Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between(44)

“Are you seeing this?” Aidan asks, shaking his head in disbelief. When he turns and sees her lack of surprise, he stares at her. “You already knew?”

“I just found out.”

“Dude,” he says with a smile, cuffing her playfully on the shoulder. “You’re supposed to tell me these things. How did this happen? How long has it been?”

“Weeks,” Clare says. “It’s totally nuts. I have no idea how it started. I’ll have to get more details at some point.”

Aidan shakes his head in wonder. “Scotty and Stella. I did not see that coming.”

They both turn back to the window, where the two are no longer kissing, but their heads are still close together, and they look happy, happier than Clare can remember seeing either of them in a long time.

“In a weird way,” she says, “I think it makes complete sense.”

“Yeah?” Aidan asks, clearly still trying to catch up. “Is it just a fling? Or something more?”

“I don’t think they know yet.”

“Maybe they don’t have to,” he says, his eyes still trained on the window.

“Yeah, but Stella leaves tomorrow. They’re gonna be a thousand miles away from each other. How could that ever possibly work?”

“I don’t know,” Aidan says quietly. “Maybe they’ll just see how it goes.”

“But that’s crazy.”

“No crazier than an owl wearing glasses.”

“This is much crazier,” she says, but in spite of herself, she’s smiling.

When they turn back to the window, Scotty and Stella are no longer there. Clare stares at the empty space where they stood only moments ago, and she takes a long breath before looking back over at Aidan.

“Maybe you’re right,” she says. “Maybe they’ll figure something out.”

He puts an arm around her shoulders, and the familiar weight of it seems to anchor her right there on the deck, in the very place where he’d once opened a door for her, and where they’d once played footsie. In the place where he’d tripped her, and sneezed on her, and where she’d watched him throw up. In the place where they’d seen an owl that may or may not have been wearing glasses, and where they’d once spent an entire night getting to know each other.

“Maybe this is just the beginning for them,” she says, and Aidan smiles.

“Like I said… the prologue is the best part.”

The Basement

2:33 AM

Outside in Scotty’s driveway, they stand in a circle, feeling the full weight of the moment. The time has come to say goodbye, but the words haven’t caught up just yet.

A breeze sifts through the branches of the trees that lean close to the house, and a few leaves come twirling down. As she watches them in the glow of the floodlights from the garage, all Clare can think is: Another ending.

Right now, together with her best and oldest friends in the deepest part of a late-summer night, she can think of only one thing harder: a new beginning.

“Three months,” she says quietly, and nobody has to ask what she means, because they’re all thinking the same thing. Already, they’re counting the days until Thanksgiving, when they’ll all be together again.

“That’s not so bad,” Stella says, wiggling her toes. She’s barefoot, and without her heels, she’s actually about the same height as Scotty, who is standing just beside her.

Clare nods. “It’s nothing.”

“It’ll fly.”

They look at each other with watery smiles, and then Stella lunges at Clare, throwing her arms around her neck. “It’s been… sublime.”

Clare smiles. “New word?”

“New day.”

“You know,” Clare says, her eyes filling as they hug one more time, “Beatrice St. James has nothing on you.”

Stella laughs into her shoulder. “That’s for sure.”

When they pull apart, they see Aidan and Scotty shaking hands, and then, after a pause, thumping each other on the back, before finally working their way up to a hug.

“Don’t worry, dude,” Scotty says as he steps away. “I’ll be sure to look after your sister.”

This time, it’s Stella who hits him, smacking him squarely across the chest so that his eyes widen in surprise. Aidan only laughs.

“I think you’ve got your hands pretty full already,” he says, nodding at Stella, who gives him a little whack for good measure before diving in for a hug.

“No comments from the peanut gallery,” she says into his shoulder, and he laughs again.

“Fair enough. But just know that the peanut gallery is very happy for you.”

Scotty skips across the driveway in Clare’s direction, a huge grin across his inky face. He doesn’t even pause before lifting her off the ground in a giant bear hug.

“Thank you,” he says in her ear, and when he sets her down again, she leans back to look at him.

“For what?”

“For thinking I’m good enough.”

She gives him a stern look. “How many times do we have to tell you it doesn’t matter where you go—”

“No,” he says. “For Stella.”

“Scotty, come on.” She glances over to where Aidan and Stella are waiting near the car. “Of course you’re good enough for her. There’s no one better.”