While I figure out what I want to do, my dad is letting me live and work for my uncle, starting next week.”
“Wow, that’s great,” I said. And meant it.
Not what I expected but sounded like a plan. Her words, no regrets, stuck with me. Second time I’d heard them. First from Noah, and now from her. But I still wasn’t sure why she came all this way at this time of night to clue me in on her plans for the fall. Sure, it was a surprise. Justine was a dead ringer for Ivy League. Or maybe I’d misjudged her and assumed too much based on their mansion of a house.
Justine played with her fingernails. Nervous again. I waited, curious.
“I was thinking.” She gave me a sideways glance. “Considering everything that’s happened, I thought you might feel a little lost, that you might want, I mean—”
“Spit it out, Justine.” I smiled to reassure her I wasn’t going to beat her up or anything.
She shifted her body on the step and for the first time I noticed the gentleness in her hazel eyes and the smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. “Would you like to do it with me?”
“Huh?” I was confused.
“I talked to my uncle and there’s a second opening. You’d have room and board, subtracted from your pay, of course.” She smiled shyly. “I figured it might be good to, you know, to get away. But it’s not too far away so if you wanted to come home…”
I hadn’t even thought about college, but I needed to. My plans had been all about Seth and I. The idea of college faded and slipped into the fog. I didn’t want to waste my parents’ money, and I refused to live out dreams. Without them. Without Kama and Brin.
“Definitely. I’ll do it.”
“What about your parents? Don’t you want to talk to them?” she asked.
“I will, but this is my decision.” I’d go in and talk to them right away. They’d understand and support me. I needed to get away from this place and this was perfect. Escape. Be on my own.
We said goodbye, and I promised to call her the next day. But in my mind it was already settled.
Though my parents were a bit skeptical about the plan, they said yes. Their eyes and body language revealed their fears that I might not make it through this disaster my life had become. They wanted me to go to college, but more than that, they wanted me happy. So they said for now, for this coming fall, and the next year, this might be good for me.
I stood in front of my corkboard. The memories screamed of my time with Brin and Kama. I found a box in the attic and piece-by-piece, I took down my life with them and placed it in the box. I started slowly and carefully, not wanting to rip a play program or bend a photo. But I had a lot up here and it needled the edges of my heart. I moved faster, trying not to see the memories. The last quarter of the board, I tore down and threw into the box. I wasn’t looking, not remembering. The last photo fluttered to the floor, and I slammed the tops of the box down and duct taped it closed. Maybe I’d be able to deal with them when I was an old lady.
I placed the box in the back of my closet and closed the door and then flopped onto my bed. A week until I’d leave this part of my life. Justine was moving in and waitressing for her uncle in a couple days.
I’d start clean in a place where no one would know me or know what happened. And I wouldn’t tell a soul. A fresh start. It could happen. Right?
Real life calls to me every day, a siren blasting.
The laughter of a couple in love and hanging all over each other. The old couple shuffling in, the joys and heartaches of life etched on their faces with every line and wrinkle. The fisherman who orders his morning cup of joe before heading out for a day at sea, a joy shining in his eyes from doing something he loves.
But I’m safe. I get lost in the clinking of plates, the shouts of orders, and the smells of breakfast. I’m a waitress and it’s all I’ve known for the past year.
The Seaside Inn booms with business. Must be the start