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A moment later Maddie walks through the door. “What does it say on the box, David?”
He looks down and turns it around to the side that says ‘Living Room’. “Oh.” He laughs sheepishly. Maddie smiles. Elliot pinches her side playfully. I hear him whisper, ‘Be nice, Mads’ and she blushes and smiles up at him.
It takes us about an hour to get everything inside and in the appropriate rooms. Their furniture isn’t here yet. The pieces they’re keeping from the apartment will be moved next weekend, so we sit on the living room floor, breathing heavily and feeling the exhaustion hit us. Not a minute after we all sit, the doorbell rings. I look at Maddie in confusion.
“Oh, I forgot I ordered food.” She jumps up and runs to the door. “Elliot, this is our first official guest ringing the doorbell.” He laughs, getting up to walk over with her.
I narrow my eyes and turn to David, “How is the delivery guy a guest? And I’ve definitely rung the doorbell before.”
He laughs, “Me too.”
Maddie and Elliot bring two bags over and sit back down on the floor. While Elliot unloads the food Maddie says, “So when my parents moved into their first home together, they also had no furniture on their first night. No couches, no table and chairs. Their fridge wasn’t stocked and their kitchen stuff was all packed away. So they ordered Chinese food, sat on the floor and ate it together. Elliot and I did that on our first night at our apartment, and we’re doing it again now in our first house.” She smiles and looks at Elliot with the heart eyes she always looks at him with. He mirrors her expression. Almost six years together and they still look every bit in love as they did that first time they let themselves admit their true feelings for one another.
My heart feels heavy. Somewhat in sadness, thinking Hayden and I could have been approaching six years together too. I used to be angry at first, at them for having each other but also at myself for feeling that way towards them when they don’t deserve any anger. But I also feel happiness for my friend, my dearest friend, who deserves all the joy in this world. I feel joy for Elliot, who would be living a very different life if it wasn’t for Madeline. I smile as I watch that love between them. Not shying away from it, but letting it fill me. Breathing it in.
“You have done such an amazing job with this place,” I tell them honestly.
“We couldn’t have done it without you and David,” Elliot says seriously, looking at us both. David waves him off. “No, seriously man. We appreciate you both so much.”
“You’re right. I think this would still look like a haunted house with murder shed out back if you didn’t have our help,” I say and David laughs. Elliot smirks, starting to hand out the disposable plates and utensils.
“Ha.” Maddie glares at me, though her amusement peeks through.
“Seriously though,” I say, looking at Maddie, Elliot and David. “Part of me thought that you were insane when you bought this broken and ugly house.” Maddie scoffs and opens her mouth to interrupt but I hold my hand up to stop her. “I was worried that you would break down and give up because it wasn’t salvageable and it was too far gone. I thought that it was a waste of time.” I pause, my chest feeling tight. Elliot pauses his unboxing of the food to look at me. I continue, eyes getting watery, “But you didn’t give up. You saw the potential, you saw that it wasn’t unfixable. You saw that it wasn’t broken forever and you breathed life back into it.” I finish by looking at David and then I fall silent. Feeling the weight of those words over more than just this house. And by the expressions all three of them have on their faces, they feel it too. David’s eyes brighten, growing slightly glassy.
“It was never broken,” Maddie whispers and I look at her. “It just needed a little help and love. A little time.” I nod. And then I shake my head, shaking away the tears that I know are creeping up like sneaky little bitches to take over my face.
“Okay, I need egg rolls,” I say, putting my hand out to Elliot, making a grabby motion. They laugh and Elliot continues to take the food out of the bags.
FIFTY
THEN, SPRING, TWO YEARS AGO
“You have to wear the hat, Ana,” Maddie yells from her room. “There is no choice in this matter.”
“It’s going to make my hair look ridiculous when I take it off,” I yell back. I hear footsteps and then she’s next to me in our shared bathroom, looking at me in the mirror. My normally curly mane of hair has been blown out so that it now sits fairly straight and smooth with slight loose curls at the bottom.
“Your hair has never looked ridiculous in your whole life. Not for a single day,” she says with a pointed look. I laugh.
“Remember elementary school?” I ask, and she grins.
“You just didn’t know how to properly manage your curls back then,” she laughs.
“Yeah and my mom gave up trying to help me,” I say with a sigh.
I look around at our bathroom. Almost completely bare. In two days we will move out of this apartment. Maddie will start student teaching in the fall in North Hadleigh, New Jersey. She and Elliot found an apartment close by and have already started to move their belongings into it. I am taking June off before I start work as an intern at the marketing firm—my first choice firm— in July. Hayden and I found a place pretty close to Maddie and Elliot, and also the train station, which he’ll use to commute to his own internship. Our parents helped us out with the first few payments until we both have a steady income. We have a move-in date, and can’t start bringing any of our furniture or boxes over yet so most of it is sitting in a storage unit now, waiting to be moved into our new home.
I never thought I would be leaving college in a committed relationship and moving into a place with my boyfriend. It kind of blows my mind when I stop and really think about it. My life has not gone the way I planned and pictured it, and I love it.
A knock on the front door pulls me from my thinking and I find my reflection in the mirror again. I begrudgingly shove the graduation cap on my head and follow Maddie out into the living room.
Maddie’s parents, my parents, my siblings and Elliot all crowd into our small space hugging each other and our mothers are crying all over one another.
“¡Mi niña, mi cariñita! How is this possible?” my mother cries and takes my face into her hands, kissing my forehead with slight aggression. “How is my first baby graduating college today?”
I smile at her, letting her have her moment. My father comes over and hugs us both tight before José and Isa come over and join in the family hug.
“Okay, okay, that’s enough affection from you all,” I say, pushing them all away as lovingly as possible.
