Across The Hall (9 page)

good day.

I woke up to a phone cal at nine. Normal y I would have had Kai to blame for a cal that early, but it wasn’t her ring tone. I answered groggily.

“Sylvia?” Who the hel else would it be?

“Yeah.”

“Hi. This is Bobbie. I’m so sorry to have to cal you but Corrina can’t come in and we need someone to fil in for her.” Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

Something like this always has to happen. I couldn’t turn it down either. Everyone had been so good to me when I took off a couple weeks to go visit

my dad in June.

“What time was she supposed to work?” Maybe I would be lucky and be done at two then I would only miss like the first half hour of the picnic.

“She’s on 10 to 6 today.” Crap, there went that.

“Oh.” I looked over at my clock. Damn, not very much time. “Sure. I may be a little late. I haven’t real y gotten up yet. I stil need to get ready.”

“That’s fine. We’re just happy you can come in and do it.” I could hear the relief in her voice. I knew firsthand how bad it sucked to have to be the

one to cal around to find replacements at work. “See you later. Thanks Sylvia.”

“Sure,” I grumbled lamely, and closed my phone.

I let out a frustrated growl and cal ed Kai. I knew she’d probably been up since dawn making sure every detail of our day was planned. She was

disappointed and told me to check with them as soon as I got off, to see where everyone was going to be for the evening. Jason final y cal ed Reed

and invited them al over to his place for the evening if everyone wanted to come after the picnic. I told her I would and then texted Beau. I knew he

wouldn’t be up yet.

Picnic off. Have to work. Done @ 6 if you still want to go out. - S

I threw off the covers, found clothes, and headed to the bathroom to shower and get ready for work.

As predicted, we were fairly busy until two when things started slowing down. The nice weather had everyone outside enjoying it. Several of us

employees were standing around talking when the assistant manager came over and told me that since I came in on my day off I could go ahead

and take off early.

I flew out of there. I cal ed Kai first and told her. She said they were al stil at the park and hadn’t even started eating yet. I quickly cal ed Beau,

who thankful y answered, and he agreed to pick me up in a half an hour and we would go meet everyone there.

I rushed home, very grateful now that Kai had bought me something to wear. It saved me having to stare in my closet, trying to decide what to

wear. Kai had actual y done a decent job with this outfit. I was afraid that she would come back with a dress, but she surprised me with a light beige

pair of capri pants and a deep emerald gauze shirt. It was a nice smock-like top with a little ivy pattern embroidered along the open v-neck. It was

very comfortable. She finished it off with a pair of beaded flip flops. Thank God she didn’t go with heels. We often played games like Frisbee when

we went to the park, and I sucked at it normal y. I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would have been wearing a dress or heels.

Beau had gotten there real y fast. I didn’t have time to do anything other than leave my hair up in the loose ponytail I wore to work. When I

answered the door, he looked me up and down again like he did the first time. When he met my eyes he smiled wide. “You look sweet enough to

eat.” So did he. His jeans were a little looser today riding low on his hips. The black sleeveless shirt showed off his impressive biceps.

I laughed at him even though I was blushing. His look and the way he growled the words out hit me at some base level. I briefly remembered just

how good he felt pushed up against me on the other side of the door he just happened to be standing in front of. I had to stop those thoughts. “Let’s

go. We’re already late.”

“As you wish.” He motioned me to lead.

He brought his bike. I told him which park we were going to. I loved riding behind him again. I wished I wasn’t wearing the stupid helmet, though. I

would have loved to lay my check against his back as I held on to him.

The park was busy. People were taking advantage of the nice days we had left before fal set in. Even though this was the park closest to the

campus, there were stil lots of kids running around. The slides and swings were teeming with them. I loved hearing their laughter and watching them

run from one piece of equipment to the other. One little boy ran headlong into me from behind, toppling both of us over. I laughed as I pushed back

up to my knees. I stopped when I saw Beau yank the kid up roughly and tel him to watch where he was going. He looked over at me then and saw

my frown and his faced morphed completely into nothing but concern.

“Sylvia, are you okay?” He helped pul me up. I wanted to tel the kid it was okay, but he was already off running in the opposite direction.

“I’m fine. He was just having a good time playing tag. He didn’t mean to knock me over,” I chastised as I brushed my hands off on my pants.

Beau rubbed his hand up and down my back like he was soothing me. “I know. I was just worried you were hurt. I guess I was a little harder on him

than I should have been.” He looked away from me then. “Is that girl waving at you?”

It was Kai. She was jumping up and down waving both arms. I waved back to let her know I saw them. “Yeah, that’s Kai. So are you ready to meet

everyone?” I could see Kai and Kerri over by a picnic table. It looked like Kai had just set al the food out. She’d had one of the local delis make

everything. It looked like she had quite a spread set out. “Hope you’re hungry. From the looks of it Kai plans on feeding the entire park.”

He laughed and kept his hand on my back. He was stil slightly rubbing along my spine as we walked over to them.

“Wow, Kai, this looks amazing,” I said when we got to the table.

“Oh, Sylvia, I’m so glad you got off early and could make it. Kerri, go tel the boys we’re ready to eat. Hi, Beau. I’m so happy you were able to

come with Sylvia. The guys are off playing Frisbee. We’l make sure you get introduced to everyone.” Kai was dancing happily around the table,

making sure everything was ready. She had al the food on one table and another close by for us to sit at.

I heard the guys laughing as they approached and looked from Kai to them. “Good news, Sylvia,” Kai started to say, just as my gaze locked onto

a pair of hauntingly familiar brown eyes. “Quinn was able to come after al .”

I spent Thursday and Friday laying low. I stayed in my apartment, just settling in. On Thursday, Reed and Sloane came over while their girlfriends

were shopping. They hadn’t told Kai or Kerri who I was yet. Sloane promised to talk to Sylvia soon and feel her out. I was torn between asking for

every detail of the last four years of her life and not wanting to know anything about her life without me. Reed made the decision for me when he

pointed to my Xbox 360 and chal enged the two of us to a game.

I spent the afternoon playing with them and getting to know them. Reed was competitive, loud, and crude, but made us laugh most of the

afternoon. Sloane was quiet in comparison, but just as competitive. I realized that afternoon that I would get along great with these two. I hoped that

my history with Sylvia wouldn’t keep a friendship from developing.

I was lonely after they left, but we al agreed it was best if Kai didn’t know I was around. Sloane was going to tel her that I was at my parents’

house for now. That limited my ability to come and go as I pleased, but I had plenty to do to keep me in the apartment. Unfortunately, it also meant

that I had to cook for myself. Thank God for microwaves.

Being home alone gave me a lot of time to think about everything. At first, I was stil pissed at mom for taking it upon herself to put me -- us -- in

this situation. The more I thought about it, I decided it was a good thing. It seemed that both of us had unresolved issues and probably needed the

contact to get them worked out. While I had no idea what Sylvia needed from me, I did know she needed something. People talk al the time about

the necessity of closure to move on. I thought that must have been what both of us required. I knew I’d taken the cowardly way out and hidden after

breaking it off, denying us both that. Maybe if I had talked to her again, things wouldn’t have been so bad for her, although I knew there was no way I

would have been able to hold to my plan if I had talked to her.

I had left for my grandparents a couple days after tel ing her goodbye. I’d had to turn my phone off the day before. She kept cal ing and texting

repeatedly and I just couldn’t al ow myself to answer. I erased the messages, not even bothering to listen or read them. Mom was surprised when I

emerged from my room after being holed up for two days only to ask to go visit her parents. I had gone to visit them in the past, and they were

always asking me to come and stay so I figured this was a good place to run to. Yes, that’s what I was doing. I was running. Mom cal ed them and

they agreed and I was on a plane that night. I stayed a month with them. It was undoubtedly the hardest month of my life.

I cut myself off from almost al contact with the outside world. I barely talked to my grandparents, which I knew worried my Grandma Spencer

endlessly. I had even less contact with my parents. When they first started cal ing, my mom would tel me al about Sylvia and try to convince me to

just talk to her. Mom was disappointed in me and let me know al about it. I knew she loved Sylvia like a daughter and I felt like shit that I had taken

Sylvia away from her too. Not only that, Sylvia had looked to her as a mother after losing her own to breast cancer. It was just another relationship

lost in this fucked up decision.

During that month I convinced myself that I was indeed doing the right thing. I was miserable without Sylvia but I had a plan on how to fix it. I

decided to give it a year. By then she would be settled into life at the University of Minnesota and when she came home for summer break I would

see her again. I could hold out for a year. I was doing this for her and I would do anything for her. I spent countless hours daydreaming about our

reunion that next summer. How I would apologize and beg her forgiveness and we would work it al out. By the end of the summer we would be back

to normal. We would be able to part again in the fal for school but stil hold onto our relationship. It would work. It had to.

It didn’t work. Winter break had changed everything.

By Friday I was convinced that this was a good thing. I could handle seeing her again. In fact, I wanted to see her again. At one time we were

friends. Even though she was my girlfriend, she was my best friend. The same was true for her as wel . She’d never real y had any close friendship

with any girls in school. She talked with a few, but the two of us were inseparable. We were everything to each other. Neither of us felt the need for

other friendships.

It was about noon on Friday when Sloane stopped over. I had just made myself a sandwich, one of my few accomplishments in the kitchen. I

cal ed out for him to come in before I remembered that I stil had the door locked. I unlocked it and let him in.

“Hi, Sloane. What’s up?”

“Kai sent me up to ask you to come to her annual pre-year picnic tomorrow. I also came up to tel you about my talk with Sylvia.”

So he had talked to her. “Did you tel her I was here? How did she take it?” I was extremely nervous even though I spent the last twenty-four hours

convincing myself I was ready for this.

“I didn’t tel her anything.” He looked a little sheepish. “I asked her how she was doing. She says she’s fine and I real y felt that she was. She’s

such a bad liar I would have seen right through her if she was lying.”

“So what do I do now?” He was right on being able to know when she was lying. Sylvia couldn’t lie to save her life.

“Reed and I talked it over this morning. We think it’s time to let Kai and Kerrington know. It would be best coming from them. That way she can be

prepared before she runs into you here or on campus.” That sounded reasonable. “That brings me to the picnic. I promised Kai I would ask you. I

don’t think you should accept. Kai is al about planning this now and it would be best to wait until after the picnic to tel Sylvia. We’l tel the girls

Saturday night and they can talk to Sylvia Sunday. Come Monday she wil know and you won’t have to worry about surprising her.”

Great -- that meant two more days stuck in here. “I won’t go to the picnic. Tel Kai I’m at my parents’ for the weekend. When wil you be gone

Saturday? There are a few things I need to go out and get.” I could always go home for the weekend but I didn’t real y want to.

“We should be gone al Saturday afternoon. Kai is planning for us to leave around one and eat at two so that should give you plenty of time to go

do whatever you need to.”

I nodded not real y knowing what else to say. Sloane looked like he wanted to say something more but stopped himself. He just shook his head

and said, “Don’t worry about it. Sylvia can handle this. Everything is going to be alright.” I hoped he was right.

I slept in Saturday. I couldn’t leave until afternoon, so there was no hurry to get up and get things done. It was after eleven when Reed came up. I

knew it was him before I even opened the door. No one else pounded on a door like he did.

“Quinn, dude! Kai ordered me to come up here and drag your ass to the picnic. She said she knows you’re here because your car is in the

parking lot.”

“She knows what car I drive?” I briefly wondered if I should be concerned that she had stalker tendencies, but then I remembered Reed and