Chapter Thirty #2
He nodded. “She was so young, and thought I was awesome. I could just, you know, play that part. StuCo, Mr. Competitive, everything else. It was easy. Familiar.” He scratched his neck again.
“When I came back, though, the terror did too. I tried to work at camp, push through it. I couldn’t.
When I quit, I just started driving. And here I am. ”
“Finley?” I turned to see Lana on the porch. We hadn’t yet debriefed about Colin’s arrival, but I knew she was dying to. “Are you coming back in? We’re about to assign the rest of the tasks.”
I gave her a thumbs-up. “But you did break up with me,” I reminded Colin. “It hurt. A lot.”
He blinked at me: I’d caught him off guard. Then again, since he’d last seen me, I’d learned something about the importance of narrative. Colin had always been the one who shaped ours.
“Can I ask you something?” He said this so suddenly, I knew he would regardless of my reply. Sure enough, I barely managed to nod before he said, “Did you ever have doubts? About going to the U, or us? Like, maybe there was more to life than what we planned?”
I thought of Pacchiana, how I’d worked secretly on my application, the weird mix of joy and fear when I got in. “Yes,” I said.
“You did?” He tilted his head to the side. “When?”
“Finley!” Lana again. “Can you drive a golf cart?”
“No!” I yelled back. I turned to Colin. “Look, I feel for you. But this is just a really crazy time here, and…”
He nodded, slowly. “I understand.”
“Finley! Are you more comfortable with old people or small children?”
This was not a question I could answer with a single word or gesture. “I have to go help,” I said. “We’re doing all this on the fly. It’s insane.”
He drew his legs up, then stood. “It’s fun, though.”
Hearing this, I had a flash of going to his house for dinner and Speculator that very first time.
I’d been nervous but excited, my hand folded in his as we came into the bright foyer.
His sister had been home, a friend in tow, both at the bar as Colin’s mom stirred a pot on the stove.
Meanwhile, his dad fumbled with a classic rock playlist as their two labs circled his legs. Chaos, also. In the best way.
The bottom line was, despite all I was noticing now, Colin had once taken me in. So I’d do the same. I knew it wouldn’t make things better with Ben, but then I wasn’t sure what could at this point. Plus he could drive a golf cart.
Now, back at the table, Liz flipped to another page on her pad. “Okay. So next item is… guest book. Finley, I’m putting you down for that.”
“You get to do the guest book?” Lana asked. “Lucky.”
I really didn’t care what job I got. But by the look on her face, she did.
“Lana, you’re on programs,” Liz continued. She looked at her pad, then back at the table. “And there’s the refreshments for the rehearsal. Anne wants waters and iced tea. So we’ll need cups and pitchers.”
“At the Egg,” Kasey said from the kitchen, where she had lined up several buckets of flowers. “I’m about to run the truck over to get them.”
“Trav, you’re going to the Tides to check on the golf carts, yes?” Liz asked.
Her husband, who was stout with a boyish face and Anne’s fair coloring, nodded. I had not yet heard him speak. Then again, maybe she did enough talking for both of them.
“I can’t believe you got the guest book,” Lana grumbled to me. “That’s the best job.”
I just looked at her. “Are you serious?”
“It’s a written record,” she replied. “Something that is kept. Not like programs, just given away.”
I sighed. “You can do the guest book.”
“No, no. I’m fine.”
There was the sound of gravel crunching as the truck pulled up. When I went out onto the porch, I saw Clark was behind the wheel, looking annoyed. Ben was in the passenger seat.
“What is this about Liz needing chairs or something from Bly Supply?” Clark called out. “We were halfway there, had to turn around.”
As he went inside, Ben climbed out of the truck. He was holding a bag from the phone store.
I eyed it. “So. It’s finally happening.”
He glanced down. “Oh. Yeah.”
I was acutely aware of the rare awkward silence that followed. “Look,” I said. Might as well just spit it out. “Colin showed up.”
“I heard. Next it will be you two getting married.” Immediately, his face flushed. “I don’t know why I just said that. It doesn’t even make sense.”
Only a sentence. But it felt like we were closer to where we’d been, if only the tiniest increment. “A lot of this doesn’t make sense,” I replied.
Clark stuck his head out the door. “You’re doing Bly Supply solo,” he told Ben. “I gotta stay back with Kasey and help bring stuff over from the Egg.”
I saw a figure behind Clark, coming down the hallway toward the other side of the doorway. “We going to Bly Supply? We can take my car too.”
It was Colin. Of course it was Colin. And he already had a plan.
“Who are you?” Clark asked him.
“Colin Frisbee.” He stuck out a hand, the motion as natural as seeing him breathe. “Finley’s friend from Lakeview.”
“Clark.” They shook. “This is Ben.”
Colin turned, again stretching out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Ben took it, giving him a curt nod. There was no world in which I’d ever pictured this happening. “So you two are—”
“Going to Bly Supply,” Colin finished for him. “Liz gave me a list.”
“Ben’s going too.” Clark tossed him the truck keys. “Now it’s a party.”
Yikes. I looked at Ben, who seemed about as enthusiastic as I felt. Well, at least we still shared something.
“Sounds great!” Colin, oblivious, replied. He clapped his hands. “So two cars? Or one?”
“Two,” replied Lana, who had somehow become part of all this without me noticing. She smiled at Colin. “I’ll ride with you.”
“Oh.” Colin glanced at me. “I figured Finley—”
“Great,” I said. Narrative, changed. “Let’s go.”