Carolina [h.s]

forty nine

***
my baby here on earth, showed me what my heart is worth so when it comes to be my turn could you shine it down here for her? cause my love is mine, all mine, i love mine mine mine nothing in this world belongs to me but my love
***

Vada
//

The middle of August arrives pretty much out of nowhere.

After escaping to Charleston for the weekend, Harry and I arrived back at the motel feeling a little more lifted than before. And although our moments are now numbered more than ever, I felt a strange sense of stability between us.

I help him pack up a part of his life he never wanted to look back on, and if it brings me this much ease, I can't even imagine what he's feeling. So with all that he owns in the back of his trunk, we head to town to put it all in a storage unit for a few weeks.

"It's only up from here, V." Harry tells me, a certain smile brimming between his lips.

There's still that bittersweet feeling in my stomach, but I smile back anyway, watching as he shuts the storage unit door behind us, knowing that he will probably pack his stuff at the motel on his own very soon.

After that, packing up and a lot of goodbyes is what the next week is filled with.

Juliet and I attend a few graduation parties, bidding our high school friends a final goodbye. I pack up my room little by little, keeping things that are meant for home and taking things for city life. Goodwill boxes of things I've outgrown pile in my backseat and I take tags off of things that are helping me begin a new life.

I spend as much time with grams as possible, knowing Juliet and I will get enough of each other pretty soon. And as the days continue to go by, I find myself really trying to be present but no matter what I do, they just continue to slip by me in a bitter sweet whim.

"Are you two ready for the last splash of the season?" Grams asked as she strolls in the motel office.

It was one of those rare days when the sun was shining and the temperatures were sky high and everything felt like summer for one last time. With all the excitement happening just later that evening, my best friend and I were smart enough to relax indoors until then.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Juliet smiles, flipping through her magazine with a cherry-pop between her lips. "V and I got cute dresses from the mall yesterday, and the band is performing in front of the entire town, it should be the night of all nights."

The small town we grew up in had many traditions, but the last splash of the summer was my favorite one of them all. It was a time at the end of August when the whole township got together to have one last night of summer before everyone got too serious again in the fall.

Juliet and I would plan months in advance when we were younger, gorging about the freedom that summer rings, and savoring the season we always spent together.

"Oh the band that Harry's in, right Vada?" Grams said absentmindedly, flipping through her own paperwork.

"How do you know Harry?" Juliet perks up right when I'm about to explain.

Grams and I exchange knowing eye contact, and I pray she's understanding the determination in my sight.

"Well, I've been wondering where my granddaughters sudden urge to leave the house had been for, could you blame me for being curious Juliet?" She smiles wholeheartedly at my best friend, and I release a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Yes, Grams has been pestering me all summer about the band, now she will actually get to see them with her own eyes," I smiled back.

"Oh wait until you see 'em, Rose." Juliet's interest increases. "Even Vada, who's the toughest critic for music, is now their biggest supporter." She laughs nudging my shoulder from next to me.