Chapter One
Holly
“Whoa, is someone moving in next door?” My best friend, Amelia, put her hand up to block out the sun and stared at the house next to mine. “There’s a moving truck parked by the road.”
“Yeah, the real estate agent took the sign down last week.” I leaned against the railing that ran along the side of my deck and nodded. “I didn’t think that house was ever going to sell—my parents said it was ruining the value of all of the other houses in the neighborhood because it had been on the market so long.”
“Have you met them?” Amelia looked over at me and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
“It’s just a him.” I shrugged. “My parents said he’s a doctor—or will be. They grilled the real-estate agent for all of the details she could share the other day. I think he’s finishing up his residency or something. I don’t really know how all of that works.” “Me either.” Amelia focused her gaze on the backyard—and I followed her stare. “He’ll probably tear that old tree house down if he doesn’t have kids.”
“He should tear it down regardless. That thing was a hazard five years ago,” I laughed under my breath.
“It wasn’t that bad.” Amelia laughed. “We had a lot of fun up there—when the Henderson brothers lived next door.”
“Until we got our hearts broken the day they moved away.” I sighed. “We’re lucky we didn’t know what we were doing back then—or those two would have gotten a lot more than our first kisses.”
“We did a little more than kiss them…” Amelia nudged me and grinned.
“We’re not going to talk about that.” I gave Amelia a disapproving glare and shook my head quickly.
“Lots of memories in that tree house…” She giggled. “I don’t regret a single one of them.”
“Neither do I.” My lips curled into a smile.
It’s hard to regret something as special as that…
“Ready to finish packing?” She looked over at me.
“Yeah, let’s get it over with.” I nodded. “Then we can enjoy the rest of our weekend.”
“Our last weekend.” She walked to the door and pulled it open.
Yeah, our last one for a while.
Amelia and I had been friends since elementary school. We met on the bus, and it wasn’t long before we became inseparable. Our days of constantly shadowing each other were coming to an end. Amelia was headed to Georgia to spend four years picking peaches, or whatever they did there when class wasn’t in session. I was going to Arizona to dodge dust storms when my nose wasn’t buried in a textbook. The only thing that would be left in Los Angeles was the memories we shared and our parents—although I wasn’t sure if mine would stay. My father had been talking about early retirement for a while, and with me out of the house, he might actually live out his dream of seeing the country from the driver’s seat of an RV while my mother told him to keep his eyes on the road.
Later that evening
“I think that’s it.” I looked around my bedroom, which was filled with the boxes that I would be taking to college.
“Do you want to load the car tonight or wait until the morning.” Amelia stretched out on my bed. “I vote—tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I’m good with that.” I sat down on the edge of the bed and nodded. “Tomorrow, we get to do this all over again at your house.”
“My parents aren’t out of town for the weekend, so it won’t be nearly as much fun.” Amelia sat up. “We also won’t be able to do this…”
“What?” I stared as Amelia reached for her purse and pulled out a pack of Camel Crush cigarettes. “I thought you quit.”
“I’ll quit when I get to college.” She flipped open the lid and pulled out something that obviously wasn’t a cigarette—it was hand-rolled. “One last time?”
“Oh God.” I grinned and shook my head. “Sure, why not. It’s our last weekend together.”
Amelia lit the joint, sucked a huge puff of smoke into her lungs, and passed it to me. I could count the number of times I had gotten high on one hand, and Amelia was always at the center of that debauchery. We had the house to ourselves for the rest of the weekend, and since my room was packed, we didn’t have anything to do until we went to her house the next day. All I normally did when I got high was raid the kitchen, and my parents made sure it was fully stocked before they left, so one last herbal treat wasn’t going to be that big of a deal. I hit the joint, passed the joint to her, and held the smoke in my lungs until my chest hurt. It did feel nice—I couldn’t deny that. She got her weed from one of the guys who sold to the rich kids, so it was always incredible. It only took a few hits for me to get so high I waved off her next attempt to pass.
“I’m pretty high.” Amelia giggled. “I think I’ll just put it out. We can hit it again in a couple of hours.”
“Sounds good.” I laid back on my mattress and stared at the ceiling.