glass arm. Every key was accounted for, the black keys also tipped with gold.
'I love that, you know,' I heard, said low in my ear. I could feel Haley’s body heat behind me. 'That was the most beautiful, thoughtful gift I’ve ever received.' I turned to look at her, seeing her eyes pinned on the tiny glass instrument in my hands.
'Thank you. I’m very glad. When I saw it, I immediately thought of you.' I smiled sheepishly, feeling stupid for admitting it, but wanting her to know that my heart had been in the gift.
'I felt like a real schmuck, just getting you that book on Beanie Babies.' She took the piano from me, looking at it.
'Why? I found some in there that I had always been looking for. Plus, you did buy me four babies from it.' She shrugged, setting the glass figure carefully back onto its mirror.
'I guess.'
'Come on, you. I love the book, and absolutely adore the beanies.' She stared at me, her smile growing.
'Good. Come on.' She tugged the bag’s strap over her shoulder, tossing her Koosh ball at me. 'You can hold the sacred Koosh.'
'Wow. I feel so honored.'
As we headed out to my car, it had already started to snow, but only lightly. There really wasn’t any new accumulation on the ground.
'Must have just started.' Haley stared up into the sky.
'Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too.' We climbed into the car, turning the heat on full-blast as the night was cold, bitter cold.
I pushed the button for the automatic garage opener, glad my car wasn’t going to have to sit out in the snow all night. They said the storm should blow out by the beginning of the week, so Haley and I had decided to just chill out at my place until Sunday, when she’d go home to get ready for school to start. Her last semester. I tried not to think about it, but I knew it was inevitable.
'What are you thinking about?' I turned to see Haley, the door open and her leg out, but staring at me. I just stared back, not completely hearing the question, my own mind screaming at me too loud. 'Thoughts? You? Just now?'
'Oh.' I turned the ignition off, and pulled my keys out. 'You, graduating.'
'I know. It’s coming.' She turned to look at the garage wall ahead of us, a smile on her face as I imagined she thought about the end of her high school career. What a sweet thought. Kind of. Then the smile slowly melted away as she turned back to me. 'Are you going to come?' I nodded.
'Of course.' She smiled again.
'Good. I really want you there, Andi.'
'I will be.'
We got all of Haley’s stuff, and headed toward the inner door that would lead to the kitchen.
'Where’s mom?' I asked Chris, who sat at the small table, eating a sandwich. He had grown so much in the last six months, his voice now deep, full of teenage boy attitude. He was handsome, and even though I hated to admit it, looked a lot like our father.
'Work.' He took a large gulp of his milk, then stuffed the rest of his dinner into his mouth.
'I thought she was supposed to be off tonight?' I was bummed. We had made plans to pop some popcorn, and her, Haley and I watch a movie together. My brother shrugged as he stood. He had gotten so tall, his body beginning to fill out from the lanky, scrawniness of a boy to the muscular, filled out, hairy body of a man. Almost overnight.
'That sucks.' Haley muttered, heaving her heavy bag further up her shoulder. Haley and my mom were almost closer than my mom and I were. I was glad that they got along so well, though. If Haley was going to be here so often, it certainly made things easier.
'See you later, freak.' Chris put his dishes in the dishwasher, and hurried out of the room.
'Where are you going in this weather, Chris?' He stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
'You must be kidding me if you think I want to spend the weekend with you guys. I’ll be at Brian’s.' He hurried, noisily, up the stairs just as I head a car honk outside.
'Good. Get rid of him. Pain in the ass.' I turned to Haley. 'Well, want to try and find a good movie on, anyway?' She smiled and nodded.
'Yep.'
The movie was coming to a close and Haley leaned against me, silently crying as her eyes were riveted to the screen. I wasn’t quite crying, as I was doing my damndest to hold it in. Robin was going to die soon, Holly finally getting out of jail and her and Abe getting married. Jane took care of Robin as she got more sick, the AIDS finally taking over.
As the movie came to an end, Jane finally deciding to go on to California after Robin’s death, Haley clung to me, her entire body shaking with her sobs, the bag of popcorn long forgotten.
I caressed her hair, not saying anything as my own tears welled up in my eyes. God, what a touching movie. ‘Boys On the Side’, who would have thought?
'She really loved her all along, didn’t she?' Haley hiccupped, pulling away to look at me. I nodded.
'Yeah, I guess so.' I brushed some damp hair away from her eyes, smiled gently at her. 'That movie really got to you, didn’t it?' She nodded, burrowing her face into my chest.
'I’ve never really liked Whoopie Goldberg until this movie,' she mumbled, wrapped her arms tighter around me.
'Yeah.' I stared at the screen as Melissa Etheridge sang ‘I’ll Take You With Me’ during the credits. I had never heard that song before, but then, I had only heard a few of hers.
'Oh, that was just so sad.' She sat up, scrubbing at her eyes and nose with the cuff of her sweatshirt sleeve, then turned to me, all puffy-eyed. She was so adorable. 'Can we bake?'
The smile froze on my face as I tried to compute the total change in subject. 'Huh?'
'Baking. I really feel the need to bake.' She rubbed her hands together, those ever-present wheels turning at full speed.
'Sure. I imagine we have a cake mix or something around here. Come on.' I stood, figuring Haley would follow suit. I looked at her to see what the problem was.
'Robin will never be able to bake again.' She looked up at me, her blue eyes almost electric, and certainly vibrant, from the crying.
'Aww,' I reached down and grabbed her, pulling her up to her feet to take her into a hug. 'It’s just a movie, Haley.'
'I know.' Sniff, sniff. 'But somewhere out there, there really is a Robin.'
'God, you’re adorable.'
'Really?'
'Huh?' I stopped. Oh, shit. Had I said that out loud? 'Well, I mean, you know, how literally you’re taking the movie, and stuff.' She pulled away from me, a bright smile on her face.
'Thanks.'
'Sure. Baking?'
I glanced out the window next to the door as we made our way to the kitchen.
'Holy shit! Look at this, Haley.' She came up beside me.
'Whoa.' In the two hours we’d been downstairs, at least one and a half feet of snow had fallen, and it was still coming down. We looked at each other, then without a word, headed to the kitchen.
I looked through the cabinets, praying that there would be some sort of baking thing in there. I really didn’t want to try and start something from scratch.
'How about this?' I turned to see Haley kneeling in front of the Lazy Susan, reading the back of a Betty Crocker cake. Bingo!
'Great. What will we need?'
'Um,' she turned the box over in her hand. 'Looks like just three eggs, a cup and a third of water, and a half cup of vegetable oil.'
