Chapter Fifteen
LEE
19 years earlier
It’s halfway through junior year and Mom begged me to start taking school more seriously, she said I need to start thinking about what I want to do with my life after graduation. But all I want to do is get out of this place, move to Virginia and be with Ellie.
That’s not practical, she told me.
That’s not real, she told me.
So, I tried my best to sweep Ellie to the back of my mind. The guys at school were worse than Mom when it came to trying to get me to forget about her. They kept pushing me to talk to random girls they pointed out in the halls. It was practically torture because none of them were her.
One Friday, at the beginning of February, I got to school late and rushed to my locker. A tall, blonde cheerleader was standing there, leaning up against my locker door; her legs crossed in front of her.
“Hey Lee.”
She drawled.
“Hey, do I, um, know you?”
I asked, not sure how she knew my name; I don’t really hang out with the popular kids in school.
“Duh, I’m only in three of the same classes with you.”
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
“Oh. Sorry…?”
I tried to guess her name but came up blank and shook my head.
“Maggie.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Maggie. Right. I’m kind of late and my first class is on the other side of the school. Can I get in my locker?”
I reached my hand for the combination lock, and she scooted over just enough for me to open the door and grab my books. I hoped she would be gone but when I closed the door, she was still there, looking at me expectantly. I spun the lock and started walking away only to find her running to catch up to me.
I saw Dane and Ezra waving me over and veered into their direction by the guy’s bathroom. I was trying my best to ignore Maggie, but she was still walking one step behind me.
“Hey!”
She reached for my elbow and snagged my shirt. I spun around on my heel and breathed out an exaggerated breath, raising my eyebrows in response.
“Some of us are going to the movies tonight. Do you want to come with?”
I stopped next to the guys and was about to come up with some excuse to not go but Dane cut me off, “He definitely wants to go.”
I looked at him with a questioning stare and mouthed “What the fuck”. Then to make it worse, Dane asked, “Where should he pick you up?”
“Great!”
Maggie smiled.
“Pick me up at 7:00, my house.”
She grabbed my hand and wrote her address in blue marker, then sauntered off.
“Thanks dude. What the hell.”
I said to Dane as we all walked to our first period class.
“No big deal, man, you need to get out there.”
Dane told me.
“And Maggie is hot!”
Ezra looked over his shoulder toward the direction Maggie walked off in, whistling so that just the three of us could hear.
“Okay whatever, but if I’m going, you guys have to come too. You can’t leave me hanging with those jocks all night.”
I took a seat in the back of the classroom.
“Alright by me. Maybe you can get Maggie to introduce me to her friend, Liz.”
Dane laughed.
“Like I have any sway in that department.”
I shrugged.
“Dude – Maggie wants you bad. She’ll probably do anything to get in your pants.”
Ezra tapped my desk, emphasizing his statement.
“Whatever man. She’s never talked to me once before today.”
“That doesn’t mean she hasn’t been all over this school, telling anyone who will listen that she thinks you’re hot. Literally everyone knows this except you cause you can’t get over pen pal chick.”
Dane said and both he and Ezra snickered, high fiving over my desk.
“Don’t call her that.”
I said, pushing their hands out of my face.
“Touchy, touchy.”
Ezra teased, pulling his hand back dramatically just as the bell rang and the teacher walked into the room.
* * *
I don’t have a car, so Dane picked me and Ezra up at my house at 6:45 before driving us over to Maggie’s. When we got there, Dane honked the horn and Maggie came bouncing down the front steps wearing a skirt so short that she had to hold it down when she walked. That doesn’t leave much to the imagination I thought to myself and hopped into the back seat to sit next to her on the way to the movies.
“I didn’t realize you would be bringing friends.”
Maggie said, closing the door.
“Well, I don’t have a car, so Dane is my personal taxi driver.”
I slapped his shoulder from my spot behind the driver’s seat.
“That’s me, Driver Dane, at your service.”
He tipped his hat and smiled at her in the review mirror. She sneered at his reflection and turned back to me. Why is she so mean?
“We’re meeting the group at Buckey’s for shakes before the movie.”
“Okay.”
I said.
“Dane, you know where Buckey’s is right?”
“Yeah.”
He said, then looked at Maggie again in the mirror.
“So, Maggie, will Liz be there tonight?”
“Of course she will! Why?”
“I thought maybe you would want to introduce me to her?”
She raised her eyebrows at him.
“And why would I want to do that?”
“I mean, seeing how I had to drag Lee out tonight for you and all.”
I huffed a laugh under my breath at that.
“Yeah okay.”
She said to Dane then turned back to me again, “I’m really glad you came out tonight. I’ve been dying to talk to you.”
She tapped my nose on the “you”
like you would do to a little kid.
“Oh. I didn’t know, you never really showed any interest in talking to me before.” I said.
“That’s cause I thought you were unavailable.”
She nudged me with her shoulder playfully.
“And who says I’m not?”
“Everyone knows you broke up with Stacy and haven’t been dating anyone since.”
“Lee’s been saving himself for a girl that lives all the way across the country.”
Ezra said matter-of-factly.
“Oh. You’ve been saving yourself?”
She runs her finger up my thigh.
“That’s just … so selfish of her. We’ll have to change that, I guess.”
She finishes and tugs my hand, dragging me out of the car once we stop at Buckey’s.
* * *
Maggie was an easy distraction. I didn’t particularly enjoy hanging out with her and her preppy friends, but it did give me something to do outside of school and that made my mom ease up on the after-graduation talks. But, man, if she wasn’t straightforward with putting herself in my face. It was a bit of a turn off for me, honestly. I’ve never been one to go for the showy girls and Maggie was pretty damn showy.
I didn’t really make us an official “thing”, but I guess it was implied. We casually dated for a couple weeks before she invited me over to her house for a Friday night movie. It wasn’t until I got there that I realized it was just the two of us and her parents had gone out of town for the weekend.
We sat on giant bean bags in her basement, watching Scream 2 on the big screen TV. I had my hands in my lap, and I was enjoying the flick because I hadn’t seen it before, when she grabbed my arm and brought it around her and laid her head on my lap.
“What are you doing?”
I asked, jerking away awkwardly. She had a hand on the zipper of my jeans.
“Just a little something.”
She said with a grin.
“Sit back and enjoy.”
She proceeded to unzip my pants and her mouth was on me before I could object.
I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but I closed my eyes and imagined it was Ellie there kneeling between my legs and that was enough for me to sit still and let my head roll back.
Before I was even done, she wiped her mouth and stood up smiling, “Hope that helped to loosen you up cause I’m about to really blow your mind now.”
And she climbed right onto my lap, taking me in and finishing me off. I managed to push her up and off of me before I actually came and shoved my shirt into my lap to catch the shoot-off.
“Shit.”
I said, standing up with my pants at my feet and my shirt soaked.
“It’s alright,”
she giggled.
“I’ll grab you one of my dad’s old t-shirts, hang on.”
While she ran upstairs for a new shirt, I took mine off and zipped up my pants. Fuck, what am I doing here? I asked myself, raking my hand through my hair. I don’t even really like this girl, do I? She’s so damn mean and stuck up, but damn, that was good.
Maggie returned, tossing me an old black Aerosmith t-shirt and I pulled it on.
“I’m sorry, Maggie, I gotta go.”
I told her, walking up the stairs.
“Wait, did I do something wrong?”
she was pouting.
“No. No, it was great. I just … I have to go. I walked back and quickly kissed her on the cheek and ran up the stairs and out the door.
It took about ten minutes for me to walk a couple of blocks to the 711 and I called Dane from the pay phone outside to pick me up. He said he’d be there in a few minutes. I hung up the phone and picked it back up again, hesitating, with my fingers over the buttons. I shook my head and dialed Ellie’s pager number. The music played out in my ear “So don’t hang up the phone now. I’m tryin’ to figure out just what to do… BEEP”
Ellie and her boy bands; I smiled at the thought of her and her music choices then I entered my code that I only send to her when I’m thinking about her ”1439914399”
and hung it up just as Dane pulled into the parking lot.
“What are you wearing dude?”
he asked as I climbed into his black Camaro and slammed the door.
“Don’t ask.” I said.
“I thought you were hanging out with Maggie tonight?”
“I was and now I’m not. Your place?”
“Oookay.”
He put the car in drive and started to head to his house.
“You gonna tell me what just happened?”
“She fucked me, and I freaked dude.”
I swiped my hands through my hair, trying to gather my thoughts that were all jumbled in my head like puzzle pieces. I looked out the window and sighed.
“And the whole time, all I could think about was that I wish this was Ellie. I freaked out and then she gave me a shirt and I told her I had to go. I don’t know why.”
I probably just ruined any chance I had with Maggie. I’m not even sure if I want a chance with her. I’m so confused.
“Ah. Okay.”
It was all he said in response and then we drove the rest of the way in silence, and I was grateful for that. I just needed to think. When we got to Dane’s, he grabbed two cokes from the fridge, and we sat on the couch in the living room.
He popped his open and turned to me, “Okay, hear me out. I know she’s not your dream girl, man, but maybe you just need to have some fun. Loosen up, ride the wave, see where it takes you. Maybe you end up with the right girl in the end, maybe you don’t. But at least you’ll have experienced something.”
I thought about that for the next few minutes, sipping on my coke. Dane’s not usually this insightful with his advice, especially when it comes to girls, but this was pretty spot on with what I needed to hear.
“Maybe you’re right. Think I should call Maggie tomorrow and apologize for running out on her?”
He pointed a finger at me while he finished his gulp of coke, indicating he agreed with me.
“That’s probably a good idea. I’ll drive you back over in the morning.”
“Thanks.”
Dane let me crash on his couch for the night. His parents were out at some fundraiser, schmoozing with their business partners. Usually they come home, falling out of a taxi and stumbling in after 1’oclock in the morning, but either I was so out of it that I didn’t hear them this time, or they never came home. I did get some much needed sleep and when I woke up, I was feeling energized and motivated.
After I got showered and changed, I called Maggie and told her I was sorry for leaving so quickly. I asked if she wanted to grab some breakfast and Dane took me to her house. I thought we would walk to McDonalds around the corner and talk, but when she opened the door, I could smell bacon sizzling in the kitchen.
“Thought I’d make up for your rough night with some bacon, egg and cheese bagels.”
She smiled.
“That sounds great right about now.”
I pulled out a stool at the island and sat down and she handed me a plate. She’s actually being nice right now; this is a big change. Maybe I could get used to this side of Maggie.
When we finished eating, I got up to put my plate in the sink, but she stopped me, placing her hand on top of mine on the counter. She hesitated for a second, keeping her eyes on our hands before looking at me and then back down at our hands.
“What happened last night – we don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to.”
She paused again and then looking up at me and smiling, “I really like you, Lee, so, if you just want to hang out with me and not have sex, I’m okay with that.”
My eyes blinked a couple times, taking in the sincerity in her voice. I remembered what Dane said last night about riding the wave and seeing where it takes me, so I grabbed her face in my hands and kissed her hard. We stood up and she took my hand, guiding me upstairs to her bedroom.
Maggie and I became an official item that day.