direction of Eddie’s house. They rode down Hawthorne Street and arrived five minutes later in front of a house Eddie recognized as the
house of Jeremy Hallor, the school’s newest quarterback. Brad, the previous quarterback, had transferred schools last year for his senior
year.
Eddie’s hand shook slightly with nerves as he climbed off of Matt’s bike with Matt in tow. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come…
Were you even invited?”
“Nah, but everyone shows up to Jeremy’s parties. Especially this one since this is his last party of the summer.”
“Alright Matt, whatever you say…” Eddie could clearly hear music playing from inside, some eighties song he didn’t recognize.
They stepped onto the front porch and Matt opened the door before Eddie could knock. The room was filled with high schoolers, some he
recognized and some he didn’t, some dancing and some sitting. A girl handed Matt two red cups. Matt gave one to Eddie and he sighed
in relief when he realized that it was fruit punch, not alcohol. Matt grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowd to their other friends
Mary and Victor. Eddie was relieved that he hadn’t lost Matt and pleased to see other familiar faces. Mary and Victor greeted them
excitedly, motioning them to sit with them. Matt sat next to Mary and Eddie sat on his other side.
Mary and Victor were Eddie’s only other friends, excluding Matt. Mary was very smart and very pretty too, until she dyed her hair
a terrible shade of green. Victor was tall and played football, but was unpopular enough to hang out with the rest of them unbothered.
They were not nearly as close to Eddie as Matt or Andrea, but they were good friends to him regardless.
Most of the night was then spent talking and laughing, and Eddie actually managed to enjoy himself amongst the chaos around him. At
ten o'clock, Eddie went outside and sipped from his solo cup as he sat on the steps of the front porch. He would have looked at the stars if
the street lights weren’t blocking them out. He sighed happily, no longer thinking about Andrea. In that moment, all he thought about was
his great friends and the fact that he was an hour past curfew, though he knew his father wouldn’t care much, so neither did he. For the
first time since he said goodbye to Andrea earlier that day, he was really, truly happy on his own.
Seven years later, Eddie Rosenthal was homesick and buzzing with caffeine. He knew that he shouldn’t be feeling this way,
considering that this was his third year in college already, but he still felt the bitter sting in his chest that reminded him of home. He also
knew that he should not have drunk those three cups of coffee, but that was irrelevant. Most days he was able to forget, but on this
particular Wednesday in November he was unable to think of anything but Castorton, Maine. He wished to call Andrea, but he knew he
would just be bothering her at work. Eddie had no idea how she was able to spend all her time too busy to ever call him while she was at
college because the duration of his college life included sitting in his apartment, either doing homework or waiting for Matt to come home.
That was another reason he shouldn’t be homesick: he still had Matt. Matt was growing up to be very popular for his class
clown-esque personality, but he always still had time to be Eddie’s best friend on the side. Eddie could never thank Matt enough for
staying by his side his whole life, something he couldn’t even thank his own sister for anymore.
Eddie sighed to himself and decided to go find his best friend before he started to cry. He pushed in his chair and walked down
the hall, deciding to leave his fourth coffee on the desk. Eddie had been told many times before that college was where he would find