Page 102 - In Five Years

“We’ve been friends since we were seven years old,” I say. “I barely have a
childhood memory she’s not a part of.”
“You’re protective of her,” he says. It’s not a question.
“Yes. She’s my family.”

“I’m glad someone is looking out for her. You know, besides me.” He tries for
a smile.

“I know you are,” I say. “It wasn’t you. She’s just dated people who didn’t
really put her first. She falls in love quickly.”
“I don’t,” he says. He clears his throat. The moment stretches out to the
horizon. “I mean, I haven’t, in the past.”

I know what he’s saying—what he’s hesitant to say now, even to me. He’s in
love with her. My best friend. I look over at him, and his eyes are fixed out on

the ocean.
“Do you surf?” he asks me.
“Really?”

He turns back to me. He wears a sheepish expression. “I thought I might be
embarrassing you with this bleeding heart.”
“You weren’t,” I say. “I think I brought it up.” I walk a few paces down to the

water’s edge. Aaron joins me. “No,” I say. “I don’t surf.” There are no surfers
out there right now, but it’s late. The real ones are usually gone by 9 a.m. “Do
you?”

“No, but I always wanted to. I didn’t grow up around the ocean. I was sixteen
before I went to the beach for the first time.”
“Really? Where are you from?”

“Wisconsin,” he says. “My parents weren’t big travelers, but when we went
on vacation it was always to the lake. We rented this house on Lake Michigan
every summer. We’d stay there for a week and just live on the water.”

“Sounds nice,” I say.
“I’m trying to convince Bella to go with me in the fall. It’s still one of my
favorite places.”

“She’s not much of a lake girl,” I say.
“I think she’d like it.”
He clears his throat. “Hey,” he says. “Thanks for earlier. I don’t really ever

talk about my mom.”