6
I shouldn't have
been there. Nosing around where I didn't
belong. She had a right to her own life
without me looking over her shoulder. I
tried to tell myself it was just an easy place to sit down and do some
reading. Nothing intrusive about
it. The fact that it was in and around
the time her shift ended was merely coincidental.
I normally had a fiction
book, but I had been through much of it already. Instead I had a book on World
Humanities. Dad had decided, after much
faculty discussion, that we would move on to a new school year. It wouldn't start until next week, which was
already the third week in September, and the new school year usually started
right after Labor Day.
This would make me
Senior, I guess. I'm not sure what that
made last year's seniors, but my Dad had a schedule of courses for them,
anyways. He promised if we were still
trapped by December, he would have a graduation ceremony for them.
"What are you
doing, Lance?" I looked up from my
book, and shook off the internal musing
that was consuming me, and I saw her. Lisa
Carlton, looking as pretty as ever, her
blonde hair clean and long, but styled slightly different, with a little more
curl and bounce, probably the doings and influence of Morgan and her friends.. She did, however, looked tired, with her eyes
reflecting a weary sadness.
"I...I...I'm
uh....," I stuttered, as elegant with the ladies as ever. The same guy who could write romantic
dialogue for The Sands of Loren could barely croak out a few coherent words to
a girl he really liked. "...j-just
thought I'd get an advance look at the World Humanities text."
"Oh, I'm not
taking that. I've completed my language
art requirements and am concentrating on science and math." If I didn't know better, I'd almost say she
sounded disappointed. "And you? You
just decided to review the book here; right about the time my shift ends?"
"Oh....yeah. I guess so.
I mean, well, we are right next to the library." The library had been divided now, with half
of its space being used by the medical center.
"It's all
right. I don't mind." She sat down
in a chair near me, one where we were facing each other. "I have to
admit. I'm not completely unhappy to see
you."
Not a ringing
endorsement. But at this point, I would
certainly take it. "Me too," I
answered, maybe a little too intensely. "Well, I mean. I'm really not
completely unhappy to see you either."
She smiled a
fleeting, tiny upturn of the mouth, but a smile nonetheless. She told me a bit about her work, and what it
was like to be around Morgan and her friends.
"They're a little shallow, not like, well...you know. They mean well. It's just hard to talk to them about....some
things." I'm sure that was true. She was such good friends with Sue, I'm sure
they shared a lot. And for a few weeks
there, she and I had opened up to each other quite a bit. "And the boys around them...." She paused, as if searching what to say
next. "...well...they're not the
type of boys I'm used to."
That made me feel
uneasy. I asked her what she meant, but
she refused to clarify. I should have
pushed her harder on that, but I did not.
I didn't want to scare her off.
She asked how I
was doing, and I told her about my misadventures with recreational basketball. That caused a brief burst of hearty laughter,
which warmed my heart greatly to see.
Then she suddenly
got quiet. We sat there for almost a
minute. I started to reach my hand out to
her hand, but she pulled away slightly.
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I still am not ready for a lot of
things. I miss Daniel, and still think
about him." Daniel was the name of
her boyfriend who attended Huron
University
She started to
tear up, and said, very quietly, "I miss Sue." My heart was breaking for her. She got up, looked down at me, and then
leaned into my ear, and whispered, "I miss you, too."
My world froze,
and by the time I could react, she was gone.
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