+

Now that Summer was out of the equation, Serena rarely made visits back to Harwich anymore. If it weren’t for visiting Bryce and occasionally her father, she probably wouldn’t have come back at all, but this time around she had other matters to attend to, like sorting out her grandmother’s affairs and selling the home they’d lived in all her life. The only plus side she could think of to it all was getting to see the friends she’d actually maintained once she’d left for college, Nate included. They’d suffered long and hard together working at the Blue Dolphin, and she’d always appreciated his knack to make even the worst of shifts bearable. So when she heard his voice, she recognised it immediately, her lips slowly curving upwards into a bright smile. “Not long enough, apparently. I could have recognised that deep fry oil scent anywhere. Did you stop showering once you left town or something?” She pulled him in for a hug, which was defintely a testament to how much she missed him considering she’d never been one to show such explicit affection. “You have no idea how good it is to see you. And out of the apron, too. Marvellous.”

The calm of Harwich during the times he visited almost made the town unfamiliar to Nate. Sure, there were still a new generation of high school students with the teenage drama everyone expected, but without a book deal bearing their secrets, the chaos seemed much more controlled, much more mundane - as mundane as it should have been for Nate and Serena and their other friends, as well. With different colleges having different schedules, there never seemed to be too many familiar faces, and the worry that people might have connected his name to his secret had faded from his mind, just as the paperback passed around the school faded after its fifteen minutes were up. His smile opened up to release a laugh at Serena’s remark, thinking back to the shifts they had suffered through together. Surprisingly, that job - well, mostly the people he worked with - provided some of his best memories of high school. “No, I just think everything ever cooked in that kitchen somehow absorbed into my skin from working there so long - basically, I’m forever the essence of the Blue Dolphin.” Of course it wasn’t true, but he couldn’t stop such a playful nature from being brought out as they hugged. “What? I thought I pulled that apron off. But I’m really glad to see you, too. How’s everything been?”

Leaving Harwich had worked miracles for most of his friends but something about leaving the small town made Bryce feel ridiculously lost. His enigmatic personality was present everywhere he went but while visiting Serena it had finally hit him that everyone else was moving forward in life. The majority of his friends were off at college but he was still there, living with his aunt like nothing had changed aside from his new job at the movie theater (though he was sure he’d only landed that because he’d flirted his way into the position). As much as he loved his life it was becoming more and more clear that he was becoming stagnant. He was so lost in his own thoughts he hardly noticed Nate up until the other boy was a few feet away from him. “Dude! Way too long.” Without hesitation Bryce pulled Nate in for a hug, squeezing him as close to him as he possibly could before he finally let go and pulled back just far enough to grip his shoulders as he spoke. “For a few months there I was worried you wouldn’t come back for me.”

Nate couldn’t exactly say he missed the small town as much as others claimed to while they were away. Though it was small, there wasn’t exactly any chance of privacy among those of his generation, and its size also left one with little room to escape any of the stress that only seemed to make the pressure in the town feel that much stronger. He figured graduation and the dispersal of those featured in the book (and hopefully the author herself) would have calmed the waters surrounding Harwich, however, but he’d yet to discover it for himself, pulled away over parts of his breaks by trips and family events and a few wrestling events he competed in for the nostalgia of it all. Bryce brought back a different type of nostalgia, one that reminded him of the better parts of high school, of the better parts of Harwich in general. With his friend recognizing him, Nate’s smile grew and his arms wrapped themselves around Bryce in return. “Dude, how could I forget you? I just got caught up with school, it’s hard to get back home without a break,” he shrugged. “But I’m here now, at least for a little while. What’ve you been up to?”

[text] no that's what homeroom's for