Sweet Like Sugar

If you had a nickname like Sugar, you’d hate Timbercreek too.

I don’t think a third of the people here even know my real name. Not that Albie is any better.

Normally childhood nicknames are tolerable; they stayed inside of the house walls and faded after you’ve reached puberty. But not in Timbercreek. The only people you will ever catch calling me Albie are my dad and only two out of every single teacher I've ever had.

I'm the only one with the nickname curse, though. There's also Peeps Martin (Penelope Martin), Bug Delaney (Marvin Delany), Little Ducky (Lily Ducker) and Cricket. I didn’t even know Cricket’s real name but most sane people just stayed clear of him. There were more, but they had nice and conventional nicknames that were only short or cuter versions of their real names like Charlie or Jimmy, or TJ. Lucky bastards.

My name wasn’t the only setback of Timbercreek. Honestly, it’s hard not to hate this place at my age. It’s probably the smallest town in the sad and pathetic state that was Georgia. There were three schools, one grocery store, a bank, and a public library and a church on just about every other corner. That was it. If you wanted anything else you’d have to travel thirty minutes to Salt Lake, the nearest city.

With the lack of entertainment around here, the teenagers had to get creative. And by creative, that meant having a party every Friday night down by the lake. A party of which turns out to be not that creative at all since it's tradition had been going on since before my parents were teenagers.

Sometimes the names would be switched and instead of a party it’d be called a kick-off, or a bonfire, or even a kegger, but in reality it was all just the same party every single Friday night. There was always a reason to party, too. And there was always something to celebrate in Timbercreek. At least that’s what Zoe, my older sister, is always ranting on about.

We were on our way to my first lake party, celebrating the graduating seniors and incoming freshman, and she kept giving me gentle reminders like "Remember not to take a drink from anyone, Seniors love to get the new freshman drunk" and "People are probably going to be smoking pot. Don’t freak out, it’s normal. Everything they told you in middle school about gateway drugs is completely irrelevant here."

I wasn’t really nervous about going to the party. I already knew almost everything about it thanks to Zoe, and it never seemed that interesting to me. But I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t been waiting for this moment for a while. Ever since three years ago when I saw Zoe sneak in through our back door, drunk, after her first lake party and proceeded to get chewed out by both of our parents for the rest of the weekend.

It was all the graduating eighth graders could talk about earlier in school. The last day of school, thank God. Finally the summer was here and finally we weren’t going to be treated like little kids anymore.

Tonight we were officially high school freshman.

“Shug, are you even listening to me?” Zoe snaps from the driver’s seat.

“Huh?”

“Don’t space out like that. I know it’s exciting but if you aren't careful you can wind up in a bad situation. These parties can get out of control sometimes.”

“Yeah, I recall you a few years ago vomiting all over the kitchen floor after your first lake party. Don’t worry, the good thing about being the younger sibling is that I can learn from your stupid mistakes.”

She hits my arm but laughs just as the lake comes into our view.

It's bigger and better than I could have ever expected. The music is so loud it shakes the inside of our car and I can feel the bass passing though my entire body. Golden string lights cover the trees and reflect off the large body of water slightly in the distance, giving the entire place a magical glow. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. There were so many people. Some were talking but most were dancing and I wasn’t even aware this many teenagers resided in Timbercreek.

I spot a few of my ex classmates huddled together and decide that’s the safest place to head first. I was never the one for making new friends. It always seemed too difficult and I hated small talk.

Zoe is already out of the car when I started to unbuckle my seat belt.

“Look, Sugar,” She says sternly, leaning up against the car with her arms folded. She's wearing some ridiculous black raccoon eye makeup and an all-black cropped t-shirt with a really short skirt that I doubt our mom had approved of. Zoe’s style seemed to change according to her boyfriends and she just so happened to be dating Luke Eaves, the edgy Gothic boy with a rock band, at the moment. I say that because none of her relationships ever lasted longer than a few months without her getting bored.

“Don’t embarrass me. If you need me, I’ll be close to the water probably hanging out with Luke. We’re leaving around midnight so don’t get lost. If you aren't here, don’t think for a second that I won't leave without you. And don’t bother me unless you have an emergency. Got it?”

“Got it, mom.” I roll my eyes at her and she starts to walk off toward Luke standing in the distance. Before she reaches him she turns back around and yells.

“Don’t forget what I told you about the drinks!”

A few people turn to look at me and I walk away quickly and ashamed toward my group of ex classmates.

“Hey Sugar.” Peeps Martin greets me and is followed by an encore greetings from the rest of the group. There was Peeps, Jackie, Levi and Thomas. Technically I knew them all but I’d never really had a full conversation with any of them. They were just the only familiar faces I saw. That's how things were her. Everyone just sort of knew everyone. There was no such thing as a complete stranger in this place.

Peeps was the prettiest girl at Timbercreek Middle. She had long naturally curly brunette hair and perfect pasty skin with big round beautiful brown eyes to match. It was funny how brown eyes could seem so ordinary on some people but on Peeps they were magnificent. Also, it didn’t hurt that her mom started letting her wear makeup in 6th grade. She looked different tonight though. Instead of her cute curly signature pony tail she wore every day, her hair fell all the way down her back. She was also wearing a crop tee that showed off her belly but it was pink and pretty unlike Zoe's. If I had to choose one word to describe how she looked, it would be...older.

And older was the theme I guess. Everyone was trying to shed their immature middle school self and be reborn as a new and more sophisticated highschooler. Me and Peeps and the rest of the group talk for a while about things I didn't particularly care for until I hear my name being screamed from behind me. Well my nickname at least.

I turn to see my best friend since I was five, Talia Stevens, running toward me at full speed and before I can even register the situation, she’s jumping into my arms and we’re both falling over and creating a big scene. If it was anyone else I would have been terrified, but that was the type of person Lia was. She always had to make a scene, no matter where she went. It was one of the many reasons why I loved her so much. In a way, we balanced each other out.

I was shocked to see her because 1) her mom was never a fan of the lake parties. A lot of parents weren't and who could blame them with all of the underage drinking and drugs. And 2) she was supposed to be leaving first thing in the morning for a drama camp in California.

“What are you doing here?!” I ask ecstatic as I help her back onto her feet.

“Somehow I convinced my dad to convince my mom to let me come for an hour. I have to leave early to finish packing, though.”

“I love your dad.” I say noticing her hair which used to be in really tight bouncy curls and was now straitened and down her back. “What happened to your hair?”

“I straightened it, duh. Mom says I look a lot older like this. You like?”

I did. I really did. But a little part of me was saddened by the fact that Talia was also growing up without me. I hadn’t done anything new to get ready for the party. I still didn’t even have armpit hair.

After we chat for a little while longer, I decide to completely ditch Peeps and her boring group and join Lia on the dance floor which was more like a dance section. We dance together to the latest pop hits for what feels like forever and just like Zoe had warned, we're offered beer and pot within an hour but we both refused.

Time starts to wind to when Lia has to leave and it’s apparent that we both don’t want her to go yet so we decide to dance to one more Katy Perry song together. I grab her hands and we spin and laugh and jump around together until I feel someone bump into me making me stumble forward, almost knocking her over again. A giant boy with a buzz cut and is also wearing a letterman jacket turns around and glares at me.

“Watch it freshman!” He yells making a few people look and snicker.

I was just going to ignore him but Lia, being the hot tempered person that she is, snaps back at him.

“You watch it, meat head! You’re the one who bumped into him.” She jumps in front of me.

The meat head lets out a deep maniacal laugh and turns back towards his group of friends who were also wearing red and white letterman jackets and exclaimed loudly “Geez, who let the babies into the lake? Someone call their parents. Might be past their bed time.”

The letterman group of boys explode with laughter as if it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard and a few people from the crowd join in.

Lia just rolls her eyes and pulls me away with her over to a cooler to grab some drinks. We dig down past the beer and other various alcoholic beverages until we find to some Capri-suns at the very bottom.

“Can you believe them?” She says stabbing her juice pouch aggressively. “I can’t believe we’re going to have to go to school with jerks like them for four years! Ugh I hate them already. He called us babies. We have every right to be here, just like them.”

I hold the back of my hand to my smile trying to repress the upcoming snort.

“What’s so funny?” She snaps and I hold my hands up innocently.

“It’s just…everyone’s drinking beer and getting drunk...” I accidentally snort again “…and we’re drinking juice pouches.”

She giggles at that too but soon our laughter fades into the night and suddenly we’re serious because we both know that she’s leaving and it was the first time in our entire lives that we were going to be separated for more than a few days. My girl was going to be away all summer.

“I’m really going to miss you, Sugar.” She grabs my hand and looks up and I know she’s trying to not cry and that just makes me want to cry more.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do all summer without you.” I squeeze her hand.

“You’ll always have the lake parties.”

“Yay. Just my luck.” I sarcastically exclaim.

“Don’t worry, Shug. I’m sure you’ll find someone to hang with all summer, besides Ms. Calkin I mean.”

She looks at me again the then leans in to give me a hug and I dig my face into her neck and squeeze her as tight as I’m going to miss her, which was a lot. I can feel my eyes burning because I was the crybaby of our duo, but since I didn't want to soil my first lake party, I suck it up and let her go.

Then something amazing happens. She kisses me.

She grabs both of my cheeks and just…does it.

I’m so surprised and my eyes widened and I freeze waiting for her to stop. I don’t know what to do because it was no question that I loved Lia, I just never saw her as anything more than a best friend.

After she doesn't stop though, I just decide to just kiss back.

I close my eyes and try to move my lips in sync with hers but I can’t stop thinking about how gross kissing is. Other’s people saliva made me anxious. I try not to focus on the taste because then it was like I was eating her and ew gross I didn’t want to eat my best friend!

How did people think this was romantic? Was I was supposed to like this? I was a fourteen year old boy and Lia was my best friend since I was five and she’s absolutely gorgeous, so…why? Why hadn't I ever thought of her as a girl that I could like until now? Maybe I did like her, I just didn’t know it yet. Maybe I’ve been in love with her this whole time. And did this mean that Lia has been in love with me all of this time and I was completely oblivious to the fact? Nah. That couldn’t be. Lia isn’t the type of person to not say what was on her mind. Maybe I just had to warm up to kissing. It’s gross for everyone at first, right?….Right?

She pulls away and looks me with a wide smile. “Wow. That’s was...” She trails off and I’m still too speechless to even give a comment

“Uh.”

“Don’t think too much into that, Sugar. I’m not like in love with you or anything. I just didn’t want my first kiss to be with some camp jerk.” She pats my shoulders and grins.

“Huh?” I was still very confused about it all. How could I not think too much into it? What?

“I have to go now but I’ll see you at the end of summer, okay?” She kisses my cheek one final time and skips off back into and past the crowd of other teenagers.

When I’m sure she’s gone, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

What the hell was that? Did that kiss mean we were dating now? I didn’t want to date Lia. I loved her but everyone knew that dating leads to breaking up and breaking up leads to not being friends anymore and I never wanted to not be friends with her.

My head was starting to hurt. I take a break before looking for Peeps and her group again because a bigger question was haunting me.

Why had I never liked Lia? She was an amazing girl. She was the most amazing person I knew. Then I realized that I had never liked anyone really. What the hell was wrong with me? I had already gone through puberty so it wasn't like I still thought the opposite sex was gross. I was very aware of girls and all of their beauty.

Maybe I just didn’t like those specific girls that way. Could it be possible that I had never even had a crush on a girl? I racked my mind and it was true. Maybe I had just never come in contact with a girl that was worthy of my crush but that just sounded too conceited to continue to think about. Maybe it took more than a great face and a great personality to make me like someone. What that was...I didn't know yet, but something told me I was going to find out really soon.