handle [discontinued]

SPRING // 8

thursday, n/a, school

I threw the last of my binders and work away into the large recycling bin in the middle of the hallway. Today was the official day to clean out our lockers. Mine was bare in minutes. The only school material I kept were some of my writing pieces and art projects, which were at home since I took them yesterday.

Along with emptying out our lockers, the school picnic was today. This would be exactly like tomorrow, except we wouldn't be getting free Chick-Fil-A tomorrow. Which was stupid. But besides that, the last two days of school were always the best.

Our school had its own park, and the juniors were all directed to go there. The seniors were at graduation. The freshmen and sophomores were on the track.

I knew Denim would be looking for me later, so I made my way towards his locker.

When I got there, he was still cleaning.

"Hey." I greeted. Denim smiled at me.

"Was just about to come and get you. I wanted you to read to me at the picnic." He threw some of his papers away.

"Good you remembered. I have no one else to hang with." I shrugged.

"Except me." Denim shut his locker and linked his arm around my waist. In a friendly way.

We made out way out of the school and towards the park. There were more juniors along the way, and we went along with them.

"What are you going to be doing for the summer?" I poked Denim in his stomach. From what I felt he had a little bit of muscle.

"I feel like you've asked me this before." Denim turned to

Me. I shrugged. It did feel like it though.

"Maybe it's because I know you too well." Denim nodded in agreement.

While we were walking to the park, we could hear music playing. It was a lot of pop music, top 100, and I didn't like it. Denim asked if he could choose the music (he saw the disgust on my face) and I gave him my phone.

I grabbed two Chick-Fil-A boxes for

Us and Denim led us to sit under an old tire. By the time we at down, he'd finally chose a song. It was Cocoa Butter Kisses by Chance the Rapper.

It was kind of funny because Denim dressed all psychedelic-like. He was wearing a tie-dye Led Zepplin t-shirt, some jeans, a bandana tied around his head and some John Lennon glasses.

"What?" He asked with a mouthful of chicken sandwich and a headphone in his leg tear.

"Nothing." I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I looked ahead and I saw a group of guys walking towards an open field. Guys were playing football. Most of them were shirtless or wearing t-shirts or wife beaters, but they were all sweating.

"Why would I play with them when you have to read to me? And football is more of Berah and Cayron." This is was totally Fangirl.

I put on my reading playlist and chose a shitty story I wrote back in sophomore year. It was about a girl who was expected to run the family business given to her by her parents, and obviously she's not going to do it. But it gets twisted when her parents die and she's expected to run the business or go broke and end up ruining her life later.

And while I was reading, I was rudely interrupted by someone telling me to come with them for a few minutes. I don't know why I did it since it was Bianca.

"What're you doing?" I took my arm out of her grasp.

"We're going to talk to my friends. Come on." She smiled and gestured towards the table they were all sitting at.

At least she's giving an effort. And it'll be over sooner if I just go.

In seconds I was sitting at the edge of the table with her clique.

"So." I heard from the other end of the table. I looked down the short aisle of long haired blondes an brunettes to see a Kate looking right back at me. "Are you & Denim going out?"

I shook my head no.

"Do you want to go out with him?" Another girl asked, a brunette sitting not too far from Kate.

Before I could answer, more questions were asked and opinions given.

"Does he even like you?" That was mean.

"I think he's cute?" And? . . .

"He still likes me. I know it." Get over him, Bianca.

Before I could say anything else, once again, I was being pulled away from them. It was Denim.

"Come on, let's go."

"Does everyone think its okay to pull people without asking?" Of course I was talking to no one in general.

"When you're around them," he pointed to the group of girls. "It's okay to."

I shrugged and made my way back to the tree.

Until the end of the day, all I did was read stories to Denim and listen to Chance the Rapper. It was kind of comforting and relaxing. Of course we got glances from people, but I wasn't paying attention to them.

I read Denim my unfinished stories and story ideas. He enjoyed most of them, and gave me his critique.

Denim gave me a ride home, and there were two other cars parked in the driveway. I didn't recognize them at all, but I went inside anyway. Denim came with me.

"Just to be safe."

When I opened the door, there was laughter. The happy laughter. Mom was sitting on the chair while two other people sat on the couch. Nano was sitting on the floor.

I recognized one of the two people here.

"Hey Mom. Hey Nano." I turned. "Hi, Mr. August." I smiled and waved. The woman next to him smiled and rose, holding out her hand.

"I'm Kara August, his wife. It's nice to meet you." We shook hands. From behind me, Denim waved at everyone. Nano got up to hug him.

"You're probably wondering why they're here, Drew." Mom said. I nodded and smiled. "They want to adopt Nano."

My smile faded. "What?" I silently asked.

"We're aware of your mother's condition." Mr. August stood up. "And now legally, you can't take care of him on your own."

Ms. August nodded from where she was sitting. "And you're going to be a senior and going to college soon. It's going to be hard to take care of him even when you're 18. So we thought we could get a weight off of your shoulders."

"Is this what Noah wants?" I asked, pointing to my brother. I had practically raised him my entire life.

Nano got up and looked me in the eyes. He got his board and wrote on It. I waited patiently, but I was also scared of what he was writing.

" I'll have a family again. Mom wants me to be happy and I don't like Dad a lot. I like my new Dad and Mom. I still love my real Mom, too. "

Tears welled up in my eyes. Mom began speaking. "I wanted to ask you first since you've been one of the biggest parts in his life."

"Since it's what he wants . . ." I wiped my tears away and hugged Nano.

Mom handed them the signed adoption papers.

In about an hour, Nano was gone. But I don't know why I was so sad, they said I would be able to see him anytime I wanted. They gave me their numbers and home address.

This would be best for him.

- just in case you forgot, Nano's real name is Noah. i said it somewhere in the prologue