“I’m sure one of her parents will be with her,” Dad says.
“So what? Her mom or dad won’t know where they’re going either since they’re new too!”
“You’re right,” Mom agrees, looking back at me with a smile. Her silver-blue eyes that I inherited drop to the bracelet I’m clutching and spinning around between my fingers. Since I didn’t have any white leather, I had to use black, but I picked out and cleaned the whitest of the tiny shells before I attached them like charms. Hopefully Evelyn will like it.
“Is that bracelet for your new friend?” my mom asks.
“Yes.”
“It’s beautiful. I bet she’ll love it.”
“Well, duh. She’s a girl, and girls like when people give them presents.”
“Especially when they’re sweet gifts,” Mom informs me.
Sweet? I don’t want to be sweet. That word just doesn’t sound very…masculine. And I’m a huge wimp as it is, nearly the tallest boy in the class but by far the scrawniest. I can’t beat anyone in an arm-wrestling contest no matter how many pushups I do.
We have to sit in morning traffic forever once we get closer to the elementary school. My knee bounces the entire time nervously, worried I won’t see Evelyn before the bell rings.
Finally, after it feels like we’ve waited eight years, my parents pull up to the sidewalk out in front of the school and my dad hits the button to unlock the doors.
“Good luck, kiddo,” he says with a grin, reaching back to ruffle my hair.
“I can’t believe this is our baby’s last year of elementary school,” my mom sniffles, pulling out her camera to snap photos of me climbing out of the car. I even see the flash several more times when I turn around to look for the sad, raven-haired girl from the beach.
It turns out I was just in time.
My parents have thankfully driven away when I see Evelyn walking through the parking lot with the woman who was with her at the beach yesterday that must be her mom. They both have the same ivory skin that stands out like a sore thumb since everyone who lives here stays nice and tan most of the year.
I notice Evelyn’s cheeks look rosy red as she comes closer, probably from being in the sun yesterday. The color only makes her even prettier with her big, dark eyes and long, silky, black hair. She looks sort of like a porcelain doll. Her eyes are wide and terrified as she gazes up at the brick building she’s approaching and at all of the unfamiliar faces who stop to stare at her. Then, finally, her eyes land on me. Her lips curve into a huge smile before she runs over.
“Cedric!” she exclaims and then throws her arms around me, clinging to me like I’m a life preserver she has to hold on to or she’ll drown. My parents hug me all the time, whether I like it or not, but no one has ever squeezed me so tight or so desperately.
“Mama, this is Cedric,” Evelyn says to her mother when she releases her hold on me.
“It’s nice to meet you, Cedric. I’m Rita.” Her mom looks at me with what I think is relief, like she’s glad her daughter knows someone in this strange place. “We better get you both inside before the bell rings.”
“Which teacher do you have?” I ask Evelyn, a question I’ve been wondering since yesterday.
“Ah, Mrs….” she trails off and looks to her mother for the answer while I hold my breath.
Please say Lambert, please say Lambert…
“Let’s see,” her mom says, pulling out a slip of paper from the purse under her arm. “You have Mrs. Carla Lambert.”
“I’m in Mrs. Lambert’s class too!” I tell her excitedly. The odds were good that we would be in the same class since it’s a small school with only two fifth grade classrooms. “Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
I grab Evelyn’s hand to pull her toward the front door where dozens of other kids are hurrying inside, some with their parents, and her mom follows us.
As soon as we reach Mrs. Lambert’s classroom door, Evelyn lets go of my hand to give her mom a hug goodbye. Rita wishes us both luck and then waves as she leaves.
“Here,” I say when we’re finally somewhat alone, handing over the bracelet I’ve been holding all morning.
“Oh wow! It’s beautiful,” Evelyn gasps as she clutches it in her fingers. “Is it mine?”
“Well, yeah. I told you I would make you one.”
“Thank you,” she says with a smile as she slips it on her wrist and then spins it around, touching each of the tiny, white seashells.
“I only had four good shells right now, but I promise I’ll find more for it.”
“I love it,” Evelyn tells me while her face practically glows with delight. “You’re so sweet,” she adds before her arms are thrown around my neck again.
There’s that word I hate again. She thinks I’m sweet, like my mom. But I don’t regret making Evelyn the bracelet since it made her look so happy, unlike yesterday at the beach when she seemed sad.
And suddenly I realize that I would do pretty much anything under the sun to keep her from looking sad ever again.
Chapter One
Cedric
Eight years later…
Two years ago…
Open your window. I’m on my way over.
Evelyn’s text message around midnight the summer we graduated high school isn’t a question but a statement. She doesn’t have to ask because my door, or window in this case, is always open for her. Not that she’s used it lately.
The bedroom window is already unlocked, but I go lift it all the way up to save her some time.
Evelyn and I have been inseparable best friends for the past eight years. We must have scrounged up close to a million seashells, had treasure hunts on the beach, and rode our bikes together until we were fourteen or fifteen. That’s when our parents stopped letting us hang out without supervision, not that I was all that surprised. Suddenly, my flat-chested best friend had breasts that sprouted almost overnight. I couldn’t stop looking at them or thinking about touching them, which was so wrong. I felt awful the first time I jerked off and thought about Evelyn, the girl I had been friends with forever. I was embarrassed, afraid that as soon as she saw my face the next morning on the walk to school she would know, and it would ruin our friendship. Both of us have other friends, but there’s no one like Evelyn. She just…gets me. Always has. And I would spend every second of every day with her if I could.
Since Evelyn is not psychic, of course she didn’t find out about my fantasies starring her. And before I could ever get up the nerve to tell her that I wanted to spend our weekends with our tongues deep in each other’s mouths rather than hanging out playing video games, Kyle fucking Chambers happened.
He was a year older than us, an uppity sophomore. So our freshman year of high school when he asked Ev if she wanted to see a movie with him is when I realized I was about to lose my best friend. Kyle was Evelyn’s first kiss, not me. He was also the first boy to touch her boobs as Ev soon confided in me a few weeks later, which made me immediately start fantasizing about chopping off his fucking fingers one at a time with a rusty axe.