by JL Bryan
“Hey Zel, want me to throw your lunch away too?” Melody reached out her hand, a fountain of gold bangles cascading down her arm and clinking at her wrist.
I handed the bag over. “Uh, sure.” I noticed that Melody didn’t have any lunch with her at all. I’m pretty sure her group of “friends” didn’t eat a whole lot. “What’d you do with your Thermos?”
Melody snorted. “Yeah, like I even leave the house with that!” She glanced over her shoulder to her friends, all of them giggling in unison. “Is Mom trying to make us the lamest people in existence?”
This made me smile. “Hey, Mel, it might be too late for me, but really, save yourself now while you can.”
Melody smiled back. “Duh!” She walked away, the other girls following her, and made a big show of chucking my lunch in the trashcan as she left the cafeteria.
“The rainbow and unicorn squad has left the building,” Claire snarked. “I don’t know how you put up with that nonsense.”
“Whatever do you mean?” I asked. I was used to it. That’s how Mel had always been. “Don’t you know that Melody’s going to be the first popular person in our family since...well, since my mom!”
“You’re right, how stupid of me to even ask.”
Principal Landry came into the cafeteria and walked over to the table where Avery was sitting with Jason, a few seniors from the baseball team, and several girls on the student council and in cheerleading.
“Avery, your mom is on the phone asking to speak with you immediately. Would you come to my office please?”
A chorus of “ooh’s” and “what did you do now’s” erupted from the table. A blush like wildfire covered Avery’s face. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say “how do I know?” and followed principal Landry.
“What do you think that was about?” I asked. I felt really cruddy that Avery was so embarrassed. I knew it totally sucked to have everyone staring at you.
Claire leaned towards me and lowered her voice. “Well...I don’t know for certain, but my mom has told me about Avery’s mom getting drunk in one of the bars at the lodge a couple of times. The bartenders have had to call him to come pick her up. I guess it could be that.”
Claire’s parents owned and operated the largest ski resort in the area. It housed a grand lodge, several fine dining restaurants, and three bars. Half the people in Rosedell worked there. She was privy to a lot of the gossip in town because of it.
“But why would she call Avery?” I asked. “He doesn’t even have his license yet. Why wouldn’t Mr. Adams pick her up?”
“Probably because Mr. Adams is a tool.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Huh. That totally sucks for Avery though.” I lowered my voice too. “Y’know, Mr. Adams was at his office window again yesterday when we were driving home. He’s been there every Sunday for the past few months.”
“Ick. Do you think he’s stalking your mom or something?”
“Nah. I mean, they’re friends. She did say that he worked so much because he had an ‘unpleasant home life,’ whatever that means. Maybe she was talking about Avery’s mom?” I opened the Thermos, yup, chicken noodle, just as I suspected. I poured some soup into the lid and drank it.
“Didn’t they used to be friends too? His mom and yours? Wish you knew what happened there.” Claire helped herself to the next cup of soup that I poured.
“Mom never wants to talk about it. All she’ll say is that Avery and I were so cute when we used to play together. Then he went to kindergarten and she wanted to try home-schooling me--”
“Thank God that didn’t last!”
“Seriously? It’s not bad enough that I’m a pastor’s daughter and live in a small town surrounded by mountains?”
Claire nodded. “How would I have ever survived 5th grade without you? The second we moved to Rose-hell I was ready to go back to boarding school.” She reached across the table and took my hands in hers. “Then I saw you on the playground, wearing those high-water orange corduroys and I knew that dorkiness would be our bond.”
“I loved those pants!” I said, slapping her hands away.
I chugged the rest of the soup straight from the Thermos and then screwed the lid back on. Soup dribbled down the sides.
Claire handed me a napkin. “C’mon, I gotta pee and fix my face before French. I’ll get the lowdown on what happened from my mom tonight. See if Mrs. Adams was even at the lodge.”
Avery nodded at the bartender as he hurried over to the stage in the corner of the lounge. His mom stood stock still in the middle, microphone in hand, belting out “Memories” from CATS. She liked to get loaded and re-live her high school theater geek days. The few other tipsy people in the place cheered her on.
He reached out a hand to her. “Mom, I’m here to pick you up. Let’s go!”
She stopped singing and stumbled forward, bracing herself on her son’s shoulders. “Avery! Honey! What are you doing here?”
“You called me to come get you. Out of school?” He sighed, exasperated. “You called me out of school to come and pick you up. Don’t you remember? It was like, half an hour ago.”
She pulled away from him. “But I’m just getting started, honey! I’m having so much fun! Let me do one more, please? You know my Evita is so good.”
Avery stepped up onto the stage and took the microphone from her hand. An audience member booed him. “No, Mom, c’mon, I gotta get back to school. I have to get Jason’s truck back to him.”
“Oh, all right,” she took a bow and then gestured toward Avery, “my son, ladies and gentlemen!” The same guy booed again.
He put his arm around her waist and helped her down from the stage. On the way out, he grabbed a to-go cup of coffee the bartender handed him. “Thanks again, Tom.”
Out in the parking lot his mom squinted her eyes in the early afternoon sun. “Jesus, it’s bright out here! What time did you say it was again?”
“It’s one in the afternoon, Mom. You called while I was at lunch.”
She giggled. “And how embarrassing was that for you?”
“Pretty freaking embarrassing.”
Avery opened the passenger side door to Jason’s pickup and helped his mom in, buckling her seat belt. “I thought we agreed that you were only going to do this sort of thing after work with co-workers who can legally drive you home.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh, honey! I’m so sorry! I don’t know what I was thinking. What an idiot I am.”
He got into the truck and wiped the tears from his mom’s face with his shirtsleeve. “It’s okay. You’ve just gotta be more careful. If Dad finds out about this...well you know that won’t be good.”
They sat in silence on the way home. His mom dozed off. He pulled into the driveway, getting as close to the garage as he could and hopped out, punching in the code for the door. As soon as it started opening he went around to his mom’s side and helped her out of the truck. He got her into the garage as quickly as possible. He didn’t think any of the neighbors had seen them, this time anyway.
After he got his mom out of her shoes and into bed, and a large glass of water on the bedside table, he jogged out to the truck and headed back to school.
What had Zellie thought of him, leaving school in the middle of the day? He was sure that Claire had filled her in on why his mom needed him. She was wasted in Claire’s parents’ place of business, after all.
To distract himself, Avery thought of Zellie in church the day before, knocking that big hat off of Mrs. Hobby’s head. Hilarious. Classic Zellie. She was always acting like a goof and looking beautiful doing it. He’d tried to get in on the joke with her, smile at her during communion, but she had just made the weirdest face and turned away from him. Then, during the sermon she was leaning forward and it seemed like she was looking his way, but she must have been looking past him.
She was so confusing, more so than any other girl he knew. Not that he had vast experience to draw on or anything. For the most part, he’d just bee
n on group outings to the movies, stuff like that. No other girl made him as nervous or as unsure of himself as Zellie did.
Many things came easily for him. Grades, sports, friendships, and he probably could’ve had his pick of a few really cool girls, but none of them...shook him up like her. When they were younger and he had more of a grip on his feelings, Avery had been able to push down whatever it was about Zellie that mesmerized him. The past couple of years, though, he could not keep his eyes off of her. Could not keep himself from wondering what it would take to make her happy. Could not stop himself from imagining and staring and being so into her. It was probably going to kill him.
After parking Jason’s pickup where it was that morning, Avery jogged into the school, careful to avoid the office. He hadn’t exactly told Mr. Landry that he was going to pick up his mom.
For more information about Stacey Wallace Benefiel and her books, please visit her website: http://staceywb.webs.com
