Harbour Lights and Lonely Nights

It was a day fitting of the occasion. The grey clouds hid the sun but the air was still hot and thick on the verge of evening. On the faded wood of the dock sat a boy and a girl, freshly graduated from the confining institution that is high school. For the most part, high school had not been bad to either of them and even though Sidney had transferred they saw a lot of each other in the summer and during the breaks. They had gone to the same school since kindergarten but they hadn’t been friends until they were stuck in the ugly claustrophobic room of their grade 9 math class. That was where they developed a perfectly platonic friendship –at least it was perfectly platonic in respect that it functioned on the basis that either party was too scared to be upfront about the blossoming feelings hinted at in the back of their teenage minds. It was a careless age where everything seemed to be the end of the world but nothing ever was. The current world shattering stemming from the fact that both Emily Greene and Sidney Crosby were about to go their separate ways.

“Do you think you’ll remember me when you’re a big NHL star?” the girl asked, her back against the cool grain of the dock as her feet hung just above the water. Beside her, her best friend sat upright, letting his feet swim around in the cold water.

“If I asked you if you’ll remember me when you’re at school overseas, what would you say?”

“But that’s different. I won’t be meeting millions of new people and be all famous.”

The faint sound of the water as it lapped against the Greene family’s boat was a comforting background noise to the conversation. Later in life it would become a nostalgic trigger, a simple sound that would bring with it all the memories of wasted summer days on the dock of the girl’s cottage. Of course neither of them would forget those days. You’d think it would be a given but Emily harboured a very intense worry that the hockey super star would forget the girl he spent his summers with.

“Are you actually worried I’m going to forget you, Em? Because that’s completely insane.” A faint chuckle trailed the statement.

The boy was surprised as he watched her sit up like he was. He watched the soft movement of her tousled curls as they fell to the resting place on the back of her loose plaid shirt. Her sleeves were rolled up past her elbows in the heat but she didn’t look bothered by the temperature. There wasn’t a face he could imagine or conjure that would let him forget the way Emily’s always seemed so calm in the middle of her bed of thick, dark curls, her pale skin newly sun-kissed. He would not forget the way her freckles pepper the skin of her nose in the summertime, or how when she tanned it brought out even more the deep blue of her eyes. It was a blue he found impossible to label, although he always came back to the idea of blueberries. A blue that was so deep it could seem indigo or in the certain light a dark grey-blue. Most of her expression came from their midst.

When her painted toenails entered the freezing temperature of the lake without flinching, and her face watched the ripples in contemplation he thought: Nope. Never. There was no way he would forget Emily Greene.

For her, there was no reading these thoughts behind his motionless features, no hearing his unvoiced words. Therefore, her worries were not placated as they might have been and she responded with a shrug, unwilling to look at the boy beside her. The red of her toenails in the water captivated her gaze in mild distraction. A fear raged at the back of her thoughts, unwavering in its nagging: yes, she was very worried he would forget her, but how silly would it make her seem to say that aloud? So she edited.

“A little.”

Sidney frowned. It was a unique frown that manifested itself more in the action of his eyebrows pulling together to create a crease between them, than in the corners of his lips pulling down. They pressed into a line that twitched slightly to the left. Most of the time Emily would find this an endearing idiosyncrasy of his but she was in no mind to notice.

“How could you think that? We’ve been friends now—what?—4 years?”

Emily nodded in agreement. It had been four years since she had sat beside him in math class: a subject in which he was utterly useless but thankfully she displayed some proficiency in. That was an important aspect of their bonding.

“…and somehow I’m going to just erase the majority of the last four years from my memory because I have to remember a few more names?”

He always had a way of making her worries seem foolish but this time she wasn’t completely at ease. He could tell that she wasn’t satisfied. Something was bugging her and he didn’t like that. This was their last day together before he was leaving and who knew when they would see each other again? So he didn’t push it, just looked over at his best friend as she looked out at the lake. The grey light fell on her cheekbones in a way that made him remorseful that he was leaving. It reminded him of how beautiful she was. Emily was not dainty or pixie like, her beauty was something completely different. It didn’t require loads of make-up or designer clothes. Here, sitting on a grey dock in an oversized blue and green plaid shirt and small shorts, she was the most beautiful girl he knew. He tried to figure out what it was. She wasn’t a petite pretty or even particularly delicate. She had a feminine gentleness but a fierce independent stubbornness and emotional strength. He liked that about her.

“Or a head injury could knock the memories out of you.” She mumbled in an attempt to lighten the tone if only slightly, deep blue eyes matching the deep blue of her shirt. She brought her feet up out of the water and rested her cheek against her knees so she was still facing him. Emily Greene did not like depressing conversations. She liked fun, and as it was their last day together for a while she decided that was what they needed.

“What are you staring at?” She asked him.

It immediately came to him at that moment. Her beauty came from a natural elegance. Yes, that was the perfect word for it—elegance. Not a word Sidney Crosby would find himself using very often. It sounded so grown up to the teenage boy as he sat on the dock.

“My best friend.” The boy smiled a goofy smile at his own words. He felt a little ridiculous and needed something to divert her attention from the silly remark. Even she was surprised by the spontaneity of the answer. The girl liked the sound of best friend although there were titles she would have preferred, best friend would do. It was much too important a position to just forget. And at that moment she decided to add a little spontaneity herself, some much needed fun to the sombre conversation.

She pulled herself up and striped down to her bathing suit. The action was so quick it left Sidney stunned as his eyes moved over her body but the sight of her flesh disappeared from his view almost instantly as she dove gracefully into the reflective surface of the water. The boy watched her body glide beneath the surface with a pale glow, before she came up for air quite a ways away. Both teenagers could hear the sound of a husky sprinting down the path that led from the back door of the small cottage to the long dock. Its nails clicked against the wood as he ran to Sidney and let out a large bark towards Emily in the water. The dog’s name was Toaster and he had been as much a constant in their summer days as each other had been. Sidney ruffled the fur on top of the dog’s head and smiled. He would miss Toaster to, he thought, as the dog let out another bark and jumped into the water. It did an odd looking doggy paddle out towards her and Sidney started to feel a little left out.

“Coming in Crosby?” She called as she treaded the water.

The surrounding lake was relatively quiet as most of the boats were docked in the suspicion that the grey clouds held rain. It was like it was just the two of them and toaster in the whole lake. Without a second thought Sidney pulled his shirt off over his head and dropped it with his sandals. The brunette girl’s eyes gazed over his exposed muscles. He certainly had the best build of any 18-year-old boy she had seen but it was slightly at odds with his young face. That only made him more loveable to her as he canon-balled into the cold.

That was the last night they would spend together for a long time.