Phil took a deep breath as he strolled down the concrete walkway, trying to boost his confidence in himself. "You've got this. Everything's gonna be alright. You'll see." He lifted the brass knocker and clacked it against the metal base on the door.

A familiar smiling face greeted him from the other side of the door with exuberance. "Phil! Is that you, Pumpkinhead?"

He couldn't help but grin at Mrs. Teslow's jovial greeting and culinary nicknaming. "Yeah, it's me.... I don't suppose Keely's around, is she?"

"Oh, she'll be back later this afternoon," Mandy explained hurriedly. "How've you been? How's Montana? What brings you down here?"

"Well I– It's been–" Phil cleared his throat, trying to keep up with her questions. "I just.... I just wanted to come back and see how everyone was doing," he slowly explained. "What time did you say she'd be back?"

"How long has it been, a year? Funny... seems like you just left.... and then sometimes it feels like it's been an eternity...."

"What do you mean by—"

"But, now's not the time to talk about things like that! Do you want to come in?"

"Well I was hoping–.... alright, I guess I could...." Phil slowly trailed off and stepped inside as Mrs. Teslow stepped to the side to let him in.

"So did your family come down too, or just you?"

"Huh? Oh, just me.... Yeah, Dad, um, had work, and Mom, uh....didn't want to leave Pim behind with him. How's everything been here? How are you all doing?"

Mandy paused for a minute to think of how to answer the question. "Well, that's kind of a long story...." After a brief moment of thought, she added, "I'm sure Keely will explain everything to you."

He slowly nodded. He hadn't expected her to have been too well after his leaving in any case. "But like, right now, things are generally good, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, she and–... She's very excited for summer."

"I can imagine," Phil said, thinking back to the days of being stuck in school for six hours a day. After a year away from it, the thought that existed, and that he was in it for years, seemed almost unbelievable to him.

"Yeah, it's been.... quite a year..."

Phil frowned, knowing he was probably mostly to blame for that. "Where's she going to college?"

"Oh, she's going to an art academy in San Francisco..."

"Really? Not journalism school?"

She shook her head. "No, she really got into photography this last year... I just hope it's what she really wants."

He slowly nodded. It was only reasonable that some things had changed in his absence.

"She really seems to have a passion for it, which was a welcome change after...." She nervously laughed as she looked up at him. "Well, that's a different story though. But she seems like she's been having a really good couple of months lately!"

"That's good to hear," he grinned. "I feel like I've missed so much.... but a lot of stuff feels so familiar... it's nice...."

As if to refute his point about everything feeling so familiar, heavy footfalls came down the stairs. He glanced over to see a pair of black platform boots heading down, above which was a pair of skinny, torn charcoal jeans, above which was a black Rise Against shirt layered over a white long-sleeved shirt. As she looked over and saw him, she froze on the bottom step.

Keely's younger sister's facial expression upon seeing him in the living room only accentuated how much she had changed since he last saw her. Adorning her sneering lip was a thick ring. Piercing through her raised eyebrow was a pair of barbells. Another ring adorned her nose, and several others riddled her ears. Despite the airport security disaster that was her face, even more distracting was her two-toned hair; platinum blonde on the left side, jet-black on the right. She eventually stepped off the staircase and stood by the door, sizing him up. He fidgeted nervously.

She laughed to herself, shook her head, and grabbed the doorknob. "I'm going out with Ellie and Jason... I'll be back at like.... eight, probably."

"Okay, be safe," Mandy called out.

Phil blinked a few times as the door shut. "Then again, maybe more has changed than I thought..." He took a minute to reflect on that thought and let out a defeated sigh. "I don't suppose....." He shook his head and rephrased his question. "Is Keely .... in a relationship?"

Mandy looked at Phil for a beat, then, even though she knew that he knew the answer, slowly nodded. "Yeah, hon..."

"Right, right.... well. I'll probably be back later. I'm sure there are other people around here I should say hello to...." He headed for the door and slowly reached for the knob.

"Okay.... good to hear from you again, Phil!"

"Yeah, nice to see that everything's.... going well..." He smiled and said a quick goodbye before exiting the house and running a hand down over his face.

He walked down the sidewalk and tried to remember where Via lived.


Probably should've mentioned something about this story before, but you've probably picked up on it already anyway. I know, it goes against everything I've ever believed in.