The Last Summer

Heather

Waking up the morning after the sleepover, which had been a lot less interesting than most over the course of the past six years, and being the only one up was nothing new by now. But for me that was a blessing in disguise. I really needed to get cleaned up before our lunch today and hopefully I'd get there early enough to talk to Amanda alone.

I drive home and thank every god that there is that my siblings and parents aren't awake yet.

From Heather 10.03

Hey can we talk by ourselves for a little bit before the others come for lunch?

I head to the shower and take my time. After the sleepover at Isabelle's moms house and jumping into the pool during an eventful game of Truth or Dare I really needed to work out the knots and tangles in my chlorine filled hair.

I get out and make my way to my room and check my phone.

From Amanda 10.20

Of course. Anything in particular you want to talk about?

From Heather 11.31

Mostly just about high school and some stuff about the house. Sorry for responding so late. Shower that was much needed

From Amanda 11.32

Say no more. I understand. Do you wanna meet around twelve? Gives us plenty of time

From Heather 11.33

Yeah that works for me. See ya there

^^^^

I show up at Mimi's Cafe in a blue sundress and laugh when I see Amanda sitting at a large table by herself muttering at a blue comp book.

"I thought we were done with high school?" I ask sitting next to her.

Her head pops up and slaps a hand over her chest.

"God Heather." she says her brown eyes larger than normal. "You gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry." I laugh. "Couldn't resist. SO what's with the comp book?"

"Story I figured I'd work on before you showed up." She sighs closing it. "Didn't get much of anywhere with it."

"Well what did you wanna work on?" I ask. Amanda's writing had always been something I loved seeing her work on. She loved doing it and unfortunately couldn't see how good she was at it. She always brushed off our compliments by comparing herself to author's with more experience and published works.

"Nothing really." She says rubbing her eyes. "Anyways what did you want to talk about?"

"Well I just wanted to talk to you about school and just...I don;t really know how to put it." I sigh.

"That's the worst." She says. "Like it's right on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't." She motions with her hands and makes a frustrated face.

I laugh and nod. "Exactly! It's like you know how you want to say it-"

"But it just doesn't come out." She finishes.

"Exactly." I say. "But I guess the main thing is, I don't know how to move on from this. I mean high school was a big part of our lives. And some parts of it were perfect and others were horrible, but that's what made it fun. I mean I know you hated anything that wasn't us or drama class, but for me I loved it a lot. I just don't know how to move on."

"Well that's life I guess." she sighs. "I mean yeah I hated high school. If it wasn't for you guys or the plays I would've been begging to be home schooled from day one freshmen year. But for you and Isabelle and Lucy and the others it was a lot of fun and you enjoyed it. I guess that makes me the odd man out, not that I need anything else to make me weird or anything, but I'm not sure myself.

"Like yeah we had a lot of fun, but at the same time I always knew we'd have to move on and be adults and that just fucking sucks." she sighs and runs a hand through her brown curls. "But maybe high school it like transition from kids to adults. I mean how cliche is that for me to say? But in a sense isn't it true? I mean if I had to do it all over again I would do a lot of stuff differently and some stuff I wouldn't. I guess it's kind of like middle school or puberty.

"Sorry those were horrible examples. But you get the gist right? Like we had to go through this so we'd be a little bit more ready to face the real world. Of course we still have college ahead of us, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it."

"Don't you mean cross?" I ask.

"No it's a mixture of two different metaphors. It's like 'I'm not sure what obstacles I'll face, but I'm sure I'll fuck 'em up when it happens'."

"Lovely." I say.

"Sorry." Amanda sighs again before starting once more. "I mean you know me college is just one more step to being a kindergarten teacher and I know my grades were never perfect enough to get me into a UC or anything, but it's just not my thing in general. Like if I could skip it and go straight to teaching I would in a heartbeat. But it's something I gotta do."

I nod and stare out the window. "But what if I don't want to let go of high school? Like I know I'm backtracking a bit, but if I don't want to let go and just keep it close is that okay?"

"I think so." Amanda shrugs. "You know me I'm blocking out most of it as we speak, but that's just me and I never enjoyed it so much that I never want to forget it, but maybefor other's it's fine to not let go 100%. And for you that just may be what you need or want to do and maybe you need to let go but just don't know it yet. I don't know. I'm not you."

"Thanks anyways." I tell her. "But seriously what were you writing about?"

"I wanted to write something like the Group if we were secreatly royalty, but that seemed a little over done." Amanda admits, turning a little red as she continues. "But I know I want to write something that has to do with the Group. Obviously I'd change the names and such, but I'd liek to do something like that. And I would have to be asking what you thought and I obviously don't know how to be you, but I could try and...I don't know. It just sound slike fun."

"Yeah it really does." I smile. "But the question is who would play us if it got turned into a movie?"