want when I got older. But I couldn’t close my eyes and remember her laugh or smile.
“Thanks for listening to me.”
With a smile I looked at him, “What are best friends for?”
“Hope you’ve been more than a best friend. You’ve been around for every part of my life, the good and the bad. If it weren’t for you I’d still be laying in bed, with the blinds down, not thinking about tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, I have a test.”
“I wasn’t talking about that. Hope when my dad died, you were there for me. When I wanted to lock myself in my bedroom, you literally dragged me out of it.”
“Kicking and screaming, the whole way,” I added.
“Maybe… okay quite a bit. But still you were there determined as usual. Sometimes I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?” I wondered.
“Be there for everyone. You’ve been like a leader to us. You’re one of the strongest willed person I know.”
“I am?”
“You make us feel important, you always do. You got us to dream of what we could be, and one day what we may become.”
“I did?”
“I know you can say more than two words at a time.”
“I know I can.” I said sarcastically. “Honestly Toby, I never thought of myself that way.”
“I know and that’s what makes you special.”
As I thought about it, I didn’t feel special. Weren’t people always supposed to be like this? I looked around our tree house as I continued to reflect. So many things seem to change, or maybe I was just growing up. I noticed the paint underneath our pictures and posters was starting to peel away from the walls. I remembered a few years ago when Toby and I painted them. We couldn`t decide on a color, so the walls were painted half one color for him, and another for me. I could recall all the adventures we had and all the practical jokes we played on each other. Which reminded me.
“Toby, what did you do to my phone?”
“I customized it.” he said with a smile, as he tried not to laugh.
“When?”
“Now you’re only speaking one word at a time.”
“When?”
“The other day, you handed me your purse and all your other stuff to hang onto while you talked to one of the teachers. It was vibrating in your purse. It was quite annoying, so I answered it.”
“You what!” shock streaked across my face as I wondered what he could have said.
“Don`t worry, it was a salesperson but I did have a little fun.”
With a smug smile on his face, I began to feel sorry for the salesperson.
“You were taking so long, I got bored. And your ring tone was boring enough. So I decided to change it. A good drum solo is like a heartbeat.”
We stayed in the tree house like that joking and laughing at each other until it was so dark that the only light that illuminated the tree house was from the back porch.
“So, how is the boyfriend thing going?”
“Dad!!! ”
“You know the look on your face always makes me laugh.”
Great, my ‘deer in the headlights’ look amused him. And there are certain things you don’t talk to your dad about. Even if I did have a boyfriend, I don’t know if I would talk to him about it. But I did trust him. He was always honest with me, but I definitely would get teased about it.
“I don’t have time for boys.”
“Okay, okay, just had to tease you a little. How was your shopping trip yesterday?”
“Fine.” It didn’t come out as lighthearted as I wanted. As I thought of the trip home I couldn’t help but start giggling.
“Now what have you girls done?”
“Dad I didn’t start it.” Now I was laughing so hard I was crying. Remembering the look on Toby’s face didn’t help. I could barely get out “Toby started it, he was told not to go there.”
“And the three of you are innocent, I doubt that.” I had that ‘who me’ look, and my dad saw right through it like always. “You girls better be nice to that boy before you permanently damage him.”
“Toby was the one who asked the wrong question. He wanted to know what we meant by ‘the girls’ at the dress shop”.
You would think, with two older sisters he would’ve already figured this out. I was laughing so hard I barely heard him. “Like I said damage,” and we were both laughing. It was nice to be able to talk to him about almost everything. I could only guess how hard it was for him to raise me all by himself.
The sound of the doorbell made me jump. “I’ll get it, its probably Anna picking me up.” Before I could open the door, the bell went off again.
I opened the door and Anna stood there with her arms across her chest. “And for your info your cell is turned off,” then she turned to my dad, “Hi Daddy-Two.”
A little surprised it reminded me that I had turned my phone off when I was talking with Toby in the tree house. I guess I forgot to turn it back on.
“Hello Anna.” Dad was smiling and shook his head.
“Hope, I tried to call to see if Toby was ready for class. I swear he is slower than most girls I know, and we get the bad rep.”
“No, I’m not.” Anna jumped and looked shocked. She was caught and she knew it.
“And I’m right behind you, smart ass.” Toby stood there, book bag in hand. Giggling, I went to get my things when my dad handed me some money.
“You’ll need to eat some time, and better feed the rest” as he tilted his head toward the door where Anna and Toby waited. It wasn’t until that moment when I realized we had been having such a good time laughing and teasing each other; we forgot to even think about making dinner.
“Thanks Dad.” As I walked out the door I turned again, “Love you,” I smiled broadly.
“Love you too,” was his quick response as always.
We piled into Anna’s car in our usual spots with Kayla riding shotgun and Toby and I in the backseat as we headed off for our night classes at the college.
