Kids in Love

"Honey, honey. Please put the camera away, I've only just woken up; I look terrible!." Alice let go of the camera letting it rest on the strap around her neck. Her mothers boyfriend David has given it to her over a week beforehand for her twelfth birthday and she hadn't turned it off since. David was a fashion photographer that her mother had met not long after moving. Alice loved him, he couldn't replace her own father, but she loved him dearly. Two years had passed since she moved to LA with her mother. Alice made more friends than she ever thought she would. As she grew up she embraced the change in scenery. Though she still missed her old friends, at least she wasn't lonely. Herself and the guys still sent letters, although they definitely weren't as frequent as they used to be now that they'd all made new friends and had been busy in their own lives.
At fourteen she got a letter from Frank, he told her about how Ray was giving him some guitar lessons. He told her that he was anxious about starting in High School and that he probably wouldn't be able to write as much because Gerard and Ray told him you get a lot of homework. After that the letters got more infrequent and smaller than they had been. Eventually they stopped all together. They just didn't have room for each other in their lives anymore.

• • •

Alice was eighteen when her mother married David. She photographed the wedding, she'd been taking plenty of photography classes and was planning to study it in college after the summer.
Alice still thought of her old friends from time to time. The little photo strip of Frank that she had taken with her was still pinned to her cork-board, but now it was over shadowed by all of the new photos that she'd taken over the last few years. Pictures of the places she liked to go, her Mom, David, and all of her LA friends. Alice was sitting on top of her bed carefully filing through some of the photographs that she'd gotten developed that morning when her mother came in.
"Hey sweetie." She greeted her and sat down on the edge of the bed, "You know that David and I are going on our honeymoon this weekend" Alice nodded, they'd been planning it for weeks, they were going to travel across Europe for a month, leaving Alice home alone. "Well an opportunity's come up for David to shoot for Italian Vogue for the summer and it's just too big to pass up," she spoke, Alice grew excited at the thought of having a free home for the entire summer,
"So you guys will be gone for the entire summer then?" She asked, beaming.
"Hey, don't get too excited just yet, David and I really don't think it's a good idea for you to be in the house on your own for such a long period of time. We just wouldn't feel comfortable with it." She explained
"What, don't you trust me?" Alice demanded,
"No honey, it's not that, of course we trust you. It's just that, well, we thought it might be a nice idea for you to spend the summer with your grandmother again. You haven't done that in years." Her mother smiled a wide smile, putting her hand on Alice's arm, "I asked her about it at the wedding and she said that your bedroom hasn't changed in 8 years and that your welcome to come whenever you want. We thought you two could travel back together the day after next?" Alice mulled it over in her head. She hadn't been there in do long that she was eager to return, but on the other hand there was an overwhelming anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if they'd all changed to much? We're they even still friends with each other? What would they think of her now? Alice turned to her mother once more, "Do you mind if I sleep on it?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest. "Of course honey, just let me know in the morning" she stood up off the bed and lowered to give Alice a small kiss of the forehead, "Love you" she called before shutting the door behind her.
Alice rose off the bed as soon as her mother left the room. She went straight to the mahogany chest of drawers in the corner, yanking open the bottom drawer forcefully. She needed to root around for a minute or two to find what she was searching for. The old clothes in the drawer were kind of dusty and had a feint musty smell due to the darkness, eventually she found it. The red hoodie. She picked it up and dusted it off, it still smelt like him despite remaining in a dark crevice for so long. She clutched it to her chest before pulling it on over her head, the thing was practically woven from nostalgia and memories. She smiled involuntarily, remembering summers passed. The she looked at herself in the full length mirror on the back of her door, she'd grown up, she was now tall and slender where she was once a chubby pig-tailed child, the hoodie still hung loose but it was as comfortable as ever.
Alice opened her door and skipped down the stairs, "Mom?" She called into the empty hall. Her mother peered out from the dining room doorway, "What time's that flight at?"

• • •

Alice had spent the day afterwards packing and saying goodbye to her friends, her best friend Jessica had come over to help. Though Jessica's definition of help was more like eat food on your bed and watch you pack, but it was company.
"Shit Alice, I'm gonna miss you, you're gonna need to text me like everyday! Promise!" Jessica stuck out her little finger which Alice grasped with her own, "Promise" Alice reassured in a mocking tone.
"Jesus Jess, I'm not actually going to be gone for al that long when you really think of it. And y'know, I'm gonna miss you too"
"Hah, yeah!" Jessica cackled, "No way are you gonna miss me if that junk you've told me about all those boys is true" she pursed her lips to make a kissing face.
"It's not like that!" Alice threw a pillow at her friend, "They're not like, romantic relationships, we're all completely platonic friends. And besides, the last time we saw each other we were ten!" She explained.
"Hey, a lot can happen in eight years, Francis is what, like nineteen now? Puberty can do all sorts of things to a boy" Alice cringed, throwing another pillow.
"Oh my God! I've told you so many times, Frank, his name is Frank. And yeah, he's a little older than me so he's nineteen now." Alice sighed, "but who knows, we might not even get along anymore. Like you said," Alice took a deep breath, "a lot can happen in eight years."

Notes