I should have shut the door.
Today's my birthday.
Well, okay, not really.
It's July and my birthday was in May. But I waited to celebrate till today because Maura is back in town. She's been gone all summer, in like, France or Switzerland or Timbuktu for all I care.
I really do care actually, 'cause it meant she was gone all summer, and she was only here for like one day in April because Mr. Isles had stuff to take care of at their estate. But then the next day, they were on a jet plane to somewhere else, with my best friend.
You see, the Isles don't really like me. They did, for all of ten minutes when they first met me. It was the last day of camp. I was fifteen and Maura was thirteen. It was this like, "prodigy" camp for students gifted in the arts. I won an all-state music competition the spring before and had earned a spot in the piano group. Basically, we sat in a studio all day and played pianos and critiqued each other. It was kinda boring, but it was on a campground, so I got to run around during our free time in the afternoon, so that was a nice trade off. Maura was my roommate. They paired two kids from different groups in these little cabins barely big enough for us to sleep in, let alone walk around in. She was there for art. I found out that her mother was an artist and had passed down the talent. And man, Maura was a fantastic artist. I tell you what. She has such steady hands and precision. Some of her life drawings looked like pictures and not pencil drawings. She told me that she practiced so hard at art because she wanted to be a doctor, and she needed steady hands. And not just any doctor, mind you, but a medical examiner.
How kick ass is that? I mean, especially since I wanted to be a cop. We hit it off right after that conversation. We became inseparable as could be for the rest of the nine weeks we were there. I guess she wrote home about me a couple times because her parents were really excited to meet me. They shook my hand with big smiles, gave me their home address in Boston and address at their place in Geneva, and told me all about how maybe I could come visit them sometime. That was until ma and pop drove up in pop's truck; the big ol' Rizzoli & Sons plastered across the doors. Frankie and Tommy were in the bed of the truck, fighting about something, and Ma could barely contain herself when she saw me.
Once they realized I was a scholarship kid, I wasn't as special in their eyes anymore.
It was then that they told Maura, right in front of me, that they were going to be living in Paris till the New Year because Mr. Isles was teaching a class there. They started pulling her away towards their town car, and we barely got in a hurried hug and quick goodbye.
It wasn't till I got home that I realized I didn't have her address in Paris.
She'd become my best friend, my first best friend ever, and I never knew if I'd speak to her again.
Thank god, because the day before the first day of school, I got a letter. Postmarked from some French city and Maura's script was along the front. I could barely read it cause my hands were shaking so much from excitement. She explained where she was living and what she was doing. She told me that she was using her neighbors' address and she worked it out with them that she and I would send letters through them so her parents wouldn't know.
We talked through letters for a year before I saw her again.
And after that, our letters were my only contact for long periods of time after she started boarding school. she graduated early and then went straight to Oxford for her undergraduate.
I should have shut the door.
But back to it being my birthday. Its a few months late, but she's finally home. She had to lie to her parents about where she was, but all I care about is that she's here. She told her parents that she was looking for an apartment in Boston. She's starting med school in the fall at BCU, how cool is that? She's gonna be around all the time. Most people would be offended that a so called friend has to lie to their family in order for them to hang out. But I think its kick ass, cause Maura can't lie. She's gotta put herself through nasty hives just to see me. If that's not friendship, I don't know what it. And she's moving to Boston, so I'll see her almost every day.
I open my eyes slightly and look around. I'm twenty two and still living in my parents' house. I was about to move out in the spring. I had just bought a car, I had enough money saved up from working with Pop all year after my community college classes. But then I made the mistake of letting my brother Tommy borrow it, and he wrecked it. Like two miles from home. And that's where all my other money went: fixing my car. To my mother's barely contained joy, I had to remain home for a little longer. So here I am, still in my childhood bedroom as an adult. But whatever. I start the academy in a month, so I'll be in their dorm for at least like six weeks.
I should have shut the door.
I think Pop knows I'm gay or at least has some inkling. I didn't even know till a few months ago when Frankie and I were talking. He asked if Maura and I were dating. I thought he was crazy till her lined it all up for me. I mean, I've never had a boyfriend. I've spent my summers since I was a kid, following him around to his jobs, helping him and now I work for him. And I want to be a cop. I never dressed girly if I could. Ripped jeans, t-shirts and sneakers all the way. I played baseball and football in the park with my brothers and their friends. I never brought any female friends over; hell, I never brought any friends over.
Until Maura. If she could sneak away long enough from her parents, she was at my house. My parents love her. She's the refined girly daughter Ma always wanted. Whatever, I don't care. I just love hanging out with her.
We talk about everything. Sometimes we just sit in silence. She likes to hold my hand when she talks about her parents or whatever is stressing her with school. She says it "grounds her" or whatever. And she hugs me all the time. Like long hugs. I figured it out awhile ago. Her parents rarely hug her, so she makes up for that lost human contact with me. I don't really care. She's pretty, and she smells good.
But, my favorite part of her coming over is the snuggles.
God, it makes me blush every time she says it, 'cause she giggles. She knows it's my weakness. I'd do anything if it meant I could have five minutes of snuggling with her. It happens when we watch a movie on the couch, or she sleeps over. We sit really close, and somehow we kinda just mold together.
Like tonight, I know she's gotta leave soon. And even though I spent almost the whole day with her, and she's spending the night, I can't seem to get close enough to her.
It's been months since I've seen her, and almost a year since we've had time to just sit and be in each others' presence.
After dinner and cake, my brothers left for their friends' houses and Ma and Pop went about their own business, leaving the two of us to our own devices. We went straight to my room to hang out. It started as us sitting cross legged on my bed, looking at some pictures I'd taken over the summer. Next thing I know, we're lying down across the bed, basically spooning. I hold her tight to me, my nose buried in her hair, arm slung tightly around her waist.
I know she's fallen asleep, by the sound of her even breathing. And I'm almost there till I hear footsteps outside my bedroom door. That's when I realize I left the door open when we came upstairs. My eyes shoot open and looking through a gap in her hair, I see pop standing in the doorway. The whole time we were lying here, I knew I should get up and shut the door. But I didn't want to leave her warmth. With an expression I can't read on his face, he steps into the room. Thinking he's going to yell, I shut my eyes tightly and stop breathing.
But, then I feel a blanket being pulled over us. Then the light turns off and I open my eyes just in time to see pop walking out the door, and pulling it closed quietly.
Maura rolls over in my arms, burying her head in my neck. With a sleepy kiss to my jaw, she mumbles, "happy birthday Janie".
And with a goofy smile on my face, I realize, the door didn't matter. Nothing mattered in the end. Nothing except Maura.
I don't know when Jane's birthday really is...I just made it be in May.