Chapter 80. What Am I Missing?

Sunset has come and gone by the time the last guests leave.

After the grilling, everyone loitered, eating classic American food and listening to classic American music, until darkness finally fell. Then Dante, giggling like a kid, disappeared with Seb and Tony. They reappeared minutes later with an unlabeled box and proceeded to light off the least legitimate fireworks show I could have expected. Some didn’t light. Others fell off their little post. I laughed the whole time, and they handed out sparklers at the end.

That, at least, felt like the summers I knew, waiting until the tiny fires threatened the top of my hand before dropping it on concrete and stamping it out. The only thing missing was Christos, trying to convince me to sword fight him. Luckily, it only took one mention before Seb was happy to accept the challenge. As always, our sparklers shattered instantly. It wouldn’t have been right if they didn’t

After everything is cleaned up, Dante