He nods. “I started with a new physical therapist a couple weeks back, and this guy treats our sessions like the sky’s the limit. He says he’s not ruling out playing football next year.” Adam frowns. “Granted, I’d be a walk-on, but—”
“But,” I interrupt, “you’ll be playing football. And any college would be lucky to have you.”
He grins, nodding to himself, a little bit of that cockiness of old shining through. “Well, I’m off to shower. You nerds stay safe.”
“As long as I’m not around your pool or your pond or your parents’ jacuzzi tub, I think I’m good,” I say, unable to fight off my own smile at seeing him so happy.
Henry and I continue to the home theater. Inside, he shuts the door behind us and turns off the lights. When he takes both of my hands in his, my heart cracks a little. A few weeks ago, Henry pulling me into a dark room for our first kiss was something that played on repeat in my daydreams. Now…I can’t put this off any longer.
“Henry,” I say, flipping the lights back on, “there’s something I need to tell you.” My eyes are tearing up, and not because of the bright lights. I don’t want to hurt him.
Henry lets out a soft laugh. “Hayden, I know,” he says, letting go of my hands and playing with his glasses. “And I think…I think I feel the same way.”
“What—no.” My cheeks burn at how horrendously I’ve botched this. I’m about to lose my closest friend forever. “No, it’s not—”
“I love you,” he interrupts, startlingly serious now. I want to throw my hand over his mouth to keep him from talking. “But,” he continues, “I love being your friend. I think I might’ve confused that with being in lovewithyou. And I think that…for us,justfriends is pretty great.” He glances thoughtfully upward. “Perfect even.”
I stand, stunned for a moment before letting out a breath of relief. “Yeah,” I say, smiling back at him. “Me too.”
“Now, are you going to let me show you the surprise or not?”
“You never said anything about a surprise,” I say as he moves tothe space behind the seats.
“It’s just a project I’ve been working on. An invention of sorts.” He retrieves a small white box with what looks like a lens on the top and takes it to the corner of the room. After plugging it into the electrical outlet, he says in a showman’s voice, “The lights, if you please.”
I flick them off, casting us in darkness again. There’s a faintclick, and then light bursts forth from the little box on the floor. Overhead, bright yellow stars paint the theater ceiling before fading into glimmery silhouettes of trees. A crescent moon peeks out from behind the leaves of a sycamore.
My heart hitches. It’s our view of the sky from the creek, replicated to the letter. The scene is hand drawn, each feathery leaf and twinkling star carefully sketched. But before I can get out a word, music starts up. A familiar piano tune.
“Shall we?” Henry asks, taking my hand and leading me to a reclining theater seat.
He takes the seat next to mine, and the moment I start to lean back, something unexpected happens. Instead of Davy Jones’s tenor, I hear my mother’s voice, soft and airy, singing the lyrics.
My throat tightens, and my eyes sting. “How did you do this?” I choke out.
“That night when you called me about your dad and how he deleted those home movies, I sort of hacked into your family’s cloud. It took me ages, but I finally managed to recover some of them. I saved them for you on a USB, including this part with your momsinging.” He shrugs. “Then I decided to make something that would keep her with you forever.”
“It’s amazing,” I say, basking in the sound.
“I built the motor myself.” He turns a dial until the scene shifts from yellow to glittery green. “There’s a setting with creek sounds too,” he adds in an apologetic tone. “Obviously, I created it before you nearly died in that water. Probably too soon for that.”
“Probably,” I say, a smile on my lips as I watch the stars cycle through all the colors of the rainbow, listening to “Daydream Believer” resonating through that little box. Hearing my mother’s voice for the first time in three years, my closest friend at my side.
A knock at the door interrupts the moment. Probably Adam, finished showering.
“You should get that,” Henry says, turning off the music but leaving the glow of the stars to illuminate the room.
I side-eye him. “You picked a really inopportune time to lose your chivalrous habits. Don’t you want to save me the trouble? Not to mention, it isyourhouse.”
“I think it’ll be worth the trouble,” he says.
I pretend to be annoyed as I get up. Then I pad to the door and pull it open to find Bram standing there.
“Hey,” he says, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, a shy smile on his lips.
A flood of emotions hits me so hard and fast, I’m dizzy. “Hey,” I say, the word coming out choked. My feelings graze right past relief, landing on irritation. I glance back to dart a look at Henry.
“Oh, didn’t I say?” He grins coyly. “There was a second part to the surprise.”
