What Endures by Katie Lee

always good to see you, Meg.”
    An awkward pause followed before he made a gesture, silently asking if he could sit beside her. She nodded, and scooted over to make room for him.
    “How are you?” he asked her quietly.
    “You talked to Tyler,” she said knowingly.
    He nodded. “He called me last night.”
     She sighed. “So, what do you think of his plans?”
    He shot her a wary look and took a few moments before answering. “I don’t know. But it looks like his mind’s made up.”
    “Yeah, it is,” she said quietly, staring out at the dusty field. This baseball field, nestled inside Harbor Bay’s only park, was one of her favorite places. Actually any baseball field was her favorite place. They had reminded her of her father but now they reminded her of both her father and Jason, the two men she had loved most in her life.
    “I guess you don’t like his plans much huh?” he asked gently.
    She shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it’s just his way of running away again.” She expelled a short, quick breath in frustration.  “He’s just using his shoulder injury as an excuse.”
    “What’s he running from?”
    She shrugged. “Tyler doesn’t need a reason. That’s how he deals. He runs.”
    “His personal life?”
    “He didn’t tell you he broke up with Lizzie?”
    “No,” he said. “We didn’t talk that long actually. I was kinda tired from the flight. When did that happen?”
    “A week ago.”
    “What happened?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know Tyler wants to move clear across the country in a few months.”
    “Maybe a change of scenery will do him good,” he said quietly, not looking at her.
    “Like a change of scenery did you good?” she blurted out, her tone more accusing than she intended.
    He looked at her, and she could see that her words had stung him. “Megan-“
    “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, almost dismissively. “Forget it.”
    “No.” His voice was still soft, but she heard the hurt in it. “That wasn’t fair.”
    She sighed. “I know.” She met his eyes. “I’m sorry. Really.”
    He shook his head. “Damn it, Megan. You know I had to leave! And you know I didn’t want to. But what else was there for me to do?”
    “Jason, I said I’m sorry! Can we-“
    “If I had stayed here, we would have just-“ He jumped up, agitated. “We wouldn’t have been able to salvage anything from our relationship. There was too much. . . .” He looked at her, eyes challenging. “You know that. Me taking the scholarship offer from Florida State was the only way we managed to save our friendship from everything. So for you to compare what I did to what Tyler is doing is just. . .it’s wrong.”
    She sighed. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. But ever since Tyler had told her he was planning to leave for California and UCLA, she had been an emotional mess. She didn’t know why, but she was feeling abandoned. When Tyler was gone, she would be the only one left. Again. She was always the one left behind.
    The plan, when they had been young, wide-eyed idealistic romantics, was to have everyone stay in Maryland. But in the end, only she and Tyler had. She got a partial academic scholarship to UM, and Tyler had accepted their baseball scholarship offer. But he had injured his shoulder midway through the season and now he wanted to transfer to UCLA and enroll in their English program. He was done with baseball, and apparently everything in Maryland, including her.
    She felt the sting of tears and blinked rapidly to hold them at bay. Jason had left first, and now Tyler. She was back to being alone, just like she usually was and she didn’t think she could bear it any longer.
    All their friends in high school had splintered off into a thousand different directions, which was normal but the fact remained – she had been left behind. After losing Jason, to lose her best friend so soon afterwards, it hurt. A lot.
    But Jason was