To All the Boys I've Loved Before

three

Harry's POV

So now its the last days of summer and our last days with Gemma. Maybe it's not altogether such a bad thing that she broke up with Michal. This way we have more time with just us siblings. I'm sure she must have thought of that. I'm sure it was part of the plan.

We're driving out of our neighborhood when we see Michal run past. He joined track last year, so now he's always running. Maddy yells his name, but the windows are up, and it's no use anyway as he pretends not to hear. "Turn around," Maddy urges Gemma. "Maybe he wants to come with us."

"This is a Styles' only day," I tell her.
We spend the rest of the morning at Target, picking up last minute things like Honey Nut Chex mix for the flight and deodorant and hair ties. We let Maddy push the cart so she can do that thing where she gets a running start and then rides the cart like she's pushing a chariot. Gemma only lets her do it a couple of times before she makes her stop, though, so she doesn't annoy the other customers.

Next we go back home and make chicken salad with green grapes for lunch and then it's nearly time for Maddy's swim meet. We pack a picnic dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit salad and bring Gemma's laptop to watch movies on, because swim meets can go long into the night. We make a sign, too. It says Go Maddy Go! I draw a dog on it.

Mum ends up missing the swim meet because she is delivering a baby, and as far as excuses go, it's a pretty good one. (It was a girl, and they named her Patricia Rose after her two grandmothers. Mum always finds out the first and middle name for me. It's the first thing I ask when she gets home from a delivery.)

Maddy's so excited about winning two first place ribbons and one second place that she forgets to ask where Michal is until we're in the car driving back home. She's in the backseat and she's got her towel wrapped around her head like a turban and her ribbons dangling from her ears like earrings. She leans forward and says, "Hey! Why didn't Michal come to my meet?"

I can see Gemma's hesitate, so I answer before she can. Maybe the only thing I'm better at than Gemma is lying. "He had to work at the bookstore tonight. He really wanted to make it, though." Gemma reaches across the console and gives my hand a grateful squeeze.

Sticking out her lower lip, Maddy says, "That was the last regular meet! He promised he'd come watch me swim."

"It was a last-minute thing," I say. "He couldn't get out of working the shift because one of his coworkers had an emergency."

Maddy nods begrudgingly. As little as she is, she understands emergency shifts.

"Let's get ice cream," Gemma says suddenly.

Maddy lights up, and Michal and his imaginary emergency shift is forgotten. "Yeah! I want a waffle cone! Can I get a waffle cone with two scoops? I want mint chip and peanut brittle. No, rainbow sherbet and double fudge. No, wait-"

I twist around in my seat. "You can't finish two scoops and a waffle cone," I tell her. "Maybe you could finish two scoops in a cup, but not in a cone."

"Yes, I can. Tonight I can. I'm starving."

"Fine, but you better finish the whole thing." I shake my finger at her and say it like a threat, which makes her roll her eyes and giggle. As for me, I'll get what I always get. The cherry chocolate-chunk ice cream in a sugar cone.

Gemma pulls into the drive-thru, and as we wait our turn, I say, "I bet they don't have this good of ice cream in Scotland."

"Probably not." She says.

"You won't have another one of these until Thanksgiving," I say.

Gemma looks straight ahead. "Christmas," she says, correcting me. "Thanksgiving's too short to fly all that way, remember?"

"Thanksgiving's gonna suck." Maddy pouts.

I'm silent. We've never had a Thanksgiving without Gemma. She always does the turkey and the broccoli casserole and the creamed onions. I do the pies (pumpkin and pecan) and the mashed potatoes. Maddy is the taste tester and the table setter. I don't know how to roast a turkey. And both of our grandmothers will be there, and Nana, Mum's mother, likes Gemma best of all of us. She says Maddy drains her and I'm too dreamy-eyed.

All of a sudden I feel panicky and it's hard to breathe and I couldn't care less about cherry chocolate-chunk ice cream. I can't picture Thanksgiving without Gemma. I can't even picture next Monday without her. I know most siblings don't get along, but I'm closer to Gemma than I am to anybody in the world. How can we be a family without Gemma?

[extremely short chapter // sorry]