Only Three Weeks

“I swear if I find you two… two.. hooligans making noise in this library again, then you will never hear the last of me! I am giving you both a three week suspension from the library!” The old library hag yelled at us as she marched away to go find others to howl at. What does a librarian expect? Two 15 year olds found a new comic book. It’s not like we weren't going to enjoy it. I guess people just have different ideas of what enjoying a good book is. I glanced over at Cadence to see what her reaction was to this almost funny form of a scolding.

“Dade,” Cadence said, addressing me with a sly, goofy smile on her gorgeous face. “I think that's our cue to get out of here,” I nodd knowing not to ever disagree with her and we left. 

“What's that, the third time we have been kicked out of there?” I ask as we walk out the doors. 

“Fourth actually,” she says, giving me a playful push. “Nobody knows how to have fun anymore.” 

“Hey what about me?” I smile and pull her into a hug.

 “Other than you,” she says looking up to meet my eyes with hers. Why do you have to go?” Cadence says bringing the mood down with concern in her voice. 

“It’s only for three weeks, it will go by fast,” I said looking straight into her big, brown eyes. “I’ll be home before you know it.”

“Hope so,” she says, killing the conversation. “Wanna get Ice Cream?” I nod eagerly and we walk up to the truck and each get a sunday. 

After paying we sit down at a bench and I try to think of a conversation starter. We basically have talked about every topic in the universe so nowadays we just sit quietly and enjoy each others company. “How is it that I only met you at the start of this school year and I almost know more about you then I know about myself?” I ask not knowing where this conversation could lead. 

“Some people just click. I mean were both obsessed with most of the same things and our parents became friends pretty quick. I guess it would be horrible if we hated each other.”

“And why is that?” I ask, unable to hold my grin back.

“Well,” Cadence says, taking a huge bite of her sunday. “We would still see each other a lot and our parents would try to force a relationship,” she pauses to take another bite. “I’m gonna be honest with you, when I heard that I was gonna meet a boy named Dade I thought that you would barely be able to speak English and be about the boringest person ever. My mom said to be nice because we would hang around you guys a lot. Before I met you I decided that I would try to tolerate being somewhat friends, but then that completely changed after we met.” 

“Hey,” I say, defending myself. “Cadence isn't much of better name. Don’t judge before you meet someone. Espacily someone as good looking as me,” I say stroking my longish hair. We both chuckle and eat our ice cream. Like always, I finish mine first and steal a few bites from hers. She takes a spoonful and smears it on my nose and I do the same to her. I couldn't ask for a better friend; she's right, we just click, there's nothing else to it. 

After cleaning ourselves up, we decide to head back to the restaurant that our parents are eating at. It’s such a pain being 15 and not 16. We can almost drive and not have to wait on our parents. Of course, both of us being sheltered will have tons of limits on where we can go and who we can go with but still, being able to drive around without having to wait on anybody, that's the life. Also, my parents love Cadence. When I’m with her, I feel like they think I’m safer. Her parents don’t think bad of me either. It’s pretty perfect.

“You know I leave for camp tomorrow, right?” I say as we walk, wondering if she remembers. 

“Yeah, I know. I’ll be there to say goodbye,” she says looking up at me. I’m so glad that I finally got taller than her. When we met, which was only a few months ago, we were about the same height (she might have even been a bit taller)  but now I have about 5 inches on her… The things puberty does to a guy. 

“You’ll be there at 3 in the morning? I don’t think so silly. You know how you get when you don’t sleep,” I say, jokingly hitting her on the head. She rolls her eyes but knows deep down that I am right, but she’ll never admit it because girls are just stubborn like that. 

“Well, you're going to have to text me or call every single day, no exceptions.”

“Cade,” I say using her short nickname that she hates. “No phones are allowed. I begged my mom to let me bring mine, but it’s the camp's rules and I would just get it taken away.”

“Oh,” she replies obviously disappointed. 

“I can write letters though,” I say trying to sound hopeful. 

“Well that's not the same, but I still expect a letter at least once a week.”

“Deal,” I say hoping that she's feeling a bit better. It obviously doesn't work. “Hey, you can survive. It’s only three weeks and you're the toughest person that I know.” She gives me a sad smile and pulls me into a hug before we arrive at the restaurant. 

“Stay safe okay?”

“Promise,” I say tucking her silky blond hair behind her ear. 

We walk into the restaurant and go to the table that our parents and our endless supply of siblings are sitting at. “Perfect!” her dad says obviously pleased. “You guys are just in time for dessert.”

“Great!” Cadence says as I pull out her seat for her to sit down. She will be fine. I will only be gone for three weeks. That's not that long. What could happen?