Chapter Text
Plush trees and bushes whipped by as the car dipped around another bend in the highway. Leo sunk in the plush leather of his grandmother’s sedan as he stared outside, the foliage and mountains an impossible array of endless greens and yellows. He’d been down this road before, vaguely remembered the trees from previous summers, but it felt so different now— because this time, he was traveling all by himself.
The summer after Leo turned eleven was the first summer his parents let him visit his Nana’s without their supervision. He’d flown on the plane all alone, even got his own bags put up in the overhead compartments— with help from the flight attendant, of course.
Without his parents, Leo felt brand new: older, wiser, cooler. He was able to be independent, could make his own decisions and plans. He got to spend the summer, the whole summer, with his favorite Nana in her quiet little cottage town, running around however he pleased, and he could hardly contain his excitement.
“We’re nearly there, Sweetie,” Nana said, reaching over to card her fingers through his hair. The blond curls bounced with the motion, and he shook his head and batted her away.
“Nana!” he cried, drawing out the last syllable.
“Oh, please,” she teased, pinching his cheek.
His grandmother was a lean woman of shorter stature, her hair a curly gray nest that bounced much like his did as she shook her head back. She smelled of her favorite lotion, a cheap flowery mixture that comforted Leo in small doses but gave him a headache if he stayed too close for too long.
“Now,” she continued, “once we get home, I wantcha to bring ya things to the guest room and get unpacked. Yer gonna be ‘ere for two months, and I won’t have ya livin’ out of suitcases the whole time.”
Leo saluted with a firm nod. “Yes, ma’am!”
“That’s my boy,” she cooed.
The radio’s Top 40 music faded in volume as a male disc jockey’s lively voice rang out. “Get ready for record-breaking heat this summer, folks! A new decade means a new standard, and that is hot, hot, hot! That’s right, listeners— 1980 is bringing a fever in more ways than one! Let’s see if this next song can crank up the heat.” The song shifted to something bouncy, one of the newest hits of the summer.
A wooden sign on the side of the road stood proud of the overgrown bushes, white-painted text declaring, “Welcome to Banner!” Nana’s lakeside town came into view as they crested the hill, and Leo craned his neck to see above the dashboard as far as he could. The wooded highway fed straight into the town’s main street. Brick businesses with white shutters and colorful advertisements lined the avenue. Red, white, and blue flags and banners and wreaths already decorated the benches and buildings, even with Independence Day still almost four whole weeks away.
On one corner, a drug store with candy in the window made Leo nearly drool. “Nana, can we—”
“Yes, dear, but not t’day,” Nana chuckled.
Leo groaned and stuck his lip out, putting on his best pouty face. “Please?”
“We’ve all summah, Leonardo!”
The blond huffed but nodded. Whenever his full name was used, he knew the battle was lost.
Up only a short distance from the downtown area, Nana’s house came into view. The structure was a simple Cape Cod cottage, the kind of house Leo could draw with his eyes closed and still get a close approximation. The siding was painted a light periwinkle, and the colorful flowers that lined the yard made Leo feel more relaxed than he would’ve first anticipated— it was good to finally arrive at his home away from home.
The boy clambered out of the car and quickly grabbed his suitcases from the backseat. Once Nana let him into the familiar house, the smell of flowery lotion knocking him like a brick to the skull, he brought his things to the guest room— his room— and unpacked.
The room was mostly undecorated, save for a few photo frames of his extended family adorning the top of the dresser. The walls were a creamy yellow, the bedding a soft green, and the curtains were a matching green gingham. It was boring, but it wasn’t like he’d be spending much time in here anyway.
Leo worked haphazardly, shoving his clothes into random drawers and tossing his comic books and handheld stereo on the bouncing spring bed. He folded his cases closed and slid them under the bed before heading out to the kitchen, where Nana was making sandwiches and cutting fruit.
The woman caught Leo’s stare and smiled kindly. “Go bring ya bike to the porch; lunch’s just about ready.”
Nodding, the blond bounded out back, flinging open the door of Nana’s beat-up shed. Leaning crooked against the right wall was his bright blue BMX bike, a recent Christmas gift from Mr. Claus himself. Leo yanked the thing out clumsily, slamming the door closed and rolling the bike around the yard to lean on the front porch’s wooden handrailing.
He looked out toward the street, past the other side of the road and down the hill to Banner Lake, the nucleus and namesake of Nana’s dinky town. The sun shimmered on the water like golden confetti, waving in and out of focus.
Leo’s gaze was cut through by a red bicycle riding by. The rider, a brunette boy probably about his age, had a striped red tank top and tan skin. He waved to Leo as he rolled down the street, and the blond returned the wave with an easy grin.
Here for less than an hour and Leo’d already found a new friend. Almost, anyway. He was pretty proud of that, he decided, as he turned back into Nana’s house for lunch.
The rest of the day was spent going over house rules, do’s and don’ts for the visit, and eating their weight in cheese and crackers over several rounds of Gin Rummy. In the evening, as Leo hunkered down to sleep in his new bed, the window cracked to let in the breeze from the distant water, he was barely able to close his eyes; he was vibrating with daydreams of how the rest of his summer would play out.
*
The next day, Leo woke up to sunlight shining through the trees into his room. He threw on some clothes and scrambled into the kitchen, the smell of pancakes filtering through the house in a syrupy mist. Breakfast ended as quickly as it started as he shoveled the food in his mouth.
“‘m goin’ into town,” Leo attempted to say around his last big bite.
His Nana laughed at his antics, “A’right, just remember to—”
“I know, Nana. I’ll be back ‘fore the street lights turn on,” he replied. She patted his cheek in satisfaction and bid him goodbye.
Throwing on some dingy sneakers, he headed outside and jumped on his bike, rolling quickly out of the yard. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend the whole summer playing games with his Nana; it’s just that he didn’t only want to do that.
He wound his way out of the neighborhood into downtown, a bustling street of vendors and customers chittering along the sidewalks. He turned sharply to the left, heading away from the shopping district toward the lake, and found that the ride down was a breeze— it was mostly downhill. A sign for the lake pointed him down a trail in the woods, and a winding path of twigs and dirt emptied out to the beach.
As he rolled to a stop on the edge of the sand, a damp and rocky shore that met the treeline, he saw a familiar bike laying in the bushes. He set his bike against a thick tree trunk and followed the foot prints from the red bicycle out. They twisted around the beach before stopping in front of another tree. Leo looked around to see if they continued further, but couldn’t see where they went from there.
“Up ‘ere!” a voice crowed.
Leo’s head shot upwards to find the boy from the day before lounging on a branch. The kid waved, a crooked smirk splitting his face.
“Oh, hi!” Leo waved back.
The boy dropped out of the tree expertly, landing heavy on his feet. “You’s the kid at Mrs. Higgins’ house, huh?”
Leo nodded, “‘m stayin’ with my Nana for the summer. Name’s Leo.” He stuck his hand out for a shake.
“I’m Tommy.” The boy shook his hand, adding, “Nice to meetcha. I didn’t know Mrs. Higgins had a grandson.”
“How’dja know that was her house?” Leo asked, tilting his head.
“She pays me to mow ‘er lawn sometimes,” Tommy replied, and Leo figured that was sensible enough. Tommy went on, “Wanna join me in my tree?”
“Sure, I’ll race ya!” The boys clambered up the tree then, loud huffing and giggles as they scrambled up the dewy branches to the tippy top, where Tommy’d been sitting before their introduction. Leo beat Tommy by a good couple of seconds, and he beamed as the brunette came up after him.
“Geez, yer fast, kid!” Tommy’s chest heaved as he caught his breath.
“‘Bout time you got up here,” Leo teased.
He looked out to the lake, to the lazy waves lapping up the sand. It felt comfortable, sitting here with Tommy. Like they were always meant to do it.
“I’m the fastest in my grade. I bet I could beatcha at any race. Riding, climbing, running. You name it!” He shoved his shoulder into Tommy’s, and the other shoved back with a laugh.
“Yer on!”
The rest of the morning went on like this, the boys racing after each other in various games. After their fifth bicycle race around the town’s central square, in which Leo won again, they stopped to catch their breaths at a bench outside the grocery store. Tommy bought them each a glass bottle of Coca Cola, and they guzzled them down like water as they wiped their brows.
Tommy was fun to be around. He was boisterous and goofy, and although he couldn’t beat Leo, he could pretty much keep up with him. It was an instant click, like they’d known each other for years, and that feeling warmed Leo up like potpie at Christmas.
After their drinks, the two rode side-by-side around town. Tommy pointed out landmarks and houses of note; this neighborhood had the best park, that street was notoriously mean to boys on bikes, those yards had the cool sprinklers you could run through on the really hot days.
“You sure know a lot about this town,” Leo said. They’d thrown their bikes in a pile along the path back down to the lake. Leo balanced on a log, hopping from foot to foot, as Tommy lounged on the other end, watching the water through the trees.
“I ‘ope so, I‘ve lived ‘ere my whole life,” Tommy replied.
“I can’t imagine living in a place like this all the time.” And Leo really couldn’t. He was from the city, used to tall apartment buildings and skinny trees behind mini fences, not cozy houses and forests of green.
“It’s pretty cool,” Tommy agreed, “but it ain’t as good as it seems. Not all the time, anyway.” There was an air of finality to the statement. It felt like when Leo’s parents would say something that ended a conversation, in moments when they didn't want him to ask more questions.
Taking the hint for what it was, Leo dropped to a seat next to Tommy and leaned into him, their shoulders knocking as he swayed. “The city’s not so great either.”
“Bet it’s pretty wicked, though. Goin’ up skyscrapers and such.”
Leo shrugged. “It’s not like I’m goin’ up ‘em all the time,” he laughed. “My dad works in one, but I never get to go see it. Mostly, the city’s just busy. And loud.”
Tommy smirked, knocking his knee into Leo’s. “And you wouldn’t know nothin’ about loud, huh?”
“Hey!” Leo’s ears burned pink at the tease, and the tightness in his chest was only subdued slightly by their shared laughter.
“‘m kiddin’, ‘m kiddin’,” Tommy conceded, throwing an arm over the blond’s shoulder. “I like that yer loud.”
Leo didn’t really know what that meant, but he wasn’t gonna ask. He just smiled and snaked his arm around the boy’s side, hugging him tight. “Banner could use some loud, y’know? I could barely sleep with how quiet it is ‘round here,” the blond joked.
“Guess it’s up to us, then,” Tommy agreed. He stood up and held out a hand, pulling Leo to come with him. “C’mon, let’s go make some noise.”
Their afternoon was spent riding around town, hooting and hollering to each other, singing songs and laughing ‘til their chests were sore. Leo’s curls were plastered to his forehead by the end of the day, his skin hot from the sun and his shirt sticking to his back. The breeze of late afternoon was a godsend, but it also felt like a ticking timebomb as shadows grew and sunlight waned.
As they rounded down from a higher neighborhood, Nana’s house came into view.
“Street lights ‘re comin’ on soon,” Tommy explained as he stopped in front of the little cottage.
Leo nodded, a sad pit forming in his stomach. He didn’t want this day to end. “Thanks for showin’ me around town,” he said instead. “And for the Coke.”
“O’ course, pal.”
The wind rustled through the trees as the first streetlamps turned on for the night. Above them, the stars already shined in the twilight, brighter than Leo had ever seen living in the city.
“Well, I better get goin’ home,” Tommy drawled, kicking a foot up to one of the bike pedals.
Leo wanted to ask him to stay the night, or at least for dinner. He wanted to know him more, hear him talk in the same funny way his Nana did. How had the day gone by so fast?
“But I’ll see ya tomorruh,” Tommy added.
A smile spread like butter across Leo’s face. “Yeah, tomorrow.” Why didn’t he think of that?
Tommy smiled too, small and crooked. He saluted and kicked off, pedaling fast down the street, and Leo didn’t look away until his back disappeared around the corner.