Relative Fiction | ✓

16

Fourth of July on Folly Beach was a big to do about absolutely nothing, but that didn't stop the town from having a parade down the one mile strip of Main Street (featuring my dear Buttercup Princess little sister), food trucks and bar specials, and a fireworks show over the pier and the jetty.

It also didn't stop AJ from insisting I drag her through the entire sordid day of events, since Fourth of July in New York City was, according to her, a shit show. I didn't know how her and I had become so close over the last few weeks, but I guess it was bound to happen since we spoke almost every day, even if it was just to make sure I wasn't doing drugs and didn't want to fling myself off of the bridge.

After the night at the roller rink, it was different. Sometimes those are you okay conversations would morph into movies or music or something else that seemed so mundane to normal people, but for me, it was like the universe had finally aligned some stars just for me. Our closeness seemed inevitable, but I wanted to be close to her in every possible way, from knowing the constellation of freckles on her nose, to feeling the creamy skin of her thighs wrapped around my waist. The kind of closeness you don't second guess - all you need is their steady breathing beside you, and you just know.

Our overnight friendship still didn't change the fact that when I woke up after 11 AM to her pounding on my bedroom door, my heart might as well have jumped on a rocket and shot up to the moon.

"I hope you're decent," she called from the other side of the door.

I nearly fell out of bed and fumbled around my floor for a clean pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

"Uh...depends on who you ask," I called back as I pulled on a pair of decent chino shorts that didn't smell like sweat or cigarettes, nearly tripping over my own feet.

"I meant are you wearing pants?" she asked with a chuckle. "You're such a space cadet sometimes, I swear."

"Oh...yeah..." I mumbled, mostly to myself. AJ flung the door open, greeting still shirtless me with her effervescent smile, and it made my cheeks burn with the heat of a thousand suns.

I never really believed that the sight of someone could literally take your breath away, but looking at her had my lungs struggling. Either that or I really needed to cut back on the smoking. It was like she injected sunshine into her veins every morning. Would it be considered relapse if I did the same?

"You promised to take me to the parade this afternoon, and I want to get a decent spot!" She was like a little kid on Christmas morning as she flopped down onto my bed, blue eyes twinkling in the sunlight filtering through my window.

I scoffed at her as I pulled on a black t-shirt. "This isn't the city AJ. You think there's going to be a mob of people there fighting each other for curbside spots just so they can wave to the mayor in his stupid old red Cadillac? Or my sister wearing the flower arrangements I made?"

AJ gave me a faint smile. "Well...just in case, ya know?"

I sighed, and as much as I felt like I had little control over my addiction sometimes, being around her was a different animal entirely. She made the already weak wall of my resolve crumble into dust.

"Alright, alright," I grumbled. "I'm just forewarning you that your expectations are too high for this. I don't want you to be disappointed. Why are you so excited about this anyway?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I guess it's really just about being in a new place. I never really left New York. Except to go to the Hamptons like...once with some college friends. But being somewhere new, somewhere the worst parts of your life haven't followed you to, even the most normal things can feel out of this world. You just have to let them."