Page 30 of A Million To Fall

Even Pacey, Jonathan, and Lily have started to let it go. What used to be a near-daily conversation slowly stopped coming up at all. Teachers stopped calling his name for attendance weeks ago. His seat in English got taken by a new transfer from Duluth, while his desk in Calculus is collecting dust.

Jake and I, though, haven’t moved on.

We still check our phones compulsively. Jake gets this desperate look in his eyes when he walks by Boston’s locker, and mine drift to his empty seat every time I walk into a classroom we used to share. But we don’t talk about it anymore. Not when Archer’s around, anyway. Not since that day.

March 27th. Boston’s eighteenth birthday.

I mentioned it, and Jake spiraled—how weird it was that Boston hadn’t reached out. How something must’ve happened. That maybe—

Archer cut him off.

“Look, man, you gotta let this go,” he said like it really was that simple. “Nothing bad happened to Boston or we would’ve heard about it. There hasn’t been any news about a body getting fished out of the river. Boston moved.” Archer shrugged. “He didn’t care enough about you to tell you. Time to move on.”

That was that.

Jake hasn’t brought up Boston in a group conversation since, though I know he hasn’t stopped thinking about him.

And neither have I. About how someone like Boston could disappear without a trace and no one seemed to think that was strange. I’ve secretly texted him more than a dozen times.

Hey, are you okay?

We’re worried about you.

Please just let me know you’re alright!

My last message to him just said I miss you.

Each time, I hit send, then delete the message.

“Graduates, baby,” Pacey yells and slams his glass on the table like he’s trying to break it.

Someone whoops from the kitchen. Music drifts out from the house, and people spill into the backyard, shouting over a chaotic game of water volleyball in the pool.

“We’re done,” Jake repeats for the tenth time tonight, like he still doesn’t totally believe it.

Lily nods. “Done done.”

“So, uh, something kind of weird happened today,” Jonathan says, leaning forward in his chair.

“What happened?” Lily asks.

Jonathan looks first at me, then Jake. “On my way over here… I think I saw Boss’s mom.”

The words land like a lit match dropped in a haystack. I stiffen. Jake shoots upright.

“Wait, what? Where? When?” Jake blurts, frantic.

“I was driving. I’m not a hundred percent sure it was her, but—”

“What the fuck, J, was it Boss’s mom or not?” Jake snaps.

Archer frowns at the heat in Jake’s tone. “Whoa, man, chill.”

“I’m pretty sure it was her,” Jonathan says. “But like I said, I was driving. Couldn’t exactly throw my car in park and go confirm it.”

I take a deep breath. “Did you see Boss?”

Jonathan shakes his head. “She was walking with some dude. Bald guy. Didn’t look like someone I’d want to pick a fight with, honestly.”