“I’m sorry, just Coke, miss,” the waitress said.

“Just Coke products? What kind of a country are we living in when one of its citizens can’t exercise their freedom of choice in their local eating establishment? How dare you discriminate against my beverage of preference? I know we’re in Atlanta, the epicenter for Coke. But the last time I checked, Atlanta was still a part of America.”

“Relax Alison,” Tamron urged. “It’s not the waitress’s fault. Geez.”

“Right. Sorry. I’ll have a lemonade,” Alison deadpanned.

The waitress walked away and the girls looked across the table at us and smiled.

I cleared my throat. “Girls, this is Alec. Alec, this is Tamron and Alison,” I said, motioning to them in turn.

“It’s nice to meet you both.”

“Thanks, Alec. It’s nice to finally meet you, too,” Tamron retorted.

The table jolted as Alison kicked her under it.

Alison smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Alec.”

“I know, girls. I’m sorry. Things just kept coming up. He just met my parents last week.”

“Well Sam, you can’t fall off the face of the earth just because you met a hot guy,” Tamron scolded.

I looked at Alec and could have sworn he was blushing. I smiled to myself. “I know. We’ve just been doing so much on the weekends.”

“It’s okay, Sam,” Alison said. “We’re meeting him now.”

After the waitress came and took our orders, the girls swung their heads in unison to look directly at Alec.

“Okay, Alec, we need to have a talk,” Tamron began.

I inwardly groaned as I twisted at the cloth napkin on my lap.

“Okay,” he said.

“If you hurt her. At all. Ever. You will regret it,” Alison said.

“I won’t hurt her. There’s no need to worry. In fact, I’m finding myself falling madly in love with her,” he replied, looking at me with a smile.

Heat flooded my cheeks as my head snapped up to his then slowly turned and stared doe-eyed at the girls. They looked back with approving amusement.

“Well then. That’s settled. Let’s catch up,” Tamron said matter-of-factly.

Junior year was one of the happiest years of my life. Alec was always sweet and made me laugh. We spent hours talking and it seemed like we learned something new about each other every day.

We dressed up as Jack Skellington and Sally from the movie A Nightmare Before Christmas for Heather’s Halloween party.

When Thanksgiving came, we each had dinner with our own families, and the next day, Alec took me Black Friday shopping for one of those digital photo frames for my parents for Christmas, earning him “The Most Patient Guy Ever” award.

We were talking one afternoon during one of our park dates under the shade of our tree. The sun was peeking through the clouds as I lay on the blanket with my head in his lap. He played with my hair, one of my favorite things. I loved the feel of it as his fingers twirled around the long strands.

I enjoyed going to the park with Alec. I brought a small, insulated basket with bottled water, pastrami sandwiches, and fresh fruit I bought from Mrs. Barrett at the street market that morning. Every free day we had was spent at the park. We never went to his house.

I’d heard that he lived with his aunt. I wanted to ask about his parents, but I always felt his profound sadness on the rare occasion when he mentioned them, which was always followed by a quick subject change.

“I love nature and being outside. It’s my favorite place to be. What about you?” he asked as he lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed each finger, making me feel lightheaded.

“Oh, you know, I love nature, too. Breathing in the fresh air and seeing the birds fly and listening to their songs. Lying under the stars and dreaming. My favorite part of the day though, is walking Gage around the neighborhood or taking him to the dog park.”

“What’s your favorite subject in school so far this year? Mine is definitely English.”

“Hmm, how about any class with you?” I giggled. “So I guess that means English and Algebra are tied since we have them together. You know, I could see you as an English teacher someday.”

When he didn’t respond, I looked up at him. He was staring straight ahead like he hadn’t heard me.

“Alec? Did you hear what I said?”

He finally looked down at me and smiled, but it didn’t look like his normal smile. “Yeah, sorry. I guess I was . . . lost in thought.”

“It’s okay, I, umm, need to head back home to study for a science exam I have this week,” I murmured.

“Okay.”

We packed everything up and headed back to my house.

Sometimes I wasn’t sure what to make of him. He liked to have fun and was the most carefree person I knew. But other times, he seemed guarded. Like there was a piece of him he wasn’t willing or ready to share. It showed at school in the way he acted when teachers thought he wasn’t paying attention. I knew full well he was, but he was also somewhere else in his mind or heart, somewhere he kept closed off from me. I hoped that he would trust me enough to let me in someday.

During one of our afternoon park dates, we had eaten lunch, and were lying under our tree. Alec finally asked me the question he’d evaded answering during our first date at the café so long ago.

“Why did you decide to make and donate your jewelry to the charity auction?”

I curled into his arms as we lay there. Birds were chirping in the trees as I gathered my thoughts.

“A few years ago, my cousin, Jolie, was driving home from a party drunk. She blew through a stoplight and hit a car head-on. The accident was indescribable. I still don’t know how they were able to separate the cars. The couple in the car she hit had been celebrating their first wedding anniversary. The husband lived, but his wife died instantly. Unlike in most drunk driving accidents, so did Jolie. I miss her terribly.”

Alec handed me a napkin from the basket and I wiped at the tears as I cried.

“We’d always been close, more like friends than cousins. She never made me feel like a little girl the way everyone else did. Anytime we had the chance, we’d watched movies together, or she’d style my hair and do my make-up. My mom and Aunt Olivia, Jolie’s mom, always laughed at the mischief we got into.

Aunt Olivia tours the country, speaking at high schools. She talks about the consequences of drinking and driving. About Jolie, and the couple she hit. How it changed the husband’s life and affected the families of all those left behind. I lowered my eyes so he couldn’t see the hurt and inhaled deeply. “I miss her so much. I wish she never got into that car. There’s never an actual ‘okay enough to drive,’ ya know. I mean, if someone’s been drinking then they just shouldn’t drive. Period.”

Alec was so sweet, he hugged me close. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Samone.”

But when I asked him the same question, his answer stole the breath from my lungs. “So why were you helping set up that day at the charity?”

His eyes lost some of their light, and his mood turned somber. It was so slight, I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been staring at his handsome face. He reached down and caressed my face with one hand, while the fingers of his other played in my hair. It felt like he was seeking comfort or strength. I think he needed both.

“Samone, do you remember when our sophomore year started, and I wasn’t there at the beginning?”

“Yes, you came after Labor Day, I think. I remember Heather talking about ‘the smoking-hot, new guy’ in her English Lit class.” I giggled. “Hadn’t you just moved here?”