Page 9 of Thick & Thin

I pulled away from her place, feeling a heavy weight on my chest. Soon this would be over, and we wouldn’t be carefree teenagers anymore. We would be so much more, yet we would be less.

3

Jenny

After a long day floatingon the river, I went inside, dumped my bag of stuff in the laundry room, and made a beeline to the bathroom for a shower. I washed the river from my hair twice and scrubbed my suntanned body with my green loofah. Once I felt clean, I stood under the cool spray until my sun touched skin began to cool.

When I came out of the bathroom and went into the kitchen, my dad was leaning against the counter drinking a beer. His work shirt was covered in oil, and he still had his red oil rag hanging out of his back pocket. The familiar smell of beer and motor oil drifted around me. It was strangely comforting.

“Have fun?” he asked, tilting his beer up for another swig.

I nodded, pulling the refrigerator open and grabbing a canned soda. “Yeah.”

I tapped the top a bit before popping it open. The sound filled our small kitchen.

“Your brother and Lilly came by earlier for dinner. Emma’s getting so big.”

“We see them at least three times a week. She couldn’t have grown that much in the past two days. Quit trying to make me feel guilty for skipping dinner.”

He chuckled. “Smartass.”

“Like father, like daughter.” I leaned up against the counter beside him, sipping my soda while he sipped his beer. “I’m sorry I missed them.”

“There’s leftovers in the microwave if you’re hungry. Lilly said to tell you to call her tomorrow. She figured you’d be out with Josh tonight.”

The soda burned my throat when I swallowed it. “Yeah. He’s coming by later to pick me up, and we’re going up to Player’s Place.”

“If he drinks, you drive.”

“I know, Dad.” I set my drink on the counter beside me and leaned over to give him a kiss on his rough cheek. “I’m going to take a quick nap.”

His burly beard tickled my lips, and when I pulled away, he was smiling down at me.

“I can’t believe my baby’s going off to college.”

“It’s going to okay, Daddy. I’ll come back to visit all the time.”

He reached up and tugged on my ponytail. “You better.”

“It’ll work out. I’ll be back as much as I can.”

He nodded. “I know. Go get a nap. I’m going to head back out to the garage and tinker with that old Dodge.”

He was hurrying me along because he was getting emotional, and if I knew one thing about my dad and my big brother, it was that they didn’t do emotional unless it came to the women in their lives. Me. Lilly. And my perfect niece.

I hugged him against my side before turning away and going to my room.

The sun had zapped all my energy. My legs felt weak as if I had run a marathon even though I had literally spent the day relaxing on the float. I climbed onto my bed, set the alarm on my phone, and snuggled into my blanket. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and it wasn’t long until the alarm on my phone was going off. I reached from beneath my blanket and silenced my phone before I dragged myself from the warmth of my bed.

Maybe I would skip the night out.

Maybe I could convince Josh to go without me.

The minute the idea ran through my head, I tossed it out. We didn’t have many more nights out before we would all scatter our own ways. I didn’t want to miss anything.

I climbed from my bed and slid on a pair of jeans and a shirt. When I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth and hair, I could hear the echo of Devin’s deep voice in the kitchen with Dad. When I came around the corner and entered the room, I saw him and Dad leaning against the counter, arms crossed and deep in conversation.

“Hey, Assface, sorry I missed you guys earlier,” I said, going in for a hug.

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