Last week was rough for Gennie. About three hours after the party, she was able to pull herself together just enough to change into the nightgown she had in her overnight bag and go to bed. The next morning, Page hadn’t come back yet and she was absent at the classes they shared. Gennie wasn’t too worried about her though. She figured Page got so drunk that she passed out at the party and was still too hung over to go anywhere. She would see her soon enough.
Gennie went back to Malcolm and Colleen’s house for the weekend and returned to Page’s apartment Sunday night feeling a bit better. She woke up early Monday morning and had just finished brushing her teeth when she heard a knock on the apartment door.
“You forgot your books again?” Gennie asked, assuming it was Page.
“I have my books already,” a male voice replied.
“Hold on,” she said, putting her toothbrush back in the holder.
She opened the door and saw it was Rory Fox.
“Sorry to bug you so early in the morning. I hope you weren’t sleeping.”
“Don’t worry about it. I was getting ready for school. Come on in.”
Rory tentatively stepped into the room.
“What’s up? Is there some emergency Dart Club meeting?” Gennie asked.
Rory chuckled. “I see you’re feeling better.”
“A little bit.” Gennie paused. “Hey, you didn’t see me…oh god!”
“Yeah, I did,” Rory said. “And I was concerned, but I didn’t want to follow you back here that night. I thought it wouldn’t look good, but I figured it would be all right if I stopped in today to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m fine,” Gennie said.
“Did Foster say anything nasty to you?”
“No. It’s just that we have a history, if you know what I mean.”
“He used to be your boyfriend?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know that,” Rory said. After that, he seemed to be at a loss for words to say. “Uh, I don’t want to make you late for class, but before I go, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Would you like to…ummm…have dinner with me tonight?”
That was the last thing Gennie expected Rory Fox to ask her. She sat down on the sofa and accidently knocked her open knapsack full of books onto the floor.
“Oh geez, I can’t believe I did that,” she said. She kneeled down and gathered them up.
“Let me help you with that,” Rory replied. He gathered the rest of the books for her and put them back in her knapsack.
“Wow, that’s a heavy load to carry,” he said.
“That’s one of the pitfalls of majoring in engineering,” Gennie replied. “You have to carry at least six fifty pound books on your back every day.”
“Want me to carry them to class for you? I’ve got a good hour and a half before my next class.”
“No, I can do it myself.”
“Are you sure? It’s not any trouble for me.”
Gennie thought about it for a second. “If you want to, I guess you can.”
Rory lifted the knapsack and slid it onto his back as if it were the lightest thing in the world.
“Are you ready to go yet?” he said.
“Yeah, I am,” Gennie replied.
While on the way to calculus, he asked her about her interests.
“Wow, that’s different,” Rory said. “I’ve never met a girl that was interested in cars.”
“You don’t mind, do you?” Gennie asked.
“No, I think it’s cool.”
“What are you majoring in?” Gennie asked.
“Actually, I’m a double major, one in film and the other in theater and performance.”
“You want to be an actor?”
“Yeah, and a director too. I just love movies.”
“That’s great,” Gennie said.
“I wasn’t going to go to college originally, but I applied for a bunch of scholarships and I got all of them. My tuition is practically paid for, so I felt like I had to go.”
“I had the same thing,” Gennie replied. “My foster parents talked me into finishing high school and taking the SAT’s. I did really well on them and I got accepted to Berkeley, so here I am.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Rory said. “Otherwise, how would I have met you?”
They reached the building where Gennie’s calculus class was. Rory handed her knapsack back.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said.
“What question?”
“Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?”
“Oh…uh…yes, I’d love to!”
“How about Valben…eight o’clock?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“You don’t like that place?”
“No, that’s the restaurant my brother owns!”
“No way! Do you still want to go there?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“All right. I’ll see you there.”
“Okay, and thanks, Rory, for carrying my books for me.”
“No problem.”
Gennie would have never thought she would be bouncing into calculus class that morning, but she was. She couldn’t concentrate on Dr. Tapp’s lecture at all, though. The only thing she could think about was the look on Foster’s face when he found out.
Now, it’s his turn to cry. Gennie smiled at that thought.
Chapter 38
What They Left Behind Page 37
