Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 17

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Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 17

Nick awaited Eli’s arrival on his dad’s driveway with his arms folded over his chest. He’d tried
sending Eli multiple follow-up texts explaining that he was about to eat dinner and maybe they
could get together some other time, but the messages went unread. So much for having a
relaxing meal with his dad tonight; looked like trading the assistant manager his Thursday
dinner shift for two lunch shifts wasn’t a good deal after all. What was the point of trying to
make time for family when it hardly ever worked out the way Nick wanted?
Tian-yi was hard at work in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on the grilled fish, and Nick
figured he had about ten minutes before his dad came to chide him about dinner getting cold.
As he waited, the timer for his dad’s Christmas lights clicked on, illuminating the roofline. Nick
had helped him hang them the day after Thanksgiving since “the Rasmussens on the corner put
theirs up last week!” Tian-yi hated being behind schedule for anything, even holiday lights.
He saw Eli turn onto Papaya Place on the bike Nick had given him. It seemed like slow going. At
last, Eli huffed and puffed to the foot of the driveway, reaching his toes down to the ground as
he came to a stop. His hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat. Two bright red circles adorned
his cheeks.
Nick’s heart flipped over in his chest. Like a fool.
“You okay?” Nick asked.
Eli glared at him like it was Nick’s fault that he’d biked over. “Peachy keen,” Eli said, struggling
with the kickstand. “Though I’ve probably sweated out half my body weight on this thing.”

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“Our parents’ houses aren’t that far apart. We used to ride bikes back and forth all the time.”
Sometimes a dozen times a day. Those long summers of sunshine and sunburns.
Eli finally managed to get the kickstand down and levered himself off the bike with an ungainly
flail of his arms. “It’s not the bike ride that’s got me sweaty! Although—holy shit, I’m out of
shape.” He bent forward like he meant to touch his toes. Nick winced as he heard two audible
pops from Eli’s spine. “It’s because—I have to ask you something, okay?” Eli directed this at his
sneakers, still bent at the waist with his head hanging toward the ground.
“And this couldn’t wait?” Nick glanced over his shoulder, but his dad hadn’t yet made an
appearance. “My dad and I are about to eat dinner.”
“This won’t take long. It’s a simple question,” Eli said, finally standing upright and sweeping his
hair back into place. “Did I break up with you? Back in high school?”
Nick was almost certain he had misheard. He had to have. “What? No. It was the other way
around.”
Eli’s face went through a series of expressions before finally settling on what Nick could only
describe as quizzical. He propped his fists on his hips, opened his mouth, then shut it again.
Finally, he held up both pointer fingers and said, “So you’re saying, beyond a doubt, that you
broke up with me? You’re sure?”
“Yes,” Nick said slowly. “Very sure.” It had been the most painful day of his life up to that point,
and one of the hardest decisions he’d ever made; he wasn’t about to forget it anytime soon.
Eli groaned and shuffled over to the grass, where he sat down heavily. He tipped his face up to
the sky, eyes shut. “I’m losing it. Officially.”
Nick sat down next to Eli on the thick carpet of his dad’s well-tended lawn. (He’d gotten really
into gardening since retiring from the power plant.) “Why do you say that?”
“I thought I broke up with you,” Eli said.
Nick waited for the rest of the gag, but Eli didn’t roll out anything more. “Why would you have
broken up with me?” he asked.
“I don’t know!” Eli opened his eyes and tossed his hands in the air. “We were about to go off to
different colleges or whatever—you had that full ride to
Miami and I had one for Florida State—and I didn’t want both of us miserable, trying to do long
distance, driving eleven hours or however the fuck long it takes to get down there from
Tallahassee—”
“Those were all the reasons I gave you when we broke up.”

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“So I’m told.” Eli looped his arms around his knees, curling in on himself. “I feel like I’m stuck in a
bad reboot of Minority Report. How is this possible?”