Page 20 of Another Love, Another Time
“Let’s do this,” I say before hopping on his back to head to the water. I overhear one of the girls complaining about me tagging along. I know Auggie can hear them too.
“We can go back up by the fire if you want, Riv,” he comments.
“No. Let’s go hang out in the water. I’m not going to let them get to me. I know you want to hang out with me, right?” I squeeze his neck a little tighter. “
You’ll let me know if you want to go back?” he questions.
“Yes, I will. I just want to hang out with you.”
He squeezes my legs, bounces me up higher on his back, and then takes off towards the water. When he gets about waist deep, he lunges so we are both in the water. I come up from the water, squealing, ready to start splashing him, but he’s already splashing me.
Everyone else around us starts to join in; the splashing continues for what seems like forever. I have so much water coming at me, I can barely keep my eyes open. I have lost track of who or even what I’m splashing.
When the splashes lessen, I try to wipe the salt water from my eyes. When I manage to crack open my eyelids, I don’t see Auggie anywhere. Where the heck could he have gone?
I look around and see Logan floating with some of the others. I don’t want to bother him while he’s talking to some of his teammates and girls from earlier. I have talked to a few of the guys before, but I came out here to hang with Auggie.
I start walking back to the house and grab my pullover from earlier. As I pull it over my head, I see Auggie giving a girl a piggyback ride to the house, the one who was complaining about me tagging along. I guess she figured out a way to keep him to herself.
I don’t want to be around anyone right now. I go down to the room where the kids are sleeping and grab my things. I send my mom and dad a quick text and let them know I’m going to go to their room, that I have a headache, and that going to take a shower and a nap.
Mom sends me a thumbs-up emoji. I jump in the shower to wash the dirty water off me. The warm water feels so good. I look around to see what my mom has that I can wash my hair and body with. I’ll have to remember to come up here for the remainder of the week. My mom brought the good shampoo and soap.
I get out of the shower feeling like a brand-new woman, dry off, and start putting lotion on. I hear my phone ping for a textmessage. I look down and see it’s Auggie. It took him 45 minutes to notice I was gone.
Auggie: Where r u?
I know I’m being unreasonable right now. He can hang out with other people. I shouldn’t get jealous, but these people can hang out with Auggie all the time. They live five minutes away from him. I get five days. That’s it. I don’t want to feel like this. I just don’t like to have to share Auggie. I never have, and the older we get, the more I feel like I’m being forced to share him.
He didn’t do anything wrong. I decide it’s better if I turn off my phone than to respond. I don’t want to say anything I might regret later. I grab the throw folded at the end of the bed and cover myself up with it. I can definitely use a nap.
~~
I wake up to a light tapping at the door. I look up groggily to see who it is—Mom. She comes to sit next to me on the bed. She puts the back of her hand to my forehead to see if I’m running a temperature. I already know I’m not. “Hey, baby. You ready to come down and join the rest of us?”
“Is everyone still here from earlier?”
She gives me a knowing look. “A lot of them went home. There are a few stragglers. Auggie’s been asking about you.” She pauses for a second. “Did you turn your phone off?”
“Yes. I was really tired, and I didn’t want to be interrupted.”
“Well, he was worried about you. He helped one of the girls to the house earlier. She cut her foot on something, and when he went to go find you, you were gone. Did your headache have something to do with Auggie helping that girl?”
“No,” I lie.
She knows I’m lying. They may say I act more like my dad, but my defense mechanisms are the same as my mom’s. She sighs. She knows she’s not going to get it out of me unless I want to tell her. “Well, get your booty up. I can’t have you sleeping the rest of the evening. You won’t want to sleep tonight.”
I groan as I stretch all four of my limbs. I roll off the side of the bed and land on my feet. My mom is still standing there. She pulls me into her big mom hug. I wrap my arms around her, too. “I love you, baby. Whatever you think, just know that I love you, and I only want the best for you.”
I have no clue what she’s talking about, so I just say, “I love you, too.” She gives me another squeeze and lets me go. “I have to go to the bathroom, and then I’ll be down. Are there any hot dogs left over from earlier?”
“No, but we are getting ready to order pizza if you want any of that.” She walks out of the room, and I head into the bathroom to pee. I decide to turn on my phone, and it starts to ping with notifications. I have five missed calls, one voicemail, and seventeen text messages. I look at my phone log and see all the phone calls are from Auggie, except for one, which is from Logan.
Logan’s voicemail says, “Hey, River. Auggie wanted me to call you just in case you were only avoiding him. It looks like you are avoiding both of us.” He chuckled and hung up. I hope Logan isn’t mad at me, too. He didn’t sound mad.
I look at the text messages. There’s one from Logan with the same kind of message. There’s one from a friend from back home asking when I’ll be back. I text her, and then I open the messages from Auggie.
Auggie: River? Where R U?
