Chapter 8: Friday Nights at the Bridge

They still religiously met at the exact same old wooden bridge every single Friday evening after varsity football practice had concluded- James now significantly taller, broader-shouldered, and noticeably quieter than he used to be, and Lily with her hair sharply styled into a chic bob, her childhood sketchbook replaced by thick, heavy binders of Advanced Placement literature. They would sit together with their legs casually dangling over the splintered edge, kicking the weathered timber and sharing stale candy bars while trading humorous stories about the absurdities of their teachers and the endless, exhausting drama of the school hallways.