Authors: Brittainy C. Cherry
S
imon
and his family boxed up all of their things to leave Wisconsin in June. They attended Mike’s graduation, where James gave a fantastic valedictorian speech about past mistakes and future opportunities.
We all went back to our house for Mike’s graduation party, where we laughed, cried, and said our goodbyes.
They were leaving that night to start their long drive to Washington, and a part of me wasn’t sure how to deal with losing my best friend.
Simon, Abigail, and I sat on his front porch as Keira buckled Easton into his car seat.
“So this is it, eh?” I smiled at Simon.
He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I guess so.”
He turned to Abigail and placed four kisses on her lips before they said their goodbyes, promising to text each other the whole way to Washington. As they held each other in a long hug, I walked over to the car and kissed Easton’s forehead four times, in honor of his new big brother.
After one last kiss, I pulled away from the car and hugged Keira and Paul.
Simon walked over to me and didn’t hug me four times like I thought he would. It was simply one long, tight, loving hug that almost made me cry.
“Oh wait!” I said, running over to his porch and picking up the guitar case that was behind the railing. “This is Easton’s. It’s his air guitar. I want you to make sure he learns to play it when he’s old enough. Promise you’ll teach him?”
He nodded. “Promise.”
“Promise you’ll take care of him?” I whispered.
“Promise,” he whispered back.
Abigail and I stood beside one another, arms locked as we watched the car drive off down the road. “I guess it’s just you and me now, huh?” Abigail smiled.
“Pretty much.”
“Do you think I should be worried about him finding another girlfriend?”
“What? No way. Simon is crazy about you.”
“I know. I’m kind of a great thing. I wanted to seal the deal of our commitment to each other, but we decided not to have sex seeing as how, ya know, his best friend kind of got knocked up her junior year and that was all dramatic and stuff. So I just gave him a hand job in the bathroom last night.”
“Oh my gosh, Abigail!”
“Not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at it, too, after all the things I read on hand jobs.”
“What?! You read stuff on giving hand jobs?”
“Google, Aria!” She snickered as we began walking back toward my house. “Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you about that?”
I had a good feeling that I wouldn’t be too lonely with this girl around.
A
bigail
and I pretty much stuck side by side each day during the summer. It was different, but a good kind of different. I’d never had a close girl friend before, and it was great to have her and her odd behavior.
When I wasn’t hanging out with her, I was in the woods at six in the morning feeding the deer. It seemed as if they didn’t fully trust me. Levi was much better at feeding them, but I wouldn’t give up.
On the first day of July, I stood in the woods with a handful of berries. The deer was staring my way, stepping closer and closer. He was inches away from me, about to take the berries. A branch snapped from behind me, sending the deer running. I turned around and my breath caught in my throat as I stared down at a pair of blue Chucks, which were kicking around invisible rocks.
I started kicking around the invisible rocks, too.
My eyes moved up to lock with Levi’s and he gave me that silly smile that always made me happy.
“Sorry about scarin’ off the deer.” He stepped closer to me. “I didn’t know anyone would be out here.” He held his pinkie finger toward me.
I locked it with mine.
“What are you doing here?” I questioned.
“My mom and I arrived late last night. It turns out my dad left us his house in the will. It’s a bit of a fixer upper, but Mom said it was always meant to be our home.”
My chest tightened and I moved in closer to him. We were so close, our lips almost touching. I felt his warm breaths brushing against my skin, against my soul. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“I’m all right,” he replied. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m all right,” I replied. My heart flipped, kicked, and fumbled around inside of my chest. “Are you really staying here?”
He combed my hair behind my ear. “I’m really staying here.” His lips lightly danced across mine, sending shivers down my spine. He kissed me with all of him and I kissed him back with all of me. With a soft voice, the boy with the beat-up blue Chucks spoke two words that made tears fall against my cheeks. “Hi, Art.”
I blinked once before staring up into the most beautiful pair of brown eyes.
I loved him. I loved him so, so much. I loved him with no regrets of yesterday and no fears of tomorrow. I loved him in the moment, quietly, with secret whispers of love that only our young spirits could comprehend.
With one small breath and one full heart, I whispered back, “Hi, Soul.”
The End.
A
lways and forever I
thank each and every reader who took a chance on me and my novels. There’s no way I can express how much you all mean to me! Thank you so much for your love of words.
To my family, for all of their love and support while I disappeared into my mind for many days on end. A special thanks to my mama who talked me through my panic attacks about the novel and told me to trust my heart.
To my best friends, Vickie, Kyle, and Amber, who still love me even though I missed one too many Friday wine nights to get this novel complete.
To my amazing group of critique partners who are easily some of the most amazing women I’ve ever came across. You all are beyond talented and I’m glad to have you each in my life!
To Stacey, Amy, Anitra, Karin, Allison, Michelle, and Adrienne: the best betas I could’ve asked for. Each and every one of you helped me in so many ways! I’m so thankful!
Thank you to my amazing editor Caitlin at Edits by C. Marie—for dealing with all of my crazy! Also a big thank you to my proofreader Emily Lawrence who went above and beyond.
To Danielle Allen and Olivia Linden: My soul sisters. I love you both so much!
To Kristen Hope Mazzola: My author best friend who told me to trust my heart and listened to me complaining about starting and stopping this story over a million times. I love you!
To those who made my novel beautiful: Lauren Perrywinkle from Perrywinkle Photography for the lovely cover image, and my cover designer, Staci, from Quirky Bird.
A GIANT thanks to all of the bloggers who spread the word on my novels and even give little ol’ me a chance! I cannot express how much you all mean to me! Thank you!
And a final thank you to YOU, whoever you are, for being you. XoXo!
B
rittainy C. Cherry
is an Amazon Bestselling author who has always been in love with words. She graduated from Carroll University with a Bachelors Degree in Theatre Arts and a minor in Creative Writing. Brittainy lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her family. When she's not running a million errands and crafting stories, she's probably playing with her adorable pets.
Other novels by Brittainy C. Cherry include: Loving Mr. Daniels and The Space in Between.
Y
ou can find
her on Facebook at:
If you enjoyed Art & Soul check out “Finding Laila”
By Author T.K. Rapp
B
lurb
:
Joey, Cole, Haden and Braxton have been a constant in my life since I was five, and I have loved being one of the guys.
I've been cheerleader.
I've been study partner.
I've been listener.
When we're young, we don't realize the profound impact certain people will have on our lives. I had no idea twelve years ago I'd meet four boys who would turn out to be my best friends, my soul mates - my barmy.
Now school is almost done, our last summer together is drawing closer, and I'm trying to hold on to what we have while I still can. After this, we'll have to say goodbye to each other as our choices will take our lives in different directions. But I don't know if our friendship can survive once secrets and surprises begin revealing themselves to us at every turn.
When it's all said and done, will our friendships remain unbreakable? Or will our once strong bond prove to be weaker than we anticipated?
Letting go is harder than I thought, but some changes are necessary.
And finding Laila...finding myself...may be the greatest journey of all.
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