by Joyce Lee
Chapter Six
Digging Up Bones
“I met Dale just before Christmas break my senior year in high school,” Kristin told LeAnn as they sat cross-legged on the bed in her room. She felt like a kid again, powwowing and divulging secrets. It was refreshing, despite how mortified she was at the entire situation.
“Was he that attractive in high school?” LeAnn asked, obviously a little taken with Dale.
Thinking back, Kristin had to smile. “He definitely was. I mean, to a teenage girl, he was. Now, I’d much rather have the more mature package.” She sighed. “Anyway, it was a bit of a whirlwind. We dated for about a month, spent New Year’s together, and had one amazing night of sex. But that was all. By Valentine’s Day, we’d just…stopped talking. We’d say hi in the hallways and at parties. But when we graduated, he was dating Emily Goodall, and I left for NYU two days later.”
LeAnn gawked at her. “So, what, you just sort of drifted apart? There was no break up or reason why it didn’t work out?”
Kristin had never really thought about it, but now that she looked back, she, too, wondered why they hadn’t worked out. Those few weeks had been short and spun her head, but she remembered being incredibly happy. It wasn’t love; she’d been too young for that. But it had been absolute bliss, and had her path in life been different, it might have become love. But that seemed like light-years ago.
“I don’t remember what happened, really. I know that, when we went back to school, we went out a couple more times, and he walked me to classes for a while. But he had track, and I was working on the yearbook committee. We didn’t have any classes together, and I guess ‘drifted apart’ is the right way to put it.”
LeAnn threw her hands up in exasperation. “That’s ridiculous! You know, he’s not married. You should remind him that, technically, you’re still together and take advantage of that heat in his eyes when he looks at you.”
“Oh, please, you’re so dramatic.” The fact was, Kristin had no intention of reminding Dale of any of the details of their fling. There were several of those details she would rather forget. “It’s been more than twelve years, LeAnn. And I’m sure, with all the people that come through this place on an annual basis, he can pick one out of every crowd to eyeball. And at least one out of every three of those is going to fall victim to his charm.” But even saying it felt wrong and made Kristin’s chest hurt. High school flings were better left in the past, but it didn’t seem possible to bury her past deep enough to keep the more determined dogs from digging up the bones.
She shooed LeAnn out of her room at long last and crawled under the covers, tossing bags and wrappers to the floor and vowing she’d clean them up tomorrow. She was much more a morning person, which meant she’d be better off getting to sleep now and actually functioning properly tomorrow.
