Suddenly, Matty grabbed my arm and spun me back around. “Now that’s enough, Leah. Stop it with that talk. You are not boring or stupid or ugly. You are funny and sweet and smart and caring. And you are pretty. You have no idea how pretty you are.” I stood silently, staring back at him, not knowing how to reply to the words I had just heard. “And I am your best friend, now and always. A new school and a new grade will not change that. We will be together forever, no matter what. Pinky swear?” Matty held out his right hand, extending his pinky finger towards me. I felt a small smile forming on my face before I reached out and locked his pinky with mine.
“Together forever,” I repeated. Pinky swear.”
“I promise,” said Matty.
“I promise, too,” I replied.
CHAPTER FIVE
After picking up some sandwiches and potato chips at a local deli, I drove to The Roosevelt, arriving a few minutes before eleven to pick up Matty. Pulling into the parking lot, I was surprised to see him already waiting for me out in front of the lobby doors. Matty, like most boys, had not always been the most punctual during his teenage years; but I told myself that I needed to remember that we were adults now, and that both of us had matured.
“Hey there!” Matty said, jumping into the car and flashing me a huge grin. He was dressed casually in a pair of navy-blue golf shorts and a white polo shirt. It was a typical Midwestern June day; warm but not too hot. The heat and humidity typically came in July. “Oh look, we’re twinning!” he said, pointing to his shorts and the color of my dress.
“We are!” I agreed. “How many times did we show up at school wearing nearly identical outfits?”
“A lot!” Matty said, and we both laughed at the memory. Our friends used to tease us that we must have planned our outfits the night before to match.
“You hungry?” I nodded towards the backseat where the deli bag was.
“Duh, of course I’m hungry. Have you ever known me to not be ready to eat?” Matthew asked, grabbing the bag from the back, and plopping it in his lap to rummage through the contents. “Dill pickle chips! You remembered!”
“Well, I certainly didn’t get them for myself. Those things are disgusting!” I made a gagging noise while I pulled out of the parking lot and started driving towards my place.
“Dill pickle chips are the best thing ever. And they are hard to find where I live; everyone in California is on a health kick. They only drink celery juice and eat kale. I’m practically starving to death out there,” Matthew said dramatically while ripping open the bag and shoving chips into his mouth. I knew he would dig right in, hence why I had gotten him two bags.
“The smell of those things is almost as bad as peach schnapps,” I teased. “I can’t promise I won’t throw up in the car!”
“More for me, then,” Matty said, laughing and getting crumbs everywhere. “Oops, I’ll clean those up.” Matty may have matured in terms of punctuality, but he clearly still didn’t know how to eat without making a mess.
“Sure, you will,” I replied, looking at the crumbs and rolling my eyes. “Or I will clean up your mess myself. Same as always.” And we recalled me doing just that. Whenever Matty was over to my house, my mom always gave him a snack; and I then followed him around with the portable hand vacuum sweeping up the bits that he dropped on the couch, the floor, the stairs. Only half the food ever seemed to make it into his mouth; the rest went into the vacuum.
“So…. does Molly pick up after you back in California?” I asked in an attempt to make polite conversation about his horrible girlfriend. “She was pretty controlling back in the day; I can’t imagine she’d tolerate potato chip crumbs.”
“Molly didn’t tolerate much,” Matthew replied with a scowl. “Fortunately, that’s over. I broke it off this morning before she headed to the airport.”
“What?” I practically shouted. “Really?”
Matthew laughed, “Don’t sound so surprised. I knew she wasn’t a very nice person, and I also knew it wasn’t going to be a long-term thing. I figured it was better to rip the band-aid off now and get it over with. Helps that we weren’t going to fly back together. She will probably have moved on by the time I get home. Fortunately, our offices are on opposite sides of the firm’s campus. So, I should be able to avoid her altogether.”
“Wow. I guess…. I’m sorry?” I wasn’t really, but felt I had to at least make a show of being sympathetic.
“No, you aren’t!” Matty said with a boisterous laugh before continuing in a serious tone, “Connecting with you again really brought things into perspective for me. I knew if my Leah didn’t like someone, I should steer clear, too.” My heart swelled when I heard him say my Leah. I had forgotten how much I had missed hearing that. “But I guess we have to give her some credit as if I’d never met her, I wouldn’t have come here, right?”
“True. We’ll give her that one thing. But just that one. Nothing else.” We glanced at each other and laughed. I sighed, so relieved that Molly was out of the picture. I silently gloated at the thought of her dumped ass sulking on to the airplane; I felt bad for whoever got stuck sitting next to her as she would no doubt take out her anger on them. Molly had gone through boys in college more often than most people change their underwear. She was always the
