Page 1 of Overdue Feelings
The three musketeers;that’s what we’d been since I’d moved to Harvest Hills in the third grade. Stick together. Best friends forever. That had always been the plan. Ares, Zae, and I, Sweet Pea Academy’s troublemaking, inseparable trio. If one of us got detention, all three of us got detention. If one of us made the honor roll, the other two cheered like we all had our names on the certificate. Everything we’d done, we’d done it together. That was until Ares went and got himself accepted into Howard University.
I was proud of him, and so was Zae. Attending college had always been part of our plan. But in my head, we’d all end up at Harvest Hills U. We’d still be us, still be close, because leaving had never been an option for me, and both of them knew that.Still, Ares was leaving in the morning. Bright and early, Howard had a pre-med summer program, so we wouldn’t even get to spend the summer together. There would be no last hurrah for us. No, today was it. His bags were already packed tight in his parents’ SUV in preparation for them driving him thousands of miles away.
It was the gray cloud that loomed over an otherwise perfect high school graduation day. The tightness in my chest was too much for my eighteen-year-old heart to bear. My world was shifting. Cracking open in a way that felt too familiar. The same way it had the day my mama dropped me off at Gigi’s house and never came back. I was fighting to hold on to the only piece of normalcy I’d ever had, and it was slipping away.
“Aye, bro. You still gonna have time to run 2K with me when you’re some big shot on campus?” Zae asked, nudging Ares with a shoulder bump as we made our way down the sidewalk.
“Please. I’ll still have time to whup your ass. College man or not.” Ares smirked.
“If we’re being honest… neither of you is that great at 2K.” I laughed, looping my arm through Zae’s.
“Whatever. You can’t even hold the controller right, Creek.” Zae gave me a playful push that turned into me chasing him and the three of us laughing hysterically, the same way we had most of our lives. For a moment, everything felt the same, but we all knew after today nothing between us would ever be the same again.
“Come on, slowpokes!” Zae shouted over his shoulder. “Last one there’s jumping in the lake!”
“Not!” I shouted, just as the glow from the bonfire came crackling into view along with the entire senior class. It was the official graduation sendoff, a Harvest Hills tradition, just a bunch of newish adults blasting music and sneaking alcoholwe weren’t old enough to drink and pretending we weren’t all terrified of what came next.
“I ain’t getting my clothes wet!” Ares shouted back.
“I’m not getting my hair wet. I just got this pressed out!” I patted my head, and Ares grabbed my hand to pull me along, but I caught him looking at me instead of the path ahead. His smile lit up the space between us, the way it always did.
“Come on, C. I’m not getting wet, and you know he’ll make us do it.”
I nodded, and we took off sprinting down the gravel path like we were eight again and nothing could touch us. My hair flew in the wind as I laughed. I had never been a match for Zae and Ares, but I still tried.
“Y’all can’t keep up?” Zae called back, grinning over his shoulder. He was already at the end of the path.
“Nah, that’s Creek,” Ares replied, dropping my hand and taking off toward Zae. My mouth fell open. I know he didn’t just leave me. I shook my head as my feet slowed to a stop.
“Y’all are some straight cheaters.” I panted, doubling over and resting, hands on my knees.
“You just slow.” Zae smirked. Before I could fully stand up, they rushed me at the same time. I screamed, trying to dart away, drawing the attention of some of our classmates, but Zae and Ares caught me by the arms and hoisted me off the ground.
“Put me down! Don’t y’all dare!” They ignored me. “No, stop!” I made a last-ditch effort to appeal to their common decency, even though I knew they had none.
“Sorry, C, you gotta be quicker than that!” Ares laughed, and I kicked, screamed, and laughed despite myself as they marched me straight to the dock and tossed me into Harvest Hills Lake. The cold water smacked my skin hard and saturated my hair. I was going to kill them.
“Y’all play too dang much!” I shouted as soon as I came up. My arms were flailing, and my beautiful straight hair was now clinging to my face. I stared up at them. They were both doubled over in laughter. “Look at my hair!” I stood up in the water and made my way back to the dock.
“Don’t look at me,” Ares said. “It was Zae’s idea to race.”
“And I don’t regret anything.” Zae grinned, offering his hand as I climbed up the ladder on the side of the dock. Once I was out of the lake and dripping wet, we all shared another moment of laughter.
“I need dry clothes. It’s freezing.” I crossed my arms against my chest. Today’s spring heat wave had disappeared with the sun, so there was no chance of me air drying soon.
“Ummm, let’s hit the clubhouse,” Zae said. “We still got stuff in that old lifeguard tower, right?”
I scratched my head, thinking hard. It had been months since any of us had been to the abandoned lifeguard tower we used as our secret hideout. We used to sneak up there in middle school and share candy, cut class, or hide when life got too loud. Now, we just used it to store clothes so we could save the long walk back to our block after a day at the lake.
“Yeah, I think I got a pair of shorts or something,” I said, unsure.
“I definitely got a hoodie up there,” Ares said.
“Zae!” We all turned around at the sound of a few of Zae’s teammates waving him over. Zae looked between Ares and me. He was conflicted.
“Go, I’ll be okay.”
“I got her,” Ares added just as Zae’s teammates called his name again.
