Page 112 of The Facade

“Well, that’s awesome.” I smiled and put my arm around her, pulling her against me in a side hug. “I’m excited to watch you on stage.”

“Thanks.” Her face had a healthy glow to it, and it was fun to see her so excited about this after hiding her talent from the world for a year and a half. “And if Elyse gets the part of Christine, then we’ll have some scenes together, which will be fun.”

I glanced across the table to where Elyse was. She met my gaze briefly before turning back to the conversation everyone was having about their plans for Thanksgiving break. I was happy that while things had been pretty awkward between us when we found out we were related, we were getting more comfortable as brother and sister now. And even though I hadn’t been too thrilled about the idea of her and Ava moving in after winter break, the idea was starting to grow on me the more I saw how much my dad liked having their company.

Scarlett started telling everyone about her plans to volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. As she talked about it, I couldn’t help but think about how much had changed since the time everyone was discussing their plans for the last holiday celebration we all had—the Halloween dance. And when I looked at the beautiful girl sitting beside me, I couldn’t keep a slight smile from my lips as I remembered the way I’d teased her that October day. How I’d sat in this very spot as everyone else talked about their costume plans, and how I’d teased the girl next door about hoping that her room was ready for me to sneak into that night.

What a wild ride this past month had been.

Some terrible things had happened, of course. I’d lost my mom and I was forced to get used to a life without her in it.

But some pretty great things had happened during that time as well. I’d fallen in love at the same time my life was falling apart, and having Cambrielle by my side through everything just solidified how awesome she was.

I’d learned a few things about life as well. I’d learned that unlike what my more naive self had thought, life was more like a game of Tetris instead of a game of chess. I’d thought that like the game of chess, I had control over things. That I could make a move to one square and predict what would happen next. And based on that, I could know and plan for what the future would hold.

But life wasn’t like that at all. You could make plans and do your best with the pieces that you had at any given moment. But even though you could make some predictions about your life in the future, you never really knew what piece was going to come next. Sometimes you were given an L-shaped piece instead of the T-shaped piece you’d saved the perfect spot for. And you suddenly had to pivot.

And just like in life, the longer you waited to accept the pieces you were given, the less powerful your next move could be.

Staying mad at the game for giving you the piece you hadn’t been expecting didn’t do you any good.

I knew I would probably have a lot more anger-filled days to come, since I was still only a human and not a perfectly programmed computer game. But it was comforting to know that I didn’t need to figure out my whole life right now. Or figure out what I was going to do when my mom’s birthday came, and she wasn’t here for me to sing to.

Instead of focusing on the what-ifs, I could just focus on what was in this exact moment. I could take a deep breath and trust that I’d be able to figure things out as I went.

I’d think that was what my mom meant when she told me her greatest wish was that I’d just live. That she would want me to just stay present in the here and now and experience all the things that life had to offer. Because the goal in life wasn’t necessarily to always be happy. It was tolive.

I looked at Cambrielle and just studied her for a minute as she laughed at something Ava said. And as I watched her and soaked in the lightness and comforting energy she had about her, I knew that things would be okay. As long as I didn’t give up, I could experience moments of true joy again and that better days were ahead of me.

“What?” she asked, looking at me self-consciously when she noticed my stare. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I just smiled, and leaning closer, I whispered, “I’m just thinking about how lucky I am that Ben was such a bad kisser.”

Her eyes widened, and I loved that she always seemed so surprised by some of the things I said. “Why would you be thinking about that?”

I shrugged. “Because without that special kissing lesson, you probably never would have known how perfect we were for each other.”

She laughed lightly, giving her head a shake. “You know it was the other way around, right? If I hadn’t begged you to kiss me, you never would have stopped teasing me about taking me to the falls while never planning to follow through.”

“You don’t think I was going to take you one day?”

“No,” she said. “It was always just a game to you until that kiss changed things.”

“Then you probably would be surprised to know that I actually thought about kissing you under the waterfall several days before that.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I totally did.”

Her cheeks glowed pink, and I loved that even after everything I could still make her blush with the slightest remark.

“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that,” she said.

“I guess so.” I shrugged. “Though—” I picked up a fry and dipped it in my ranch. “—now that you mention it, it’s about time I take you to my favorite spot.”

“You want to take me to the falls?” She arched an eyebrow.

“It’s only right that I take you after dangling the carrot over your head all this time.”

---