by Elicia Hyder
“Big day today?” her sister asked expectantly.
“Pretty big,” Journey answered.
“Do you feel all grown up now?”
Journey glanced at her parents who were busy with their breakfast plates and the local news. “Um, no.”
Both sisters laughed.
“I wish I was there today, kid,” Elena said.
“I know. It’s cool,” Journey assured her.
“You’re going to come and visit me soon, correct?”
Journey nodded. “You bet. Thanks for the card and the cash. Mom gave it to me last night.”
“Oh yeah. How was your party?”
“Interesting,” Journey replied.
Elena laughed. “I bet. Well, call me later, OK?”
“I will. I got a new cell phone.”
“Nice!” Elena cheered. “I love you, sister.”
“Love you, too,” Journey said and disconnected the call.
After a few moments of silence, Carol finally spoke. “I really wish you were going to stay with your sister while we are out of town. We could give you gas money.”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“No parties, promise?” her mother asked.
“And no Steven over here while we’re gone,” her dad added.
Journey smirked. “And no sex, drugs, or rock-and-roll. I got it.”
Randall’s coffee sloshed onto the white tablecloth when he slammed his cup down onto the table.
Journey dropped her fork onto her plate and pushed her chair back across the tile floor. “Guess what?” she asked, rising to her feet. “I just realized. I’m eighteen today. I don’t have to listen to this anymore.”
Her mother silently closed her eyes.
Her father’s jaw was so tense Journey could swear she heard his back teeth cracking. “That’s right.” He let out a tight breath. “You’re eighteen.”
Journey looked at both of them. “Have a nice flight,” she said with slicing sarcasm before she marched out of the kitchen.
After packing a suitcase for ‘Kara’s house’, Journey drove the seven miles to David’s. His white truck was in the driveway when she pulled in, so she walked into the house without ringing the doorbell. “Anyone home?” she called out from the foyer.
David’s dad waved from the end of the hallway. Despite that Dennis Britton had been out of the military for twenty years, he still looked like a tank and gave orders like a drill sergeant. He was a tough man, but he liked Journey.
He walked over and gave her a side-hug. “Hey girl. Happy birthday. Gail has prepared quite a feast for your big day.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” She politely slipped off her tennis shoes before stepping onto their new beige carpet.
“David is downstairs in his room. Go on down and tell him that lunch is almost ready,” he said.
Journey turned toward the steps. “OK.”
David practically owned the remodeled basement of his parents’ house. He and his dad had worked for almost a year to finish it out into a living room, bedroom, and a bathroom just for him. He had his own television and stereo, and he had worked the summer before he graduated to buy a used pool table. His house had instantly become the hangout spot for all of their friends. Journey spent as much time there as she did at her own home.
When she entered the room, she noticed immediately that something was off. The photo that his mother had taken of the two of them together at his graduation the year before was missing from the entertainment center. She continued walking to David’s half-open bedroom door. “Dave?” she called out as she pushed it open and stepped inside.
There was a suitcase on the bed.
He looked up and met her gaze with wide eyes as if he’d been caught in the middle of some terrible act.
Journey looked around the room at the dresser drawers standing open and empty. Half of his clothes in the closet were gone. She looked back at David who appeared to be scrambling to think of something to say.
“Geez, we’re only going to be at the lake for a few days,” Journey said. “Don’t you think you’re over-packing just a little bit?”
He took a deep breath. “I’m only staying tonight.”
She laughed. “Well, then you seriously need to downsize.”
He didn’t laugh with her. He took a hesitant step forward. “I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon for boot camp.”
Her head snapped up. “Boot camp?”
He nodded.
“You joined the military?” Her voice was trembling.
“The Army,” he said. “About three weeks ago.”
Journey couldn’t speak. She had known for some time that his parents were pressuring him to follow in the footsteps of generations of Britton soldiers, but she didn’t realize he was seriously considering it. She thought, surely, if he was going to enlist he would have at least mentioned it to her. Suddenly, she felt betrayed having not been privy to such important information. It had been nearly two years since they had passed that first note in third period, and suddenly she felt like she didn’t know him any better than she had then.
Unable to fully process the information, and certainly lacking a response, Journey turned and walked silently out of the room.
“Journey!” David called and lunged in her direction.
She started up the steps taking them two at a time. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back down into his arms. “Will you stop for just a minute?” he almost shouted at her.
She punched him hard in the chest and pushed him away. “Don’t touch me!” Angry tears filled her eyes, but she refused to break.
He looked shocked and hurt. Good, she thought as she resumed her march up the stairs.
She walked out the front door and slammed it closed behind her. She didn’t care that she had yelled at him. She didn’t even care that she had just left the birthday lunch that his mother had prepared for her. She couldn’t bear to be in that house any longer and knew that she had to get as far away as possible before she became an emotional nightmare.
Maybe she’d been wrong about David the entire time. Obviously, she didn’t matter to him as much as she thought she did. Maybe it was best that he was leaving.
The gravel shifted under her tires as she peeled out of the driveway and uncontrollable tears spilled out onto her cheeks.
· · ·
David stared, motionless, at the front door.
“David, did Journey just leave?” his mother asked, coming down the hallway with a dish towel.
“Yeah, she’s gone,” he stammered.
Her eyes widened. “Gone?”
His dad walked in from the back porch to investigate the disturbance. “What happened?”
Gail looked at her husband and then back at her son. “Journey just about took the door off the hinges. David, what did you do?”
He was silent for a moment. “I didn’t tell her about the Army. She came in and saw my stuff all packed up.”
His dad folded his arms across his chest. “You didn’t tell her?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t know how.”
His mother pointed out the door. “You’d better go after her.”
“I can’t. She’s too mad. It will just piss her off more.” He turned and walked to the living room and slumped down onto the sofa.
His mother followed him. “David, are you in love with her?”
He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. He just shrugged his shoulders and looked away.
She was quiet for a while. “You need to talk to her and tell her how you feel.”
“I don’t know how,” he muttered.
“Come on, you talk to that girl more than you talk to everyone else in this world combined.” She rolled her eyes before pointing out the front door again. “Go and find her.”
David had no idea where Journey had gone. He got into his truck and drove through town thinking about what his mom had said. He knew she was right, but he also knew that Journey would never f
eel the same for him. Steven was her type, and even he never had her full attention. David knew he didn’t stand a chance.
He decided to call Marcus because, lately, Marcus was the person she would run to when she was mad at him.
Two months earlier had been her senior prom. At the insistence of Kara, she had asked David to take her. It wasn’t David’s fault that the planning committee had scheduled the dance on April Fools’ Day, but he was certainly to blame for everything that happened because of it…
He thought it would be funny to call Journey the night of the prom and tell her that he hadn't been able to leave work early enough to pick up his tuxedo and that he wouldn't be able to make it. He never believed she would actually fall for it. When she did, he received the worst verbal lashing of his life and she hung up on him. That's where he should have ended the joke, but he didn't.
Instead, he decided that he was going to pull off the April Fools' joke to end all April Fools' jokes. At Valentino’s Italian Bistro, he sat with pride facing the door so that he wouldn't miss the look on her face when she walked in with Justin and Kara and saw him.
While he waited, he tried to picture her in a proper prom dress. He liked it when she wore green, but she had turned up her nose when he mentioned it. Green brought out tiny flecks of emerald in her hazel eyes. Her blond hair would have a fresh batch of blue or purple highlights, and just for the occasion, she might wear some makeup. David didn't care if she wore it or not. He never thought she needed it.
He sat forward in his seat as the restaurant door opened. Justin and Kara entered. No Journey. Uh oh.
Kara's mouth fell open, and she put her hands on her hips. "Oh, you are so stupid.”
Marcus had picked Journey up from Kara's that night and had taken her out to dinner. Afterward, the two of them went dancing at Barry's Bar & Grill. It was that same night that Steven had officially asked Journey to be his girlfriend.
To say David was stupid was the understatement of a lifetime.
Much like that fateful prom night where David was the fool, he was once again driving all over Emerson looking for his best friend. Marcus hadn't seen her, Kara didn't answer her phone, and Steven was at work. He drove by her work and by her favorite coffee shop, but she was nowhere to be found. He finally gave up and went home to finish packing.
· · ·
Marcus hung up the phone and looked out of his window at Journey sitting on his porch in tears. Her hands shook as she drew a third cigarette up to her lips. He walked back outside and sat down on the step beside her. “That was him,” he said. “He’s looking for you, but I didn’t say you were here.”
She just nodded.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?”
She was quiet for a minute. “Did he tell you he was joining the Army?”
Marcus shrugged his shoulders. “He mentioned that he was thinking about it.”
She pulled her knees into her chest and cried. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
Marcus knew how to handle girls but not in an emotionally-supportive type of way. He put an arm around her shoulders. He knew exactly why David hadn’t told her about the Army. He didn’t want to deal with this, he thought as she sobbed into her blue jeans. Thanks a lot, buddy. He could’ve knocked David’s teeth out.
When David had first befriended Journey, Marcus couldn’t figure out why. But as he got to know her, he began to appreciate that she was so different from the other girls—none of which he could just enjoy hanging out with. So, the summer before, when Justin had backed out of going with him to a Metallica concert in Atlanta, Marcus got her number from David and called her. He thought it was funny that she seemed so shocked when he offered her the extra ticket. She had even asked if it was really him.
“Why do you want to take me?” she had asked him.
“Because you might be the only person I know that likes them as much as I do,” he said. “Do you want to go or not?”
Of course she had gone, and they had so much fun that he knew it made David a little jealous. There was nothing romantic there, although her unwillingness to be impressed with him became a challenge to try and gain her attention.
He didn’t understand David. Obviously, the idiot was head-over-heels for her, but he never would make a move. He couldn’t understand how David could leave her for guys like Steven to have.
“Happy freaking birthday to me,” she sobbed.
“Come inside, and I’ll get you something to drink. And don’t you dare light another cigarette. I don’t want to have to scrape your lungs off my steps.”
She left her pack of cigarettes on the porch and followed him into the house.
Marcus wasn’t proud of the fact that he still lived with his grandparents. But they had taken him in when his mother bailed on him as a kid, and he felt obligated to stay and help take care of them when they got older. They had built an extension onto their double-wide trailer for him to call his own, but he rarely had friends over. Only those closest to him were ever invited inside. Journey was one of the few regulars.
She stretched out across his black comforter, and he turned on MTV. “Want a Coke?” he asked as he walked toward the kitchen.
She hugged his pillow. “Sure.”
When he returned, she was lying on her back staring at the ceiling. He handed her the drink and sat down on the corner of the bed facing her.
“Maybe it’s time for me to move on,” she said.
“From what?”
“From this place.” She sighed. “I could go and stay with my sister for a while.”
“You’re going to leave the state because David joined the military and didn’t tell you?” He laughed. “Get real.”
“I’m serious. She’s working for this big marketing company now and just bought a huge house,” she said. “Hey! You could come with me!”
He nearly choked on his drink. “Yeah right,” he said, lying down next to her. There was a blonde in a bikini staring down at them from a poster on his ceiling. “Where is Kara? Shouldn’t the two of you be having a girl-crisis moment or something?”
“No idea. Trust me, I tried her before I showed up here,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Glad to know I’m second choice.”
“Actually, you’re third. I called my sister before you also,” she added.
“Great,” he groaned. “So, what do we do now? I’m not good at this whole ‘supportive’ thing.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “You tell me that David is a jerk, and he doesn’t deserve to have me as a friend.”
He laughed. “David is a jerk and definitely doesn’t deserve to have you as anything.” He rolled over and looked at her. “Now, can we please watch a movie or something?”
3
The Ring
By five o’clock the sun was starting to set, and Journey was sweating underneath the weight of her blue cap and gown. Her eyes scanned the crowd for familiar faces during the valedictorian’s speech. She saw Uncle Ray and Aunt Joan. Just behind them were David and his parents. That damn haircut, she thought when she suddenly put the new crew cut together with the joining of the military.
He caught her gaze, but she darted her eyes back to the stage.
Her thoughts were racing wild, so the speaker’s voice was only an echo. Every few moments her ears would tune in and grasp a few random sentences from the speech. “…and we’ll never forget these years of our lives…” You can say that again, Journey thought as her mind wandered back to David.
A little while later, her name was called, and she ceremoniously crossed the stage to accept her diploma. She heard Marcus’s familiar whistle above the crowd, and she smiled for the first time all afternoon. It was her birthday and her graduation; by god, she was going to enjoy it.
· · ·
Randall Durant didn’t do anything half-assed, especially his mid-life crisis. On the day he turned fifty, he bought a lake house, a boat, and two jet skis without so much as consulting his
wife. Everyone was sure it was the only time that Journey’s mother had ever contemplated divorce—or homicide. Journey had her own room at the two-story, log cabin overlooking the water, but she rarely ever visited. At least not when her parents were in town, anyway.
Within an hour of the close of the graduation ceremony, David walked into the house and found it swarming with under-age drinkers.
Journey did an amazing job of avoiding David for most of the evening. She rode with Kara to the lake and then disappeared with Steven and a bottle of fruity wine to the hot tub for nearly an hour. During dinner, she immersed herself in conversations that didn’t include him. As long as she wasn’t looking directly at him, she seemed perfectly happy. Then, every once in a while, David would catch her eye and watch the life drain out of her. His stomach wrenched every time that it happened. He knew he was running out of time to make things right again.
As darkness fell, he sat nursing a beer with Marcus and Justin on the porch. Suddenly, Steven got up from his post at Journey’s hip and went into the house. David knew that if he didn’t take this chance that it might be the last one he got with her.
He pushed himself up off the porch steps and crossed the deck to where she sat with Kara. She looked up at him with glassy eyes. Maybe she’d had enough alcohol to forgive him. “Wanna walk with me?” he asked.
She hesitated for a minute and then fired back. “If you’re going to try to explain to me why you didn’t mention that you’re running off to join the governmental circus, I don’t want to hear it! I don’t really care.”
He paused, unsure of what to say next. Kara glared at him, and he realized he was in dangerous territory.
“Please,” he finally muttered.
She looked at him with forced indifference. That brought him a tinge of hope. She was trying not to care. She stood up, and he led her down the steps to the path by the water’s edge. She walked stiffly, hugging her arms though it wasn’t even chilly. Maybe she was trying to restrain herself from hitting him. They walked in silence until the voices and the music from the house were only a distant hum.
