Page 16 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“Hey,” I said, my heart thumping a little harder at the sound of her voice. “How are you?”

I could hear her smiling on the other end as she said, “I’m good. You?”

“Good. Taylor came over tonight to have dinner and see how my first day went, so he just left,” I replied.

“Oh man, Taylor. I nearly forgot all about him. Is he still as dorky as he was before?” there was a complimentary tone to the way she said it.

“You know it,” I replied. “He’s doing awesome though. He’s got his own law practice and lives with his girlfriend Molly. She’s a knockout too. A model. Like… way too good for him.”

Aria giggled. “I always kind of suspected that he would end up like that. He’s so charismatic.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. It wasn’t the first time people had lauded over Taylor to me. “Anyway, how was dinner with your friend?”

“Really good. He’s having a tough time without me there, but he was glad to hear things are going well for me,” she said. “The debate club was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

While we were talking, I found myself shoving my homework away and pulling out one of my sketchbooks. I hadn’t set out to draw anything specific, but in no time at all, I realized I was working on a pencil drawing of Aria. It was nice to have her smile in front of me as I spoke to her and then, my stomach twisted as I got an idea.

“Hey… uh. Can I send you something?” I asked.

“Like in the mail?” she sounded confused and borderline concerned.

“No,” I said with a chuckle. “A text.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“Okay. Hang on.” I pulled the phone away from my ear and took a quick picture of the drawing and texted it to Aria. “Just sent it.”

There was silence for a minute and then a bright gasp. “Oh my gosh! Tristan this is beautiful! You’re still drawing. That’s amazing.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Yeah, not many people know I do it, but I still love it. Whenever I can, I try and sketch something out.” It felt refreshing to have someone around who knew me a little more authentically.

“Well, I know what I’m getting you for your birthday now.”

“Oh yeah?” I said with a snicker. “Honestly, just having you there would have been enough.”

Aria replied with a warmed hum. “Well, consider it a bonus then.”

My own smile grew. Hitting the ground running with her was going to be enough of a bonus on its own. I couldn’t wait to see what the future held for us.

6

Aria

Icouldn’t believe it. An entire week at the new school in the books and it had actually gone pretty well. The debate team was firing on all cylinders, classes weren’t awful—I was actually making friends—and then there was Tristan. His birthday party was coming up the next day and I couldn’t wait to spend some time outside of school with him. The only things that stood between that and me were my final debate team practice for the week, which was just ending, and my shift at work.

“What do you say, gorg? Wanna grab a bite?” Arden said as we packed up after the practice. “We can go over our notes for the tournament next week.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I have work tonight. What about Sunday?”

“Sundays are terrible for me because my family insists on dragging their obviously gay daughter to their very Catholic church to smile and pretend like everything is fine. It’s a whole ordeal and by noon I’m exhausted,” Arden explained. “Saturday?”

I laughed. “I can’t do it Saturday.”

“Jeez!” Arden yelped. “I’m beginning to think you just don’t wanna hang out with me.”

“Hey, I’m not turning any religions upside down on Sundays, that’s you,” I snipped back, “and normally Fridays work for me, but I had to swap shifts so that I have tomorrow off. I have Tristan’s birthday party.”

We were headed towards the front of the school and Arden grabbed my arm and pulled me to a complete stop. I looked at her, expecting her typical, jester-like demeanor, but she was wearing the most serious expression I’d seen thus far. “What?”

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