A short story by Louisa Stancioff
Even before summer began, the
teenagers of Farmington were already preparing for the festivities. Forgotten
algebra quizzes and five paragraph essays were triumphantly burned into ash
while docks were pushed out onto lakes and sailboats were painted shades of
bright reds yellows and blues. Summer in Farmington brought the people
together. The last of the high school seniors' few months were spent either down
by the Sandy River, driving on muddy trails or falling asleep in grassy fields
in Industry looking up at the masses of stars. Everyone would gather together.
People who had never spoken became the best of friends and told each other they
were sad they would have to say goodbye so soon. Of course, no one truly cared
what would happen at the end of the summer, but they liked to think they did,
and sometimes on drunken nights, they would hold hands and cry into each other's
hair, laughing at their ignorance and crying at their loneliness. "I'll
never forget you!" They would sob sincerely, and perhaps they wouldn't,
but in the end they did. They always did.
Sarah couldn't help being
insincere, and often caught herself smiling when she didn't need to or crying
when she wasn't sad. She was just like everyone else, or liked to think she
was, and she took advantage of the summer haze, finding herself in
conversations that she wouldn't expect herself to have and in places she didn't
know existed.
On one particular night, she
found herself on top of the Gelato Cafe, the highest roof in Farmington.
Jeffery led them all to it, showing them a different part of Farmington they
had never known, and she looked out onto the miniature city, glowing orange
light. They sat in a circle on the rocky surface giggling uncontrollably as
cars went by in the early morning hours. Jeffery sat close to her and laughed
the loudest, the most out of control. He didn't care who heard him.
She had always thought him to
be in love with her secretly. She kept it to herself though, not wanting other
people to know about her theory. She changed day to day in her own opinion of
him, and kept her thoughts of him brief and indecisive. She would rather focus
on the resigned behavior of the other students in her school - The insecure
girls with their purses, and the boys with their jeeps and
four-wheelers. She was shy and didn't understand Jeffery. She didn't want to
understand Jeffery.
In brief drunken conversation
he would confess awkward sentences, staring deeper into her eyes than she would
normally let someone.
You will end up hating me,
but I will be the most important person in your life.
She would laugh stupidly and
ask him any question she wanted, wondering if he would remember any of it and
hoping he wouldn't.
I know who I am going to
marry.
Of course, she had other boys
to think about, and didn't have the time to worry about someone so
insignificant in her life. She would drive by his house every day on her way to
school though, and wonder why they never rode together. His house was situated
along the river in Farmington Falls, and she would often see him sitting on the
lonely rocks as she drove over the narrow bridge on her way home. Sometimes she
would stop and have momentary conversation with him about people they knew and
school. Somehow they never had much to talk about when they were sober.
But as the summer was coming
to a close, Jeffery stopped taking them onto roofs. He stopped being a part of
their midnight Mcdonalds stops and their adventures down by the river. Word got
around that he was in a new relationship with a younger girl. She was called Sam
and she had long, straight blonde hair that curled at the ends. Sarah hated hated the curls at the
end of her pretty hair and she hated that Jeffery could be with such a normal
girl.
One evening, as night was
approaching and the people were settling into the artificial light from the
town, she climbed on top of Gelato by herself. She laid on the edge of the roof
with just her chin sticking out over the ledge and watched the people down
below. She stayed up there until everyone was gone, and some of the stars above
her showed through the orange glow from the streets. Sarah closed her eyes and
felt the rocky surface of the roof stabbing her chest and stomach and suddenly
heard laughter down below. Her eyes opened and she could see Jeffery and Sam
drunkenly stumbling along the sidewalk in the orange light toward the Gazebo.
She was laughing and he was laughing. His clumsy fingers wrapped themselves
around her delicate hand and held on tight as he kissed her cheek.
And lying on top of the tallest roof in
Farmington, gazing down on the blurring miniature town with flashing red and
orange street lights and dusty alleyways, a single chagrinned tear fell from
Sarah's eye and rolled down her chin to the rocky surface, for something inside
of her had always known she was the one who was in love.
