The Dream - Whitney Dineen Page 0,32
ask me. Barring that, I’d only go if I had a Duckie, which I don’t.
They recruited Buck, who lives with his grandmother three trailers over, to take me. The only thing I even know about him is that he’s in all of my honors classes, and he’s a goth. He’s tall and skinny with an abnormally large Adam’s apple, and he’s as big of a social outcast as I am. I only agreed to go because of the dress they found for me to wear. OMG, it’s pink (just like yours was!) and more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen in my life. Even though Davis and Jessica are still a couple and are going to the dance together, he has to see me in this gown.
“Order up!” Shuckie calls out. I sprint across the dining room to grab it.
“We’re swamped tonight,” I tell my boss, stating the obvious. “What’s up?”
“The country club is having their spring fling this weekend. Lots of folks come back to town for it.”
I’d totally forgotten that was even a thing. Some of the popular kids used to talk about it at school. I remember thinking that even though Mom and I weren’t part of the country club set, it was weird that we lived in a town with a subculture we couldn’t participate in.
The rest of the week carries on with the same feverish pace. I don’t hear from Davis at all and I start to think I made up our flirtatious phone conversation on Monday night.
By Saturday night I’m so wiped out all I want to do is crawl into bed when I get home from my shift at the nursing home. Apparently, I’m out of luck because Sammy is sitting on my stoop drinking a hard cider when I get there. “What’s up, Sam? I thought you had a date tonight.”
“I do, but he doesn’t pick me up until seven. I thought I’d stop by and reassure myself you haven’t gone and worked yourself to death.”
“Not even close,” I tell her, even though I do kind of feel like death warmed over. I announce, “I’ve decided to start looking at houses next month. What do you think about that?”
“Finally!” she declares. “I’ll miss you like a tick on a deer, but it’s about time you got around to making your dreams come true.” Then she asks, “Are you seeing Buck tonight?”
“He’s back in town?” I ask, totally shocked. Why didn’t he tell me?
“He got back this morning. I thought you knew.”
“I should have known.” I wonder what’s up. Buck and I don’t talk on the phone more than once a month, but we text a couple times a week and keep in touch on social media. I particularly love his Instagram posts where he shares amazing pictures of his adventures.
After college, he took an internship at a travel magazine based in London. It was only supposed to last a year, but he was offered a full-time position when it ended. He’s now the editor and doing very well for himself.
“Where’s he staying?” I ask. Buck’s grandmother died in January and no one has come to clear out her trailer yet, though it’s possible he decided to stay at the motor lodge.
“He’s over at Jeanette’s. You wanna to go say hi?”
“I do, but I need to take a quick shower first. Today was bath day, and I never come out the better for it.”
“Go on in and clean up. I already talked to him this morning, so I’m gonna go get ready for my encounter with Jim.” She waggles her eyebrows indicating that tonight is the night they take their budding relationship to the next level.
“Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I tease.
“Forget you,” she says. “You never do anything fun. I plan on doing all kinds of things you’d never do.” Then she saunters off next door.
Sammy’s right. It’s been ages since I’ve engaged in the activity she has in mind. There was that one boy freshman year of college, but as soon as I had to leave to take care of my mom, he stepped out of the picture.
I also dated a paramedic in Millersville a few years back. We spent most of our evenings together, which made it surprising that he found the time or energy to date other women. After that wreck of a relationship, I wrote men off altogether and focused solely on work. Having said that, I miss the intimacy of being part of