I visited Amy one Sunday afternoon after she had gotten home from church. She was in the middle of finishing up a project that was due the next day. Oh, Amy, she’s always doing things last minute. I wanted to help, but she was fine doing it all on her own.

“Don’t worry about it, Viv.” she said, “You just sit there and look pretty, after all, I only invited you because I needed company.”

“Oh, you.” 

“I’m really in the mood to go to a beach or something this summer,” she began.

“I can invite you to my family’s road trip to Cali!” I beamed.

“Oh, Viv. I would love to, but I doubt my parents would let me go on a road trip without them,” she responded. “I’m lucky to even have you over from time to time.”

I was saddened that Amy was potentially gonna be stuck with her parents the entire summer; her parents have always been so strict. If I were the parents, I’d let her do a lot more things that aren’t too risky. Amy doesn’t get to experience a lot of things. They always say that your teenage years are the best years of your life, but kids who grew up with strict parents don’t get to have a say in that. I could sneak her out, but we don’t live near a beach. That would also make me a bad influence, which could result in Amy not being allowed to hang out with me anymore.

Amy approached me Monday morning, yammering on about a pool party. When I started paying attention to what she was saying, I realized that she was talking about a birthday party. Not just any birthday party, but Moir’s pool party. I didn’t know they were close enough for him to invite her, but I thought of both of them fondly, so it didn’t seem odd. Amy has been talking about that boy a lot lately. I’m sensing a crush. I know Amy won’t admit a crush firsthand, so I’ll wait until she figures it out for herself. 

I find it endearing that she invited me to be her plus one at Moir’s pool party, knowing she would’ve gone by herself.

“So your parents let you go to Moir’s pool party?” I asked.

“Yup. Our parents know each other from church, so they asked no questions.” Amy replied.

So they are close! I thought to myself. Amy kept on blabbing about how excited she was. I just guessed that she just really likes being in water. Oh, Amy.

On the day of the celebration, Amy invited me to walk with her to Moir’s house. This is how I found out how close they lived from each other. On our walk there, we got to talking about anything and everything. Then, we got to the topic of love and relationships.

“Is dating hard for you, Viv?”

“For someone like me, being attracted to only guys, yes.” I replied, “Mostly because I also hate them.”

“Haha! I get that,” she laughed.

“How about you? You used to go on about how you hate dating.”

Amy looked wistful when I brought that up. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I told her she didn’t have to answer the question if she couldn’t, and I never brought it up again that day.