As Long As We're Together Read online

  An hour or so later, Andi, Buffy, and Cyrus stood outside of a big trailer emblazoned with the words WHEEL WORKS MOBILE REPAIR SHOP and stared down in awe of their newly spruced-up bikes.

  “If I had known there was a place that would clean and service your bike for you, I would have been riding mine all the time,” Cyrus said, putting on his black bicycle helmet.

  Buffy smirked and set a hand on Cyrus’s shoulder. “No, you wouldn’t.”

  Cyrus had to agree as he stared down at the ground. “Nah, I wouldn’t.”

  Having finished paying for the repairs, Bex strolled over and squatted down next to her old bike, gripping one of the handlebars like she was squeezing the hand of a long-lost pal. “Aw! It’s been a while since old Skidboot looked this good!”

  Andi stifled a laugh. “Skidboot? You named your bike?”

  Bex’s eyes widened in protective horror. “Shhh,” she whispered to Andi while stroking the green banana seat lovingly. “You’re hurting her feelings.”

  Cyrus raised his eyebrows at Bex and tilted his head to the side, mildly amused at what he had previously presumed to be a gender-neutral vehicle. “Skidboot’s a girl?”

  Realizing Andi and her friends were never going to understand, Bex stood up and changed the subject to one that had been plaguing her ever since Andi had proposed this little adventure. If she was totally honest with herself, Bex was a bit nervous about letting Andi make this trip with her friends. After all, they were barely in their teens! And getting to the Alpine Slide was going to involve traversing steep hills, rickety bridges, and sketchy dirt roads. Thinking about Andi out there, all alone—or, okay, with Buffy and Cyrus—was bringing out all of Bex’s protective maternal instincts. It was one of the first times in her life that she could kind of relate to what CeCe must have gone through whenever Bex had taken off—or, at least, whenever she’d known about Bex taking off.

  “Okay, so you all have your helmets…Do you have your phones?” Bex asked, sounding a lot more panicked than she’d intended. “And two forms of ID?”

  “Mom! Stop being such a…mom,” Andi groaned before turning to Buffy and Cyrus and wiggling her shoulders excitedly. “Okay, who’s ready for Perfect Day 2.0?”

  But Bex wasn’t finished. “Oh—and I’ll have my phone right next to me at all times if you need anything.”

  “Thanks, but we won’t,” Andi retorted, turning to her friends again and flashing a huge smile. “First stop, pumpkin donuts!”

  As they all hopped onto their bikes, Buffy threw down one of her usual challenges and shouted out, “Last one there buys the cider!”

  So while Bex watched her only daughter hit the road, she couldn’t help feeling like she was watching Andi learn to ride a bike for the very first time—and not just because she’d missed that milestone moment when it had occurred so many years ago. As Andi and her friends began pumping their pedals as hard as they could, they should have been speeding off, but instead it was more like they were wobbling off. Sure, their bikes were no longer rusty…but their riding skills were another matter.

  “Whoa!” Cyrus muttered, jerking his handlebars from side to side and nearly falling off. “Okay, definitely been a while. I forgot how to do this.”

  “Huh,” Buffy said, wincing. But even though she, too, was shaky and struggling to get the hang of it, she couldn’t let the opportunity to make a clever joke pass her by. “I guess riding a bike…isn’t ‘like riding a bike.’ ”

  Normally, Andi would have laughed, but she was having a tough time riding in a straight line as well. Still, she was determined to make it work. “Don’t read into this!” she shouted back to Bex, who was still watching the world’s most tragic bike race with a look of dread.

  “Trying not to!” Bex called back, shoving her hands into the back pockets of her distressed jeans, her heart skipping another beat as Andi hit a bump and visions of broken limbs flashed through Bex’s mind.

  So maybe Perfect Day 2.0 hadn’t started off exactly like the original Perfect Day, but Andi was certain that she and her friends would ultimately disprove Bex’s “reheated meat” theory. She knew that once they got to the cider stand, everything really would be perfect. They just needed to relearn to ride their bikes first.

  Sure enough, after they’d been pedaling for a while, Andi and her friends finally found their bicycling groove—or, at least, Andi and Buffy did. As they became more and more comfortable winding along the dusty dirt roads, pedaling as hard as they could, the race was back on!

  First Andi took the lead, but then Buffy nearly crashed into her as they crossed a bridge and managed to pull ahead. All the while, Cyrus struggled to keep up with them, nearly losing control every time he hit the tiniest pebble or bump, his legs feeling more like lead the longer he tried to pedal. Eventually, when they came to a flat, paved bike path running alongside a grassy park, Andi and Buffy doubled back to make sure he was okay. After getting some assurance that he was, and that they should go on ahead without him, the girls agreed and merged back onto the final dirt road that would take them to the cider stand at last.

  When Andi and Buffy got to their destination, it was every bit as perfect as they remembered: a quaint cabin-like structure with barrels full of apples on the front porch in every imaginable variety—bright red McIntosh, green Granny Smith, gorgeous Golden Delicious. There were also fairy lights hanging from the roof, glass jugs full of cider set up in a tall wooden display case, and a giant red plastic apple hanging beneath a green sign that read NEWTON’S CIDER &DONUTS. Then Andi saw the best part of all—the octagonal wooden picnic table where she, Buffy, and Cyrus had taken their first bites of the most delicious pumpkin donuts they’d ever tasted.

  After she and Buffy locked up their bikes and stood around for what felt like an hour, Andi began to wonder what was taking Cyrus so long. She stared over at the bike path, searching through the trees for him.

  “Do you see him?” Andi asked Buffy, who was also looking off into the distance.

  “Not yet,” Buffy said, her voice shaking a bit.

  “You think we need to worry about him?” Andi frowned.

  Buffy nodded. “Always.”

  As the girls giggled nervously, Cyrus finally appeared—still a little wobbly, but making solid progress across the last wooden bridge.

  “Here he comes,” Buffy said, relieved.

  Finally, accompanied by a whole lot of huffing and puffing, Cyrus made it to the bike rack, where Andi and Buffy were waiting for him. “Sorry,” he said, gasping for air. “My bike only has one gear.”

  “Um, no it doesn’t,” Buffy replied, gesturing at his handlebar, where gears one through six were clearly marked. “Your shifter’s right there.”

  Cyrus’s jaw dropped as he examined the dial. “Okay,” he said with a frustrated sigh, “that information might have been more helpful, like, three quarters of a mile ago.”

  Andi and Buffy laughed, and then Andi’s eyes widened as she sniffed the air. “Guys…” she gasped blissfully, “do you smell what I smell?”

  Buffy and Cyrus closed their eyes and inhaled deeply.

  “Pumpkin donuts!” Cyrus cheered.

  “Let’s do this!” Buffy smiled, and she and Andi eagerly took off for the cider stand.

  “Um—hello, a little help?” Cyrus scowled, guiding his bike into the rack and struggling to get it locked up while shouting out to the girls, “At least get me a cider!”

  The moment they got inside Newton’s, Andi knew that Perfect Day 2.0 was totally happening…and there was no reheated meat in sight. Instead, they sampled every last kind of candy on display in the shop and checked out the tacky souvenirs. The best ones were the tiny personalized license plates—mostly because they couldn’t find any of their names, so they instead decided to purchase the closest available options. That meant that Andi got to be Randy, Buffy was Buddy, and Cyrus became Cyril. They even got one for Bex, who would thereafter be known as Jeff. As they paid for their new identities, the three friends couldn’t stop laughing—so side-splittingly hard that tears rolled down their cheeks. Andi honestly couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. She was so glad they’d made this trip! And then, once they’d finally recovered from their hysterics, they got their cider and donuts and settled in at the picnic table on the front porch.

  “This hot apple cider is even better than I remembered it,” Buffy said, sighing happily after taking a sip.

  “Right?” Andi agreed, staring adoringly at the brown paper cup. “It’s like they captured my childhood, added cinnamon, and put it in a biodegradable cup.”

  Buffy laughed at her always eco-conscious friend and then admitted, “I think I want another pumpkin donut.”

  “Me too!” Cyrus gushed, his dark eyes lighting up as he grabbed his half-eaten donut and carefully studied its delicately glazed surface. “I wonder who created pumpkin spice? Because I would like to shake the hand of the person who managed to improve sugar!”

  Buffy nodded and scrunched up her nose, legitimately baffled as her thoughts drifted back to the original Perfect Day that had inspired this one. “The real question is, why did we wait five years to come back here?”

  “Yeah,” Cyrus agreed, casting a look of reverence in Andi’s direction. “This was the perfect idea.”

  As Andi flashed a victorious smile, her phone rang. Glancing at the screen, she discovered it was Bex and put it on speaker, then set it in the middle of the table. She couldn’t wait to tell Bex how wrong she’d been about their ability to re-create their perfect day. “Checking up on us?” Andi asked, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at the phone.

  “Nooo!” Bex insisted, although it was obvious from the concern in her voice that she was desperate for information that would put her fears to rest. “I just want to know where you are and how you’re doing, which is totally different from checking up on you.”

  All three of them laughed and then Andi excitedly reported, “Everything’s great!”

  “The cider is fantastic!” Buffy chimed in.

  “So are the donuts,” Cyrus added.

  Andi tried not to sound too boastful, but she couldn’t help rubbing it in, just a tiny bit. “You might even say it’s been a perfect day so far…?”

  “Better than perfect!” Buffy enthused.

  “Per-fect-a-mundo!” Cyrus added with a wink.

  That did it—Andi and her friends had put Bex’s doubts to rest. Or, at least, the hint of relief in her voice suggested as much. “Sounds like you’re having fun,” Bex told them. “Carry on.”

  “Will do!” Andi replied, ending the call.

  Then she, Buffy, and Cyrus headed back into the cider shop to get another round of donuts. Because as perfect as the day had already been, more sugar and spice would make it extra nice.

  Back in the center of town, Bowie was checking out strings in his favorite guitar shop when he heard someone barrel through the door. He spun around to discover Jonah nearly tripping over the racks of used records before stumbling backward. Bowie narrowed his eyes, observing the kid for a few more seconds. He was breathing hard and so sweaty his brown hair was matted to his forehead. Bowie frowned. Jonah seemed completely freaked out about something—it was almost as if he’d seen a ghost. Or, from the way he was panting, like he’d been chased by a ghost.

  “Hey, Jonah!” Bowie called out, but Jonah apparently didn’t hear him. So Bowie shouted his name a bit louder, which seemed to startle him—his blue eyes grew wide and even more scared, and when he blinked in Bowie’s direction, it was almost as if he didn’t recognize him. Bowie was really worried now. He walked over and asked if Jonah was okay.

  Jonah nodded and tried to conceal his angst. “I-I just…ran here is all.” He glanced around the shop, looking almost confused as to how he’d wound up there, still struggling to catch his breath.

  “You’re good. Just breathe,” Bowie advised, putting a reassuring hand on Jonah’s shoulder. “Do you want some water?”

  “No, I’ll be fine in a second,” Jonah insisted, but he didn’t sound convinced.

  “Why were you in such a hurry to get here?” Bowie asked.

  “Um…” Jonah looked around the shop, still disoriented but trying to come up with a believable excuse. Noticing all the instruments hanging on the wall and sitting on stands around the room, it finally came to him. “To…to…buy a guitar! I needed to buy a guitar.”

  “I didn’t know you played!” Bowie still sensed something else was going on with Jonah, but maybe talking music would help calm him down. It had always helped Bowie, anyway.

  “I don’t, um…” Jonah searched his mind for another plausible reason for being there. “I just…just…wanted to learn?”

  “Oh, yeah?” Bowie nodded, encouraging Jonah to keep talking. “What inspired you?”

  “Oh, you know…music!” Jonah flung his arms up in an exaggerated shrug and let out a little laugh. “Is there somewhere to sit down?” he added, glancing around the shop again.

  Jonah felt a bit queasy as he observed the early afternoon light filtering through the blinds in the front window, causing shards of light to dance eerily across the mustard yellow walls and distort the images on the old concert posters. There was also a strange mural that Jonah couldn’t quite make sense of—it was like a woman’s face, but there were black vinyl records where her hair should have been. As his breathing finally started to slow, his vision got less blurry, enough for him to finally realize: the records were her hair! Or, at least, they were supposed to look like her hair. Or…something.

  Jonah glanced up at Bowie, who had thankfully grabbed a wooden stool for him. “This is a big day,” Bowie said, giving the stool an enthusiastic pat before heading over to pull an acoustic instrument down from the wall. He passed it to Jonah. “I remember when I got my first guitar. My dad taught me everything he knew.”

  “Was he a good musician?” Jonah asked distractedly as Bowie picked up a black acoustic guitar from a nearby stand.

  “No, horrible,” Bowie replied with a laugh. “He only knew three chords. But…he taught them to me, so they’re still my favorites. Here, I’ll show you.”

  With a faraway look in his eye, Bowie slowly placed his fingers on the strings, explaining as he went. “These three go there…” Bowie said, and Jonah copied what he was doing. “There you go!” Bowie nodded and strummed a chord. “That’s a D.”

  Jonah strummed tentatively, looking up at Bowie for some reassurance.

  Bowie nodded again and gave Jonah an encouraging laugh, then changed the position of Jonah’s fingers on the frets and strings before strumming his own guitar. “Now, this is an A.”

  Jonah copied him perfectly.

  “Then G,” Bowie instructed.

  Jonah replicated him again.

  “Congratulations,” Bowie said, waving a hand in the air with a flourish. “You now know the best three chords in the world.”

  A little laugh escaped Jonah’s lips and he looked down at his hands, which he was relieved to discover were no longer shaking. “That is…kinda great.”

  “I can show you some more if you want,” Bowie offered, happy to see that playing guitar did seem to be helping Jonah mellow out.

  “Now? Will the store owner mind?” Jonah glanced around and realized they were practically alone, except for one or two guys hanging out by the register in the middle of the shop. He also realized how comfortable he was beginning to feel—focusing on playing guitar had definitely helped stop the room from spinning.

  “Nah, he’s my friend. We jam,” Bowie replied, gesturing over to back of the shop, where there was a little coffee bar and open mic area. “I’ve performed here a bunch. You should come and check me out sometime.”

  “I will.” Jonah smiled.

  Bowie nodded. “Cool! So, ready for your next chord?”

  “Bring it!” Jonah agreed, finally feeling almost completely at ease.

  “All right!” Bowie curled his fingers around the neck of the guitar and started to strum.

  So, just like that, Jonah’s day went from completely frightening to kind of fantastic. In fact, as his guitar lesson with Bowie continued, he decided it was the closest thing he’d had to a perfect day in a long time.

  When they’d finally had their fill of pumpkin donuts, Andi and her friends were ready to move on to phase two of Perfect Day 2.0: an exhilarating ride down the Alpine Slide!

  “Thanks again, Martha!” Cyrus shouted to the matronly woman behind the counter, before joining Andi and Buffy on the front steps of the cider stand. “One of these days I’ll get that secret recipe from you!” Cyrus had done everything he could to charm her, but he still hadn’t been able to make Martha tell him how she got those donuts to taste so good. Instead, she said he’d just have to keep coming back for more, which he had decided he would most definitely be doing.

  “Oh! I hope the Alpine Slide still has those T-shirts,” Buffy said, moving a hand dramatically in front of Andi’s eyes as she described the shirt exactly as she remembered it: “ ‘Whoosh you were here!’ ” Andi and Buffy laughed at the cheesy slogan, but then Buffy got serious, shaking Andi by the shoulders and insisting, “I need one!”

  Before they could head for their bikes, though, Cyrus ran by, nearly knocking Buffy and Andi over as he ducked and waved his hands around in a panic. “Go away, bee!” he screamed, swatting the air. “I can’t get stung!”

  “Are you allergic?” Andi watched with a mixture of amusement and concern as Cyrus continued his efforts to evade the flying insect.

  “No!” Cyrus called back to her. “I just suffer from hating things that hurt really bad.”

  Andi and Buffy laughed, and Cyrus finally stopped flailing around—not because the bee had disappeared, but because something else had. As Andi and Buffy followed Cyrus’s line of sight, they discovered two broken locks dangling from the bike rack, along with Skidboot—the lone two-wheeled survivor.

  “Someone stole my bike!” Cyrus gasped.