Page 61 of When You Wish Upon a Wideout

She slid past him, taking the food out. “I got you curly fries. The diner still makes the best ones.”

* * *

The ease between Sienna and Beau had settled into uncomfortable silence after they finished lunch and moved to the living room. Sienna packed stacks of books into boxes as Beau placed painter’s tape along the trim.

“What will you do with these?”

Beau looked over his shoulder. “I guess I’ll drop them at the library. My parents probably wouldn’t mind.”

“I’ll wrap the photos,” Sienna said, pointing to a higher shelf of the bookcase packed with frames.

She stood on her toes, pulling each one down. There were a few family shots, but nearly all the frames were school portraits of Beau and Greg. Sienna smiled, wiping the dust away on one of Beau, which had to be from first grade, with shaggy brown hair and a snaggle tooth. He had a scrape on his chin, and Sienna recalled the time he got it, falling off his bike after chasing her.

The smile turned into a frown when she realized Beau had double the number of framed photos Greg had. Sienna’s heart squeezed for Beau’s parents as she wiped the dust from each frame, packing Greg’s away with extra care. But a laugh erupted from Sienna’s chest when she picked up one of the last frames.

“You wore this shirt likeeveryday.”

She held up the frame for Beau, showing him the photo from senior year. He didn’t look much different from now. Sienna realized Beau had unfairly been spared from awkward teenage years.

“I still love Weezer,” Beau said, pushing up from the floor. “And I loved that shirt. But I don’t know what happened to it.” He scratched the back of his head.

Sienna pressed her lips together and smirked.

“What?” he asked.

“I have it.”

Beau narrowed his eyes. “Thief.”

Sienna shook her head in objection. “Yougaveit to me. That day at the lake, the first time we went.”

She remembered Beau taking it off, how her cheeks warmed at the sight of him bare chested as she followed him to the rope. When they had returned to his car, Sienna had accidentally sat on her tank top with her wet swimsuit and Beau had given her his shirt to wear as he drove shirtless.

“I forgot to give it back, is all.”

“Do you really still have it?”

She nodded.

“Do you wear it?”

Sienna shook her head and Beau looked away, seemingly disappointed. She might not have worn the shirt in over ten years, but she knew where it was, how soft it still felt folded in the bottom drawer of her dresser.

“There’s still one more up here,” Beau said, reaching.

Absentmindedly, Sienna put her hand out to take the frame from him, but when it remained floating in the air, she turned, expecting another shot of Beau and Greg maybe one from a family vacation, a birthday. Behind the glass she found Beau, but not Greg. Instead, she saw her father with his arm wrapped tightly around Beau in his football gear. Immediately, Sienna recalled the memory, the game when Beau had gotten hit so hard it stole his breath and hers from yards away.

“He really loved you,” Sienna said, taking the frame cautiously, placing it glass side down, and wrapping it. “And he would’ve been very proud.”

Beau turned, leaning against the bookshelf. “I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without him.”

His comment made Sienna’s ears burn. Furiously, she reached for the tape.

“You probably would’ve been just fine without him,” she huffed angrily. “And me.”

“Sienna—”

“No.” Sienna placed the frame in the box with the others. “You know what? I don’t need time. It’s not about time. It’s not even about hurt. I’mangry,” she told Beau. “Because you got yourself where you are. But he pushed you in the right direction. He rooted for you. He watched every stupid college game you ever played in—”

---