Page 190 of Our Scorching Summer

They both cleared up their schedules for this spontaneous ceremony in an effort to help me cut all ties with my asshole ex-boyfriend, once and for all.

“Do you feel any different?” Avery asks hopefully.

“Honestly, I’m feeling properly cleansed.”

I stroll over to the windows and open as many as I can to let the fresh air in. The end-of-summer breeze wafts through the living room, cool and sweet.

“See, I told you.” Molly extinguishes her bundle of sage. “I felt amazing after I did a cleanse last summer at my parents’ resort.”

“Are you sure it was from the sage and not from the multiple lavender colonics you did?” I can’t help the laugh escaping me, the sound feeling foreign in my body. The On Cloud Nine resort Molly’s family owns seems to have some of the most outlandish wellness treatments I’ve ever heard of.

“Hey, don’t knock it ’til you try it.” My roommate takes a seat on one of the plush chairs in the room’s corner.

“Okay, what else can we do?” Avery muses, flipping through a magazine in her lap. “We’ve done chanting, invocation, collaging, eating an entire chocolate cake, and now burning.”

The corners of my lips rise slightly as I watch both of my friends search for the remedy to my problems. I wish the cure-all would just appear in front of me so that I could hold it in my own hands.

Huh.

Hold the solution in my own hands?

“I think I got it. Just give me a second. I’ll be right back.” I run down a flight of stairs to my room and rip open my closet doors. In the corner, hidden beneath the rows of clothes, is a familiar sweatshirt. I pull it out and return to the upstairs living room.

“Hey!” Avery springs to life. “I’ve been looking for that!”

“Well, look no further.” I hold up the old, oversized University of North Carolina sweatshirt.

The place where everything ended with Chuck and where I changed who I was.

My sheer robe shifts on my arm, revealing the lily tattoo Nico and I got this summer. I do my best to brush away the ache I feel every time I notice it.

“Are we going to light it on fire?” Avery’s face glows with an unparalleled level of excitement. Molly rushes beside her, eyes just as wide as my best friend’s.

“First, wax candles in the bedroom, and nowthis,” I say. “Have you become a little pyromaniac, Ave?”

“Of course not.” She blushes.

We giggle loudly, and I let myself swim in the sound for a moment.

Little did I know that all I had to do was admit that I wasn’t okay and the people who love me would’ve come barreling in with reinforcements.I just kept pushing myself into a box, trying to fold up all the edges and not become an inconvenience to anyone.

“We can use the grill on the back patio,” Molly offers. “Although, I don’t think I’ve ever actually turned it on before.”

That sounds like a great way to get the fire department to arrive on the scene.

“I was thinking I could just chop it up and throw it in the trash.”

“That’s so anticlimactic.” Avery sighs.

“Burn it, burn it, burn it, burn it.” My friends chant, their fists bouncing and robes flowing.

Thirty minutes later, after we figured out how to install the gas canister into the grill, we watch the flames grow wild on the burners.

“Okay, I’m going to do it.” I turn to Avery, whose gaze is filled with anticipation. “Are you sure it’s alright that I destroy this? It istechnicallyyours.”

“Oh yeah. If this will help, then burn the thing! I’ll just donate to a textile waste foundation to help offset a little of this greenhouse gas we’re creating.”

Of course she will.

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