Latch - Preview
This is a teaser for my short story Latch. This story in-full (12k words) will be available as an exclusive to my newsletter subscribers.
The full story is about Lydia and Sami, two best friends from high school and youth group. Everything changes when they attend different colleges and find their feelings are more complicated than they’d ever realized. Is it possible they were always something more than friends?
Check out the first page of Latch:
Sami and I were inseparable from our freshman year of high school to our freshman year of college.
"It'll be okay. We'll text every day. You'll see," Sami had said, "Besides, it's not that long of a drive. You can come see me, I can go see you. We'll make it work. We're best friends."
We’d been standing in my parent’s driveway as I loaded my final bag into the car.
"I know. It's just that...four years. You and I haven’t been apart more than like two days since the first day of 9th grade. Picking different schools was dumb. This is dumb." I’d sighed.
She’d laughed, but her hazel eyes were downcast. “It’s not too late for you to change your mind. Come to Montana Christian with me, instead. I’ll hide you in my dorm. I’m sure your scholarship from Boise Tech can transfer, right?”
“I’m gonna text you every morning when I wake up, and every night when I go to sleep.” I’d felt tears begin to well, so I pulled her into a tight goodbye hug.
For the first few months, we kept our promises.
Lydia: Good morning, I hope you have a great day of class!
Sami: Thanks! You too! <3
I'd heard that some people aren’t made to be friends over long-distance, but I never thought that would be true for Sami and I. I wasn’t sure what I expected, specifically. I only knew that what we had wasn’t fulfilling, to me, and I didn’t know how to correct it.
Second semester, she sent me rambling emails about classes I had never heard of, with subject-matter I couldn’t understand. We had been together through youth group, bible study, summer camp, AWANA; but the micro-level of theology that Sami was studying seemed obtuse.
I wrote her back, trying to find commonalities in our studies. I had been to see the latest Marvel movie, so I wrote about how exciting it was.
There’s a group of diehard fans here, they are like a club. They go every time there is a premiere, and they wear costumes! I didn’t know it was going to be like that so I felt silly when I showed up in jeans. One guy had an authentic Spiderman outfit. He said it was almost a thousand dollars(!!!!) Anyway it was nbd that I didn’t have a costume.
I’m taking sociology and I have to do an interview of someone who has a unique worldview. I thought of you, and how you always believe that God is in the details. Can I call you next week? LMK!
I was stretching the parameters of the assignment to make it fit. It was an excuse to call her; I didn’t know why I needed one.
“Yo, you’ve reached Sami! If it’s important, send me a text. Otherwise, a voicemail is fine. Bye!”
The robotic beep.
“Hey Sami, it’s me, again. It’s Thursday. I just got out of class, we were talking about ice cream cake, I don’t even remember why, but I thought of you. Anyway, I know you are really busy with school too, but I miss you, best friend. I hope we can talk soon. Maybe this weekend? I’ll be free. K, I miss you, bye.”