I slowed my truck as I reached the end of a long driveway. My tires dug into the soft gravel, sending small pebbles to ding against the underside of my truck. The house itself was small and yellow, its paint long faded from the sun. Green shutters lined windows that had been thrown wide open, letting out the smell of freshly made lemon bars.

“Liv?” I yelled as I stepped out of my truck. “Troy? You guys here? Whatever you’re cooking smells delicious.”

I stepped around a small moving truck as I walked towards the porch. The sliding door at the rear of the truck was still open, revealing lines of neatly stacked boxes and a few pieces of furniture covered with blankets. From beneath a cloth, I saw the white marble of one of the godawful pillars Liv’s mother had given her as a wedding present.

Liv would never leave them behind. She and I shared that instinct. We had both lost people close to us, and we clung to the things that held their memories. My eyes lingered on the truck for a moment, as my hands grasped at my brown leather jacket. Some memories were too painful to linger on, and yet even still, we kept the artifacts that linked us to them.

“So, what’s going on guys?” I yelled.

I walked up the porch steps and knocked before opening the screen door. The wire mesh still had a gash in the center from the time Troy and I had got drunk and started trying to hit each other with darts. Liv had never forgiven us for the holes we had put in the walls. She was even less pleased when she saw the tear I had created in the screen door while trying to dodge once of Troy's drunken throws.

I knocked again, before walking into an empty room. “You guys moving and didn’t tell me?”

The house was spotless, except for a few boxes that littered the bare floors. The pictures had even been taken down, small squares of white stood out against the yellowed wallpaper. My eyes lingered for a moment on the faded crayon drawings around the bottom of the walls.  

“Gus!” Liv shouted as she ran from the kitchen, throwing her arms around me. “How the hell have you been? We haven’t seen you in weeks.”

“I’m … good,” I stammered. “Busy with school. I, uh, got your calls though.”

Liv squeezed my shoulders before pushing herself away. She looked up at me as she brushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear, revealing a long scar above her eyebrow.

“You should come in,” she said. “I wanted to tell you in person.”

“What did you want to tell me?” I asked.

“Let’s get Troy, first,” she answered, “do you want some tea? I’m out of coffee.”

“None for me, thanks. It’s getting late, and I wasn’t planning on staying long.”

I could hear Troy yelling at a television in the other room. The volume was loud enough that I could hear every word of a commenter discussing a fumbled ball.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I take it Troy’s in there,” I pointed towards the back room.

“You know it,” Liv said as she offered me a plate of lemon bars. “Could you get him to turn that thing off for a moment?”

“Ah, sure,” I took a delectable square of lemony goodness and walked toward the sound of sports announcers and an angry Troy. I wasn’t sure which was louder.

As I entered the room I saw Troy decked out in full scarlet and black regalia, screaming at the TV while completely oblivious to everything else around him.

“Go Tigers!” I yelled, the only surefire way to get his attention.

“Fuck you,” Troy mumbled without any anger as he paused the game. “We’re getting our asses handed to us and then you come in here with that fucking mojo? It’s bad enough half of our offense graduated last year.”

“Good to see you too,” I said.

Troy stood up to give me a quick side hug, “you doing okay? You don’t look so great. I mean you always look like shit, like the mopey offspring of Chewbacca and the slender man. You just look tired.”

“And you’re a catch?” I asked.

“Well,” he shrugged, “I did marry the prom queen.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t let Liv hear you talking like that. By the way, she wanted me to get you.”

“Oh shit, you haven’t heard the news yet?”

“No, not —” I began to say, just as Liv entered the room and set a small pitcher of sweet tea on the coffee table.

“Glad to see you two boys getting along,” she smiled. “Troy wouldn’t tell you this, but he’s missed you these past few months.”

“So, uh,” I mumbled, “what’s going on with the truck?”

“Here,” Liv handed me a folded letter.

As soon as I saw the letterhead I knew what it was, but I scanned it anyways to make sure it had those magic words, ‘We’re happy to inform you …’

“You got in? That’s great Liv, you deserve it. When do you leave?”

“Tomorrow,” Troy answered, “We’re heading out a few weeks early to get things set up.”

“That’s … I don’t know what to say. I wish I had known earlier.”

“We only decided to go a few days ago,” Liv said, leaning into my shoulder. “Troy just started a new job, and I’ve never really left Charleston before. And with everything that happened with … We’ll be in touch, though. Promise.”

“So,” Troy said as he sank back into the sofa and grabbed the remote. “You going to stay for Pizza? It should be here soon. Maybe help me with the last of these boxes?”

“Yeah, no problem.”