The Five Maxims Of Life (Excerpt 3)

Another excerpt from my novel. Scene will be set in the text body.

To set the scene: This is a far more upbeat scene than the others I've posted, since most of the novel will be upbeat. This scene takes place in the summer of 2007, in between Jayson and Lily's freshman and sophomore years of high school. Lily moved from North Carolina to Buffalo two years prior, and this is the scene where they're finally reunited. It takes place at Jayson's house by the way.

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 My cell phone starts ringing out of the blue. I look to see who’s calling and see no name, and a number I do not recognize. It’s definitely not a North Carolina area code, so I should probably just let it go. But for some reason, something is telling me to answer it. There’s some compulsion to answer the phone even though I have no idea who’s calling. So I do just that. “Hello?” I say into the phone.

“Hi, Jayson!” the excited voice on the other end says back. I can’t believe my ears; it’s her. Lily and I are finally talking for the first time since she moved.

“Lily! Holy crap, it’s actually you.” I say, elated to be talking to her. I don’t know how she found my number; she didn’t have a cell phone the last time we talked. It doesn’t matter; I’m just so overjoyed to actually be able to talk to her again.

“Yeah, it’s actually me!”

I’m almost at a loss for words. I did not expect to actually get a call from her. “Wow, um… how’d you get my number?” I just have to know.

“I did a little digging around.” Good enough for me. We both chuckle into the phone at the same time, thrilled that we’re able to have some contact with each other. “I’m really sorry we haven’t been able to communicate at all since I moved. I meant to give you my email before I left, but it slipped my mind.”

“Yeah, it slipped my mind to ask. I was just so devastated when you told me, I didn’t even think about it.”

“I was devastated too. I really regret waiting until the last minute to tell you we were moving. I’m the whole reason we haven’t been able to talk.”

“Nah, don’t blame yourself. So, I guess I should ask: how’s Buffalo been for you?”

“Meh, not my ideal place to live. It could definitely be better but it does have some benefits.”

“Like what?”

“Umm… okay, I was trying to sugarcoat it. I absolutely hate it here. Cities suck.” We both share a laugh at her remark about cities. I knew from the beginning that the city wouldn’t treat Lily well; she’s always wanted to live in the country somewhere. “So how’ve you been the last couple years?”

She’s probably looking for an answer like ‘I’ve been just fine,’ and wouldn’t want to hear that I’ve been miserable without her. Knowing her, it would make her feel guilty and get her down, even though she knows there’s nothing she can do about it. I don’t feel like sugarcoating it either. “I really miss you, Lily. It’s been flat-out awful without you.”

“Aww, I’m sorry to hear that,” she says. “I wish there was some way to make it easier for you.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll be okay.” But will I really be? It’s been over two years, and even though I may have moved on for the most part, I still miss her terribly. One of these days I may be okay, but not any time soon.

“No Jayson, I feel like I owe you for breaking the news that we were moving in such a crappy way.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I’ll be fine.” God, how long can I keep on lying to her like this? As I’m talking with her, someone knocks at my front door. My parents weren’t expecting any company until later in the evening; they haven’t even gotten back from their ‘date’ yet. I’ll just let them know that they’re early and to come back later. “Hold on, someone’s at my door.”

“Okay,” she responds. I bring the phone away from my ear and walk over to the front door. I open it up, and I’m shocked by the person I see standing there.

“Lily!” Goddamn, how much better can this get? First I get a call from her after not speaking in over two years, and then she shows up at my freaking door!

“I’m back!” she exclaims as we throw ourselves into each other’s arms. We hug each other tightly and laugh seemingly uncontrollably as we’re finally reunited. After several seconds of the strong embrace and laughter, we stand arm’s length apart from each other.

“Oh my God, it’s… it’s really you!”

“It’s really me!” she says as we embrace each other again quickly.

This is the best thing to happen to me in a long, long time. I don’t know what she’s doing back here, but the only thing that matters is that she’s here with me. “Oh man, what brings you down here?”

“We’re back in Cumberland!”

If she means what I think she means, I may not be able to contain it. “What do you mean by back?”

“I mean we’re back for good.” Yep, that settles is. This day cannot possibly get any better.

“You mean your family’s moved back down here?” I ask, trying to hold back my joy so as to not look like a fool in front of her.

“My dad quit his job with the corporation and we moved back here. We even got a house on the same street we lived on before we moved.”

“Oh, that’s great! Please, come in.” I gesture for her to come into the house, and she obliges. I hang up my cell phone, now that we’re talking face-to-face, and place it back in my pocket.

She steps into the house and immediately notices that it looks different than the last time she was here. “Oh, you’ve redecorated.”

“Uh-huh,” I respond.

“I don’t like it,” she says. She looks at me with the straightest face she can form, but she cannot keep it for long as she quickly doubles over laughing. Always such a tease.

I do the same, and the laughter doesn’t settle down for several seconds. “Can I get you something to drink?” I ask her.

“Just water for now.”

“Coming right up.” In my state of euphoria, I forget where we keep the glasses for a second. “Oh, right. They’re in here.” I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but oh well. I take out a glass at random and hit the ice selector on the fridge, and let a few ice cubes drop into the glass. Then I select water and fill the glass up most of the way. “Can I get you a snack while I’m in here?” I ask.

“Nah, I just had dinner before I came over here and I’m stuffed from that. Thanks for offering, though.”

“Alright,” I respond as I step into the living room with her water. I set it down on the coffee table in front of where she’s sitting on the couch, and sit down next to her.

“Grazie,” she says. I nod in response as she takes a sip from the glass. “So where are your parents?” she asks.

“They went out to dinner. They should be back any minute. They called a little bit before you did to say they were leaving. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to see you again.”

Lily giggles when I mention that; I missed how adorable she is when she does that. “I’m sure they will. Especially your mom. I remember she loved me.”

We both chuckle at that. “Yeah, she really did, and I’m sure she still does. You know, she was really upset when I told her you were moving.”

“Aww, I’m sorry.” Still apologizing for everything and anything. Well, she hasn’t changed in that respect.

“Lily, I know you have nothing but good intentions, but you need to stop being sorry for everything,” I tell her.

“Sorry,” she says. She realizes her mistake as she takes a sip of water and she giggles, causing her to blow a few bubbles in the water, which in turn makes the both of us giggle even more. The giggling builds and builds until we’re both in a full blown laughing fit. In the two years she spent away from me, she hasn’t lost any of her adorableness. As the laughing dies down, my parents pull in the driveway. They have absolutely no idea that Lily and her family are back for good.

“Oh, there’s my parents,” I say with anticipation. I can’t wait for them to find out that Lily’s here again. The headlights turn off, and the driver and passenger doors open and close as they exit the car. I get up off of the couch and go over to the door to greet them. They open without knocking, since it’s their own house, and step inside. “Hey guys,” I say excitedly, “look who’s back.” I gesture over to Lily on the couch, and they look over and see her smiling and waving at them after being gone for over two years.

“Hey!” My dad calls out to her. My mom has a much more enthusiastic reaction.

“Oh my God!” she yells as she quickly goes over to Lily. Lily stands up off the couch and holds her arms out to my mom.

“Hi, Mrs. Stonewall,” she says as my mom gladly accepts her embrace. Lily lets out an ‘oof’ as my mom hugs her like she got some of the wind knocked out of her, and then the two start laughing together.

“Oh, sweetie, I haven’t seen you in so long! Let me look at you.” My mom backs away and looks at Lily, noticing how much she’s changed since she last saw her. In the time she was away, she had taken on a more womanly figure, gotten taller, packed on some meat, and in general she looks more mature. “Oh, you look so different.”

“Yeah, I actually have b***s now,” she jokes. They both start laughing, but I just blush horribly. Listening to my best friend talk about how much her breasts grew to my mother is so extremely awkward and uncomfortable for me. I look at my dad and see that he finds this situation awkward as well.

"Yeah," my mom laughs, "they were just little mosquito bites when you were here last.”

And... it's only getting more awkward. They probably know it's awkward for me and are trying to make me uncomfortable. "Okay," I butt in, "can you not talk about your b***s to my mother? It's making me extremely uncomfortable."

"There's no reason for it to make you uncomfortable. It's just the kind of thing girls talk about," Lily says to justify it.

"Not when one's my best friend and the other is my mom."

"Yeah, maybe we should stop," my mom says. "Apparently Jayson can't handle people talking about puberty."

"It's not the puberty talk that I don't like, it's..." I won't be able to say anything without having them turn it into some joke. It's what they did all the time before she moved, and I'm sure they'd do it again. "Ah, never mind."

Lily and my mom hug again, more gently than they did earlier, and my mom tells her, "It's so good to see you again. Are you guys back to stay?" my mom asks as she lets go of Lily.

"Yep," Lily says cheerfully. "We officially moved back in yesterday."

“Yaaay!” my mom cheers. “When did you find out?” she asks me.

“Like three minutes ago when she showed up at the door. It totally took me by surprise.”

“That was the plan,” Lily says with a smirk. “And I’m sorry if we made you uncomfortable with that conversation.”

Again with the apologizing… “I just would’ve liked you girls’ first conversation to be about something other than your b***s.”

The two laugh again. Then my mom says to Lily, "Oh, we should do something sometime. Does your family have any plans?"

"We're actually planning to host a cookout, not this weekend but next, once we get settled in. It’s kinda a combination ‘Welcome Back’ and ‘4th of July’ party. We're inviting a bunch of people and there's gonna be a big barbecue, a pool, some fireworks in the evening; it's gonna be a lot of fun."

"Sounds like a real good time," my dad says to her. "We'll be there for sure."

"Awesome. See you guys there."

My mom looks at me, then at Lily. "Alright, well we'll step outside and leave you two alone. I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do."

"Thank you, Mrs. Stonewall," Lily says as she and my mom share one more quick hug.

My dad then goes up to Lily and nods to her. "It’s good to have you back, Lily."

"Thank you. It's good to be back."

My parents walk through the kitchen to the back door of the house, and step outside onto the patio, leaving Lily and I alone to catch up. When my parents are both outside, Lily and I hug each other again, and then go sit down on the couch.

"I really missed you," I say to her. "I'm so glad you're back to stay."

"I missed you too. The first few months were absolutely miserable."

"I was miserable a lot longer than that."

"Aww, that’s too bad. Well, I'm back now."

Yes she is. Right before she told me she was moving, I was getting ready to tell her that I really liked her and wanted her to be my girlfriend. Now that we've had two years apart, those feelings have not faded. I just hope I don't creep her out by telling her this if she doesn't feel the same. "Lily, I have to tell you something."

"What's that?" she asks with curiosity.

Oooh, how am I gonna tell her this? Do I just come out and say it, or do I beat around the bush first? “So… I’ve been thinking… I’ve been thinking for a while that…” This is gonna be a lot harder than I thought it would be. “We’ve been good friends for a really long time and… I feel like… we…” Aaaand… I’m making a total fool out of myself. I look over at her and she’s laughing quietly, probably at my expense. “I feel like we should…”

“Jayson,” she interrupts me, then places a hand on my thigh. “I feel the same way. I would love to be your girlfriend.”

Well… that was easy. “Oh,” Her quickness in jumping to that takes me off guard, but I’m certainly not complaining. “Awesome!”

She leans over and lays on top of my chest with her arms wrapped around me. And of course, the first thing my idiot brain thinks is ‘she’s real soft and cushy, like a big plush toy.’ I chase that stupid and inappropriate thought out of my head - though it isn’t wrong - and replace it with the thought of ‘I’m really lucky she feels the same after all these years.’ I put my arms around her and tell her, “It’s good to see I didn’t make a complete fool out of myself trying to say that.”

Lily giggles again - I love it so much when she does that - and sits back upright on the couch. “Yeah, you’ve never been one to have a way with words,” she teases. I keep my arm around her shoulders as she snuggles against me.

“How long have you felt this way about me?” I’m dying to know.

Lily blows a short puff of air through her nose, like a mini-laugh, and says, “I realized I felt that way about you right after we left for Buffalo. Then I started crying.”

Aww, poor girl. Knowing that she is or was sad always makes me sad. “You know, right before you told me you were leaving, I was planning to ask you the same thing I just did.”

She giggles again. “I guess that was bad timing on my part then, huh?”

“It’s not like you had any control over it,” I remind her.

“If I had told you before I did and we exchanged email addresses, we could have been long-distance boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“I wouldn’t have wanted a long-distance relationship. I don’t think there’s much point in a relationship if the two can’t actually see each other.”

“We could have used webcams, you know, and we could have gone on e-dates.”

She has a very good point. “Yeah, we really could have, couldn’t we?” Suddenly, a little lightbulb turns on in my head. “Ooh, that gives me an idea.”

“Go on,” she says.

“How about we set up our first date?”

She doesn’t take any time to think about her answer at all. “I’d love to. What’d you have in mind?”

“You’ve been over here a lot over the years, but never once have you had dinner here. My dad’s an outstanding cook. How’d you like to come over for dinner let’s say… Saturday?”

“Sounds good to me. Just make sure he doesn’t cook anything with shellfish. I’m deathly allergic to shellfish.”

“Noted, although my dad never makes anything with shellfish anyway. He’s the only one who likes it, so he doesn’t make us eat it.”

“Alright, cool. Any idea what he’ll make?”

For our first date, and Lily’s first dinner with my family, she should only be given my dad’s signature chicken and macaroni casserole. “I’ll have him make my favorite dish, since it’s a special occasion,” I say to her all sweet.

She giggles again and asks, “What dish would that be?”

I shouldn’t tell her now; I have to keep it a surprise. “Something delicious.”

“Ah, come on. Just tell me,” she begs.

Sorry, no can do, honey. “It’s a surprise. I guarantee that you’ll love it.”

“Aww, fine,” she says, defeated. “If you’re gonna be all secretive on me…”

She reaches her arm out and takes another sip of water from her glass. “So what’s new with you? You were away for like two years. What changed in your life since we last saw each other?”

“Not much actually,” she says as she sets the glass back down on the table. “I still don’t know what I wanna do for a living, although I want something related to victims of abuse, I still like the same kind of music, I guess the biggest change is that now I’m a big hockey fan.”

Really? I never saw her as much of a sports person. “You like hockey now?”

“Yeah. Hockey’s pretty big in Buffalo. Do you watch at all?”

In a way I do. I started paying a bit of attention after the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup last year, but I don’t know if I’d call myself a ‘fan.’ “I watch it occasionally. I only actually pay attention in the playoffs though.”

“Yeah, playoff hockey is awesome. Talk about action-packed. It really looked like the Sabres could have won it all. They got to the Conference Final.”

“Yeah, I was rooting for them because of you once the Hurricanes were out. I didn’t think you were actually watching too, though.”

“I would have flipped out if the Sabres won. Although I’m happy Anaheim won, since ducks are cute.”

I chuckle at that comment. Ducks may look cute, but they certainly don’t act that way. “Ducks are mean little b*****s.”

“Shut up,” she says with a drawn out moan, moving her pitch up and down, and smacks me gently across the chest. “How could you say ducks are mean? Cute little fuzzy happy little duckies…”

“They chase people around, and they bite.”

“Geese maybe, but not cute little ducks.”

“I’ve been chased and bitten by both geese and ducks. They’re all the same.”

“You’re just birdist,” she snarks.

“What is ‘birdist?’” I ask with a laugh.

“It’s like racism except with birds. You’re generalizing all ducks because you had one bad experience with one cute little ducky.”

“Lily, I don’t think ‘birdist’ is actually a real thing.”

“That’s just what a birdist would say to cover up the fact that he’s a birdist. Ya bigot.”

I missed these interactions so much. “I am not a-”

“Bigot!” she shouts as she snaps her face towards me sharply. She bulges her eyes out of her head and distorts her face to make it look as if her head is going to explode because of my ‘bigotry.’ To take the silliness even farther, she then makes herself go cross-eyed, and distorts her mouth even more. We both simultaneously erupt into laughter as she falls over with her body going across my lap. She sits back upright after a few more seconds of laughing, and hugs me from the side. “It’s so good to be back here with you,” she says.

“You bet it is,” I say as I hug her back. “So are you gonna be staying over here for any length of time? Or were you just coming to say hi and tell me that you guys were back?”

We let go of each other, and then she answers my question. “I was really just coming over to surprise you. My parents are just gonna drop my sister back off at our house and then my dad and I are going to this charity event thing. I’ll probably only be here for a couple more minutes.”

“That’s cool,” I say. She’s always been eager to do charity work. “What charity is it for?”

“I can’t remember what it’s called, but it deals with helping victims of sex abuse.”

It makes sense that she’d want to work with that kind of charity after what happened to her when she was eight. “So this is probably really personal considering… uh, you know.”

“Yeah. It hasn’t really had any lasting effects, but it did mess me up for a while. Since I’ve experienced what a lot of those people went through, I want to help as much as I can.”

It’s astounding how well Lily’s handled being ‘felt up’ by her mom’s cousin when she was eight. She’s shown no cracks at all since it happened. But, because of how much it can traumatize people, I fully understand how she’d want to do everything she can with helping people recover from events like that. “I think that’s a very good charity to be involved in. That kind of stuff can ruin people’s lives forever, and they deserve help from people as sweet and caring as yourself,” I say to her in a sappy voice.

“Oh, you and your flattering,” she says with a giggle. Just then, we see a pair of headlights appear in the driveway. “That’s probably my dad,” she says as we both stand up and give each other a firm hug.

“Alright, I’ll see you Saturday.”

“See you then,” she says as we let go. She walks over to the front door, and as she opens the door she shoots me a smile, which I return, and then walks out.

This is a really fantastic day. Not only is Lily back, but we both realized that our feelings for each other go beyond just being friends. I know this relationship is going to last, since we’ve known each other for so long and have gotten so intimate with each other over the years. This is the start of hopefully a long and healthy relationship.

Reviews

[Hasan Hersi]

You captured that family scene terrifically, you could do with a bit more imagery in your excerpt. But overall its good.