2017
I pluck the grass out of the ground and mindlessly throw it at Riley.
She doesn't respond. She just stares blankly out into the forest. "I leave in less than two weeks."
"I know." My voice is barely audible. We haven't talked at all about Riley's leaving. It's a bit of a sore spot for both of us.
The air is silent once again. I don't want Riley to leave at all, but if we don't talk about it, it'll stay a sore spot, which neither of us want. "You really think you're going to be okay out there on your own?"
Riley had taken a gap year after she graduated High School to figure out what the hell she was doing with her life. She chose acting.
"Yeah, I really think playing such a large role in Oliver Twist this summer prepared me for it all."
"No, not that. I mean, I know you're an amazing actor." I sigh and pause to organize my thoughts. "I meant . . . are you going to be okay living there without any friends and family? California is like a whole other world."
Riley shrugs. "I'll make friends."
'You will, and that's what hurts. What if they replace me?' I think.
"Any anyways, I could ask you the same thing. Are you going to be okay without me here?"
Even though our relationship has been purely platonic (much to my digression), every fiber in my being is telling me I won't be.
She mentions my best friend. "You'll have Gavin."
"Yeah."
<3 ash | 8.2.16
YOU ARE READING
Summers without Her
Short StoryI was too scared to tell her what I truly felt, and by the time I was ready to, it was too late. And now, she spends all her summers with him. It's like I never even existed. *updated every other day*
