Archives:
November 25-December 1, 2007

November 25, 2007

“Come in,” I call over my shoulder, tossing a t-shirt into my laundry basket.

“Hey,” Teri voice says. I turn to see her come in. She's got her hair tied back, and dark rings under her eyes.

“Hey,” I say, tossing another shirt.

“All right,” Cameron says, “so now that you're here, maybe I can get the story of went wrong with the family dinner.”

Teri rubs her forehead. “Dinner was fine. It was just everything else that was a mess.”

“OK,” Cameron says, setting her pencil down on her sketchbook. She sits on her bed, back to the wall, her eyes shifting between Teri and I. “That's about as far as I got with mister talkative over here. So come on guys, what's the scoop.”

I sigh. “Teri's dad walked in on us in—an intimate situation.”

“No shit,” Cameron says, putting a hand over her mouth. “That's so awkward. I mean, it's like, you think you go to college and you're done with all of that, and then, bam, you take a trip home and it's like you're in high school again.”

“Yeah, it's something like that,” I say. “Anyway, I enjoyed night driving to get back home afterward.”

“I'm so sorry about all of that, Preston .” Teri says. “You know I tried to talk to my dad—”

“Because he's going to let the guy who's sticking it to his daughter stick around under his roof?” Cameron interjects.

“It's not like he walked in on us naked or something,” I say.

“But from his vantage point, he'd might as well have,” Teri says. “I'm his daughter—and I'm the only one who's old enough to date. So he's still really protective—and I can understand that.”

“But you're twenty-one years old. He's got to realize that when you're away from home—”

“Well now he realizes it, and it's just awkward.”

“What do you think he would have done if you had been naked?” Cameron asks.

Teri rolls her eyes and reaches for the door knob. “Let's just do this some other time. I'll see you guys.”

November 26, 2007

“I just feel like the whole Jeopardy thing is kind of played. I mean everybody uses that in their presentations and stuff,” I say.

“Everyone uses it because it's always a good time,” Emma says, stepping out the classroom door as I follow after her.

“Hey.”

I turn to find Teri standing there, hugging a small stack of books to her chest.

“Hey,” I say back.

Emma sort of looks between us, and walks away. I want to say something to her as she goes, but feel like I also need to give Teri my full attention.

“Look—about last night, and all the stuff back home,” Teri says, moving some hair behind her ear, “I'm really sorry. It's the first time I've brought someone home from school like that, and I guess I don't know what I was expecting.”

“Well, it's not like it was really your fault—”

“But it was,” she goes on. “I'm the one who started up with you that night. And then I should have stood up for you more so you didn't have to drive home at night. And then, I don't even know what happened last night.” She looks down. “But I know that's not how I had meant for that conversation to go. So I'm sorry.”

I reach down a little, taking a hold of her hand and giving it a light squeeze. “It's OK. I mean, the whole situation sucked. But you and me—we're OK.”

She looks back up at me and smiles. “Well good then.” She squeezes my hand back, a little harder. “So what do you say we grab some lunch?”

November 27, 2007

“So is she still there now?” I ask over the phone.

“Na,” Matt says with a laugh. “Real world had to come crashing in sometime. Got on a plane and flew back to school this morning.”

“Gotcha.” It's bizarre to think about how much happened after I left Shermantown Sunday morning. I remember being in a funk when I did, tired but ready to head back to Taylor and get on with my life.

Matt told me he and Julie had started to make out Friday night, and then she started to freak out about what it meant and left him. Now I come to learn that when Matt was on his way to the bus station to head back to the city Sunday afternoon, Julie came and met him there, bought a ticket and went with him. Apparently, they spent every minute of the six hour ride talking, then went to bed as soon as they got in.

“So does this mean that the two of you are really together now?” I ask.

Matt chuckles. “Not a clue. Some things never change, you know?

“Yeah, I know,” I say, waving to Claire as I pass her by on my way back to the dorm.

“So how are you and Teri doing? Everything smoothed out.”

“Smoothed out for now,” I say. A cold wind rushes by, stopping me in my tracks for half a second. “Of course, how we'll be tomorrow is anyone's guess.”

Matt laughs. “Yeah, I guess some things really don't ever change.”

November 28, 2007

Claire is giggling as I come in, while Emma smiles widely, looking at her. “Come on,” Emma says.

Claire bites her lower lip, grinning as she shakes her head. “I told you, I can't say anything.”

“What's all this about?” I ask, setting my bag down by the desk next to Emma's.

Emma turns to me, crossing her legs. “Claire here has a new boyfriend.”

“I told you, it's not like that,” Claire says, sitting up a little straighter. “He's not really a boyfriend.”

“Right,” Emma goes on, “you just miss rehearsal because you're hanging out with him, and he's just the best sex you've ever had.”

“Shh.” Claire does her best to hold in giggles.

“So is this somebody from here at Taylor ?” I ask. “Or someone you hooked up with over Thanksgiving?”

Claire looks away. “I'm afraid I can't say.”

“There's something fishy going on here,” Emma says, biting down on the end of her pen.

Claire eyes flicker upward, toward the door, then back to Emma. “Look, let's just drop it.”

I look behind me to see Nick coming in. For a second, I wonder if it's possible that he is the mystery man—that for all his conniving and cyberstalking, he somehow broke through to actually make Claire like him. I think of how both of them missed our first group meeting.

I look back up, hoping someone else is there. All I can see is a girl sidling past Nick, and Jones coming in, in a fedora.

I look back to Claire, but decide to hold my tongue.

“Hey guys,” Nick says, walking past me, and pulling a desk up next to Claire's. “What's going on?”

November 29, 2007

I crank the green plastic knob between my hands. It just barely moves, and I can hear paper grinding into tighter creases and crinkles as I move it. “Well,” I say, “I think I've located part of our problem.

“OK,” Teri says, peering down at a packet of papers on a desk. “So how close are we to having it fixed.”

I turn back to the copy machine, and rub the back of my hand over my forehead where I'm beginning to sweat. “Well, that's another question altogether.”

Teri and I were going to grab a bite to eat on Main Street this evening, just as soon as she was done running off flyers for an SA event next weekend. It sounded simple enough, and I sat around the SA office reading for class before Teri's cursing and banging shut the cover of the machine made it clear we weren't leaving anytime soon.

Teri sighs, turning over another page in whatever she's reading—something else to do with SA, I'm sure. It's sort of frustrating how much her life is consumed with all of that BS. But then, I think of how both of our lives used to be consumed with The Window, and that wasn't so much better. Of course, we were doing that together at least.

I guess we're in this together now.

I pull off a side component of the copy machine, sliding it away from the main body of the machine. On the other side of the metallic side panel I look at now, I know there's at least one trashed sheet of paper that's holding up the entire machine—not to mention our evening. I set to work trying to pry part of it open.

“So what's this flyer for anyway?” I ask, pulling on one little hole in the panel.

“The Spring Involvement Expo,” she says, not looking up. “You know, the thing where all the clubs set up a table and try to recruit members for next semester.”

“Ah right,” I say, feeling around for some sort of button or something to make the machine open up. “Good times.”

“More like a waste of time,” Teri says. “Students sign up for new organizations now, and by the time they come back in January, they don't remember a thing about it. It's pointless.”

“Well then why are you organizing it?”

Teri raises her hands. “It's tradition. There's a bare bones guide to things each SA officer has to do. This is at the top of my list.”

My fingers come upon a little lever, just beneath the panel I'm trying to open. I press it upward, and sure enough, the panel springs loose. Opening it up, I can see a pair of crinkled papers, half protruding from a spindle, and can pull them free. I hold them up for Teri to see. “I think we're back in business.”

“Thank God,” Teri says, heading back to the machine, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before she gets back to copying.

November 30, 2007

I wipe a napkin across my mouth, getting rid of the mayonnaise I could feel hanging off my top lip from the first bite of my BLT. “So how's the Asian burger?” I ask Chang, sitting across from me at The Lighthouse.

Chang peels up the top of his sandwich. “Well, I'll tell you it's unlike anything my folks ever made.”

“Not authentic Chinese cuisine?”

“I think it's the usual Thursday cheeseburger, with soy sauce instead of ketchup and mustard.”

“Sounds great.”

“Right,” Chang says, using the bun to push off some of the lettuce and onions from his burger. “So how's school treating you, Preston ? Feeling that end of semester crunch.”

I shrug. “A little bit. Big group project for Jones I've been working on.”

“Right,” Chang nods, “the one with Claire and Emma.”

“That would be the one,” I say, taking another bite. The bacon's a little burnt, and there's decidedly too much mayo on my sandwich, but for whatever reason, it's really hitting the spot this afternoon.

“So listen, man, there's something that's been on my mind,” Chang says, twirling a little piece of onion between his thumb and forefinger. “I've been thinking about the holidays and all.”

“Yeah, they're right around the corner. Hard to believe.”

“Yeah,” Chang nods, casting the onion aside. “The thing is, I was thinking about talking to the guys.”

“About anything in particular?” I ask, reaching for my Mountain Dew.

“Yeah, actually. I—I'm thinking about coming out to them.”

“Oh,” I say dumbly, looking down at the table. I take a sip of my soda, and set the cup down.

“So you don't think it would be a good idea?”

“I didn't say that.”

“Right. You said ‘oh.'”

I run the napkin over my mouth again. “I think it would be fine, Chang. I mean, it's going to be a surprise, but it'll be fine.”

“So you don't think it'll freak the guys out? I'm just thinking Matt and Joey for now.”

I look up to see Chang's eyes sort of piercing into me. I nod, my head once, looking him in the eye again as I go on. “I think it's going to be fine.”

December 1, 2007

Emma's teeth crunch down, biting through a carrot stick. She sits opposite me at a table in the library, staring past me, either at a bookshelf, or the wall next to it. We're fifteen minutes into what was supposed to be time to work on our group project for Jones, and once again, it's just the two of us sitting here.

“I suppose Claire's off with her secret beau once again,” Emma says, sticking the rest of the stick in her mouth.

“About this secret boyfriend,” I say, tapping my pen against the desk, letting it see saw back and forth over my thumb, “I was wondering if it's really such a secret who the guy is.”

“You have an idea?”

I look down at my notebook. “I was seeing a couple signs it might be Nick.”

Emma laughs. “Right.”

“I'm serious.”

“And did you miss the conversation where she talked about how much Nick sketched her out when he was IMing her and everything? Or the fact that he's a complete tool?”

“I'm well aware of both of those points,” I say. “But haven't you ever seen one of those cases where an annoying guy, who doesn't seem to have an redeeming value, just wears a girl down?”

Emma bites off another piece of a carrot. “I know it worked for you, but I'd still say it's the exception, not the rule.”

I can't help grinning, and Emma smiles, before looking past me again, her smile widening.

“Well so much for your theory,” she says.

I turn and look over my shoulder to see Nick headed towards us. I raise a finger. “All right, so he's here. But if Claire comes in in the next five minutes, there's no question they were together, and they're just staggering their entrances.”

Emma nods, popping the rest of the carrot in her mouth.

“Sorry I'm late guys,” Nick says, running a hand over hair, still wet with snow from outside. “Got tied up in the office.”

“It's all right, we're still waiting for Claire too,” I say.

I turn to Emma to find her mouth open wide. Looking back over my shoulder, I spy Claire coming in. She takes her ski cap, off letting her tangled blond hair tumble down. I turn back to Emma, again unable to keep myself from smiling.