'Hey.' I stopped short, startled. I turned to see Haley standing by the girl’s bathroom, the door not even fully closed behind her.
'Hi. I see you guys got your gowns.' She nodded, smiling weakly.
'Yeah. Kind of exciting.'
'I bet. That’s great. Um, congratulations.'
'Thanks. Andi,'
'Look, I have to get back to class. I had to drop something off in the office. So, um, I’ll see you later.'
I hurried on, not looking back.
I locked my car, feeling the bulk of the small disposable camera in the pocket of my cargo shorts. The seniors were all lined up at Winston High School’s stadium. All the bleachers were filled with proud family members. The stage was set up with important faculty members already seated.
I hooked my fingers through the chain link fence, just wanting to get a picture, wanting something to remember her by. The school’s symphony started playing the traditional commencement march, and the seniors marched onto the field. I searched for her, wanting to see her face on such an important day. I felt the lump that had been in my throat for the last two months, grow even larger as I spotted her, her face glowing with pride and happiness in her dark blue gown, mortar board with the red tassel hanging down.
Grabbing the camera from my pocket, I raised it to my eye, and snapped the shutter.
Tears streamed down my face as I sat on my bed, legs curled up under me, the camera laying beside me. The words played in my head as they played on the stereo.
I grabbed the remote, pushing stop. The stereo turned itself off, and I turned back to my bills, writing out checks to everyone and their brother.
Knock, knock
'Come on in, Erin. It’s open.' I yelled. The back door opened, and I heard footsteps across the hardwood floor. Arms sneaked around my neck, and warm lips placed a kiss on my cheek.
'Good morning.'
'Hey you.' I reached up, hugging the arms, a smile on my face.
'What are you doing? Are you ready?'
'Yeah. I’m working on my checkbook.' My girlfriend sat in the chair across the table from me. 'You know, sometimes I feel like I’ll never get this house paid off. They raised the taxes again. Vultures, I tell you.' She smiled.
'I know, baby. You know, we could be paying on just one house,' She let her sentence drop off. It took everything in me to not sigh in irritation. I looked into hopeful brown eyes.
'Erin, we’ve talked about this.' She sighed, patting my hand.
'I know. I’m sorry. Guess I just figure one of these days.' She smiled. 'Are you ready? Come on. I know you don’t want to be late to see the sacred Linda Eder. What is this? Your third concert?'
'Fifth, but who’s counting.' I grinned, and closed my checkbook. 'Let’s go.' I stood, scooting my chair under the table, and grabbed my car keys and the tickets, following Erin back out the way she’d come in, locking the door behind us.
Part 9
I looked at my sandwich, wondering just what kind of meat they had substituted for chicken this time. The label on the wrap said grilled chicken; it was the color of chicken, and even had nifty little grill marks, however, never in all of my twenty-nine years had I tasted chicken that tasted so much like soy. Not even way back in my days at school. They managed to hide it better.
I wrapped what was left of it back in the wrapper, and set it aside, deciding I would be happy to munch on my bag of carrots. At least I’d remembered to bring those. I could still see my lunch sitting on the counter in the kitchen, completely forgotten as I ran out the door. I hated staying so late at Erin’s. I was lucky to remember my head the next day.
With a sigh, I popped another baby carrot into my mouth, glanced toward the door of the cafeteria to see if Erin was going to show up today. Looking at the clock, I realized I only had a little while longer to wait before I had to return to the lab. It was a very important day today. Dr. Samantha Torres and I had performed tests on a patient’s cells to see if he would respond positively to Exrenton, the medicine we were trying to perfect. Our specialty was the MS patients. Here at the Mayo Clinic, we saw the oddest, most complicated of cases. It was hard not to get frustrated sometimes when more and more cases were being brought our way every year.
'Hello, Dr. Littman.' I turned and saw Erin tossing her purse down on the table, followed by the food she’d just picked up.
'It’s about time you show up.'
'I know. I got held up.' I looked at the scrubs she wore, a nurse in pediatrics, little teddy bears and ducks waddled all over the purple material.
'Um, interesting?' I nodded toward the outfit. She looked down at herself, brushing brown hair behind her ear, and shrugged.
'Well, the kids seem to like it.'
'I’m sure they do. It’s cute.' She looked at me, resting her chin on her hand.
'What’s wrong, Andi?' I looked at her, not really wanting to discuss our personal life here.
'Nothing.'
'That’s not true. Is it because of the weekend?' I sat back in my chair, tossing the remainder of the carrots onto the table.
'Maybe.'
'What’s to be angry about? We got over it.'
'You got over it, I think you mean. You got your way last night. I doubt there was much for you to get over.' She leaned forward, lowering her voice.
'Andi, all I wanted you to do was stay the weekend with me.' She stared into my eyes. 'Was that so bad?'
'It is when you can’t have the mind to consider what I say, and what I want. Yes, I have a problem with that, and yes, it’s going to make me angry.'
'Oh, I didn’t mean to make you mad.' She brushed her shoe against my leg. 'Did you have fun over the weekend? Enjoy your time alone?' I nodded, taking a drink from my soda.
'I did. I told you I had a big week ahead of me, and I needed time by myself.' She shrugged, looking at our co-workers, many of which I’ve never met, and sighed.
'You and I are so different, Andi.'
'I’ll agree to that.' She looked at me, and smiled.
