A high-pitched honk startled Sarah out of her slumber.
Meep, meep!
She rolled over onto the journal that still lay in her bed. “Shit!”
The green numbers on the face of her clock read, 7:38. The cartoonish honk of Tanya’s Festiva blared from Main Street.
“Jesus, I’m comin’.” Sarah darted out of bed and raced to wrestle out of her flannel pee-jays. “Lay off of the frickin’ clown car horn already.”
She scurried into the bathroom and let loose the torrent from her bladder. The old ceramic tiling felt particularly colder this morning than they had in recent times. Sarah heaved up her green Jockeys, emptied the toilet, and painted on her face as quick as her numb fingers would allow.
Meeeep!
“Come on, Sarah!” Annie’s voice floated from somewhere far below the bathroom window. “We’re gonna be late.”
“Since when has that ever been a problem, Annie?” She ran her brush through her hair and pulled on the dirty pair of stonewashed jeans from yesterday.
After a smattering of deodorant and a shot of cheap perfume, Sarah hurried into her bedroom. She grabbed the nearest flannel shirt and slid on a pair of socks.
Meeep! Meep, meep, meep.
Tonya joined in the cacophony. “Last call, Sarah!”
She cracked her window and leaned out. “I’m on my way down! Hold on.”
Sarah ran to the living room, grabbed her jacket, book bag, and flew out the door. She slid the final shoe on as she popped the door to the building open.
“About time.” Tanya revved the little car’s lawn mower engine.
“Sorry.” Sarah hopped in shotgun. “I overslept.”
Tanya shoved the small shifter down into drive and made a fast u-turn on Main Street.
“Morning, Sarah.” Annie grabbed on to either headrest.
Sarah sat her bag between her feet on the floorboard and straightened her bangs in the rearview. “You’re in an overly chipper mood today.”
“I know.” Annie flicked her hair back over her shoulder. “My dad’s in from the road for a couple of weeks, and mom’s on dayshift at the diner.”
“Nice.” Sarah smiled at her lifelong friend in the narrow rectangle of glass. “Where did he go this trip?”
Annie settled back into the bench seat and stared out the passenger side window. “He delivered a load of lumber up in Minnesota, and then picked up a trailer full of something else in San Francisco.”
“That’s so cool.” Sarah’s inner valley girl reared its ugly head. She cleared her throat regaining composure. “I’d love to get out and see the country one of these days.”
Annie let out a dreamy sigh. “I know.” She turned her gaze to Tonya’s reflection in the rearview mirror. “What’s it like?”
“Yeah,” Sarah added. “You’ve been around a lot.”
“More ways than one,” Annie muttered from the back.
“Hey!” Tanya said. “Most of those boys lied about it.” She made the left following the big blue sign to I-79 South. “I don’t know what you’re gonna get out of me. I’ve only been to Key Largo a handful of times the past few years.”
“Are they on speaking terms again?” Sarah was ginger in her delivery.
Tanya shrugged. “For the most part. I’m going down to spend the summer with dad in the Keys.”
“Is he still working on the back of that fishing boat or whatever?” Sarah asked.
“Nope. He got his license to sell real estate.”
“You are so lucky!” Annie grabbed Tanya’s shoulders playfully. “Can you take me with you? I can fit into a suitcase. I’ll be quiet. I swear.”
Sarah and Annie cackled as the little car sped down the county road.
“Look,” Tanya said, merging onto the interstate, “divorce isn’t as glamorous as you think it might be.”
Sarah looked away in defeat. “We didn’t mean---”
Tanya flipped her sunglasses down out of her blonde locks. “I know you didn’t. It’s---never mind.”
They rumbled down the highway listening to the latest top forty tunes without a word exchanged.
“So, Sarah,” Annie said, slaying the beast that was silence. “Made any progress on that research project for Leckner yet?”
She nodded watching the old buildings of downtown Weston sail by her window. “It kinda landed in my lap after the funeral.”
Tanya pulled into the student lot at Liberty High and shut off the engine. “Everybody out. This train departs the station at 3:05 p.m. sharp, kiddies.”
“Ha, ha.” Annie climbed out of the cramped backseat. “What do you mean, Sarah?”
Sarah slung her backpack and purse over a shoulder and filed in next to her friends. “My great Aunt left me a journal in her will.”
“Hmm,” Tanya said, “mysterious.”
Sarah’s eyes spun sarcastic orbits in their sockets. “It’s the diary of her oldest brother. They haven’t seen or heard from him since they got split up during the Depression.”
Annie kicked a pebble down toward the gutter in the paved staff’s lot. “Holy crap. I’m just talking to my Grannie about her childhood. You’re gettin’ all deep with this.”
“What if he’s a rich uncle?” Tanya clenched her stack of organizers close to her chest.
Annie slapped her on the back. “Yeah! He could be your ticket out of this hole.”
“He could be sitting on a McDuck-sized pile of money.”
Tanya’s ingenious insights made them all burst out in laughter.
“God, Tanya. What are you, six?” Sarah held the door open for the others before wandering into the cafeteria’s inviting warmth.
“I’m merely pointing out the possibilities, my dear.” The buxom blonde stripped off her bulky red coat and took up her usual place on their end of the table. Tanya had blossomed a little sooner than her peers and the middle school boys had taken note with wagging tongues.
Annie glared at Tanya as the bombshell tugged down on her form-fitting sweater. “If those jeans get any tighter, your legs are gonna fall off.”
Tanya licked a finger and jabbed her butt cheek. “If the shoehorn fits.”
Sarah snorted into the sleeve of her flannel shirt. She looked around the room scanning the faces. I know you’re here somewhere.
“I know that look, Sarah.” Annie pulled out her math book and cracking it open. “You finish your homework?”
Sarah nodded and lifted herself to one knee.
“Can I?”
“Sure.” She slid her backpack toward her friend. “It’s in there somewhere.” Sarah jumped up grabbing her coat and purse. “Bring my stuff into the hall when you’re done. ‘Kay?”
“Go get him, tiger,” Annie said, not looking up from the confines of her pre-Calculus book.
Sarah strode off toward the only person that mattered. God, my hair! I hope these jeans don’t reek. She fluffed her bangs and slid in next to the lone blond boy at the huge square pillar in the student union.
“Hey, Collin.”
He glanced at her nervously. “Hi, Sarah.” Collin fidgeted with the pack strap on his right shoulder. “You feelin’ any better?”
“Yeah.” His black leather jacket rubbed against her shirt. “I’m doing better.” She let her left hand dangle next to his. “Thanks for coming by to see me in the hospital.” Her voice cracked. “It meant a lot to me.”
“Did they ever find out why it happened?”
She shook her auburn bangs. The soft brush of his finger over the back of her hand sent Oh, my god! shivers shooting up her arm.
“The doctors still don’t know what happened.”
Sarah’s blue eyes shot up to the big round clock hanging above the double doors to the main hallway of Liberty. Three minutes left. C’mon, she looked back down at her hand, just reach out and grab it!
The two stood in stark silence while their hands drifted in the no-man’s land between friends and puppy love.
Something akin to a warm spider gripped her moistened palm causing Sarah to gasp.
“Listen.” Collin stuffed his other hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I was wondering… if you weren’t---”
An annoying clang rang throughout every hall stirring up the mass of students lounging in the cafeteria.
“I---”
“Talk to you later?” Her eyes honed in on the cheek nearest to her. Just go for it. She leaned in and gave him a quick peck right beside the corner of his mouth, and then trotted off down the hall toward her awaiting friends.