Page 1 of Forever Inn Love

one

Callie

Then

Senior Year…

“Didyou know that when otters fall asleep, they hold hands so they won’t drift apart in the water?” SJ murmurs as his hand finds mine. He leans forward, his forehead resting on mine.

“No.” I kiss him. “I did not know that,” I say softly to the boy who has become so much more than just my best friend.

He threads his fingers through mine, our knees touching as our legs swing off the cliff of our favorite overlook spot just outside of town. “You’re my otter, Callie.”

“You’re my otter, too, SJ,” I murmur, looking at the boy I call mine. I love him so much. Statistically, some people never find their soulmate, yet I found mine in the seventh grade. He’s my best friend and my forever.

“Did you get the rest of your applications turned in? I know those were bugging you,” he says, breaking my thoughts.

At the mention of college applications, I close my eyes and feel my body tense. I know I should be excited about college and finally leaving Freedom Valley with SJ, but my parents are making things hard. They made me apply to every Ivy League school. Even though I’ve repeatedly told them where I want to go, they aren’t listening. I did it anyway just to humor them, but I know what I want. SJ and I are going to NYU, and that’s that. We’re leaving here as soon as possible and starting our new life together. Then I will hopefully get into a med school on the East Coast. We have a plan. I want to be an ER doctor. SJ is still undecided on what he wants to do, but we’re doing it together. He knows he has my full support, though. Sometimes he talks about business, and sometimes he wants to be a mechanic.

“Yes. Now the waiting game begins.” I sigh, relieved to be done with it all. What I want doesn’t matter. They don’t even see me or hear me. I suspect they just want me to get accepted to a bunch of different colleges so they can brag about it to their friends at the country club. Ever since I was little, probably as far back as preschool, my parents have told me that I’ll become a doctor. Luckily, I happen to love science and want that, too. But I have a suspicion that even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had a choice. Not without an epic meltdown and battle. My parents are relentless and very controlling. My dad’s favorite topic is telling everyone that he’s going to put me through medical school and have a daughter who’s a doctor. Gag.

They have no problem showing off my achievements, but they don’t even really know me. I’m invisible otherwise. They don’t care to know who my friends are, what I want to do, or who I am as a person. I’m a commodity, an asset, nothing more. The disconnect here with them makes me feel so lonely.

His body heaves a deep sigh next to me. “What’s the sigh for?” I look over at him.

“We’ve been talking about leaving Freedom Valley for so long. Now that it’s finally happening, I’m just nervous about everything. How it’ll all work out.” SJ overthinks everything and always has to have a plan. And the fact that he doesn’t seem to have a plan yet worries me.

He stares longingly at me with warm, whiskey-brown eyes that I’ve gotten lost in for the past five years. At times, we can have entire conversations with our eyes and no words spoken. “What do you want to do?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” He picks up a pebble and rolls it between his fingers.

My fingers circle the stack of braided friendship bracelets around my wrist as I twist them out of habit. “You know, college?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “I feel like I’m supposed to know. I’ll figure it out.”

“Do you still want to play football?”

He looks out and tosses the pebble over the cliff, and we both watch it drop into the ravine. “I thought I did. It doesn’t make me happy anymore like it used to. I like playing for the Eagles, but I feel like I might want to do something different in college.”

“You can do anything you want to do, SJ. And you don’t have to know right now.” It feels overwhelming and exciting to have everything in front of us. I know what I want, and while I wish SJ did, too, it will all work out. I know it.

“It seems like here in Freedom Valley, football is my identity. It’s the only way I fit in. I want to figure out who I am away from here where I’m not judged for my family.”

Sadness fills me when he talks about being judged in Freedom Valley. I want to remind him about how great he is when he feels this way.

“You have a great dad,” I remind him. He looks over at me and nods in agreement, but I can tell he’s still sad. His expression is defeated. He’s lucky to have a dad like Sam. We both know it. SJ’s dad, Sam, has been more of a parent to me than my own parents.

“What makes you happy?” I press, watching as the sun sets in front of us. I shiver since the warmth of the sun is almost gone.

His eyes scan the horizon, and he says softly, “I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s going to be with you. College, med school, residency, I’ll be there with you. We’ll figure it out together.”

“Together,” I agree. “Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.” He leans closer and kisses me.

now

12 years later…

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