Finding Andrew

Chapter 10

 “Elizabeth! Elizabeth? How are you? How’s your mom?” Andrew says, confused at first. “Uh, she’s good. I’ve been good. I’m not ten months old anymore, a lot happens in 15 years,” I say awkwardly. “Fifteen already, huh? Not married or pregnant I hope. Why’d your Mom tell you about me then?” he asks. “Actually, I heard it through the grape vine, I’m in Florida with my family, we’re at Mom’s parent’s house for the summer,” I explain. “You’re in Florida right now?” he asks, he sounds surprised. “Uh yeah, we’ll be here until the first actually,” I say. “Well are you busy today? You want to go to lunch or something?” he asks. I smile, “Sure, want me to ask Mom, or what? I can’t drive but I can get James or something to drive me.” “Who’s James?” he asks. “He’s uh, he’s my boyfriend,” I say quickly. “Well, you can bring your boyfriend because I’d like to meet him, and you can bring your Mom too, if you’d like. How about we go to Denny’s?” he says. “Okay. Denny’s off of Route 19? Is elven okay, it’s like nine or something now,” I ask. “Yes and yes. Alright, see you then.” He hangs up. I turn to James. I don’t know if I want to laugh, smile, or cry. “So, what’s happening?” James asks. “We’re meeting my Dad,” I say.

          It’s still raining when Mom, James, and I leave. Truthfully, I’m not hungry, I’m more nervous than anything. “Stop bouncing your legs,” James says, turning into the parking lot. “Sorry I’m nervous,” I say sarcastically. “It’s okay to be nervous,” James gets out of the car with the umbrella, and comes to my side to let me out, and my Mom, “But you don’t have to be constantly moving.” I roll my eyes and huddle closer to James because my bag is getting wet from the rain. “It’s up to you to find him,” I say to Mom.

          Inside we see him as soon as we walk in. Mom’s face changes totally. She’s trying to hide something, either it’s tears, or a smile. “There he is,” Mom mumbles. We make our way over to where he is sitting. “Wow, Elizabeth, you look just like Heather,” Andrew… Dad mumbles. I hug him, and so does Mom. “Uh, Dad, this is my boyfriend James,” I say, and they shake hands. We sit down and chat, and it doesn’t seem awkward at all. I’m actually a lot like my Dad, and we hope to see each other again before our family leaves to go back up north. “So what did you think?” James asks once we’re in the car again. “It went better than I had thought. At least one thing is resolved, but Fee…” I say, not needing to continue. “It’s okay Elizabeth. Don’t get worked up again, it will be okay,” James says. I nod, and try to sleep.

          I wake up and James is sitting next to me, in his truck. “James!” I say, sitting up, “What time is it?” “I don’t know, like four?” he shrugs. It’s still raining, and it’s humid and dark. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I ask, pushing his shoulder. He smiles, “You looked peaceful. I watched you sleep for a little bit, but I fell asleep too.”  “It’s hot in here and my back hurts,” I complain. James lifts the center counsel so he can lean over and kisses me. “Is that better?” he asks. “Yeah, kind of,” I smile. “Want to go?” James asks. “Go where?” I ask. He shrugs; “As far as we can on…” he checks the gas gauge, “Half a tank will get us? Maybe the sunset?” “Sure,” I lean back in my seat and watch the trees go by.

                We land up on the beach, and we watch the sunset. “I’m going to miss you when you’re gone Elizabeth,” James says. “Why don’t you come up there? What are you going to be a junior?” I say, though I know that probably won’t happen. “I don’t think that would fly with anyone here, even though I would love to,” James shakes his head. “It seems wrong. Maybe I’ll come down and spend next summer with my Dad, and I can see you then?” I say. He nods, “Possible.” He stares at me for a second. “I don’t want it to just end,” I pull my knees up to my chin and burry my face in them. “It doesn’t have to. We can video chat and I’ll call you every day to make sure you’re okay,” James says. “It’s not going to be the same,” I say, shaking my head. “You’ll always be the first girl who’s met my family and stuck around,” James says. “Hey, my family’s no better,” I smile to myself. “Okay, both of our families are perfect then,” James nudges me. “Close enough to it,” I say. “We’d better go, huh? It’s pretty dark,” James stands and helps me up. On our way back to the truck I call Mom and tell her what happened, and that we’re on our way home. She doesn’t seem as mad as I thought she would be.

          When we get home it really is dark. We sneak in quietly, because Ethan and Elise are probably sleeping. “Mom?” I whisper. “Hey Elizabeth, I’m going to get going. Good night,” James says, kissing my forehead. “Okay, bye,” I say, watching him through the screen door. “Told you,” Grandma says. I jump, “Grandma!” “Why didn’t you just let it happen from the beginning?” she asks. “Because I didn’t come here to hang out with boys, I came here to be with you guys,” I say, shaking my head and smiling. “Oh phish-posh,” she waves me off, “You know just as well as I do you liked that boy from the second you laid eyes on him.” I try not to smile, “I did not!” Grandma wraps her arm around me, “Well you definitely like him now right? Has he told you he loves you yet?” “Grandma, it’s only been days!” I say. “Oh right, right. It seems like so much longer though, right?” she asks. “I guess,” I shrug, “I’m going to go to bed, okay?” “Okay sweetie, goo night,” she says, and we go our separate ways.

“Okay, I’ll trade you two truths for one secret,” James says, handing me two cards. We each wrote 20 truths, 10 lies, and 25 secrets down on notecards, and we have to try and figure out if it’s a truth, lie, or secret, and if we trade the wrong thing we have to tell a memory that we don’t want anyone to know. I hand him two truths, and he hands me his card. “Read yours first,” I say. “Okay, the first one says that you’re allergic to peanuts, and the second one is you had braces for three years, which are indeed both truths,” James says, putting the cards off to the side. “Yours says that you have a baby somewhere in this world, which better be a lie,” I say, laughing. “It is a lie, and my embarrassing moment is, the first time my Mom tried to bring me to church I ran up and down the aisles for half an hour until my mom got us and we left. Then we got McDonalds,” James nods, smiling. “Seriously?” I ask. He nods, “Dead serious.” “That’s not embarrassing, it’s extremely funny though,” I laugh. I look over at him, reading his cards, and smile to myself. Today is already July seventh, only a couple more weeks and we’re going to be going back up north. It’s sad, considering it’s only been a week or two since we’ve started dating. A month isn’t even that long. I knew I shouldn’t have done this; it’s too late to deny my feelings now. “I don’t want to leave,” I drop my cards and crawl across the couch to James, “I won’t go. I’ll hide like we did when we were kids.” He kisses my forehead, “I know. It’ll work out.”