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I did. I think that’s what makes me sad. I lived there for half my life, and what’s there to show for it besides my mom and my sister? There’s no one who remembers the awkward Hugo lumbering on stage as a tree in the sixth grade musical.”
    He sighed and felt an ache that seemed to open up anew. Why was this bugging him now? He was probably reacting so strongly because of his daydream of Kevin earlier in the day. Normally, something like this wouldn’t bother him nearly this much.
    “Come with me,” Summer said, leading him down to the end of the long dock where they then sat. It was quiet and private there, the noises of the party muffled to nothing by the sound of waves crashing against the shore and the added distance.
    “I’m sorry, Summer. This is your weekend. Please. Don’t let me take this and turn it into something about me.”
    “Shut up, Hugo,” she chided with a playful push to his shoulder. “Geez! It’s okay to feel these things, and who said I had the monopoly on feeling melancholy? Huh?” She lowered her chin and raised her brows showing that she expected an answer.
    “No one,” Hugo droned as if well rehearsed. He took a few seconds to work out his thoughts before sharing. “Okay. So I feel lonely when I see people who’ve known you forever telling stories you don’t even remember. I don’t have anyone to do that with except my sister. It just makes me wonder what I missed out on by leaving my childhood friends behind. That’s all,” he said with a shrug.
    “Makes sense. But for the record, it’s not like I’m good friends with any of these people anymore. They know me like I was at seventeen, not at thirty-five. A few funny stories are all they really have of me.”
    Summer lay back, pulling Hugo along with her so they both rested against each other. Hugo looked at the darkening sky just starting to be pinpricked with the first stars. The low wail of a loon calling for its mate echoed eerily across the water and was answered. Hugo stilled, waiting to see what would happen. After a few more calls, Summer sighed and snuggled into Hugo’s side.
    “This is just what I needed,” she whispered as Hugo made a comfortable pillow for her in the crook of his armpit. “I didn’t come home because of the people. I wanted to come home because of the water. It seems to know what I need better than anything.”
    “How so?”
    “Do you know loons mate for life?”
    “Yeah. I remember learning that in my Minnesota history unit in whatever grade I was in when we studied that. Miss Moen’s class. That’s all I remember.”
    Summer smiled up at Hugo and brushed a strand of hair away from his eyes. “Jason wasn’t the one I was supposed to be with. I just need to keep looking, calling, if you will. I’ll find the right man for me… unless you’ve decided you could really do the girl thing,” she teased.
    “I wish I could, for you,” Hugo admitted genuinely, “but I’d rather have you as my friend than ever risk losing you.”
    “I know. I wasn’t serious.”
    They were quiet for a long stretch, listening to the water lapping, the murmured conversations in the distance, and the calls of the insects coming out at night. Summer drew random shapes over Hugo’s shirt-covered stomach, and he relaxed into her touch. It felt good to be touched intimately again. It had been so long.
    Just a year ago Hugo had walked in on his boyfriend Michael in the middle of him fucking another guy. Not hearing the door open, Michael didn’t stop but continued to thrust into the barely legal boy beneath him, chasing his climax that was obviously near. Hugo had been stunned into inaction, unable to turn around like he wanted to do or even to pull Michael away to get him to stop. So, in the end, he’d watched as his boyfriend of over three years spent himself into another man. That was bad enough. But there was more. There always seemed to be more with Michael. Hugo watched as Michael pulled his