Several Weeks Later

Clair is moving to Virginia I found out. A little bit of a blow, but quite frankly I was ready to move on. In the past few weeks we had slowly grown apart, far apart. It got to dread every time we were to meet up, a half hello in the halls, etc. So it would seem that I could pursue Christen? No. I also found out that she has a boy friend. Found out it was Blain, a friend of hers and mine, had finally gotten the courage to ask her out. They had been going out for a while now. I guess their close, I don’t know. With a hint of relief I moved back to plan B, hangout outside of school. We’d get a lot closer than we ever would for five minutes every day in school, and maybe something would happen, who knows. My first goal was to gain her trust, with that you’ll have a very close relationship with anyone, no matter his or her relationship status.

It was now Thanks Giving Break, thank god. A whole freaking week to splurge on what ever. And a whole week to come up with a great plan to get Christen to a movie or something with me and a friend or two. It’d be great, she be on one side of me, my friends on the other. Just the thought excited me to no end, however it also made me feel guilty to no end. Since the decline of my relationship with Clair, I had been talking, and very quickly growing very close to, an on line contact which I had just met. Melissa was a very sweet girl, I loved her to death and she loved me. Incredibly, we had gone from meeting to this in one night. Some wild break- thru conversation had led to this miraculous bonding. And we didn’t use Elmer’s glue, we used freaking super glue and we’ve been sticking together ever since, relying on each other. Unfortunately she lived in Iowa, a little far for a quick visit.

I called Christen Friday night after the tedious, yearly house cleaning my mother insists on. I was real tired, but managed to get out and convince her to go to the movies with Cole Garner, JC and me Tuesday night. When it finally came, taking forever as usual, I was extremely un- prepared. I had been getting ready all afternoon, triple checking movie times, going back and froth from choices of malls, etc. Finally I decided on Vineyards Mall 15 minutes away. It was the biggest around and had theaters connected so a perfect choice. Movie started at eight, Christen could stay out all night. It would seem like I was all prepared right? Wrong. I had been sweating all day just thinking about that night and it was 5 minutes until I had to leave. “S***!!!” I stripped like mad and dove in the shower, turning it to the hottest setting on accident. I washed up like a hobo for the first time in 10 years, getting scolded the whole way thru. I hopped out, barely dried then jumped into some new clothes. I grabbed my keys and was out the door, just three minutes behind. No worries… my driving would make up for that.

I quickly picked up Cole and JC first, “Hey man where’s the chick?! You said there was a chick coming!” with a heavy sigh, I responded. “Calm it! Was planning on getting her last…. which means right now you a**holes!”, I yelled, half- jokingly. I was nervous…. My hands were sweating in my freezing car on the ice- cold steering wheel cover. I felt sick; I didn’t know what to say once I got there. Then I reminded myself, ‘the ladies like YOU Toni, for how you really act.’ At least, this one does…. ‘Besides’ I told myself, ‘she’s got a boyfriend, so act like it is! Just a friend thing!’ I was done reassuring myself, but my friends were still yelling in my ear for being parked for 5 minutes. I quickly sped off, on to Christen’s.




She was walking out right as I screeched to a stop (bad look on her dad’s face). I opened the door for her, “Hey Christen, what’s up?” I said with a slight shake in my voice. She grinned, and then hinted that I should probably get going before her dad came out. I took off slowly, but then two wheeled at the end of the street.

We got to the mall, it was packed. I hadn’t planned on it, even though I had planned the whole damn thing for Saturday night. “Shiz” I thought, “How the hell are we going to find a parking spot?” We drove around the lot for at least half an hour, out of the corner of my eye I could see Christen was getting bored and a little fed up. I stopped in front of the first entrance I saw. JC looked at me, “Hey man what are you doing? Remember I got arrested for parking here last time.” I grinned, “Yeah I know, listen yall go ahead and get out, get some good seats. I’ll come in when I find a spot.” Half of me wanted them to be awesome friends, stay with me all the way no matter how much they suffered. “Yeah ok man, let’s go Cole”, they both jumped out and ran into the mall. I slapped my head, and then I realized someone was still in the car. “Christen go ahead, this is going to take a while.” she smiled at me, “Then I guess we’ll have a while to talk.” I grinned as I pulled away from the curb, continuing the search.

Soon we found our spot, thank god. Only took 15 minutes more, got 2 exciting fender- benders out of it (not including us). Christen saw her boyfriend and a few of his friends; she pointed them out to me. “What the hell would he be doing here?” I thought, sure it was a little ways from my house but I thought he might be an inner city boy or something… as I looked up I saw a familiar face. Blain, I knew the guy pretty good, families were friends and such had been on a few trips together, though, didn’t talk much anymore. We gave mutual waves then Christen went off with him, understandably, saying we’d meet at the theater. It was five minutes later; I had met up with Cole and JC, headed to the theaters. It was about time, Christen must be right behind us I thought. All the sudden there was some kind of commotion in front of us, some masked guy came running out of Hollister’s with an old security guy right on his a**. A crowd parted in the guy’s wake, giving the security guard full view of him as he ran towards my group. As he ran past us I felt a slight blow to the stomach, and a whisper “Have fun, kid!” The guy had dropped a bag with some kind of brick thing in it, and the guard had been there to see it all. Me, Cole and JC were frozen, what the hell did he give me this for?! BAM! I was tackled from the side by the old man, Cole fell with me. “He must think we’re accomplices” I thought, “f***!” JC’s screech woke me up, Cole helped me to my feet and all three of us were off running, for some reason I still had the sack in my hand, had some kind of death grip on it. The guard must have fired a warning shot because soon the whole crowd of onlookers was running with us. Christen bumped into me (behind us like I thought), without thinking I grabbed her hand and dragged her along, later I realized the crowd would have crushed her frail body. Not one of us said a word as we ran out and to my car, nearly a mile away amongst the steel forest of sedans and ricers. I rolled down the windows of my own ricer with the remote about twenty feet before we got there; we all jumped in and skidded off to the nearest exit. Being the newest mall around, they had the gates closed pretty fast, I did a fishtail and started heading to the only exit I knew didn’t have any kind of block on it, even though it was on the other side of the mall.

As my body turned with the car, I could still feel the old guard’s head lodged in my side, I thought a rib or two might have been cracked. I wanted some kind of pay back. I looked over at Christen as I attempted to dodge all the little security carts in my way; she was pale, and shaking bad. How’d I know this was going to be a bad night? I felt bad for her now… or was it for me? I wasn’t sure if she’d ever speak to me again. That thought skipped as I barely dodged the last security cart in sight, the exit was right ahead. “Yo, Toni, It’s freaking fifty grand dude!!! Dump it before we get out!” I grabbed the bag from his hand and threw it at the last exit we passed, smashing the face of the same old guard in the process. “Cha- Ching!” I thought. I sped away to safety at 80mph, the cops weren’t called (thank god) and my plate on the backend had been stolen while I was inside. Maybe this was a good night after all...

Monday in Art I must have looked pretty bad, Christen gave me some kind of look and everyone ells just avoided me. I wasn’t used to this so I got pretty bummed out and just fell asleep on my desk thru the class, and lunch, and sixth period. The a**hole teacher finally got me up and I just went home, like he suggested. “Thanks” I said, my face telling him to eat s***. After I slept for a while I got up and had the urge to call Christen, explain myself if she’d let me. If she’d known my number I might not have gotten a word off, but she didn’t so I got just four- give me another chance… The ‘dead’ tone gave me the queue to hang up, my wits and energy were shot, and I didn’t wake up ‘til Wednesday morning.

The next four days Christen was absent from school, or at least 6th period anyways. Friday I finally got around to renewing my license, a week over due. When I got there I saw Blain and another friend of mine. Before anything was brought up, I asked where Christen had been. Unknowing of my intentions, my feelings, Blain gave me a certain look. After a minute he told me she had been sick the past few days, and then was on a trip today and threw the weekend. Part of me was cautious about believing Blain’s “sick” reference, but I decided not to dwell on it.

We got to a friendlier state talking a little more, I found out Blain himself had been a little late getting his renewal, four weeks to be exact. With a forgetful AP student like that, I felt less than moronic about the whole thing. My other friend Mike was in to get his license for the first time at seventeen and a half, having been on probation for speeding without so much as a permit. He would have had to wait six more months, but he got off simply for not doing it again, they called it ‘good behaviour’.

After what seemed like hours, my number was finally called up. I laughed at Mike and Blain as I walked away, knowing they had at least another hour or two to wait. I stepped over to the counter and did a few exams before having my picture taken. I walked back to the counter hand out, wait for the card to be printed up, being so used to getting the costly ID’s at school. I realized my mistake before the attendant noticed, whipping my hand back to my side. She handed me a piece of paper and sent me on my way, saying the card would be mailed in a month or so. I walked out of the bunker- like building having just one satisfaction- I could do this all-online next year.

As I sat in my car, the bending of cheap metal reminded me of something, I had set my sunglasses in my seat. After two more pairs that month, I swore never to do it again...........
TO BE CONTINUED