The One Without Words

❀ chapter fifty | saying goodbye ❀

Something had changed ever since that new year's party. Well, not just something. Many things.

For one, Jack, Eli, Seth, Anika, and I had grown to be a solid group of friends—or, as Seth liked to joke, a "wolf pack". On Friday—two days before Jack's flight—Eli and Seth decided to throw a mini goodbye party for him. And this time, no alcohol or crowds would be involved.

The sun made an appearance, and the five of us went out on Eli's parents' boat. While Eli sailed, Seth stared out at the houses on the other side of Lake Washington, the distant, foggy mountain landscape as their backdrop.

"I'm sure you remember this," I told Jack.

He looked away, cheeks going pink—and probably not just from the chill of the wind.

"Yeah, this is the boat you almost lost!" Eli exclaimed. "It was such a headache for my dad to track it down."

"First of all," I began. "The only other option that night would've been to let Seth's frat boy squad jump us on the dock, and wasn't it you who told us to get on the boat anyway?"

"Shit," Eli muttered, scratching his head. "I kind of forgot about that. In my defense, I was also kind of wasted that night."

Seth turned around. "And now you're moving away," he said to Jack. "Damn."

Jack smiled and put his hands in the pockets of his coat. Anika was sitting and staring out at the lake. She had an amethyst crystal in her hand that Jack gave her as a gift.

Would Jack miss her? Them? Had he forgiven Seth and Eli for what they did in the past? I had no idea.

"Will you come back and visit, though?" Eli asked.

Jack nodded.

"Cool. Well, you know. I don't think we're going anywhere. We'll all be at the same college. Though I'm not sure about you, Anika."

"We'll see," she said without looking away from the lake.

Eli cut the engine and anchored the boat. "Never gets old being out here." He then went to the front and resumed reading the book he'd been obsessing over for the past week, The Secret History. 

"I love that book," Jack interrupted.

Eli froze for a few seconds and then turned to look at Jack, his face softening a bit as he looked at him for what was probably the first time. "What?"

"I love that book," Jack repeated. Out loud and sober. Both Seth and I did a double-take. Eli blinked at him a few times before his face immediately brightened up. "You do?"

What then began was a lively conversation between the two about the book. Eli bombarded Jack with questions, and Jack simply nodded to most of them or gave him simple, one-word answers.

"Alright, alright, enough with the nerd talk," Seth said as he finished rolling his blunt. "Eli, you got a lighter?"

Eli rolled his eyes, reached into his pocket, and gave him a red lighter.

We spent the next hour lounging on the boat as the sun slowly went down. The only clouds were the puffs of smoke Seth blew into the air. "So, we've seen you when you're drunk," he said to Jack, "but what about when you're high?"

Jack shook his head. 

"Alright, bro, I see how it is. Gonna make us wait until you're back from Germany?"

Jack didn't answer. Seth passed Eli the blunt, who took a few long drags before passing it to Anika. She looked at it, perplexed, before carefully taking the slightest puff.