Chapter Text
Epilogue
Ollie knew without looking that it was Elio. He wasn’t sure exactly how he knew. Maybe it was the sound of the steps— Leo’s footfalls were quick and unpredictable, like sleet against a windowpane. Maybe the way the wooden planks of the deck he was sitting on kept their shape beneath him —Oliver was larger and heavier, and the boards curved slightly when he walked across them. Maybe it was the quietness of the approach. Elio didn’t need words as much as most people; he wore his heart on his sleeve and it so often did the talking for him.
Ollie hadn’t noticed how cool the morning was until his brother draped a thin blanket over his shoulders. Elio sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him.
"It shouldn’t be this cold in May," Ollie said.
“Are you okay?” Elio asked.
Ollie nodded.
“Oliver said we could take it, you know,” Elio said. It took a moment for Ollie to understand that he was referring to the tree house. “We can have someone take it down, move it, and put it back together for us in our new backyard.”
Ollie puffed out his cheeks and shook his head. “It’s cheaper to just make a new one.”
Elio kissed the side of his head. “But it wouldn’t be this one.”
A long, quiet moment lingered like still water. “If we make a new one, then the kids who live here next can have this one. Two treehouses are better than one treehouse.” It was your basic treehouse math.
“You make a good point,” Elio said, and Ollie’s tummy filled with fluttering butterflies as it always did whenever his big brother praised him. “Same with the garden. We’ll plant a new one, and someone else will enjoy this one.”
Ollie nodded. “The peach tree, too.”
They both looked over at the peach tree Oliver had planted for them two years ago. It had yet to produce any fruit, but now it was full of blossoms, each one a promise that this would be the year.
“I’ll see if Mafalda can send some peaches to the new place.”
Ollie smiled at that. “Italy peaches are better anyway.” As everyone well knows.
The back door slid open behind them and tiny footfalls sleeted their way over while larger, slower ones curved the boards beneath them.
“Are you two okay?” Oliver said as he placed his oversized cardigan on Elio’s thin shoulders and sat down next to him.
“I think so,” Elio said.
“We are super duper okay,” Ollie said with a reassuring smile.
Oliver had barely gotten Leo’s jacket zipped before the three-year-old took off across the lawn, chasing after Olive.
“The movers are here to finish loading the truck,” Oliver said. Ollie knew by the tone he used that he was talking to Elio. They each had a special voice they used only with each other. “Do we want to watch them pull away?”
No one said anything.
“Or no?”
“Might as well,” Elio said, smiling. He looped his arm around Oliver’s and their fingers found each other, twisting together like loosely woven cloth.
“Me and Leo do,” Ollie said with a nod. When he’d moved to the United States, it was with a suitcase and a few shipped packages. He was fascinated by the idea that their every belonging had been boxed up to be transported to their new home where it would then be unpacked and life would pick up again with barely a blip.
Barely a blip, but still a blip. Though they had spent six months preparing for this move, and preparing their friends and family for it as well, tonight they were having a proper send off dinner. Out of everything, this is what unsettled Ollie the most. How would he say a final goodbye to Kate? To Mr. Slinger? To Joey? To Grandma Susan? To Grandpa Richard?
“Goodbye is the saddest word," Ollie said.
“Everything will be okay. Everyone’s happy for us. And you know we’re going to come visit, and people can come visit us. And we can video chat,” Elio said, even though they’d said these same things several times.
“I don’t think I can say it though,” Ollie said, his voice trembling for the first time. "I don't think I can say it to them."
Oliver reached across Elio, grasped Ollie’s hand, and tugged him over to him.
“You’ll be able to say whatever it is you need to say when the time comes," Oliver promised. "You'll see."
It was romantic, at least as farewell parties go. They’d reserved a table at the same venue where they’d had the wedding. The temperature had risen throughout the day, and as the sky began to glow pink and orange it remained warm enough for outdoor dining.
The food was extravagant, and the champagne flowed freely. A string quartet played on the far side of the patio, but it was their storytelling and laughter that was the evening’s soundtrack. The sun set, then the moon rose. The stars appeared one by one, then the candles flickered out in the same manner. Leo danced and spun on the lawn and eventually he fell asleep in Oliver’s arms. No one seemed in any hurry to go, but when the check had been delivered, the last of the candles burned out, and the musicians began to pack up their stringed instruments, the inevitable could no longer be avoided.
Oliver stood and smiled at everyone. “Thank you all for coming to send us off in style,” he said. “We didn’t want a goodbye party, but more of a fond farewell. And that is what we had. You know I never say goodbye to people. I simply say—” he held up his champagne flute. “Later.”
“Later,” everyone agreed, holding up their glasses.
Nervous laughter circled the table as everyone stood and began gathering their things between hugs.
Kate pinched Leo’s sleeping cheek and then hugged Ollie. “I’m going to miss you boys so much,” she said.
Ollie opened his mouth to say goodbye, but he couldn’t get it out. Elio was there immediately, swirling his fingers through his hair as if he were shampooing it. “We’ll see you soon. We’ll be back next month for the Kaines’ anniversary party anyway.”
Kate smiled and kissed his cheek. “And don’t think I’m not going to take advantage of that guest room Ollie keeps telling me about.”
“You’d better,” Oliver said. Ollie wasn’t sure when he’d stepped over, but he was glad he had.
“And I want to hear you’re making straight A’s on your report card in fifth grade,” Mr. Slinger added as he hugged Elio, then Oliver, and finally Ollie.
“Check!” Ollie said with a grin. “It feels like I’ve been in fourth grade FOREVER.”
As Elio and Oliver continued their long-winded grown up goodbyes —which dragged on so long they had to take turns holding their sleeping toddler— Joey slipped through the crowd and glided over to him. Her hair had been in a ponytail, but now it was falling in wisps of brown silk around her face.
Ollie opened his mouth to say goodbye, but instead the words, “You’re my best friend,” came out.
She put a hand on each of his shoulders and gave him her patented no-nonsense look. “I’m not just your best friend. I’m your first best friend. And you only ever have one of those.”
Ollie giggled. He couldn’t help it.
“And you’re my first best friend, too,” Joey added. “And we’ll always be each other’s first best friends.”
The moonlight played a mean trick on Ollie then. It made Joey’s hair shimmer. It made her skin brighten. It highlighted her freckles. She looked away from him just before she hugged him. “Later, Ollie,” she said.
Ollie closed his eyes and whispered, “Later, Joey.”
Joey squeezed his hand one last time and headed toward the parking lot with her parents. Just before she got into her car, she smiled back at him and he knew that he would carry that image in his heart for the rest of his life.
When he turned his attention back to the party, Grandma Susan pinched his cheek. She was beaming, but he could feel a tremble in her hands. When she spoke, though, her voice was strong and unwavering. “I’ll see you next month, dear,” she said, kneeling down to hug him. “Until then… Later.”
“Later, Grandma Susan,” Ollie said.
“I need to get him in bed,” Elio said, his arms full of Leo. They’d booked a room for the night so they could leave the following morning.
“Of course, honey,” Oliver said, kissing Elio on the cheek. “I’ll be right behind you. I just want to say goodbye.”
“Take your time,” Elio said, exchanging hugs and kisses with the Kaines. “Do you want to come with me, Ollie?”
“Nuh uh,” Ollie said, shaking his head. “I’ll come with Daddy.”
Elio looked to Oliver for guidance. He placed a hand on Ollie’s head. “He’s fine. We’ll be right up as soon as we say our goodbyes.”
“Daddy?” Ollie said through a yawn after Elio had gone.
“Hmmm?”
“You said you never say goodbye. But then you told Elio you will say goodbye.”
Oliver and Richard exchanged a soft look that Ollie did not understand.
"I said I never say goodbye to people,” Oliver said, still looking at his father. “To people, I say later. To the past, I say goodbye."
This is the extended version of the video I posted a few chapters back. That one was edited down to 1:30 for Instagram, and this one runs over three minutes and contains a lot more of Elibabette's lovely art. Elibabette, you have so often been the sunshine in this series! Forever in your debt! If you haven't already, please check out her Instagram! She might even be posting more Lollie art there in the future, as she does have some works in progress I believe!!