Page 36 of Side Out

“Alright, let’s get a move on. I wanna be back for supper. Mom’s making meatloaf.”

“Not again,” the twins moan in unison from the living room.

Mom rolls her eyes. Again. I kiss her on the cheek one last time. “I love you, Momma.”

“I love you too, Baby. Fly safe and text me when you get to the airport.”

“I will.” I smile at her and follow Dad out the front door.

“And when you land,” she yells through the screen.

I round the truck and yell back, “I will.”

“Oh, and when you get to your house!”

“Mom,” I say with a laugh.

“Honey,” Dad says through the driver’s side window. “Would you let your poor boy get in the truck?”

“Yes, right. I love you.”

I climb into the truck and look out Dad’s window. “I love you too,” we say in perfect unison before driving away.

“You might as well just give her a play-by-play until you go to sleep tonight,” Dad says as we pull out of the driveway.

I look out of my window as we pass the ranch and smile to myself, feeling both excited and ready to get this year started, and sad at the thought of leaving home. But how lucky am I to have a home that I feel sad to leave. So I repeat the same words I told Mom, “I will.”

* * *

“Emerson,” I groan as I close the fridge. “Do we not have any food in this entire house?”

I’ve been traveling all day, and I’m fucking starving.

He doesn’t stop whatever article he’s writing on his laptop. He just shrugs and says, “I’ve either been at work or I’ve been at Dom’s. I’ve barely been here all summer.”

Should have figured.

“Fine. I’ll go to the store tomorrow. Write a list of what you want,” I tell him as I walk through the living room.

“Got it,” he replies. Again, not looking up from his computer.

As I walk past him I reach down and hit the spacebar a bunch of times on his laptop, and he slaps my hand away. “Would you fuck off?”

Laughing, I bend over and give him an obnoxious wet kiss on the top of his head. “God, I missed you.”

“Jackson,” he seethes, and I laugh all the way upstairs.

It’s only when I get to my room that I realize, not once did I look out the front window and across the street.

And that in itself feels… really fucking nice.

You're Gonna Go Far - Noah Kahan

CHAPTER22

A SPRING WEDDING?

THEODORE

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