Best Friends Forever

1

Some people said that in life only two things were certain: death and taxes. Whether those people were ultimately right or wrong, I didn't know. But at this point in my life, I vehemently disagreed. There were four things certain in my life: death, taxes, family, and friends.

I'd lived my entire life without having to doubt a single one. My family and friends were two constants in my life, steady and present in a way very few people were lucky enough to have. I'd lived my entire existence in my symbiotically co-dependant state: I was always there for them as they were always there for me.

It had never occurred to me that things could change. It had never occurred to me that things would change, and that was where my naïvité started to show. Because as soon as things started to change, my whole world turned upside down.

Today was the last day of summer break, a day my friends and I considered a bittersweet celebration. Every year, we picked up breakfast from Bean Brothers and spent the entire day in my lakehouse, bidding farewell to the sweet feelings of no responsibility.

I was the first to arrive at the small cafe in the middle of town and placed our orders. I sat in a small table by the window to look at the view before opening my phone to scroll through Instagram. I was so engrossed in my boring ass feed that the scraping of a chair against the hardwood floors made me yelp and look up.

There stood two thirds of my friend group, eyes bright and smiles wide. First there was Adrienne, who we referred to exclusively as Addy. She was small, merely five foot two, with the presence of someone who was seven foot tall. With her mane of curly black hair and her impeccable sense of style, Addy was a headturner in every sense of the word.

Next to her stood her twin brother, Lucas. Lucas was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. He had curly black hair he kept cropped short, which only served to accentuate his sharp jawline and striking eyes. He looked like a fuckboy in the best way possible, but he was anything but. Lucas was the sweetest teenager I'd ever come across with a heart of pure gold.

I jumped up when I saw them, tackling them both in a bear hug that ultimately lead to us all toppling over.

"Well someone's excited to see us," Addy laughed, pushing me off of them to get up.

"I missed you guys, okay?" I defended myself.

"Don't worry, Leila, I missed you too. It's been so long since we saw each other yesterday," Lucas teased.

"Screw you both," I said, giving them the finger. Right as we sat down again, the waitress came with our order.

"Is Jason meeting us here?" I asked, glancing at my watch. Now that our food was ready to go, I wanted to get a head start on our small roadtrip. The last thing I wanted was to waste the last day of summer.

"I think so," Addy said. "Didn't we say we'd all meet here?"

"Jason didn't even open the chat," Lucas said, scrolling through his phone. "Is he even coming?"

"Of course he's coming," I said. We did the same exact thing every year. He wouldn't skip out on our tradition. "I'll call him, see where he's at."

I grabbed my phone and got up, dialling Jason's number. When I was finally outside, I dialled him two more times before he finally picked up.

"Hey, Leils," Jason yawned over the phone.

"Where are you?" I demanded. "We're all waiting for you at Bean Brothers. Were you still asleep?"

"Kinda," he said. "Shit, I'm sorry I totally forgot about the lakehouse. You guys go on without me, though."

"We're going to wait for you, J. Just hurry the hell up and get out of bed."

"Or you can come join me in bed," he joked and I rolled my eyes.

"Quit joking around and hurry up. You're already late."

"I don't think I'm coming, Leils," he said, his tone serious. "Seriously, go without me."

"We don't want to go without you," I said. "Why won't you just come? We're all waiting."

We argued a little more back and forth before he told me definitively that he was not coming.

"Just so you know, we're all going to have a great time and we're going to make a bunch of inside jokes that you're not going to get and you'll have major FOMO and you'll regret this decision for the rest of your entire life," I told him after he made his final decision not to come.

"Wow, those are some serious consequences," he said.

"I also will never forgive you and I'll probably hate you forever for not coming," I added, desperately trying to convince him.

"Maybe I'll meet you there. We'll see, Leils. I'm just so tired this morning, I'd just be a downer anyway."

"Fine. But just so you know, Addy and I are going into the hot tub naked," I said, then hung up. We were definitely not going into the hot tub naked, but Jason didn't need to know that. The moment I hung up, I got two texts.

Jason: I hate you for telling me that

Jason: Pics or it didn't happen ;)

I smiled to myself as I went back into the cafe and plopped myself down on the chair. "So, Jason's not coming," I informed Lucas and Addy.

"I knew it," Addy said. "Have you noticed that he's been cancelling on us so much lately? I haven't seen him in like, a week."

"Maybe he's just busy," Lucas suggested, always the diplomatic one. "You know Uncle Justin and Aunt Julia are never home, he takes care of everything."

That was true. Jason's parents were hardly in Greenwich, both travelling between here, LA, and New York for their work. Jason just stayed in his lonely, big house all alone.

"They've been barely home for years. He's used to it," I said.

"Doesn't make it any less shitty," Lucas pointed out.

"I know," I sighed. "I just miss him. I miss us. I don't want things to change senior year."

"They won't, Leila," Lucas said. "I think if Jason was going to ditch us, he would've done it seventeen years ago."

I laughed. "Okay, fine. You're right. Everything's fine."

If only I knew.