We Were Us (8 page)

“The tickling?” I straightened out my legs and pushed myself up to sitting.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t like it. I hate being tickled.” His head snapped up and he squinted his eyes at me.

“I’m sorry.” He looked down again.

“Don’t be,” I said and pushed him lightly.

An awkward silence fell between us. Josh was still and sullen from his failed attempt at whatever the tickling was supposed to be, and I felt bad for making him feel bad.

“Maybe I’ll invite Lauren over tonight so I won’t be alone,” I said breaking the silence. “She did tell me to call her if I ever needed anything.”

“You don’t want me to stay? And when did you see Lauren?” He genuinely looked upset.

“She dropped me off at your house earlier. She must have been driving to work or something,” I said. “I do want you to stay, but your mom didn’t seem too keen on that idea.”

“I don’t care.”

“Okay, well I do. I don’t want to make her mad. She helped me today and lied to the police for me.”

Josh sighed again.

“Stop being moody.” I got up off the couch and slipped on one of the two dozen pairs of flip-flops I had lying around the house. I wanted to catch Lauren at the store before her shift was over. I didn’t know when it was over, but I wanted to ask her now before it got too late.

I heard Josh chuckle as he stood up from the couch. “Come on, I’ll drive you down to the store. Lauren usually works until 2:00.”

“Oh, good to know,” I said and I opened the front door for him and followed him out.

“We’ll figure this out,” he said.

“I know.”

CHAPTER NINE

It turned out that Lauren had been dying to stay the night at my house. She squealed with excitement, jumped up and down, and hugged Josh and me. There was a strange, wordless exchange that happened between the two of them. She looked at him with wide eyes, and he shook his head as if in a silent no, then she nodded and regained her regular peppiness. The whole thing happened so fast, I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking.

I felt weird having Lauren over because she and I were not close in high school; she was a typical dumb blond, like Karen from Mean Girls, but somehow managed to be part of the in-crowd that had tormented me until the day I left. I didn’t recall her ever actually saying anything directly to me, but if it was one it was all. But I had no one else to turn to. Josh needed to be home and at work, Michelle was MIA, so Lauren was the next best thing.

When I answered the door later that evening, Lauren stood there already in her pajamas.

“Hey Lauren,” I said.

I was trying really hard to be excited about this. I guess I liked Lauren, but I needed to be careful about what I shared with her. I didn’t know if she’d try to get information from me, so she could gossip later.

Lauren pushed passed me into the living room. Her arms were full of bags and pillows and a sleeping bag.

“I didn’t know what tonight meant,” she said and dumped all of her stuff on my couch. “I brought everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, is this the part where there’s a music montage and you get a makeover and look super-hot and all the boys love you and all the girls are jealous, or is this when you spill all your deep dark secrets and we cry all night long?” Lauren stared at me expectantly.

Honestly, I didn’t even know what to say to her. I just wanted to laugh.

“We can do whatever you want, Lauren. We could do both I guess although I don’t have many deep dark secrets that this whole town doesn’t already know about.” This was my attempt at humor, but Lauren just laughed uncomfortably.

“I’ve always wanted to come to your house, but we weren’t really friends so it would have been weird, and then there was your mom and my mom didn’t want me over here. I bet we could have been friends if everyone wasn’t so scared of you.” Lauren rambled on as she unpacked her stuff.

“People were afraid of me?” I asked. This surprised me.

“Yeah,” she said, setting out some crazy looking curling irons. Who needed five curling irons? “Everyone at school thought you were like drug lord mafia or something.”

“Drug lord mafia,” I repeated quietly.

“Yeah, but I knew it couldn’t be true because you were so nice and just quiet and you did normal things like play softball and you got good grades and you were best friends with Michelle.” Lauren stopped short in the middle of her rambling at the mention of Michelle.

She looked up at me from the floor; piles of makeup surrounded her. It looked like she was sorting it all out. I half wondered if she just threw everything she had on her dresser and the bathroom in a bag and came over.

The awkward silence continued until Lauren shook her head and continued to pull compacts and pencils out of her duffle bag.

“I’m sorry. I know being here must be hard for you. I mean, you left so quickly without being able to say goodbye to anyone, and then people talked about you and your mom for weeks, although I guess you didn’t hear any of that which was probably a good thing because the Mayor is a huge jerk and probably started all the rumors. Someone even tried to break into your house too, but I don’t think they succeeded, the cops like, guarded your house for a while. I don’t know why. I know it was searched,”

“Lauren!” I blurted out.

I had just stared at her through her whole rambling rampage, not sure where to interject. She looked at everything but me. She had spit just everything out as if I was holding her at gunpoint.

“Sorry. I ramble when I’m nervous,” she smiled guiltily.

“Nervous?”

“Yeah. I mean, I am excited to be here and hang out with you, but all I know about you is what I heard through gossip and its pretty scary stuff. Like you’ve killed people, you break bones, you help your mom while she’s in jail.” Lauren’s voice was slowly getting softer and softer as she spoke.

“Okay Lauren. Its secret spilling time,” I said

She straightened up and looked directly at me. I had her full attention.

“One, I’ve never done drugs. Ever. Two, I never ever helped my mom with her business,” I air quoted business. “Three, most of the time, I wasn’t even at my house. I either went down to the river, to Michelle’s house, or just wandered around town. I didn’t want any part of what she did.” Lauren looked down at her hands in her lap. “Four, the only contact I’ve had with my mom in the past fifteen months was two weeks ago when my dad told me to go visit her. I will probably never see her again. I am done with that part of my life, she is negative and degrading, and just not a good person.”

“I’m sorry,” Lauren said.

“Don’t be,” I countered

“So why are you here? Why am I here tonight? I know you didn’t ask me here because you missed our friendship.” She huffed out a small laugh. “And what’s up with you and Josh?”

“Those are excellent questions Lauren, but I can’t spill everything in the first twenty minutes. Besides, I think I do need a makeover.” I smiled at her.

Lauren’s eyes lit up. She gathered all her makeup and her five curling irons and asked where the bathroom was.

She and I spent the next three hours in the bathroom, being normal teenagers. Lauren seemed to be in her element. She had surely missed her calling as a beautician. While she worked on me, she talked nonstop and I let her. She recounted everything that happened at school after I left. Every school dance was explained to me in full detail, including what everyone wore and who went home with who at the end of the night.

It sounded exactly like the last few months of my high school experience in Brookhaven. I didn’t know anyone, but I got in with a small crowd of friends and I spent most of my time with them.

“So you graduated high school?” Lauren asked. She was putting some finishing touches on my hair.

“Yes. With honors.”

“Oh wow.” She seemed genuinely impressed by that.

“I didn’t sleep with my teachers,” I said.

“I figured you didn’t. You just didn’t seem like that kind of person.”

“Like what kind of person.”

“Just someone who would do that. Sleep with old people. Trade sex for stuff. I mean, you didn’t sleep with any of the boys in our grade, so I couldn’t imagine you slept with teachers.”

I laughed. Lauren was funny. She didn’t seem to have any kind of filter between what she thought and what she said.

“I wasn’t. I’m not. I’m not like my mother and never have been.”

“I’m sorry,” Lauren said again.

“For what?”

“For just now giving you the chance you deserved.” She’d stopped fussing with my hair now. “You’re a nice girl Jenna, and people are mean.”

I just smiled. It was nice to finally have someone to validate you and recognize who you truly are.

“Thanks Lauren.” We smiled at each other. “So can I see my hair?”

“Yes! Of course!” she said enthusiastically.

She moved out of the way and handed me a small handheld mirror so I could see the front and back at the same time.

My hair was a mass of curls piled high on top of my head. A few tendrils framed my face. Rhinestone bobby pins crowned the front of the updo like a tiara. She’d done my makeup as well. Light blush covered my cheeks, and purple eye shadow swept over my eyelids that brought out the green in my hazel eyes.

“All dressed up with nowhere to go.” I laughed.

“We could go somewhere,” she said.

“Like where?”

“The bar in the next town over. They let in eighteen year olds.”

I contemplated what she had just told me. I’d been to a few bars in Brookhaven, but it was usually to see a local band play and not to pick up a guy or just be there.

“No not really,” I finally said.

“Okay. It was just an idea. I didn’t bring clothes for that anyway.”

She fiddled some more with my hair when our conversation died down. We went to the living room again and Lauren started packing up her makeover supplies and I searched for a movie to put in. My phone rang loudly just then making us both jump. I answered it quickly.

“Hello?” I asked. I hadn’t looked at the caller ID.

“Jenna!” came Stefani’s voice.

“Stef, hey. What’s up?” I walked over to the couch and sank into it.

“Well I haven’t heard from you all summer. Is everything okay? How’s the town?”

Stefanie knew my whole story and was a big supporter of me finding closure. I was doing well in school, and had healthy friendships with her and Andrew, but she knew something was holding me back.

“Just hanging out with a friend,” I said.

“I thought you didn’t have any friends back there.” She sounded a little jealous.

“I don’t. I didn’t. Something happened though so I have a friend over.”

“A boyfriend?” Now she sounded accusatory.

“No. Stef, not a boy. Her name is Lauren.”

Lauren turned to me at the sound of her name and mouthed, ‘who is it’. I shook my head and turned away from her.

“Is there a boy though? What happened?”

“I can’t really talk about it right now.”

“Okay. I was just wondering what your plans were for the fall. I got a letter about dorm assignments. Are we finding an apartment?”

“Oh, um. All my mail is forwarded to my dad’s house. Sorry. I think an apartment is a great idea. More freedom, less communal bathroom.”

Stefani laughed. “Yeah. Okay. Well I’ll keep a look out in the newspaper. Andrew said he would too.”

“Is he living with us?”

Lauren’s head snapped up at the mention of a boy possibly living with me. She scooted closer to try to hear my conversation.

“No, I don’t think so. I guess he could.” Stefani replied.

“No, it’s okay. I just didn’t know if he was thinking about it or something.”

“It would save on rent,” she pointed out.

“True.”

“Well, think about it, and don’t forget about me this summer. I’m just wasting away at my parents’ while you live it up alone in the middle of nowhere.”

“Oh yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Riverview is a hot bed of excitement,” I said sarcastically.

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

I hung up and turned to Lauren. She stared at me like a hungry dog. “What?” I asked.

“Who was that?”

“Stefani, my roommate at Brookhaven College.”

“And you’re looking for an apartment together?”

“Yes.”

“With a boy?”

“No.”

“Who’s the boy?” Dang she was nosey.

“It’s Andrew.” I sighed. I wasn’t going to get anything accomplished if I hid that from her. I knew she’d bring it up all night.

“And who is Andrew. Your boyfriend?” She was totally going there.

“Not really.”

“Is he hot?”

“Lauren!”

“What? I’ve seen all the boys here, I need someone new to think about.”

We both just laughed. I told her about Andrew and how we met and that we were not dating seriously.

“So what about Josh? What are you two doing?” She was hitting all the hot talking points right now.

“I don’t know. I’m not staying here for the long haul. I more than likely won’t ever come back here after this summer, and Josh has a good job here so I don’t think he’ll leave. Ever.”

“You’re probably right. I’m probably stuck here too. For life.” She rolled her eyes.

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m not as smart as you. I didn’t graduate with honors or anywhere close to it. I didn’t apply to college.” She looked down like she was ashamed.

“Lauren, you are smart. Don’t say stuff like that. It’s never too late to go to college if that’s really what you want to do.”

“Really?” She looked up at me.

“Yeah. Of course. There are like forty year olds who go to college.” Lauren chuckled a little. “Seriously, it’s not too late.”

“I kind of want to be hair stylist,” he revealed.

“I think that’s a great idea. I know of a couple beauty schools in Brookhaven.”

“You do?”

“Yes, you get cheap haircuts there from the students so they can practice. I can text Stefanie and get the names if you want?”

“Yes, thank you Jenna.” She hugged me tightly. “So what are we watching?” She asked.

“I don’t know, I hadn’t really looked yet.”

“Well I brought a scary movie, want to watch it?”

“I love scary movies!”

Lauren popped the DVD into my laptop and we sat back to watch.