“Carter?” yelled Mrs. Davis as she called the roll the at school that Monday.

“He’s not here Mrs. Davis,” I sadly responded. “He’s over in Orlando for work.”

“Thanks Ms. Adams,” replied Mrs. Davis.

“Welcome,” I replied thinking of Nick. I missed having him here to talk to and make my dad the best day ever. I miss seeing him and hanging out after school. I so can’t wait for him to get back. Only 2 more days until then. He said he’d be home when I got back from school Wednesday.

“Ok so I’m gonna put some notes on the overhead all you need to do is copy them down into your notes section,” Mrs. Davis instructed us to do. “Once your done with that and we go over it that’s all we are doing for today.”

I copied down the notes and barely listened to what Ms. Davis had said about whatever kind of science we were gonna start learning about. Remember I said I didn’t listen to a word she said barely. As soon as I heard the bell ring I was out of the classroom just wanting to get home and see if Nick had called or what for him to call.

******

“So where’d Nick go today?” asked the boy behind my seat on the bus.

“He’s in Orlando for work,” I answered.

“What kind of work?” he asked.

“He had some kind of try out for a group,” I answered.

“Oh cool,” he replied and turned around and started talking to another kid behind him.

I just sat there and opened the book in front of me that we had to read for our class. As I sat there reading I kept wishing I was like the girl in a fairy tale that ended up with her dream guy, but like that ever does happen. It only happened in movies.

“Can I sit here?” asked a girl I never had seen before at school.

“Sure,” I replied.

“Hi I’m Melissa,” she said. “I’m new this is my first day here.”

“Welcome,” I responded. “I’m Taylor. What grade are you in?”

“7th you?” she asked back.

“7th too,” I replied. “Any good classes?”

“Yeah here’s my schedule,” she said as she handed me her schedule.

“Cool we’ve got a few classes and you got a few with Nick,” I replied.

“Nick?” she asked with a weird look on her face.

“Oh Nick he’s my best friend,” I responded. “He’s not here today or tomorrow but he’ll be back Thursday he’s in Orlando for a few days.”

“Oh cool,” she responded. “So anything good around here I just moved from Nashville?”

“Yeah there’s a ton of fun things to do around here,” I answered. “I’ve always wanted to go to Nashville what’s it like?”

“Its nice but the city is where you wanna probably be its really fun there when something big happening,” she replied.

“Cool,” I commented. “Tampa is really fun when something’s happening but other then that it can get boring.”

“Cool,” she added.

We talked all the way up until my stop came and I said, “Well I gotta get going this is my stop.”

“Oh how weird this is mine too,” she noted as we both grabbed our backpacks and books and got off the bus. “You live around here?”

“Yeah on Central you?” I asked.

“Me too,” she Shockley replied. “How weird we both live on the same street.”
“Yeah I know,” I added. “Nick lives like 2 houses from mine on Central too. I can show you his house I pass right by it.”

“Cool which way are you?” she asked.

“To the left right past the Garden Center,” I answered.

“Cool I’m just up that way too,” she replied as we walked down the street about a block from my house.

“Well this one here is Nick’s,” I said pointing to a small 4 bedroom house that needed a paint job badly.

“Cool,” she replied. “This is mine here.” She had pointed to the house to the right of Nick’s house that had been for sale for a while now.

“Awesome,” I replied. “My house is that white 2 story house right there with the half circle driveway.”

“Nice house,” she stated.

“Thanks,” I responded. “Yours is cute too.” Her’s was a nice small 3 bedroom house. “We should hang out sometime soon.”

“Yeah that would be great,” she replied. “It was great to meet you but I gotta get inside before my mom wonders where I’ve run off to after school.”

“Ok great meeting you Melissa,” I said as I waved bye.

“You too Taylor,” she replied as she walked in the house.

I walked up to my house and walked inside just in time to hear the phone ring.

“I got it,” I yelled just incase someone else was home. “Hello?”

“Hey,” answered a familiar voice on the other side.

“Nick!” I almost screamed into the phone. “So how’s everything over there.”
“Great,” he answered. “Did I miss anything today?”

“Not much just they sold the house next to yours and a new girl Melissa lives there she goes to Young too,” I replied.

“Cool is she in our grade?” he asked.

“Yeah and she’s really nice you gotta meet her when you get home,” I replied with a smile on my face just thinking of when he’d be home finally.

“Yeah defiantly,” he replied. “I can’t wait to get home. Actually I called about that.”

I started to get worried when I heard that. Could he be there longer or was something else happening?

“Yeah,” I said.

“I get to come home a day early cause of a scheduling mishap,” he smiled over the phone.

“Great I can’t wait for you to get home,” I replied.

“Me too,” he added. “Well I gotta get going their yelling at me so I’ll see you tomorrow night hopefully.”

“Yeah hopefully,” I replied. “Bye.”

“Bye,” he hung up and I heard the line go dead.

******

The next day after school Melissa and I were both at my house playing games waiting for Nick to get in so they could meet. Just as we stopped to get a drink I saw Nick’s mom’s car drive into the driveway. I put down my water bottle and ran towards his car yelling back at Melissa to catch up.

“Nick!” I yelled as I hugged him.

“Taylor!” he yelled back at me.

Once I caught my breath I turned around and looked at Melissa, “Melissa this is Nick. Nick this is Melissa she just moved into the house next door.”

“Cool nice to meet you,” he shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you too,” Melissa replied. “So I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh you have?” he asked.

“Yeah Taylor can’t stop talking about you all the time,” she answered.

“Hey you’re my best friend what else am I going to say nothing about you?” I asked.

“Well at least I hope they were good things,” he smirked.

“Yes of course,” she replied.

******

Later that night Nick and I were on the front porch of my house sitting talking about what he’d missed at school the past two days and some other stuff.

“So you had fun?” I asked.

“Yeah the guys are so nice to me,” he answered. “They loved picking on me though since I’m the youngest.”

“Aww,” I replied.

“So what did you say about me to Melissa?” he asked.

“Nothing really,” I lied. I couldn’t tell him some other the thing we had talked about it was girl stuff he just wouldn’t understand.

“I know you too well to know that your lying to me,” he replied.

“Whatever,” I replied. “Hey its getting late I gotta get to bed so I can get up for school tomorrow and not miss the bus.”

“Yeah me too,” he responded. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Ok night,” I said as I walked inside and shut the door then walked to my room.

******

After a few months the three of us were becoming great friends. I was so happy to have another girl as a friend so we could relate to something’s like boys that Nick and I couldn’t talk about.

Today was one of the nicest days of the year. We were outside playing at a local park a few blocks from the house.

“So anyone ready to head in I think my mom is gonna send out a search party if I’m not home in 30 minutes,” Melissa spoke up.

“Yeah I guess so lets head out,” I replied as we got off the swings and headed towards home.

On the way home the who walk Nick was so quite as Melissa and I talked about a project we had for a class.

“Hey I’ll call you later if I come up with any better ideas,” I added as we got to her house and we said bye. Nick and I then walked on till we got to my house. “Nick you’ve been so quite why’s that?”

“What?” Nick asked snapping out of his train of thought.

“What’s up with you today?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he lied.

“Its not nothing Nick,” I responded.

“Ok fine I have to go to Europe this weekend for a few months,” he blurted out.

“Really?” I asked shocked.

“Yeah and I so don’t wanna go and leave you but I know I have to if I wanna do good with this group,” he replied.

“I know but I’ll miss you so much,” I responded with tears in my eyes.

“I know I will too but we leave two days from today,” he said softly.

“What?” I replied shocked as my heart broke.

“Yeah I know,” he said. “I’m gonna miss you. I miss you already.”

“I do too,” I replied. “Please don’t go.”
“I can’t not go I have to for the group,” he replied.

“Taylor time for dinner come get cleaned up,” my mom yelled from the house.

“Ok mom I’m coming,” I yelled weakly. “I gotta go.” I couldn’t even look at him I just turned around and ran into the house and up to my room and shut the door. My mom tried to make me come down and eat but I couldn’t not with the news I had just heard. I couldn’t be away from my best friend that long. It was gonna be hard.