Music From Another World - Robin Talley Page 0,127
her eyes were full of tears.
“You’re the one who made this happen.” I smiled back at her.
“Not true. If you hadn’t said what you did, I’d still be standing there like a rabbit in headlights.”
She reached out to take my hand again, even though the camera wasn’t on us anymore. I gazed down at our intertwined fingers.
Tammy must’ve seen the surprise on my face and pulled her hand away quickly. “Sorry. I shouldn’t assume, I—”
I reached out and grabbed her hand again.
“All right, Sharon,” Lisa said over my left shoulder, and laughter erupted behind us. I blushed redder than I’d ever blushed before.
“It’s time to go in,” Evelyn called. “Sit in the front row of the bleachers if you can. We can’t let the other side get all the good seats!”
Everyone moved fast. Lisa gave me the keys to the bus, and Tammy and I gingerly carried the collage over. It took us a few minutes to delicately wrap it back up so it would be ready for her exhibit tomorrow, and when we closed the trunk door and turned around, we were the only ones left outside.
“I’m still shaking,” I said, lowering myself onto the back bumper. “I can’t believe how intense that got.”
She held out her hand, showing me her goose bumps. “I can’t believe we did that. I was so scared when I saw my mom watching.”
“You were incredible. Now it’s going to be in the paper and everything. The whole world will know about your aunt and uncle.”
“I hope they print what you said, too.” She grinned and leaned back next to me. “Especially the part about sacrifice. And the part about love.”
“Right. Love.”
I turned and met Tammy’s eyes. She didn’t look away.
I bit my lip. “I, um. There’s something I want to give you, but it’s in my backpack. In the bus. It’s kind of crumpled up, but I hope you can still read it. Not right now, though. Maybe I can get it for you after the debate and you can read it on the ride home tomorrow.”
She glanced behind us at the bus. “You’ve got to know I want to skip the entire debate and go get it right this second.”
I laughed. “No, don’t. We should get inside.”
“Okay.” She hadn’t looked away from my face once. She hadn’t stopped smiling, either. “If you say so.”
“Yeah. I…” I kept looking back and forth, from her eyes to her lips.
It wasn’t that I wanted to know how it felt to kiss a girl. It was that I wanted to know how it felt to kiss her.
“I…” I blushed again. “I, um…”
Her lips parted. “You what?”
“I…love you.” Oh, God, I said it. I said it, and it felt better than anything else has ever felt. “I’m in love with you.”
The smile that spread across her face felt even better. “I’m in love with you, too.”
Then I kissed her. And I finally understand all those songs I didn’t get before.
This is what people mean when they write songs about love.
This feeling. This perfect, overwhelming knowledge that everything is finally exactly right.
Yours, Sharon
Election Night, 1978
Tuesday, November 7, 1978
Dear Harvey,
Can you believe it???
I can’t! It doesn’t feel real.
I’m back home now writing this, but I was at Sharon’s when we got the news. It was the perfect place to be. Usually I hate having to sneak around, but tonight it was worth it. Being with her when something like this happens is worth a little deception.
“Channel Five hasn’t said anything on Prop 6 yet.” Peter’s voice was hard to make out through the phone line, thanks to all the people talking in the room behind him. The fact that Sharon and I were both trying to listen from the same phone, huddled on the couch with the receiver jammed against our ears, didn’t help, either.