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laugh. To everyone else, he was the same old Blaine. But in my eyes, I could see him dying inside, little by little. It killed me to look into his eyes and watch the brightness dimming slowly every day. Blaine held a secret. One so dark he refrained from sharing with anyone, not me, not even Jared.
    But carry on we did. For the first time in two months, I started to think everything would be ok. We had nearly finished cleaning out our lockers at the end of the day, getting ready for our first day of summer vacation. Jared came up to me and shoved his yearbook into my abdomen without even looking in my direction, and said, “Here, sign.” I exaggerated a grunt, pretending like he had hurt me with his callous way of approaching. Just then, a football came barreling through the air in our direction and smacked Jared in the shoulder. “What the heck, man?!” Blaine had thrown a pass that, apparently, he had not let Jared know about beforehand. Jared rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder.
    Blaine came running up to us, laughing hysterically. “You’re supposed to catch the ball, not bounce it off your jelly rolls.” Jared looked to me and blushed. Clearly, Blaine had just embarrassed him. Suddenly, his mouth turned up to a devilish grin, and I knew Blaine would be getting something in return. Without taking his eyes off of me, Jared swept his leg behind Blaine’s and hammered his hand into Blaine’s chest. In the count of two, Blaine had been knocked on his ass. His face burned red hot, and while he gathered his bearings, he growled, “You’re gonna pay for that!”
    As Blaine pushed himself off the floor, Jared’s expression took a turn for an exaggerated look of fear. In a small voice, he chirped, “Uh oh!” and set off in a sprint for the door. Yup, summer was here, and the boys were ready to play. Yes, everything is going to be all right .
    Blaine pulled the truck over in front of my house to let me out and proceeded to hold a fist out to me in anticipation for me to bump knuckles. With a limp fist, I retaliated and said, “You and Jared still planning on going camping next week?” With the statement, a huge sense of éjà vu washed over me. Weird .
    “Yup. Got all the gear ready, we just have to wait until Jared gets paid,” he replied, unaffected. It’s not uncommon for Jared and Blaine to take long camping trips in the summer. They loved the outdoors and were really good at survival stuff, like building fires and finding shelter. “See you tomorrow night?” he added.
    “Only if you promise that you and Jared won’t toss me around like a rag doll!” I laughed, but I was only half kidding. They played too rough some of the time.
    He put the truck in drive and, while pulling away from the curb, shouted out the window, “I can’t make any promises!”

     

Chapter 11
    Opening the front door to my house, I had an instant feeling of dread. It was as if I knew something bad was going to happen, and I could feel its energy all around me. It was then that I noticed my parents were sitting at the kitchen table, serious looks on their faces. They asked me to come and join them, and it was then that they dropped a bomb on me. Since finishing grad school, my father had been settling for a teaching position at a nearby high school. But now, he was offered a much higher paying job teaching at a college about three hours away. He had accepted the offer last month, but they didn’t want to fill my last month of school with worry, so they waited until now to give me the news. It would mean we would have to move. I had the rest of the month to say goodbye to my friends and pack. We were moving in only two weeks!
    While sitting in my room, staring at the wall, only one thing popped into my head. Blaine. When I moved, I wouldn’t be able to see Blaine every day. The thought of being apart from him made my stomach hurt. He would never know what he means to me, or how he made me feel, because I had been so stupid all