The coffee aroma engulfed the air along with the sounds of espresso and coffee machines. Small whispers amongst other customers were in distant earshot. It was quite busy for a Saturday mid-noon day. Everyone in town loved The Brew. It felt and smelled like home. 

The coffee bar was filled with other occupants when I arrived so I opted for another window seat. Stef had his hands full the entire time that I didn’t even place my order yet. I didn’t mind. The teenagers in the joint took priority since they were the ones swiping their parent’s credit card. A few adults were also seated inside, but had their drinks already. I came in at the worst time since a herd of those goblins came in right before me. 

It wasn’t long before I stared out the large glass window with my arms propped up on the table. 

The weather outside was beautiful. It was a tranquil and breezy summer day. There wasn’t a cloud for miles. It was one of those perfect days to take a drive to the beach and enjoy the cooling ocean waters. 

My mind drifted onto Dylan and our times at Hampton Beach. The beaches in Florida were just as crowded but a lot nicer, but they had nothing on the glorious memories. 

Smiling to myself I recalled a time where we decided to sneak out at night because we thought it’d be wicked cool. Spoiler alert! It was terrifying. It happened to be a full moon that night so the waves were fucking insane. 

There I am, absolutely petrified, but Dylan big dicked it and tried surfing. Yes, SURFING! At night ! I didn’t even know that was possible, apparently it was but he failed miserably. Not only did he wipe out a bunch of times, but this dumbass almost drowned. By almost, I mean he pretended to. That piece of shit dunked his whole body under and held his breath for almost a minute.

I remember panicking and contemplating calling our parents, but at the time cell services weren’t good and it was near impossible to get a signal. Even if we did, we carelessly left them back at the place we were staying at.

Then suddenly, here comes Dylan bobbing up in hysterics. He sees my body language from the shoreline already knowing how worried I was. His wobbly body is clinging onto his board while he’s headed towards my direction. I’m obviously furious. He’s snorting at me and pointing his finger. “Oh my fucking God Noey, your facial expression right now!” 

“Oh yeah, really funny McCahn. I thought you were drowning and I was about to dive in myself!” I retorted. 

The drenched blond had a wiry smile. “Lightn’ up man twas a joke.” 

My fingers were clenched in a tight fist. My jaw was locked. I had really wanted to punch his smug looking face. Instead, I pivoted myself in the direction of our staying arrangements and began to walk off without him. 

I know, you’re probably thinking: Why and how the hell is this a ‘good’ memory? 

Well, as petty as I was as a teenager, I easily played mime with him the rest of the night. He had yet to apologize and I refused to utter a word until he did. Dylan was notorious for being as stubborn as a mule. I thought for sure I’d crumble by the next day but I hadn’t. I was being extra as hell. That’s the downside to being a stubborn 14 year old. 

I had successfully gone a day and a half not speaking a word to him without alarming either of our parents. I was rather impressed. I don’t remember exactly now what I was doing or why I left the room I was sharing with Dyl, but I wasn’t there for some period of time. 

The sun was down and it was a humid summer night. I made my way back to our room from being outside, for some reason, to come back to an equally vacant room. Dylan was here when I left. How long was I gone for? Immediately I noticed something on my side of the room. The room was dimly lit. It was one of those lamps where you can adjust a different brightness. 

Very curiously I stumbled next to my bed to discover what it was. 

 A purple stuffed cat? Furrowing my brows I picked it up to inspect it. While doing so, a card fell out from it. It appeared to be lazily taped on the back of the stuffed toy. It had Noey written on it. My eyes widened at the nickname. Only Dylan calls me that. 

While opening the envelope I sat down on my bed. The card had a huge frowny face on it. It made me chuckle because I could tell it was handmade. Dylan could actually draw very well when he chose to. 

It read:

Sup’ Noey?

You know how bad I am at this so I’m sorry if this card sucks balls. You won’t speak or listen to me any other way so I thought of this. Of course this is super fucking embarrassing so I couldn’t be in the room when you opened this. Also the stuffed animal, your favorite color is purple and your favorite animal is a cat so I thought you might like it. If you don’t, then just throw it away. I don’t really care that much. 

There were scribble marks over some lines that I couldn’t translate.

Ugh I’m so bad at this, Noey. I wish I wasn’t so damn bad at being sincere or being sensible. I value our friendship a lot and care about what happens to it. I do even if I’m shit with expressing that all the time. I’ve noticed you getting more irritated with my antics lately and I guess this was the last straw. I’ll try to be less of a douche from now on, aight? 

I’m sorry for making you worry and for being a dick last night. 

Forgive me? :D

-Dyl

I couldn’t resist smiling at the stupid note. 

He’s so bad at apologizing. I haven’t heard him say sorry to me in years. He’s a little shit that way. Even so, this note and this gift is sweet. It’s almost scary how nice the gesture is. I softly chuckled at my own thoughts. I examined the stuffed animal Dylan gave me.

It’s really cute looking. Did he think of me when he saw it? Where did he even find the time to buy this anyways? My smile deepened.

The front door clicked open and my eyes averted to the person walking in. It was none other than the villain himself. He locked eyes with me immediately appearing nervous. 

“Uhh,” he mumbled, “You’re back already?” He reluctantly stumbled to his own bed which wasn’t far off from mine. 

My smile became a smirk at the prospect of making a golden opportunity. 

“So you don’t care if I throw this away?” I said while standing up and moving towards the trash can. 

While observing Dylan’s face, his eyes widened in shock. “Uh, well you didn’t l-like it then?” It was one of those rare moments when I had him in a position of vulnerability. His eyes told me everything I needed to know. Of course I wasn’t going to throw this away! It’s so cute and it’s from my cute best friend. Why would I get rid of it?

I giggled while taking a seat next to Dylan. “Oh so then you do care, huh?” I teased. 

His cheeks turned a shade of pink. “Do whatever you want with it!” He raised his voice a bit in hopes to rid himself of this embarrassment. 

Grinning, I placed my hand on his tense shoulder. Dylan hated physical contact of any kind so I only did it seldomly. “I forgive you Dyl.” We made eye contact when I said that and a faint smile creased his features. His body relaxed and he let out a huff of air.

“Good,” he whispered, “That’s great. Phew, well let’s go to bed, I'm tired.”

After that night, Dylan was still an idiot that did stupid shit but became a lot less tense about it. He smiled more and tried his best to admit when he was wrong. It was all a work in progress. We all are. In those years, I fell in love with that boy. The love started that night when I held onto that purple cat. 

I was brought back to reality with the sound of snapping. Once I zoned back in I was met with an annoyed Stef flicking his fingers in front of my face. 

“Oh my god No, do you want something or not? I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past minute or so!” His eyebrow twitched in annoyance as his eyes bored into mine. 

I smiled widely in hopes that would cure my resolve. “Sorry Stef. I’ll just have a cup of black coffee.” 

He rolled his eyes intensely. “Were you thinking about Dylan? Because holy shit man, I was literally screaming your name.” 

My face felt warm at the accusation because it was true. I didn’t say anything, only looked away. This was all the confirmation he needed from me. 

Stef’s eyes were rolling so intensely they could burst out. “Well then Casanova, I’ll get your coffee.” 

I hadn’t thought of that memory in years. We both made a mistake this time however. Maybe I should get him a weirdly colored stuffed animal? Is his favorite animal still turtles? 

I found myself pulling out my phone to search if they had any.

Oh god they do. They’re so girly looking, but--I’m gonna buy one anyways! 

Pressing ‘confirm order,’ I glance up to lock eyes with the very man I’ve had my thoughts taken over by.

“Hey stranger,” Dylan welcomed me with a huge, warm, and inviting smile as he slid into the chair across from me.

“Still want to hang out today?” He asked, not breaking eye contact with me.

26 vs 14 year old Dylan is like night and day. Even 18 year old Dylan has nothing on this gentleman in front of me. 

I returned the infectious grin, “Yeah! I had some ideas but they might be a tad lame since we’re so old now.” I laughed anxiously. I was worrying about the details but hoped to evade the sensation until closer in the evening. 

“Is that right? Let me hear it!”

I hesitated, watching his eyes tell me how eager he was to hear about my ideas. I kept thinking it was super childish and almost like we’d be chasing down our youth. Trying to savor the remnants of past us. In reality I just missed the summers up north. I missed the smell of the mountain air, the soft grass, and the beautiful diamond encrusted skies.  

“Well I was thinking we could camp in my backyard like when we were kids.” 

But most importantly, I missed Dylan, my best friend.