Page 43 of The Infiniteness of Yesterday
Our moms are best friends so naturally we grew up together.
“How can he be gone?” I ask her. “You’re lying.” She has to be. I push her away so I can see her face. “I just talked to him a few hours ago.”
But she doesn’t tell me she’s wrong, that this is some elaborate and gross joke, because why would it be joke?
It’s real.
T.J. my best friend, the guy who’s more like a brother, isdeadat eighteen.
He’ll never go to college to play baseball like he planned. He’ll never have a chance at playing professionally. Of starting a family. He’ll never live all the tiny imperfect moments in between the big ones that are what really make life worth living.
Hours ago, I spoke to him. He was alive, laughing on his way to visit his grandma, and now…
Now, he’s dead.
I keep repeating that word in my head, like finally it’ll sink in that my best friend of my whole life is gone.
“You’re lying,” I accuse brokenly. My body feels leaden, weighed down with the reality I don’t want to face. She tightens her hold on me. “You’re wrong. You have to be wrong. They have the wrong person.”
“I'm sorry,” she says, embracing me again.
“Mom.” I push at her shoulders gently. “It’s someone else, right? It’s not him. It can’t be him.”
“Spence.” Her voice cracks. “It’s him.”
My heart feels like it’s been beaten and I don’t know what to do. Maybe it’s naïve, but I never imagined anything like this ever happening to one of my friends or me. It was something that happened to other people. Sad, sure, but it wouldn’t happen to us.
But it did.
It.Did.
A painful realization settles over me that everything is going to be different now.
One minute.
One second.
One moment.
That’s all it takes to change everything.
CHAPTER 14
HARLOW
“It’s really dangerous for you to look this good,” I warn Jameson with a playful smile. “It makes me want to drag you back to bed.” I adjust his tie.
He chuckles, picking up his leather work bag. “I wish, but if I’m late Roger will have my ass.”
Roger—his boss—is a stickler when it comes to everything and loves to catch his employees doing something wrong. Jameson was annoyed when Roger called him into his office to reprimand him for wearing mismatched socks.
“I know.” The two words echo from my throat with a ghastly sigh. Standing on my tiptoes I place a kiss on his lips. “Oh, sorry. Lipstick.” I swipe my thumb over his bottom lip to get rid of the red color.
I don’t normally wear bold lip colors, but I decided to be a little brave today.
He grins down at me, a twinkle in his brown eyes as his hand settles low on my waist. “Keep that up and I’ll say fuck work and fuck you instead.”
“Jameson!” I smack his chest lightly, my cheeks flaming as I check that Monroe didn’t overhear.
