“Well come on in,” he says excitedly.
I just look at him. “Which door should I go to then?”
“You said you didn’t want to bug my parents, so you’re probably better off crawling through the window.” A devilish grin spreads across his face.
“Come on, Andrew. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not crawlingthrough the window. Besides, you have a screen. I can’t just pass through it.”
He easily pops the screen out and pushes it off to the side. Then he holds his hand out. “I’m still not understanding why you’d come to my window to avoid the front door and then ask me to let you in through the front door.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, ifyoulet me in through your front door, I’m not bothering your parents.”
He shrugs. “Whatever.” He picks up the book he left on his bed. “Check out the book I’m reading! You were right, this is going to be a good one. I’m so glad there’s a series. It should keep me busy for at least a couple of weeks.”
“A couple of weeks?! There are seven books in the series, and they’re each five hundred pages minimum. You can’t possibly read all of them in just two weeks.”
“You underestimate me,” he says with confidence. “Come sit down.” He pats his bed. “There’s something I want to show you.” He reaches for a drawer in his nightstand and pulls out another book.
He hands it over so I can inspect its beautiful baby blue cover with a shimmery castle on the front. Then he sidles up next to me on the bed. I don’t immediately recognize the title. Before I can say anything, Andrew launches into an explanation, “I haven’t read this one, but all the girls in my class have been reading it. It’s fantasy, and I heard something about there being a love story in it, which you know, bleh. It reminded me of you, though, and I thought you’d like it, so I used some of my allowance to buy it for you. It’s yours.” He smiles shyly.
Wrapping my arms around him, I exclaim, “Thank you! It's not my birthday, though,” I trail off, a little confused.
Andrew shakes his head. “It’s not a birthday gift. I got it for you just because I thought you’d like it.”
My heart swells, and I cross my arms uncomfortably as my cheeks flush. The gesture is so kind and unexpected,I suddenly don’t know what to do or say. I know we are good friends, but I didn’t realize we had the sort of relationship where we get each other gifts when we see something that reminds us of each other. Rebecca hasn’t even done that for me.
“Well gee, Andrew. Now you’re making me look bad. I didn’t get you anything,” I deflect, pushing his shoulder with a smile.
He laughs too, and we spend the next thirty minutes just talking about books, school, and life. It’s nice. I’ve never really had this kind of one-on-one time with Andrew. I didn’t realize I could talk to him almost the same way I can with Rebecca.
“How long does it take to buy a few last-minute grocery items?” I ask after some time.
Shrugging, Andrew explains, “I think it was more than a few. For all I know, with those two, they stopped to go shoe shopping and buy smoothies while they were in town. Do you want to read for a bit? I can tell you’re dying to open up that book.”
I nod, a smile spreading across my face, light reaching my eyes. So we sit there, the two of us, on Andrew’s bed, just reading our books. Every once in a while, he pauses to remark about how he was not expecting so much to happen so early, or if he were the main character, he would have been much smarter than that. It’s cool to have a friend to talk about books with. Rebecca and I talk about a lot, but she isnota reader. None of my school friends enjoy reading the same types of books as me either. Isabella only reads biographies. Seriously, what kind of eleven-year-old likes biographies?
I hear the garage open overhead and then the door between the garage and the house opens and slams. I immediately hear Rebecca jabbering away, and we both sit up. “Should we head upstairs?”
Andrew hesitates, like he’s not ready to part with his book or this moment just yet, and for a moment, I feel that too. Then he nods and gets up first to head upstairs and find his sister.
When we come up the stairs, we find Mr. and Mrs. Martintalking with Rebecca. Mr. Martin sees Andrew and me first, and his eyes widen slightly for a second. Then he shifts his hands to his hips. “Hello there, Emma. When did you get here?”
I turn to Andrew. All sense of time is lost on me after our conversations and time spent reading. “She just got here a little bit ago. You didn’t hear her knock?” Andrew interjects.
I keep my mouth shut.Why would he lie to his dad?I try to give Andrew a wide-eyed look, as if to ask him that exact question. He gives me a look right back. We haven’t had many of these wordless conversations before, but I’m pretty sure that look means we will talk about it later. We most certainly will.
Rebecca interrupts our exchange as she rushes over and swallows me up in a big hug. I wrap my arms around her too, reveling in the reunion with my best friend.
“Emma! How are you? I have so much to tell you, dude! Come with me!” Rebecca practically squeals. Just like that, she pulls me upstairs to her room. I throw a glance back over my shoulder to Andrew. He just stands there, looking disappointed.
As we enter Rebecca’s room, she yells, “Ta da!” She throws in a small twirl with her hands up to gesture to her surrounding room.
Her bright pink walls are replaced by a soft lavender color, and her flashy bedspread, which I always hated, is gone. It’s replaced by a cream bedspread with small lavender and yellow flowers. It is more mature, but it still matches Rebecca’s personality perfectly.
“Wow! When did you change it? Your bedding is so cute!”
Her smile is the biggest I’ve ever seen. “I had it done in April. I wanted it to be a surprise for you when you came this summer.”
I take it all in. On the one hand, I am disappointed that I miss out on these things by only getting to see her for a few months a year, but on the other hand, I’mhonored that she wanted to make it a surprise for me. “I can’t believe you kept this from me for two months!”
