Gently grabbing her phone from her hand, I type in my current phone number and save it to her contacts quickly. She watches me avidly, not bothering to hide the thick swallow she takes that makes her throat bob.
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing you, Maria,” I tell her, and her responding smile is so genuine it makes my chest grow warm.
“It’s been good to see you too, Rem.”
“So…let’s do it again, but under less stressful circumstances, yeah?”
She snorts. “Less stressful sounds perfect.”
“You have my number now.” I hand her phone back to her. “Use it, okay?”
She nods. “Sure.”
I lean forward and kiss the soft skin of her right cheek to say goodbye, and then I watch as she walks away.
For the rest of the night? I wait, hoping she’ll call or text or anything to return the exchange of numbers, but the communication never comes. Memories, however, do. Her some other time, maybe? reminds me so much of the first time I met Maria Baros, it’s practically palpable.
Twenty-Eight Years Ago…
Summer break, two weeks before school starts…
Remy
In less than two weeks, summer will be done, and school will be back in session. No more week-long trips to Uncle Brad and Aunt Paula’s lake house. No more sleeping in. No more watching my brothers get kicked out of the community pool for being dicks.
Soon, I’ll have to deal with homework and football practice.
It blows.
“Remy, my feet hurt,” my little sister Winnie whines, her petite hand tugging at the material of my T-shirt. “I want to go home.”
I almost want to laugh at her sudden change in mood. Prior to leaving the house, she was a six-year-old diva on a mission to tag along with me up to my high school to grab all the books and shit I need for the start of my junior year.
But after a subway ride and a ten-minute walk, she sure is singing a different tune.
“Winnie, we’re almost there,” I tell her, but she stops in the middle of the sidewalk. I turn to face her just as she stomps one pink-gym-shoe-covered foot to the ground.
“But, Remy! I’m so tired!”
“If I recall, you’re the one who said you wanted to come along,” I say, and both hands go to my hips. “I’m pretty sure I remember you begging me.”
She pouts, and her face morphs into that infamous look of hers. The look that has everyone in our family wrapped around her little finger. “Can you at least give me a piggyback ride? Pretty please?”
I smile; I can’t help it. My baby sister is too damn cute for words. “If I give you a piggyback ride, do you promise to stop with the whining?”
“I wasn’t whining. I’m not a baby.”
“You were definitely whining,” I correct her. “So, if that’s what babies do, then hello kettle, meet pot.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” I respond on a laugh and kneel down in front of her. “Climb aboard, Winnie.”
She smiles like a girl who just won a battle of wills and doesn’t hesitate to climb atop my shoulders. Once I’m certain she’s secure, I stand up and proceed to finish walking the last two blocks to my high school.
I’m not surprised to find that the massive building looks exactly like it did when I walked out the doors the day before summer break.
The same red bell tower.
The same light bricks.
And the same smell of impending doom.
Ha. I’m kidding. Sort of.
“Are we getting Flynn’s stuff, too?” Winnie asks, and I laugh.
“Hell no. Flynn can get his own shit.”
“Remy!” Winnie exclaims and slaps one hand on the top of my head. “Those are bad words! I’m going to tell Mom!”
“If you tell Mom I say bad words, she’ll never let you hang out with me.”
That shuts her up.
“Fine. I won’t tell,” she mutters. “But I still think we should get Flynn’s stuff.”
“Even if I wanted to do that, I can’t. Since Flynn is a freshman and I’m junior, our pickup days are different.”
“When does Flynn have to go?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
“You trying to plan another getaway from the house?”
“No.”
“Liar.” I smirk and walk inside the entrance doors of the building, heading straight for the main lobby area where I know the pickup table is located.
“Your school is so big, Remy! I hope I get to go here when I’m all growed up!”