King. The costumes and props were amazing, and I caught myself wishing Ren were there with me instead of Jason. Ren would have loved to see how all the animals were portrayed.
After the show, the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk. People strolled leisurely every which way across the street, forcing cars to edge forward in dangerous spurts as they tried to nudge the patrons along. An elderly lady dropped her playbill in the street and was bending over to pick it up when a car turned the corner.
Without thinking, I ran up in front of the woman and motioned for the car to stop. The driver hit the brakes, but not fast enough. My strappy shoes got caught on a crack in the pavement as I tried to move out of the way. The car bumped me slightly, and I fell over.
Jason ran to help me, and the driver got out. I wasn’t hurt badly. My dress and my pride were damaged, but, other than that, I only had a few scrapes and bruises. A theater photographer ran over to snap some pictures. Jason posed with me in my torn dress and smudged face and provided my name, saying that I was a hero for saving the elderly woman.
Pulling off my broken, strappy shoe in disgust, I made my way to the car. Jason talked excitedly about the accident and thought my picture had a good chance of getting into the theater’s magazine.
He chatted the whole way home about the next term and about the last party he’d gone to. When he pulled up to my house, he didn’t open the door for me. I sighed, thinking, Chivalry is mostly dead in this generation. Jason kept looking at my torn dress and then at the windows. He was probably terrified that Ren would come after him for not taking care of me. I turned in my seat to face him.
“Jason, we need to talk.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
I sighed softly and said, “I think we should stop dating. We don’t have a lot in common. But I’d like to still be friends.”
“Is there someone else?” His eyes darted to the front door again.
“Sort of.”
“Uh-huh. Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be around.”
“Thanks, Jason. You’re a great guy.” A little gutless but still nice.
I kissed him good-bye on the cheek, and he drove off in a pretty good mood.
That wasn’t too bad. I know I won’t get off so easily next time.
I stepped into the house and found another note lying on the kitchen counter next to a small bowl full of kettle corn.
You never lose by loving.
You always lose by holding back.
—Barbara DeAngelis
I’m sensing a theme here. Grabbing a diet cola and the popcorn, I slowly climbed up the stairs carrying my broken, strappy shoes.
One down. And one to go.
7
Back to School
The next morning Ren called to see if we could have breakfast together and watch a movie. I said yes and hung up the phone. My body was a bit sore from my fall, so I popped some aspirin and took a hot shower.
The smell of burnt pancakes wafted up the stairs. I joined Ren in the kitchen. He had bacon sizzling on the stove and was scrambling eggs in a large bowl. My frilly apron was tied around his waist. It was quite a sight.
“I would have come down to help you, Ren,” I said and removed his burnt pancake from the griddle.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“This is a surprise alright,” I laughed and took over the stove. “What is the peanut butter for?”
“Peanut butter and banana pancakes, of course.”
I laughed. “Really? And how did you come up with that creation?”
“Trial and error.”
“Okay,” I acquiesced. “But you also have to try some pancakes my way, with chocolate chips.”
“Deal.”
When I had a stack of pancakes sufficiently high enough to please Ren, we sat down to eat. He took a big bite of his.
“Well? What do you think?”
“Excellent. But they would be even better with peanut butter and banana.”
I reached out to get the syrup, revealing a long, purple bruise on my arm. Ren immediately noticed and touched my arm gingerly.
“What’s this? What happened to you?”
“What? Oh . . . that. I was trying to prevent an old lady from being hit by an oncoming car that bumped me instead. I fell down.”
Ren jumped off his stool and poked and prodded me, carefully feeling my bones and rotating my joints. “Where does it hurt?”