Page 1 of Honey Pot

MATTHEWS

2017

“Cael, don’t,” I warned, putting my hand up to stop him from coming any closer.He stalked me, his white t-shirt sticking to his biceps and abs, covered in mud and leaves from the creek, with the devil's smile on his face. “I swear to God, if you touch me, I will kill you!”

I screeched, stumbling backward as he chased me up the embankment, away from the rushing river of the creek that ran between our properties. My feet slipped in the wet dirt beneath my toes. I slid down before I could get to the top and crashed into Cael. His legs flew out from beneath him as he collided with me and wrapped his arms around me to protect me as we rolled to the base of the hill and back into the creek.

“Cael!” I gasped as I broke from the surface. My whole body curled up from the frigid temperatures and I barely made it back to the shore before my toes and fingers began to feel stiff and numb from the water.

“That wasn’t even my fault!” He helped me out of the water and we rolled onto our backs, sopping wet and breathing heavily.

His head lolled to the side, the sun bathing his tanned skin in the warm light that peaked through the covering of trees above us. His hair was so light from the summer sun that it was practically bleached blond, and I had the insane urge to brush the streaks of mud that clung to it around his forehead and ears.

We lay there like that in the grass, with only the sound of heavy breathing and the wind pushing through the trees fillingthe silence.

“Momma said you’re leaving early.” I used all the courage to say the words that had settled heavily between us in silence for the last three weeks of August spent together.

“The job in Rhode Island at the University needs him up there before the season starts,” Cael inhaled sharply. “I don’t wanna go, but…” he trailed off into silence.

“You don’t have much of a choice.” I shrugged. I wound a piece of long dark hair around my finger, trying to avoid the devastating look that swam around in the glassy color of Cael’s eyes.

I could count the random flecks of green that stared back at me, heartbroken and already so tragically lonely. Cael and I had never been apart. Not in our entire seventeen years. We had been born three hours apart, in the same hospital. Our mothers best friends, our houses on the same land in backwater Texas and two hours outside of Austin, our hearts beating to the same rhythm.

Cael was a part of me and, in the most bittersweet way, I was a part of Cael.

“What’s going to happen?” I asked him, terrified of the answer.

Distance and time didn’t apply to us. It never had.

“We’ll talk daily on the phone,” he said, rolling over onto his stomach and inching closer to me. “We can email, and I’ll even send stupid letters.”

At this distance, I could count every freckle on his face and trace them until I found all my favorite constellations. The most noticeable was the cluster that decorated his left cheekbone. Sharp and smooth, I was tempted to reach out and touch it. Curious to the point of being in agony over whether or not Cael felt the same about me.

If he loved me like I loved him.

“Clem.” My name rolled from his lips. “Did you hear me?”

I knew that the pain was written all over my face. It wasn’t something I would be able to hide much longer, if at all anymore, and Cael had always been able to read me like an open book.

“Letters,” I said softly, dropping my stare and focusing on the tie around my dress. “I want letters.”

“Every day,” he promised, brushing his finger beneath my chin and raising my gaze to meet his. “Mama will get sick of buying stamps. I’ll send somany.”

“We were supposed to leave together,” I whispered, so softly it was barely recognizable over the breeze.

Letters wouldn’t be enough. Words on paper couldn’t satiate the sadness I felt. Cael would go off and charm every pretty girl in Rhode Island. He would fall in love, find himself, and never think of me again. The thought of slowly fading out of his existence was terrifying and heartbreaking, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Now I’ll be alone.” The words left my throat, choked and clumsy, as I felt a tear slip down my cheek.

“You won’t be alone, Clem. You got other friends. I’m just one lame guy,” Cael suggested, trying to bring my mood up. “You’ll be okay.”

“I don’t have any other friends, Cael,” I said as I sat upright in the grass.

His grip on my chin suddenly felt too hot and I needed space. He moved with me, sitting up, the fabric of his dirty white shirt tugged against his skin and crumpled around his hips.

“You have other friends. Everyone lovesyou! I’m just the chubby girl you take pity on because we grew up together. They don’t see me as a friend. They see me as your little sister, and so do you!”

I swallowed so tightly that it hurt my throat.

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