Page 44 of The Girl I Once Loved

“That’s your takeaway from the serious conversation I’m trying to have with you?” He jokes half-heartedly. “That I sound like an old eighties movie? And why the fuck John Hughes? Aren't there any chick flicks from this decade you could have mentioned?”

“Try growing up with two teenage girls obsessed with everything vintage and you’d understand.” I laugh.

“You forget I grew up with a sister too.”

“Yeah, well, Stacy was more into being Regina George from Mean Girls, than Molly Ringwald from Pretty in Pink.”

“And I’m the one with a testosterone deficiency?” He cackles.

“Fuck off.” I fake punch him in the gut. “Speaking of which, you got my money? I’m due to pay your sister a visit tomorrow at her office in Falmouth.”

“Yeah, I got it,” he says with less humor in his tone, pulling a white envelope from his inside pocket and handing it to me.

“Thanks,” I say, before storing the wad of cash safely in my pocket.

“Don’t thank me. This is all you,” he mutters, still not happy with ouroriginalarrangement.

“Baby, come quick! It’s about to start!” Daisy exclaims, making Derrick fly like the wind and push everyone out of his way to be at her side.

With everyone lined up on the beach and pier just to watch the fireworks, I have to push my way towards my family to grab a space for myself. Luckily for me, I find one right next to Sky.

I feel her body stiffen at my proximity, but she doesn’t make a move to switch with anyone else. Mostly because I think she’d rather not have to explain why just standing next to me is unbearable for her. But just as the first spark of color tries to reach the heavens, her annoyance of standing beside me, takes a back seat to the incredible view above.

“I forgot,” Sky mumbles under her breath as she watches in utter awe as the night sky bursts into a rainbow of colors and lights.

“What did you say, honey?” Clara asks beside her.

“Nothing,” Sky replies with a curt tone.

Clara all but shrinks, holding onto my father for support, just so she can pretend her daughter’s icy demeanor doesn’t hurt her in any way.

I wish Sky would lighten up on Clara, but I also understand why she’s unable to. Clara’s guilt has driven a wedge between them, and regrettably, it has only festered with time. I’m not sure how they will ever be able to mend fences without the truth being revealed. If maybe Clara could forgive herself for the part she played, then maybe they could find their way back to each other.

But it’s the lie that’s holding her back.

That one lie that ruined everything.

“What? What did you forget?” I whisper next to Sky after everyone is back gawking at the fireworks.

Her expression morphs into one of such sadness, that it physically hurts to look at her.

“How beautiful it is here,” she whispers back. “How happy I once was. Pick one. They’re both true.”

She then turns her head upwards, a single tear trailing down her cheek as the sky continues to shower her with color.

This time, when I lace my fingers with hers, she doesn’t recoil.

Instead, we just stand there, tightly holding each other’s hands, painfully aware that the kids we used to be no longer exist.

Like a spark, we burned as bright as we could, until we couldn’t.

Until reality set in and forced us to come crumbling down, falling…falling…

And in a blink of an eye, we vanished.

Never to crest the night sky again.

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