“Matty? I’ve never heard anyone call you that. How do you all know each other?” Molly demanded with a fake smile plastered across her face.
“Leah and I were best friends growing up, from sixth grade into high school,” Matthew replied, still staring at me. “And Krista was a friend, too,” he added, turning his head a moment to nod in Krista’s direction before looking back at me. “We all hung out with the same group of friends. I moved away before our junior year of high school….and we lost touch.”
“Wow, a boy and a girl being best friends? That is so odd! But I guess it would work with a goody two shoes like Leah, ha-ha! Right, Leah? You were always such a mousy little mouse!” Molly said, with a boisterous laugh. “Well, I wish I’d had known earlier; I could have put you two in touch!” Molly then looked me up and down before locking an arm possessively through Matthew’s. The four of us stood awkwardly for a few moments before Krista thankfully broke the tension.
“Molly!” Krista said dramatically, “You’ll never guess who is here! Brooke Evans, remember her?”
“Brooky is here? Oh my God, where,” Molly unhooked herself from Matthew and started frantically looking around.
“Come, I’ll take you to her,” Krista said as she grabbed Molly’s arm and steered her away. “Leah, Matthew, you guys catch up, and I’ll circle back around in a bit,” Krista gave me a “we’ll talk later” look before disappearing with Molly into the crowd.
“Wow, Leah,” Matthew said, stepping forward and taking my hands. “I can’t believe it’s you!” We backed out of the crowd of people towards a corner of the room, just holding each other’s hands and staring at one another.
I was even more thankful I had taken those Xanax as I could feel the emotions rushing up inside of me, threatening to boil over. But that would be ridiculous, I told myself. You have just run into an old childhood friend. There is nothing to get emotional about. But that was a lie. This was Matty Boyd. Yes, he was my childhood best friend…. but he was also so much more. My mind was racing and I struggled to gain my composure.
“I can’t believe it’s you, either! I never expected to see you here, obviously,” I finally managed to get out, giggling like a little girl and feeling my face turn red. “I mean, I guess I never expected to see you anywhere, ha-ha! It has been so long. I had no idea where you were.”
And that was not for lack of trying on my part, at least a little bit, as I had started and stopped over the years to search online for my old friend. He never came up in any of the social media searches I did; although, truth be told, I was sure I could have tracked him down if I had started by looking at his father’s company. I was positive his dad was still with the same firm that he’d been working for when their family moved to California before our junior year of high school as he’d spent his entire career climbing the ladder there with ambitions to make it to the very top. However, I always got scared, feeling it was maybe best to leave the past in the past. Afterall, Matty and had only known each other as kids. And people change. Maybe Matty didn’t want to be found; maybe he didn’t want to hear from me, specifically. I was honestly a bit scared to find out what he might be like as an adult. Turns out I was right to be afraid; he had clearly changed if he was with Molly Timmerman.
“Hey, let’s go sit outside. We need to catch up, in private” Matthew said while still holding on to my left hand to gently turn me around and lead me out onto the deck overlooking the golf course where there were lots of tables and chairs set up with reunion decorations on them. Only a few seats were taken, and it looked like by former classmates who also wanted to escape the noise from inside. I caught the eye of a few of them, giving them a smile and a nod, hoping to convey that I would talk to them later. Right now, I only had one focus, and that was talking to Matthew.
“Wow. I cannot stop saying ‘Wow’! I’m just in shock that it’s really you,” Matthew said as we sat down at a table along the edge of the deck overlooking a lake, finally letting go of each other’s hands. I was struck that his hands were larger and stronger than I remembered, as of course they would be. He even had some hair on the back of them, I realized with a shock. He was, I quickly reminded myself, a man now.
A waiter dressed in all black quickly approached our small table and asked if we wanted anything to drink. “Um…. how about two…. peach schnapps! Remember those, Leah?” Matthew started laughing at the memory, and I immediately joined in.
“Oh my God, Sally McGregor sitting in homeroom making a list of alcohol for her sister to buy us! And at the top of the list was always peach schnapps. I think they are to blame for why I rarely drink; just the smell of those things…” I broke off as we both began laughing again.
“Well, we have to at least have a sip, for old time’s sake,” Matthew said as we both grinned at each other. The waiter retreated to get our drinks, leaving us alone again.
“Yeah, old time’s sake,” I replied, embarrassed that I could feel tears threatening
