* * *
“It’s been a while since we had dinner together at home,” Nick’s mom, Nia, said, watching him across the table with that warm fondness that always put him at ease. Her spiraling curls were clipped back out of her face.
“I know. These long hours at the office and business trips are cutting into our time.”
Nick frowned at his dad’s words. Running a business was no easy feat but Derek Gray did it well.
“You’re still always around,” Nick reminded him as Kent placed a bowl of steaming rolls on the table and joined them. He wasn’t blood, but Kent was as much a part of the Gray family as the other three at the table, much more than a caretaker or chef or employee and Nick knew the older man would back him up. “You better take a vacation soon, both of you. Don’t worry about me.”
“Since when were you big enough that you started worrying about us?” His mom laughed gently, her smile bright. “Wasn’t it just yesterday when you begged your father to hang that little plastic basketball hoop on the back of your door?”
“That does feel like yesterday,” Derek said and Nick rolled his eyes, laughing with them.
“That was forever ago. I’m serious. Basketball camp is like a vacation for me so while I’m gone, you two should like run away or something.”
“I think that sounds like a great idea,” Kent offered and Nick grinned at him.
Nia hummed in agreement. “I believe I’m overdue for a romantic date.”
“Then it’s settled.” Derek smiled at his wife, his sun-kissed cheeks a shade darker all of a sudden.
The next morning, both his parents dropped him off at the bus stop where Declan and Reece were already waiting. They’d be heading off on a long overdue and well deserved vacation, just the two of them. His parents drove away with Nick and his friends waving them off, all of them too eager to get what was supposed to be the greatest summer yet underway.
Basketball camp only lasted two weeks, which was no time when you were having fun with your friends. There were two dozen boys in the cabin, but to Nick, it was just him and Reece and Declan. They stayed up late, woke up early, ran until theirlegs were numb and played until they were breaking curfew each night.
It was all easy, careless fun that came to an end too soon. Reece’s family was stealing him away for a family vacation as soon as he stepped off the bus but they were giving Declan a ride home first. Reece’s sisters were a loud and proud trio that kept the entire bus stop entertained while waiting on Nick’s parents. They were usually the first to arrive so Nick originally didn’t argue about them wanting to wait, but when ten minutes turned to thirty, then an hour, he waved them all off.
“Alright, it’s been long enough. Y’all go ahead,” Nick said to everyone, though his eyes were on Reece. There were only a few kids still waiting but Nick didn’t mind waiting alone. “Have fun with the family, okay?”
Reece nodded. “I will. I hope this trip is quicker than camp was…”
“Me too,” Nick said and meant it.
Once they were all gone, Nick sat on the grass near the sidewalk and tried to call his mom. Straight to voicemail. He hoped they weren’t having so much fun on their vacation that they forgot when camp ended. That would be a first, but a funny one.
After another hour without getting in touch with them, Nick grew worried. The sun started to set and his phone was dying. It wasn’t like either of his parents not to get back to him quickly, especially his mom. Nick waited, watching the sun dip down behind a line of palm trees, until headlights drew his attention and he saw Kent’s car pulling up. Nick put his bags in the trunk and opened the front passenger door, plopping in with a groan.
He was about to complain about his parents ditching him until he met Kent’s red-rimmed brown eyes, stricken bythe haunted look in them, and knew something terrible had happened.
* * *
Nick had always dreaded the quiet but now he demanded it, the loss of both his parents weighing so heavily on him that going about his day-to-day routine seemed impossible. So, Nick had been doing little to nothing instead, staying locked in his room ever since he’d gotten home from their shared funeral. Those endless hours were a blur to Nick, his thoughts mostly still on the day he lost them and the fact that he’d never see them alive again.
He’d taken their love and support for granted, foolishly never considering they might be taken from him so soon—that he’d have to finish growing up and spend his entire adulthood without them. Nick thought himself so selfish that he never deserved all the love and support they’d given him. They spent their lives working to build a life that had been so beautiful that it could only end in disaster. To think that the very vacation he convinced them to take, hoping it would bring them rest and happiness, would lead them to an early grave thanks to a careless driver.
Even on days his dad came home from work exhausted, he’d play basketball with Nick until they were called for dinner. His mom never missed a single game of his and made it a point to make sure Nick was not only healthy and always prospering, but happy. And he had been, carelessly so. He’d been going through life with a blind happiness because everything had been going so well for him, even if some things in his life were confusing at times. Now, though, Nick didn’t think he’d ever be happy again. He felt empty on the inside but not numb—the pain was too real. Nick couldn’t accept that he’d never get a proper goodbye.
He didn’t think he’d be able to face his friends again, or anyone for that matter. Even Kent, who’d been with him his whole life. Nick couldn’t look at him, couldn’t face the man’s brown eyes because the warmth Nick had known growing up was now lost, just as his parents’ lives were. It was all haunting him.
Nick couldn’t even play basketball. He tried, late at night when he knew Kent was sleeping, but when he stood outside by his goal where he always played at home, ball in hand, he just felt lost. His parents had been supporting his dream all his life and now that they were gone, having a dream felt pointless. Most things felt pointless.
“Nicholas, please. Come inside and have dinner with me. I made hamburgers,” Kent said, another attempt of his to break through to Nick.
Hamburgers were his favorite but his stomach churned at the thought of food. “I’m not hungry.”
“You keep saying that, but you have to eat. You can talk to me, Nicholas. I’m here.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Kent. I’m sorry you’re stuck with me but you can have everything they left. There’s nothing I want.” It wouldn’t make up for all the poor man had to endure, surely, but it was something to compensate him at least.
