there for just you and me.” I hooked the charm onto her charm bracelet next to the other one. “Keep that in mind, okay?”

Bella nodded, looking down at her charm bracelets. There were several charms now on her bracelet. There was a horseshoe charm for when i took her horseback riding for the first time ever in her life. Then there was another char,m of a heart with a picnic table cloth pattern on it for when we had a picnic at the park, under a willow tree, on Valentines day. It was a bit chilly outside but the picnic was still so fun. Then there's another charm of a horse, the horse Bella first rode. The very first horse that she rode. Then there were two feather charms for when, one day we were at the park, and suddenly two feathers fell down on top of us. One on Bella and one on me. Bella said that these feathers were special because they both just happened to land on us. Two feathers for two best friends. So we made wishes on the feather and then blew them away. We called them our wishing feathers. But before Bella blew it away, she used a pink highlighter to highlight half of the feather so that if she ever saw it again, then she'd know it was hers. I remember that day, how i fell in love with Bella even more, because she was just so creative. I would've never thought of that. That's the thing. I love her creativity. I loved everything about her.

I didn’t know what to do next. A moment passed between us, with her looking down at her bracelet and me looking at her. I bet she knew I was looking at her but she was avoiding my eyes. “So, since we exchanged gifts, now, shall we go to the fair?” I asked in a British accent.

Bella gave a chokey laugh and said, “Why, I’d be delighted,” she said also in a British accent. We both laughed together and stood up. I folded the blanket and Bella picked up the bags. We started walking toward the parking lot to my car.

“By the way, I’m not racing to the car.” She said.

I chuckled. “Don’t worry, we won’t.”

“Oh and you should take good care of the light sabers.”

Confused, I asked, “Why?”

“Because they’re actually props from the Star Wars episodes.” She smiled.
My jaw dropped. “No joke!?”

Bella shook her head no, still smiling.

“So like, I’m holding light sabers that were used by the actual actors!?”

“Yup!”

“Holy crap! That’s so freakin awesome!”

“I know right!?”

“Wait wait wait, actual props. That must’ve cost a lot!”

Bella shrugged. “No big deal.” I raised one of my eyebrows at her.
“Really! It’s fine! I knew how much of a Star Wars fan you were so I got them for you.”

“But—“

“Cameron Michael Quiseng.” Bella stopped walking in front of me and turned to face me, with her hands on her hips. “Either you stop making this a big deal or I’m going to take those light sabers from you!”

“Okay, okay! Thank you, though.” I said, grinning at her.

Bella took her hands off of her hips and began walking again. Then she smiled at me and said, “No problem!"

When we finally reached the car, I put my presents in the trunk. I went inside the car and sat in the driver’s seat and began driving to the fair.

When we got to the fair, I parked the car and Bella and I got out.
“I haven’t been to a fair in a long time. It’s so nice to come again,” Bella said, smiling.

“Come on, my fair lady! Let’s have a grand ol’ time!” I said, with my elbow out for her to put her hand through. Bella laughed and put her hand through my elbow.

“You’re such a gentleman!”

I laughed. “I know.”

We went to the ticket booth and got these bracelets that let you ride any of the rides without having to give a ticket. Just show the bracelet and they let you ride it! Each bracelet costs 20 bucks. I bought two and gave one to Bella.

“Which ride do you want to go to first?” i asked her.

“Teacup!” I grinned and we walked towards the teacup ride.

We waited in line for the ride that was going on right now to stop. When it did, we showed the guy our bracelets and went in. It was fun as it always is. Bella was laughing the whole time and I couldn’t help but laugh along. Did I mention that I loved it when she laughed?
When the ride was over, we both climbed out of our green teacup.

“The last time I was on the Teacup was like 9 months ago! What’s next?” She said.

"Pick."

“Nope. You pick! I already picked.”

“Okay, then, how about that one?” I asked, pointing to a ride that I did not know the name of. It looked fun and fast.

“Okay. Lets go!”

We went to the ride, luckily just in time before the ride started. It really was fast and fun. After that ride, we went from rides to rides. Before we knew it, we had ridden almost all of the rides except for the Ferris Wheel, but I actually wanted to play some games before we went on that one. We planned to go home after the Ferris Wheel.

“I’m hungry,” I said.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Come on, let’s go get something to eat.” We made our way to the food stands and stood in line.

“What do you want to eat, Bells?”

“Uh, cotton candy.”

“Anything else?”

“Um, ice cream, too, please.”

“Which flavor?”

“Vanilla with sprinkles!”

“Cotton candy and Vanilla Ice Cream with sprinkles?”

“Yup.”

“Hm, I think I’ll get the same things!”

“Wait, then, just get one big cotton candy. I was going to give you mine after I eat like half of it.”

“But you love cotton candy!”

“Yeah, but I gained like 4 pounds so I need to cut down on the junk food.”

I made a disapproving look at her. “This is the fair! You’re supposed to eat as much as you can!”

“But I ate so much last Sunday when I hung out with Stella. I think I gained weight from all the junk food. I need to cut down.” I looked away from her and walked forward as the people in front of us moved up and started ordering. We were next.

“You don’t need to cut down on anything. You’re way too skinny as it is.”

Bella looked at me in disbelief.

“I wish you knew how skinny you are, Bella. I’m actually glad you and Stella ate that much. You need to gain weight. Not lose it.”

Bella turned away from me. Clearly, she didn’t want a lecture from me again. But I wasn’t going to stop there.

“When are you going to realize that you don’t need to lose weight? When are you going to believe that you look perfectly beautiful? Gorgeous. Stunning.”

Again, Bella didn’t say anything but I knew she was thinking about what I just had said.

“Did you know that you’re mom called me on Wednesday and asked me if anything was wrong with you?”

Bella’s head shot up. “What?”

“She said she was getting worried about you. Both of your parents are. She said that you weren’t eating that much. You skipped breakfast and I saw that you barely ate lunch at Jack’s table and she said that you didn’t eat too much of dinner at home. She told me to keep an eye out for you, and to make sure that you were okay.”

“Did you tell her about what happened on Sunday?”

“The mean girls? No. I didn’t.” Bella nodded and looked relieved.

“I hope you’re not becoming anorexic or bulimic again.” I said, quietly.

“I’m not.”

“If you do, I’ll have no choice but to tell your parents.”

“Cameron, I won’t become anorexic or bulimic again.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay.”

Bella turned away and looked to her right trying to avoid my eyes. I sighed and pulled out my iPod from my pocket and looked for the songs I wanted her to listen to. I finally found them and put them in a playlist. I named the playlist “Bella.”

“Here,” I said, handing her my iPod and headphones, “listen to these songs. It’ll do you good.” I smiled at her.

She looked at me, confused, but took the iPod and put the headphones into her ear. She listened to the first song and smiled at me. The song she was listening to was “Just The Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. The other songs in the playlist were "Perfect" by Pink, "Something About The Way You Look Tonight " by Elton John, and "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker. I smiled back and stepped forward in the line after the people in front of us got their food.

The guy behind the food stand asked us what we wanted. I ordered Bella vanilla ice cream with sprinkles, like she wanted, and I got the same kind of ice cream and a big cotton candy for both of us to share. Once the guy gave us our snacks, I paid for it. Bella didn’t protest because she already knew that when we hung out, I was the one who always paid, and I would refuse to let her pay. I thanked the guy and we got out of line. I handed Bella her ice cream and she took out the headphones and handed them to me along with my iPod.

“Thanks for the songs,” she said, smiling. “Oh and the ice cream.”

“No probs. Did the song make you feel a bit better?” I asked.

“Yeah, can you give me the list of songs in the playlists? I want to buy them and listen to them on my iPod.”

“Sure, will do! First thing I get home.”

“Okay.” She smiled. Then I smacked my forehead with my hand.

“Dang it! I should’ve gotten you a whole feast of food and make you eat them right in front of me.”

Bella made a face and smacked my arm and then winced. She shook her hand back and forth. Looks like she got hurt again. “You okay?” I asked her, taking her hands into mine and rubbing it. Her hand had turned red. She was so fragile.

“Darn you and your stupid hard muscles.”

I smirked and flexed my arm, showing off my muscles.
“Yeah, these bad boys are pretty strong. I thought you learned to not hit me after that day in art class.” I asked smirking.

Bella rolled her eyes. “I forgot.”

We started walking to a game stand and I said, “Here, can you hold my ice cream and cotton candy? I wanna play this game.” Bella took the cotton candy first and put it in her bag. The cotton candy was wrapped in plastic, not on a stick, so it was okay to put it in the bag. Then she took my ice cream in her other hand.

I turned to the guy and gave him 5 dollars. To win the game you had to knock down the 3 cans that stood in a pyramid with a small ball. You have to be able to knock all three of them down during all 3 rounds. Unfortunately, I only got the first two rounds and on the third round, I only knocked down two cans.

“You can pick your prize from the bottom row,” said the guy pointing to a row of small stuffed animals, dolls, and other stuffed cartoon characters. I looked at Bella. “Which one?” I smiled at her.

“SpongeBob!” I laughed and the guy handed her the small stuffed SpongeBob.

“Let’s go over to that game stand!” I said, pointing over to the game stand where you had to throw darts at the balloons to pop them. We went there and again I played. I didn’t win this one either. We went around playing at other game stands and I didn’t win any of the games, sadly. Bella had played some of the games, too. But neither of us won anything. Then Bella and I went over to another game stand.

“Okay, this is the last game we’re doing. I know you’re getting broke.”

“Okay, okay. Last game.” I asked the guy what I had to do.

“Just use the gun to shoot the bullets at the piece of paper with the star in the middle. Just shoot until the star falls down from the paper.

“How many rounds do I get?” I asked.

“Everyone has only on around. When the bullets are gone, the game is done. If the star hasn’t fallen off yet, then you lose. If you want to retry, you have to pay again and you get a new star.”

“Alright, I’m up for it!” I paid the guy 5 dollars and he loaded up the gun. I looked through the eye hole, focusing at the star in the middle of the piece of paper. I started shooting bullets at it. The star didn’t fall off and my bullets were gone. The game was over.

“Alright, I lose. Let’s go, Bells.”

“Wait, I know how the star will fall off. Play another round!”

“You sure?”

“Mhm! Trust me.”

“Okay, I do.” I looked at the guy, who was watching us. “Another go, please.” I handed him another 5 dollars and he loaded up the gun. I aimed the gun at the star and looked at Bella.

“Okay, I think the trick is that you have to shoot around the star so that it falls off. Don’t shoot at it.”

I thought about it and realized that what she said made sense. If I shoot at the star, then it wouldn’t fall off. There’d just be a million holes in the center. But if I shot around the star, then it will come off.

I looked at Bella and smiled. “You’re a genius! See this is why we make a good team! You’re the smart genius and I’m the one in action.”

Bella laughed. “Let’s see you in action then.”

I looked though the eye hole and aimed the gun not at the middle of the star but to the side. I started shooting around the star and soon it started tearing off from the paper. I kept shooting and before I knew it, the star had fallen off.

“Woo!” Bella cheered. I turned around and grinned at her. Then I noticed that she was eating my ice cream and said, “Oh, sorry, I, uh, got hungry. I wanted more ice cream. Here, you can have the remainder.”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, it’s fine! Go ahead and eat it!”

“Alright, you win. You can pick a prize from the top,” the guy said, pointing to the top row of over-sized stuffed animals, dolls, and cartoon characters. I looked at Bella. “Your choice.”

“Again?”

“You earned it.” I smiled at her.

“Okay, then, I want the gigantic teddy bear!” The guy chuckled and reached for it.

“Here you go, one gigantic teddy bear for your smart girlfriend.” I blushed and saw that Bella did too.

“Oh, uh, she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Oh, sorry. Your smart friend then.”

“Best friend.” I grinned at Bella who laughed.

“Bye!” Bella said to the guy and he waved at us and said, “Have a good day!”

“Wait,” he said to me. I looked at Bella, who was already walking ahead. The guy leaned in and said, “There’s a special event here at the fair tonight. A dance, just for fun, and laughs. Maybe you should go dancing with your best friend.” He smiled at me and winked and I smiled at him.

I jogged up to Bella and she looked at me with a confused look. “What did he say to you?”

I hated lying to Bella so I didn’t. “Oh, uh, just about some special event at the fair today.”

“What is it?”

“Maybe, you’ll find out later.” I smiled at her.

“Okay, where to next?”

“Oh, I don’t know. We pretty much went on every ride I think.”

“We didn’t ride the Ferris Wheel!”

“Alright, Ferris Wheel it is!”

We went over to the Ferris Wheel and waited in line with other people, for the round that was on right now to end.