Page 119 of When You Had Me Adapting

“I told you I’ve missed you. You’re so busy with school and baseball and we never get to talk. I found it at the beginning of the summer and it made me think of you, so I’ve been wearing it since.”

He continues to laugh and he can’t stop. Tears stream down his face. I hear the door open and when I look over my shoulder Jace is walking out to meet us.

“I was coming to check on y’all and to make sure everything was okay, but it seems to be.” He gestures in Colt’s direction. “What’s he going on about?”

“I’ve got no idea. He saw my necklace and then he started laughing.”

Colt takes a few deep breaths and his laughter begins to subside. “Do you want to tell her or should I?” he says.

“Tell me what?”

Jace’s eyes flit down to the locket and then back up to mine.

“Tell me what?” I raise my voice.

“The locket was from me,” Jace says.

“No, Colt got me this for my high school graduation.” I run my hand over the engraving on the outside of it. “The birds were supposed to be for the Grantville High Golden Eagles which was so funny because they are very obviously not eagles, but he was only ten, so I thought it was sweet. He even put his picture inside it,” I flip it open and reveal Colt’s sweet, little face.

“God, you were such an annoying kid.” Jace laughs, running his hand down his face.

“He’s right,” my brother says. “He brought it over the day of your graduation. He wanted to see you and I was so mad at him for what I thought he did that I lied and told him you weren’t here.”

“Colton!”

“I snatched it from his hand and told him I’d give it to you, but I took it up to my room and opened it instead. I switched the picture, hid the letter he wrote you, and came up with the story about the birds. I’m sorry, Lace. I thought I was protecting you.”

I flip around to face Jace. “You brought it over the day of my high school graduation?”

He nods.

“And you didn’t think you should tell me? I’ve been wearing it since the day on Lake Allatoona.”

“You said things were weird with your family. You missed Colt, I didn’t want to complicate things for you and him.”

“I mean to be fair, Lace. You believed that I thought the two birds sitting on the branch were eagles. I mean I didn’t have your grades, but I wasn’t that dense.”

I shake my head thinking back to the moment he gave me the necklace.

“You were so convincing. You told me you had been saving your allowance. I had no reason to believe anyone else would have bought it for me. ”

“I’m sorry,” Colt says. “It was a shit thing to do even if I was mad.”

“What did you do with the letter and the photo?”

He shrugs, “Last I saw them, they were up in a bag in my closet. I was going to throw them away, but it didn’t feel right.”

I turn without responding. I pass by Jace, head in the house, and up the stairs toward Colt’s old bedroom. I can hear both men behind me, but I don’t stop. I’m on a mission to find the letter and picture I should’ve been given nine years ago.

I walk into his room and immediately start searching his closet for a bag. “What kind of bag?” I yell.

“Purple gift bag. Top of my closet,” he shouts from down the hall.

“Would you two please lower your voices?” my mom yells. “This is not a concert venue, it’s a house.”

I shuffle the items on the top shelf until I find a small gift bag. I pull it down, moving the old crinkled tissue paper out of the way revealing an envelope with my name scribbled across the front and a tiny picture of teenage Jace and me.

I grab both and storm out of the room past my brother and Jace. I head straight into my room, slamming the door behind me. Sitting down on my childhood bed, I tear the envelope open. With shaking hands I unfold the paper and begin to read.

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