A Homecoming to Forget

by Emily Camp

  He reached his hand down and helped me up when I was near the top.

  I ignored the butterflies that fluttered in my stomach. The ones that I began to notice after he took me to homecoming last week. Henry and I had been friends since birth. He was like a brother.

  When I was inside, he smirked and turned the light around. There in the middle of the floor was a pile of toilet paper rolls.

  “Are you getting a toilet in here?” I laughed. It always did make me jealous that he could just pee out of the window and when I had to go, I had to climb down and run to the house, yes run, because I always waited until the last minute.

  “We’re going to go toilet paper.”

  “Okay!” I said all excited like. “Why?”

  He knelt down and began handing me rolls until they were a bundle in my arms.

  “Mr. Crumble.” His name was actually Mr. Crumb but everyone called him Crumble because he always grumbled in class. “Gave me a detention.”

  “What? Why did you get a detention?”

  “Doesn’t matter. I didn’t do it.”

  “Uh huh.” With the bundle of toilet paper in my arms, I turned to the hole in the floor. I couldn’t go down the ladder holding these.

  “Toss ‘em.” He said and I did.

  He tossed more down then shone the light for me to descend.

  We couldn’t bring our bikes to Mr. Crumb’s house because we couldn’t carry all the paper and drive at the same time. His arms were so full that a few rolls fell off and hit my foot. I squealed.

  “Shh. Do you want to get caught, Montgomery?”

  Henry let his load fall to the ground once we were in Mr. Crumb’s yard. Then he picked up a single roll and tossed it in the air. “Like that.” He quirked a sideways smile that made the dimples in his cheeks appear. Why was I noticing the dimples? I didn’t want to notice things like that, this was Henry. The guy who thinks the smellier his fart, the funnier. He makes it a contest to see if he can fit an entire sandwich in his mouth at once.

  Though I always thought he was gross, he was still my best friend. He never tried to impress me and I never have him. So why did I find myself staring at him a little too long under the faded light of the street lamp?

  “Are you going to help or what?” Another roll went spiraling through the air over a bush with bright red leaves.

  I started to giggle as I joined him. I couldn’t help it. I was never one who could play hide-and-seek. I always gave my location away.

  “Would you be quiet?” He had his own laughter in his voice.

  Mr. Crumb’s lights were out. He was probably in bed. I noticed his cluster of garden gnomes and headed toward them, armed with a roll.

  I snorted as I tip toed toward them. Holding my laugh in was difficult. When I got close enough, I tossed the roll over the gnomes. There was one in a swimsuit that I wrapped up like a mummy, all the while shaking with silent giggles.

  “That’s awesome, Montgomery.” Henry snickered behind me.

  I started to back away, still trying not to belt out a laugh when I tripped and fell. Something poked my butt and shattered at the same time.

  “Uh oh.” I looked at Henry wide-eyed.

  From inside a dog yapped and the porch light flickered on.

  Henry turned toward me. “Come on.” He said grabbing my hand.

  He yanked me up and I followed behind him even though my bum was sore. We ducked behind the neighbor’s SUV just before Mr. Crumb opened his door.

  Henry put his hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t make a noise. Mr. Crumb had on a striped robe, belly protruded from his middle and he didn’t look much different from the gnomes I’d just vandalized. His little dog was going ballistic under his arm.

  “Who’s there?” his voice was nasally.

  Henry’s hand smashed tighter to my mouth as my entire body shook holding in my giggles.

  “I’m going to call the law.” He shouted over his little dog’s yaps.

  We waited for a second then the door closed. Henry peeked under the SUV. “That was close.” He removed his hand from my mouth. I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I let out a loud laugh.

  Henry took me by the hand, and we ran off, out of breath before we got back to Henry’s.

  “That was fun.” Henry laughed as I mounted my bike. “I have to say, I didn’t think you had it in you, Montgomery.”

  “If you didn’t think I would do it, why did you ask me for help?” I placed my foot on a pedal.

  “I just wanted to see if you would.” He smiled.

  I needed to leave. I was tired, or maybe because it was dark. That was why Henry’s dimples and sideways smile were looking cute to me.

  Chapter 5

  Trey’s car smelled like soap. His hair was styled into a point with lots of gel. He wore his royal blue varsity jacket and a button up shirt underneath. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I sat ramrod straight with my backpack on my lap as if it was protecting me from doing anything stupid.

  I already felt awkward enough that I had no clue what to wear out of all the elaborate clothes in my closet. When I did find something, it was either too tight or too low cut. I settled for a black vee neck shirt that looked brand new and a pair of skinny jeans. What’s more comfortable than jeans and a tee? Nothing, as long as you’re not wearing a lacy bra with underwires that jab underneath, and I don’t even want to mention the thong. I wiggled in my seat and tugged at the bottom of the lacy cup behind my backpack to keep the underwire from assaulting my ribs.

  “You don’t remember us?” He smiled a smile that showed his perfectly straight, white teeth. I remembered when he had braces. It didn’t hurt his charm any, but now that they were off, let’s just say … wow.

  “The last thing I remember you were dating Ambrosia.” I twisted and tried to tug at the other side of my bra without him noticing.

  “Ambrosia? I dated her for like two weeks freshman year. That doesn’t even count.” He laughed. Then put his hand on my knee, his very large hand with long, slender fingers, making me jerk. He pulled back and curled his fist. “Sorry, habit.”

  “It’s okay.” I whispered but wasn’t sure if he heard me. He probably held my knee every morning, exactly like this. I couldn’t say I never fantasied about it, but now that it was here, I didn’t know what to do.

  He frowned. “You don’t remember anything from the last three years?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I mean you don’t remember our relationship, but you do remember being in love with me.” He grinned big.

  I suppose if we’d been together for a while, I would have told him about my crush, but that didn’t stop me from blushing. Good thing I had a thick layer of makeup on today to cover those bruises.

  “How …” my eyes darted to my backpack. I picked at the grey strap. “How long have we been together?”

  “Just about three years.”

  I whipped my head toward him. “Three years? I’ve lost the entire length of our relationship.”

  He didn’t have a reply to this. He stared straight ahead.

  “What happened to Henry Nash?”

  “What do you mean, what happened to him? He’s still around.” Trey shrugged like this was no big deal, but if he was my boyfriend then wouldn’t he know how close Henry and I were?

  “Why don’t I talk to him anymore?”

  “You got cool, he didn’t. Happens all the time. There are a lot of friends I used to have that I don’t talk to anymore.” He smiled when he glanced my way.

  I looked down again, trying to wrap my mind around how casually Trey could throw someone away.

  “Babe,” he reached for my knee again, but stopped just short, instead placing it on the gear shifter between us like that was what he was going to do all along. “You have a lot of friends now. You have Ambrosia, Nadia, me.”

  Nadia must have been the one in the pictures I didn’t recognize. According to Trey my friends were someone I didn’t like and someone I di
dn’t know. Did he not realize that wasn’t helping any?

  ***

  Walking in the school with Trey felt weird, too. Before, when I was a freshman nobody knew who I was. They’d walk by me like I was invisible. Back then, I would have given anything to be noticed. Now, I wished they’d quit staring. Trey’s hand on my back was both uncomfortable and comforting at the same time. I wasn’t used to being touched like that, even though I’m sure he’d done that a thousand times. But it did make me feel a little less alone.

  The people not only stared, but they also waved hello. Frowned at me in pity, some of them did have the decency to look away, or so I thought they were being decent until I heard the whispers. Trey led me to my locker which was decorated with streamers and signs saying, ‘Welcome back Homecoming Queen.’

  “You have study hall first period. You remember where that is?” Trey leaned close to me, invading my personal space.

  “If it hasn’t moved since freshman year, yes.”

  He looked down at his apple watch. I guess I had one, too, but didn’t put it on this morning. Now I wished I had because it seemed like half the school was wearing them. “I have to get to calc. I’ll meet you back here after class, we have comp together next.”

  That actually did make me feel a little better. Trey hesitated and moved his face toward mine. I panicked and turned so his lips landed on my cheek, not my mouth. To him we may have done this all the time, but I never have.

  “See you in 45,” he said. When he was walking down the hall, people waved hello, guys fist-bumped and high fived him.

  I wasn’t sure if I was relieved to see him go, or scared that I had to do this on my own. At least it was only study hall. Now that I was here at my locker I had to look at each book before I found my composition book. I had no idea where I was going after comp, so I didn’t bother shoving anything else in my backpack. Most of the text books were online anyway. At least they were when I was 14. Once my backpack was on my shoulders, I turned, and my eyes met greenish brown ones with long lashes.

  Henry?

  He looked different than I remembered. He was slimmer than he was before. His hair was dark black, floppy-long, and hanging over his face like a mop. The Henry I remembered had a round face with short, blond hair. Now his chin was square, and his cheek bones were noticeable. If it hadn’t been for his eyes, I wouldn’t have recognized him.

  I smiled as if I’d seen the first person I knew in a sea of strangers and I lifted my hand to wave. I thought he was coming toward me as he continued his trek through the hall and turned by me. Then he scowled and opened the locker next to mine. Of course, with my last name being Montgomery and his Nash, we were always next to one another, our lockers, in our classes, in the yearbook.

  “What are you looking at, Princess?” He grumbled as his locker opened with a rattle.

  My heart fell with my raised hand. “I …”

  “Don’t talk to me.” He didn’t even look at me.

  The only person I wanted to talk to hated me.

  “I don’t know what happened.” I leaned into him whispering.

  He laughed, only it wasn’t the fun Henry laugh that I remembered. He threw his bookbag over his shoulder, and flipped his hair out of his face as he turned away from me. “Sucks to be you, Princess.”

  “Quit calling me that.” My voice cracked as I spoke.

  “Is there a problem here?”

  I looked behind me in the direction of the voice I didn’t recognize. It was the boy from the pictures. Shortish, just a few inches taller than me and wide, but not fat, more like muscular. He had dark hair and olive skin.

  “Yeah, your Princess is bothering me.”

  The boy’s arm fell across my shoulders. “I’ll bet.”

  Henry lifted his hands in surrender and backed away, with one thing in his eyes I’d never remembered seeing there before, hate.

  “You okay?” The guy asked me.

  I looked at him, trying to dredge up some kind of memory.

  “Right, Trey said you don’t remember. I’m Drew, Trey’s best friend, and as my boy’s girl, I got your back.”

  “Excuse me? I’m Trey’s best friend.” Ryan said as he squeezed in beside us. “I’m Ryan.”

  “I know you.” I said. “I can remember everything up until beginning of freshman year.” And I’d been in school with Ryan since kindergarten.

  “I am hard to forget.” Ryan gave a cheesy sideways smile that might have worked on other girls, but not me.

  Drew nudged Ryan.

  Ryan glared and rubbed his ribs. Then said, “Are you okay?”

  I’d be better if my best friend in the entire world didn’t hate me and two strange guys weren’t the ones trying to comfort me. Okay, so I technically knew Ryan, but I’d never talked to him before.

  ***

  If the day wasn’t bad enough for me already, lunch only made it worse. I was surrounded by people I didn’t know or anyone I knew well, anyway. Not only that, but everyone looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my head when I sat down with cafeteria food. Trey informed me that I always packed a healthy lunch from home. Something with either salad or rice. No wonder I was so skinny.

  The girl from the photo sat down beside me, her dark hair was styled in two French braids. Ambrosia, with her platinum hair, the same color as mine was across from us. It made me wonder if we planned on dying our hair the same color.

  “I’m Nadia.” The girl from the photo shouted.

  “She has amnesia, she’s not deaf.” Trey put his arm around me as if he was staking his claim.

  I reached up and rubbed my ear.

  “Sorry,” Nadia grimaced.

  “It’s okay,” I said.

  Nadia had a set of perfect white teeth and she wore sparkly pink lip gloss that looked great with her tanned skin. Her eyes were big and round and brown with lashes the were crazy long. The kind of eyes other girls envied. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something else then was interrupted.

  “You don’t remember that you’re on a diet?” Ambrosia pointed to my tray.

  When I was freshman, I ate school lunches. Thinking of my freshman year, made me scan the room for Henry, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I remembered how scared I was my first day here. The cafeteria seemed so much bigger than the middle school’s and there were the senior boys that towered over me and the older girls gossiping in the bathrooms. I was relieved to have Henry.

  I remembered wishing I was one of the girls who sat at a table just like this one. With all the popular kids. Now I was here, and I felt like this was a cruel joke or some kind of lesson. Maybe that was it. Maybe I was going to wake up from this nightmare and I’d be fourteen again and Henry and I would be best friends again and I would tell him about my dream and he would laugh at me and tell me I’m messed up as he offered me Cheetos.

  “She’s got amnesia, she’s allowed a cheat day. Besides, that was just so she could fit into her homecoming dress.” Nadia’s reply brought me out of my revere.

  I looked at Ambrosia. She smirked, her eyes were icy, causing a chill to run down my spine despite Trey’s arm around me. I hadn’t noticed before how her big lips made her resemble a fish.

  The table rattled as Drew flopped down by Ambrosia. She rolled her eyes, both dainty hands and long manicured nails held in the air as if she’d just painted them. “Ogre much?”

  His toothy smile took up most of his face before he bit off half his burger. “You know you love me.” He leaned into her.

  Ambrosia snarled and swatted at him. “Get that disgusting animal carcass away.”

  “You can pretend to not like meat all you want, but that’s not how it was last night.” Ryan sat on the other side of Trey.

  “As if.” Ambrosia curled her bright red lip.

  “As if I had time for high school boys.” Drew said in a squeaky tone and flailed his hands.

  Beside me, Nadia giggled. Ambrosia glared at her.

  “What? He s
ounds just like you.” Nadia said.

  Drew smiled and tilted his head as if he won a prize.

  “Did Nash bother you anymore?” Ryan asked between bites.

  “Henry Nash?” Trey’s arm tightened around my waist. I wanted him to move it. It was awkward. He should be eating his lunch with both hands.

  “Yes, Henry Nash.” Drew said. “I caught him talking to her at their lockers.”

  “He’s not supposed to,” Trey said.

  “What?” I finally slid away enough that Trey’s arm fell.

  “He stalked you or so you claim.” Ambrosia stared down at her phone.

  “Why would she make that up?” Nadia said. I was beginning to see why she was my best friend.

  “What did he say to you?” Trey asked.

  “Nothing.” It hurt to say that. Henry was my world. It was like I woke up to find out he’d died, because he wasn’t like the Henry I knew before. Why would he stalk me? This didn’t make any sense.

  “Wait.” I held my hand up. “You mean to tell me you’re the reason why he hates me?”

  From the other side of the table, Ambrosia gave a satisfied smirk.

  “Babe, I’m protecting you.” Trey reached his arm around me.

  I twisted away from him. “Don’t touch me and stop calling me Babe.” The table went silent and everyone stared at us as if waiting to see what was going to happen next. Trey’s jaw dropped, his arm went limp between us. I just realized how embarrassing this was.

  It was all too much, having this big gap between my memories and now. I lost my best friend only to find out my boyfriend was enforcing it like some kind of high-school-mob-boss.

  The girl sitting beside me was a stranger, but she was my best friend. My head began to throb. Without a word, I pushed myself from my seat and started toward the office. My dad didn’t want me to come to school today. I think he was right.

  “Sawyer.” Trey’s voice only made my head hurt worse. “Hey,” he jogged up beside me. “What’s up?” The softness in his voice made me feel bad about making a scene. The thing was, he remembered. He remembered falling for me. He remembered our inside jokes. He remembered our first kiss. He remembered if we had sex. That’s right, I didn’t even know if I was a virgin or not.