Outcome

by Kim Pritekel

  "Hey, now. It wasn’t my foot that took careful aim." I grinned, looking out the window. She pulled into the parking lot of Franko’s, a nice, but not expensive,, Italian restaurant.

  "You like Italian, right?" I nodded vigorously, she smiled.

  "So, why are you doing this, again?" I asked as we waited to be seated. She looked at me, leaned against the wall near the front door.

  "Why not? And it’s just kind of a continuance of my thank you."

  "For what?" We followed the hostess to a table for four, and were given menus.

  "For last weekend," she answered, finally getting settled. "That was really nice of you."

  "It wasn’t that big of a deal, Haley. I was glad you called. I’d much rather get out in the middle of the night than have you guys run into a misplaced telephone pole." She smiled, sipping from her water.

  "You sound like my mother."

  "No, I sound like my mother." She leaned across the table, lowering her voice.

  "Has she made any brownies lately?" I shook my head.

  "Sorry, lady. She’s been way too busy at the hospital."

  "What does your mom do?"

  "Nurse."

  "Oh. Cool."

  "Not as interesting as an astronomer, but a good job all the same."

  "This is true." The waitress came to take our orders, and of course neither of us had looked at the menu. Quickly picking something out of the air, we ordered, and Haley looked at me. "So, how long have you done this Karate thing?"

  "Tae Kwon Do, since I was six."

  "Wow. Some time. Are you like a black belt, now?" I grinned, not really one to brag, I nodded. "Is it hard to get one?"

  "Well, I don’t know if hard is the word, but it certainly does take time and patience and discipline."

  "How did you get started in it?" We both took the glasses of soda the waitress brought to the table, me sipping from mine before I answered.

  "Well, when my folks were still together, my father thought it was important for me and Chris to have some sort of self defense. We initially started out in Karate, but then the dojo burned down, and the instructor left town, so we got involved with another guy, my Sabum Nim, who taught Tae. Been there ever since."

  "Does your brother still do it?" I shook my head.

  "No. He got more into the athletic thing, school sports and such."

  "Oh." She looked at me for a minute. "I saw you have a computer in your room, do you get online much?"

  "Off and on. Usually it’s to play Literati or for homework. Why?"

  "Well, just wondered. Me and Kelly get on all the time and chat while we write papers. So, if you feel the need, drop a line. We talk on instant messaging all the time."

  "What’s your screen name?"

  "You’ll laugh." She gave me the cutest little shy smile as she leaned back in her chair, nearly tipping it back. This, of course, intrigued me all the more.

  "Come on, Haley. Spit it out. What is it?"

  "Well, I chose it because it was simple, and I’d certainly always remember it."

  "Great. What is it?" I wasn’t about to let her babble her way out of it.

  "Cometbaby."

  "Cometbaby?" She nodded, giving me a side look.

  "Yeah, it’s silly."

  "Not at all. I think it’s rather cute."

  "Really?"

  "Sure. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?"

  "Well yeah, but,"

  "But what? I like it."

  "So?"

  "Mtn 83." She looked at me for a minute, her brows drawn.

  "Huh? No, wait. Let me try and figure this one out." She studied me for a moment. "You’re 17, right?" I nodded. "Okay, that would explain the 83. Am I right?" Again I nodded. "Okay. So, mtn." I watched her, swearing I could hear the wheels turning in there as she tried to figure it out. Come on, Haley. Think about it. "Mtn. What is that? Let’s see. It’s definitely not your initials. Right?" I shook my head, amused. "Okay, so what does that stand for? Mountain? Why mountain?" She straightened, a slow smile spreading. "Mountain, Andes, Andi." She looked proud, crossing her arms over her chest. "Am I right?"

  "Bravo. And it only took you," I glanced down at my watch.

  "Yeah, bite me." She balled up the paper that her straw had been encased in, and threw it at me.

  "So whose Halloween party was it?" I smiled as I spied our waitress headed toward our table, a tray laden with absolutely yummy looking food. I was famished.

  "Oh, a guy named Stone Walthers. He’s a quirky college freshman whose folks own a lot of property, and rarely, if ever, use the old farm house, so he holds parties there for just about every holiday."

  "Oh. Was it fun?" A plate of stuffed raviolis was placed in front of me, the smell wafting up to tickle my senses and make my mouth water. Haley’s rigatoni looked just as good.

  "Yeah, I guess. It would have been more so had I not gotten so drunk." She grabbed the small parmesan cheese shaker that sat on the table, and coated her food liberally. "I don’t drink that often. To be honest, I’ve never really understood the urge to get loaded every weekend. That’s one thing about my friends that I really don’t like, you know?" She glanced up at me, then turned back to her food. I just nodded as I began to eat, and listened. "That’s one thing I like about you, Andi. You don’t seem to feel the need for that kind of thing."

  "I don’t." She smiled, taking a huge forkful of food into her mouth, closing her eyes as she savored the flavor. After chewing, she looked at me again.

  "You know what’s sad?" I shook my head. "You and I are the ones that are unusual. I think the only reason my friends don’t get on me that bad is because I give them all rides home when they’re too drunk to stand. Before I got my car, oh man did they used to give me shit over it."

  "Then why hang out with them?" For some reason I felt a need to understand why Haley, so different and fun and kind, would hang out with them, complete opposites of all those things. She looked at me, fork halfway to her mouth.

  "They’re my friends."

  Okay, good enough. Though I would never understand why.

  "So I hear Ryan called you. Or tried to, at least." I looked at her, my mouth full of ravioli, which was good. It would give me time to think as I slowly chewed. I had a feeling what was coming next. Why hadn’t I called him back? "So, why haven’t you called him back?" I wiped my mouth with my napkin, took a sip of Dr. Pepper, and cleared my throat.

  "Well, I don’t really have an answer for you. I did intend to, but then I didn’t for whatever reason, then I forgot." How did I tell her that I thought Ryan was a dork, albeit a cute dork?

  "Oh. If you didn’t like him, Andi, all you had to do was say so."

  "Yeah, well, you know. He was really a nice guy. I guess I’m just not interested in finding a boyfriend right now." She looked at me for a moment as she took a drink of her Coke, eyeing me over the glass.

  "Okay."

  That’s it? Just okay? Well, I guess I’m glad she wasn’t going to stand up for the guy. It was crappy and I knew it. I just didn’t care enough to do anything about it.

  "So do you have any great plans for tonight?" I shook my head, my hand flying up to my mouth to stop a ravioli avalanche as I had shoved too much in my mouth. Haley grinned at me, handing me a napkin as I had pretty much destroyed mine. Grateful, I took it, wiping my chin and mouth.

  "Nope." I finally managed.

  "Good. Want to come over and watch a movie?"

  "At your house?" She nodded. "Oh," I felt really stupid. Oh? I knew I was nervous about the idea, feeling like I’d just been invited to step onto sacred territory, hallowed ground. "Sure." I smiled, trying to hide my stupidity behind it.

  "Great." She smiled. "Have you seen The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, yet?" I shook my head. "No? Oh my god, Andi. Where have you been?"

  "I guess not roaming around in Mordor."

  "I’ll get you to the twenty-first century yet."

  "Ha ha."

 
; The Corregan house was very nice, a two story with five bedrooms and a bunch of bathrooms. Haley headed downstairs to the basement, and I followed. A pool table was in a nook toward the back of the room, a Wurlitzer 1050 juke box against the wall. A bar, much like the one in my own house, lined one wall, an upright piano the opposite.

  "Nice piano. Do you play?"

  "A little." Haley headed for the big screen TV and the surrounding entertainment cabinets. She opened a door to reveal what must have been hundreds of DVDs. Kneeling down to read through them, finally she reached in and grabbed one. "I hope you have some time, because this is one long movie."

  "Works for me."

  "Have a seat."

  I looked around to see a nice, black leather couch with matching arm chair. I sat on the couch, waited for the show to begin.

  "Do you want anything? Drink? Food? Sweats?" I put my hand on my stomach, shaking my head.

  "God, no. I can’t eat another bite."

  "Okay. Sweats? I’m going to get comfortable, so you’re more than welcome to, too."

  "Um, that’s okay." I smiled, feeling slightly weird about wearing her clothes for some reason. Almost as if by simply wearing them, I’d ruin them for her.

  "You’re sure?" she asked, hand on the door that would take her upstairs. I nodded. "Okay. Be right back. Oh, and the bathroom is right down that hallway if you need it." She smiled, then was gone. I looked around as the DVD got started, movie previews starting up with a loud rush. I looked around, seeing where Haley’s dad had hooked up all kinds of speakers for surround sound, and stereo, and just about anything else some electronic-savvy guy could muster.

  As I sat there, legs together, hands in my lap, I felt like some sort of an intruder. I rarely went over to Tracy’s house, and she never went to mine, so this was new to me. Never in all my school years had I had a close friend, a good friend to go to each other’s house on the weekends, get to know their family. I had seen on shows and movies where friends actually called their friend’s parents mom and dad. That had always seemed like such an odd thing for me, like it was only in the movies. But as I sat here in the Corregan’s basement, I felt like that may be possible, like maybe it wasn’t just fiction.

  The basement door opened, and suddenly I couldn’t see. I reached up and removed the clothing from my head, seeing Haley staring at me with a wide grin.

  "Just in cast you changed your mind." I looked at the pair of green sweats that were in my hand, knowing that they would be much more comfortable than the jeans I wore, and much warmer, too.

  "Fine, fine. I will, for the first time in my life, submit to a bit of peer pressure." I stood, sweats in hand.

  "Shall I take a picture?" She grinned, I glared, headed toward the bathroom.

  My god! These things are huge! I didn’t think Haley was that much taller than me, but I guess I was wrong. I pulled the pants up to my hips, the legs dragging on the ground. So, I leaned down, scrunched them up over my feet, and stood, pulling the waistband up as far as it would go. With a bit of stretching, it went up over my breasts. Grinning, I headed out to Haley.

  "Hey, those actually don’t fit too bad." She looked me over, seeing where the legs were scrunched up just a bit. I stared at her, amused. She finally looked up to catch my eyes, and that’s when I lifted my sweat shirt to reveal the pants pulled up. Haley’s eyes got huge, then she burst into laughter, followed by my own chuckles. "Okay, okay, so they’re a little big."

  I pulled the pants down to their normal place, the extra material bagging around my legs. She was larger than I was all the way around.

  "Come sit. The movie is about to start."

  I sat, transfixed, for over three hours as the elves, dwarfs, hobbits and humans of Middle Earth fought together to protect, and eventually destroy, the ring. I don’t think I said one word to Haley during the entire film. Finally the credits rolled, and I felt eyes on me. I turned to see her looking expectantly at me.

  "So?"

  "That was way cool." She grinned, clapping her hands together.

  "I’m so glad you liked it. I had a feeling you would, Andi."

  "Oh, I did." A yawn escaped me, my hand going to my mouth to cover it.

  "Tired?" I looked at her with heavy eyes, nodded. It was after midnight, nearly one in the morning, and after a long day at school, then work, I was beat. "I’m pretty gone, too. Why don’t you just stay here?" I looked at her for a second, surprised. Me, stay here? Oh, my. "Come on, we’ve got the room, and I’m way too tired to drive. I’ll kill us both." She grinned, and so did I.

  "Okay."

  "Cool. Come on."

  Haley lead me back upstairs, and up again until we ended up in her bedroom. It was actually decorated quite simply. A few posters of various sports stars, especially soccer, such as the large print of Mia Hamm, hanging on the closet door. There were two twin beds on walls lined up at a ninety degree angle so the heads of both beds were nearly touching diagonally. I looked at her, a brow raised.

  "I used to have sleep overs all the time as a kid, so my parents got me the double beds so the poor girl would have somewhere to sleep. I just never got rid of them." She shrugged sheepishly.

  "Okay."

  I pulled off my sweatshirt, grateful I had a tank underneath it. I would keep the sweats on, most likely. Being alone so often, I had grown to be very modest. Haley whipped off her shirt, a tee under, and pushed her flannel pants down her legs.

  "Well, goodnight, Andi." She yawned, turning out the light.

  "Night."

  Part 4

  I looked at my finger, wrapped in the Snoopy Band-Aid that the school nurse gave me. I understand she works at different schools, including the elementary school, but does she have to let it spill over into the high school? Never in my life had I had a cartoon character wrapped around my finger.

  I shoved my hand in my pocket, feeling stupid that I needed a Band-Aid in the first place. I had been in Biology class working on an experiment when the beaker had cracked, then broken, slicing my finger as it went. Man, that had hurt.

  It was kind of nice, though, the halls quiet as everyone sat in class. I watched the light from the window at the end of the hall, bouncing and twisting off the cracks and seams in the white linoleum, buffed to a shine. Lockers surrounded me on both sides of the hall, interrupted once in a while by a classroom door. I could hear the loud voices of the students in gym class coming up just at the end where I would turn to head back to class.

  As I passed, I glanced over, stopping dead in my tracks. Haley stood in front of a weight machine, her arm draped over the bar as she spoke with Ryan, from the party. He was dressed in a tank and shorts, apparently both were in weight-lifting class. My eyes trailed to Haley. She also wore shorts and a tank, I could just barely see the straps of the sports bra underneath. I took in her entire body, legs long and supple from soccer in the fall, and then track in the spring. The clothes she usually wore, though fitted or even tight, belied the true shape of her body. Her arms were toned, the shoulders nicely defined, though not large. I imagined she had nothing of a stomach, either.

  I was absolutely transfixed by the picture she set. She was stunning.

  As my eyes drifted back to Ryan, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about. Haley was smiling and nodding her head as Ryan talked, gesturing wildly with his hands. Haley’s head fell back as a loud spurt of laughter escaped her. It was a nice sound, high-pitched, but not shrill A contagious sound as I found myself smiling.

  Watching them, I realized I was jealous …but not jealous of Haley talking to the guy who liked me, or had to some degree at one point.

  No, I was jealous of Ryan.

  Shaking it off, I hurried off to class before anyone saw me.

  * * *

  I tried to avoid my booboo as I stuffed books into my locker, taking out my take-home quiz to do later, after work. Teachers were starting to pile up on work as Thanksgiving was only two weeks away, and finals would be a mere week an
d a half after it. I could not believe how quickly this year was flying by.

  "Hey." Nearly jumping out of my skin, I closed my locker door a bit to see Haley standing behind it, a large grin on her face.

  "Well, aren’t you in a happy person place." She grinned wider.

  "Of course. It’s Wednesday, hump day."

  "Ah." I finished with my books, slammed my locker shut, sliding the padlock into place to snap it shut. "So why are you in such a happy person place? Hump day can’t be all that exciting." I turned and started to head down the hall, Haley walking next to me.

  "Well, no, but it is when you get a 97 on a physics test." I stopped and turned to look at her, my mouth open.

  "You didn’t."

  "I did," she squealed, turning in a circle, hands in the air. People walking by stopped to stare at her.

  "Go you." I smiled, truly proud of her. She had done that one completely on her own. But then, wait a second. Suddenly I felt kind of sad. "Well, I guess my services have become obsolete." I gave her a smile, which I did not feel. She glanced down at me as we started to walk again.

  "Well, I wouldn’t say that."

  "No?"

  "No. I don’t just use you for your brain, you know."

  "Oh, really?" I pushed her away from me. She grinned as she made her way back to walking beside me. "Would it make you feel better if I had a class that I suck at?"

  "Oh, definitely. I want all the gory details." She rubbed her hands together as she leaned her head closer to catch my every word.

  "Man, you just are not a nice person, you know that?"

  "Yeah, yeah. Come on, out with it!" I grinned, shaking my head. What was she on, anyway? Part of me felt guilty as I walked and talked with her, as if I had been a voyeur earlier, and seen something that I shouldn’t have. Granted, everyone in gym class today saw her, but they didn’t stop and stare. I couldn’t even really explain how I felt. I didn’t like that very much.

  "Well, in psych,"

  "You’re taking psych?" Haley asked, her voice high and excited. I nodded. "Oh, yay! I’ll help." I looked at her like she’d just gained a third head.