by Ashley Royer
I quietly get off the couch and step around Mitchell to get upstairs. I don’t know if anyone else in Aiden’s family is awake right now, but I hope they’re not.
I walk into the bathroom and almost scream when I see Delilah standing in there, putting her hair up.
“Levi, what are you doing?” she whispers, slapping my chest.
“Why didn’t you lock the door?” I ask.
“No one else was awake! It’s only seven in the morning! I thought you always woke up late!” she whisper-screams.
“I thought you would wake up late.”
She rolls her eyes and laughs. She quickly finishes putting her hair up and turns to look at me. “Your hair really is messy in the morning.”
“Stop it,” I say. I quickly look in the mirror and try to fix it.
She ruffles my hair and messes it up even more. “Don’t worry, it’s cute.”
“No, it’s not. You’re just saying that.”
She laughs and shakes her head. She grabs my hand and pulls me out of the bathroom. We head into the kitchen and see Aiden standing in front of the fridge.
“Hey, guys! Want anything?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“There’s not much here. Maybe we can all go out for breakfast,” Delilah says while looking into the fridge as well.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Aiden responds.
“They probably won’t be up for a while,” Delilah tells us, walking into the living room.
“You usually wake up late. Why are you up early?” I ask her.
“How do you know when I wake up?” she says.
I shrug. “You always respond to my texts late.”
“Okay, well, you’re right. Aiden’s snoring woke me up.” She sits down on the couch, and I sit beside her.
“I do not snore!” Aiden defends himself.
I smile widely.
“Why are you smiling?” she asks, smiling now too.
“No reason. I’m just happy.”
I’ve been in Maine for around five months now, and I never would have thought that this is how things would be. I thought I would be miserable and upset and hating everything still. But now I’m talking and sitting beside a girl I really like, and three of the best possible friends I could ask for are downstairs. It’s amazing how things turn out.
“I’m gonna go try to wake them up,” Aiden says, heading downstairs.
Delilah crosses her legs and reaches over to join her fingers with mine. I get butterflies every time she does this.
“Does Caleb always talk in his sleep?” Delilah asks me.
I laugh. “Sometimes, I don’t really know.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” she says abruptly.
“What is it?”
I get slightly nervous, because I’m not sure what she’s going to ask me.
“Remember Thanksgiving?” she asks.
I nod.
“What did Lucy tell you?”
“What?” I’m not sure what she’s talking about. That was the first day I met Lucy, and she talked a lot.
“She said something that made you laugh. It was the first time I heard you make a sound, let alone laugh.”
“Oh, I don’t remember,” I say quickly.
“C’mon, I know you do,” she says while nudging my shoulder.
“It’s really nothing important.”
“Pleeease?”
She looks at me with wide eyes and sticks out her bottom lip.
“Um, she asked if she could be the flower girl when you and I get married,” I mumble. I feel my cheeks heat up.
Delilah laughs. “She did not!”
“She did.”
“That’s so embarrassing!”
“It was cute.”
“What’d you say to her?!”
“I said yes,” I say, almost inaudibly. “Well, like, I nodded.”
Delilah smiles.
We stop talking when we see Caleb walking upstairs, with Aiden just behind.
“I couldn’t wake Mitchell up. He kept telling me to leave,” Aiden tells us, laughing.
“Hello, lovebirds,” Caleb says groggily.
“Good morning, Caleb,” Delilah says.
“The floor is not comfortable,” Caleb says, sitting down on the couch across from us.
“I slept nicely on the couch,” I say.
“Lucky you.”
“I slept up here because you all make too many noises in your sleep,” Delilah says.
“I don’t,” I say defensively.
“You didn’t. Caleb kept mumbling stuff, and Aiden and Mitchell snore.”
Caleb runs his hand through his hair. “Why do I keep talking in my sleep? What do I say?”
Delilah shrugs. “I didn’t understand anything you said. I don’t think it was even English.”
“I only speak English. I think you were dreaming,” Caleb says.
My stomach grumbles really loudly, and both of them turn to look at me. Delilah starts laughing.
“Was that . . . your stomach?” she asks.
I nod. “I’m hungry!”
“Then let’s go wake up Mitchell and go out for breakfast!” Delilah says.
“Yeah, I’m starving,” Caleb says, standing up.
Caleb runs down the stairs and taps Mitchell on the shoulder.
Mitchell pushes Caleb’s hand away. “L-Let me sl-sleep,” he murmurs. He hugs the stuffed animal closer to him.
“We’re going out for breakfast,” Delilah says.
Mitchell sits up and looks at the stuffed animal in confusion. “Wh-What is this?”
“That’s Hunter’s. I don’t know where you found it,” Aiden says, laughing.
Mitchell shrugs and gently puts it down on the stairs.
“Where are we going for breakfast?” Aiden asks. He grabs his sweatshirt off a chair and pulls it over his head.
Delilah shrugs. “Wherever you guys want to go.”
“I don’t know what’s around here,” Caleb says, “but I want pancakes.”
“I know the perfect place! Let’s go!” Aiden says.
We all get our jackets and head to Aiden’s car. Mitchell sits in the passenger seat, and Caleb, Delilah, and I squish into the back.
Aiden drives down a road that I’m kind of familiar with. I realize we’re going to the little diner that Delilah and I went to a while ago.
“I remember this place,” I whisper to her. For some reason, it makes me really happy that we’re going here.
She nods. “That was the day we walked on the beach.”
I nod quickly. I can’t stop smiling. I like that she remembers too.
We go inside and sit at a table in the back corner. Delilah sits beside me in the booth, and I can
’t help but watch her while she looks at the menu. She looks cute when she’s concentrating.
“Are you gonna look at the menu or just stare at her?” Caleb whispers. Thankfully, Delilah doesn’t hear him.
I stare at him with wide eyes and mouth, “I am not staring at her!”
“Yeah, you kinda are. Man, you’re whipped.”
I open up my menu and put it in front of my face so Caleb can’t see me. I quickly look over the top. “I am not,” I say to Caleb, and go back to reading the menu.
I decide on chocolate chip waffles and home fries. I keep getting more and more hungry as we wait.
“Tell your stomach to quiet down,” Delilah says, laughing.
“I can’t help it!” I didn’t think it was that loud.
Delilah giggles. She reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a bag of Skittles.
“I was saving these for later, but here you go,” she says, handing them to me.
I smile widely. “Thanks.” I open up the bag and take out a few red ones and give them to Delilah.
“So, tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve,” Aiden says, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Yes, nice observation, Aiden,” Delilah says.
He rolls his eyes. “I mean, we should all do something.”
“L-Like w-what?” Mitchell asks.
Aiden shrugs. “I dunno. Just hang out. Watch the New Year’s Eve show on TV. Go to a party.”
“No parties, please,” I say.
Delilah squeezes my hand. “Yeah, no parties.”
“Right,” Aiden says. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Why don’t we all hang out at my house?” I say.
Caleb nods. “Can we get pizza?”
I laugh. “We can get whatever you want.”
“Even a puppy?”
“I mean food.”
“Oh. I’ll still come.”
“Well, you’re staying at my house, so you kinda have to.”
He shrugs. “You never know. I could go to some random person’s party.”
“You wouldn’t, though. You love me too much.”
Caleb’s eyes dart over to Delilah quickly. “Eh, you’re all right. Other people love you more, I think.”
I glare at Caleb and kick his shin under the table.
The food comes out, and I reach over to grab a piece of bacon from Delilah’s plate.
“Hey, that’s mine!” she says.
“Too late,” I say, biting into it.
“This is so hot!” Mitchell yells, spitting out the omelet he just bit into.
“Wait, you didn’t stutter,” Aiden says, turning to look at Mitchell.
We all go silent and stare at him.
He genuinely smiles and looks very happy. “Y-You’re right,” he says happily.
“Maybe because you screamed? Really loud, might I add,” Caleb says. “Thanks for breaking my eardrum,” he says sarcastically.
“S-Sorry. It’s h-hot.”
Aiden laughs.
I’ve noticed that Mitchell’s stutter is slowly getting better. It’s not as bad as when I first met him. I guess speech therapy is helping him.
I turn to say something to Caleb, and when I look back, I notice Delilah is eating some of my waffles.
“Hey!” I say, pulling my plate away from her.
She shrugs. “You took my bacon.”
I take some of the whipped cream off the top of my waffles and flick it at Delilah’s face.
“Hey!” she says, doing the same to me. She wipes it onto my cheek, and I quickly rub it off.
Delilah tries to clean the whipped cream off of her face, but doesn’t get it all.
“There’s some in your hair,” I say, trying to get it out. I put the sleeve of my flannel down and wipe her cheek that has whipped cream splattered all over it.
“You guys are disgusting. Just kiss already,” Caleb mumbles.
Delilah laughs, and I glare at him.
“We’re all thinking it, Caleb just has the nerve to say it,” Aiden says with his mouth full.
Mitchell nods and raises his eyebrows.
Delilah and I don’t say anything; we both just smile at each other.
“You have whipped cream on your nose,” I whisper. She really doesn’t, but I quickly put some on it.
“And you have some right here,” she says, pointing to my chest. I look down, and she flicks my nose.
“I can’t believe I just fell for that,” I mumble.
She laughs. “I can.”
“You’re as whipped as the cream,” Caleb tells us.
Chapter Forty-Seven
LEVI
I’m freaking out for tonight. I don’t even know why I’m nervous, but I am.
“What do people have at parties? Am I supposed to get balloons? Party hats? What about food? Do they have, like, brownies at these New Year’s Eve things?” I ask Caleb as I frantically pace back and forth in my room.
“Well, not that kind of brownies.”
I toss a pillow at him in frustration. “You know what I mean!”
He shrugs and laughs. “I never know with you!”
I sigh. “Why am I nervous? It’s not like it’s an actual party.”
“Because you get nervous over everything.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Look, if you want brownies, we can go get regular brownies. We could get a five-layer cake if you really wanted to. There are no rules to parties.”
I run my hands through my hair and sit down on the edge of my bed. “I just want it to be fun. I don’t want this year to end horribly.”
“It will be great! Don’t worry!” Caleb comes and sits down beside me. “We can go get stuff right now. Do you want to do that?”
I nod. “How are we gonna get there?” My parents went out shopping together, though I don’t know what they’re getting.
“I can drive. It can’t be that much different than in Australia.”
“It’s a lot different. Plus, you can’t even legally drive here.”
He shrugs. “I can do it.”
I shake my head. I’m always hesitant getting into cars. Caleb is a good driver in Australia, but I’m sure it’s not legal for him to drive here. And everything is backward. It makes me too nervous. “I’ll call Delilah and ask her to drive us.”
“No, no. We have to plan tonight without her. Call Aiden.”
“Okay?” I don’t understand why Delilah can’t come, but I call Aiden anyway. He excitedly agrees to go shopping with us and is at my house within the next five minutes.
Aiden continuously honks his car horn until we’re outside.
“I call shotgun,” Caleb yells as we walk out the door.
“We’re not twelve-year-olds,” I tell him, rolling my eyes.
He shrugs. “Too bad.”
Even though we’re walking to the car, Aiden continues to honk the horn.
“Chill,” Caleb says bluntly when he gets in the car.
“You guys were walking too slowly,” Aiden says, turning up the radio.
We first drive to the party supply store. Aiden insists on getting small fireworks to set off later. We also get party hats, a bunch of balloons, and sunglasses with the upcoming year on them. Aiden seems a little too excited about the sunglasses.
Afterward, we go to the grocery store and get way too much food. We pretty much grab everything off the shelves that looks good to us, which is a lot.
It takes almost two hours to get everything. Once we get back to my house, my dad is outside in the backyard, setting up a giant movie screen. That’s what my parents went out to buy earlier. Apparently, he’s going to set up a projector and make a bonfire so we can celebrate outside for part of the night, since it’s too cold to stay outside the whole time. It’s a little warmer than it’s usually been, though. My dad says it’ll be almost like we’re in Times Square. I highly doubt that, but I go along with it anyway. My mum stands behind my dad, telling him to raise the screen a little higher on the left to make it level.
It’s nice seeing them doing normal stuff again, and getting along.
“So about tonight . . .” Caleb says once we’re inside.
I look at him and raise my eyebrows. “What about it?”
“It’s New Year’s. You know what happens at midnight.”
I feel my cheeks heat up. “I’d rather not talk about this.”
“Well, do you have a plan?”
I shrug. “Not really.”
“You need to have a plan, dude,” Aiden says.
“Levi!” Caleb yells.
“Caleb!” I yell, mimicking him.
“You’re so clueless. You can’t go into tonight with no plan!”
“Stop being so judgmental about my love life! I can do what I want!”
“I’m just trying to help!”
We’re not actually yelling at each other. Both of us are trying really hard not to laugh. This happens a lot with us, except it hasn’t happened for a while, since I hadn’t been talking until recently. It feels great to have things back to normal with Caleb, because for a long time things weren’t like this. I’m so thankful he was able to come here for two weeks. It’s great to have my best friend back.