Once I entered the front room again, Kate had already moved to the other side of the table, I think she could tell that I didn’t want to talk to her right now. My brother had shifted seats once again, so I was at a loss for a place to sit.
Coming to my rescue, Kyle called out,
“Marie, come sit over here, we’ve got plenty of room!” He waved his arms and a giant smile spread across his face, like lightning flashing through the sky, it was bright, quick, and left me awestruck.
I came over to his side of the room, seating myself between Kyle and Jackie. I placed my Coke down next to my nearly empty plate, turned to Kyle, and started to chat. Just because, you know, we needed to catch up. And, I needed to thank him for saving me a seat, of course.
Kyle seemed so different from the little boy I remembered. But, at the same time, he was exactly as I recalled. He was always the sweetest kid. I can only think of one time he said something mean to me. And that was at his fourth birthday party, when he called me a buttface. I was deeply insulted, anyone would be.
“So,” I said, “ I haven’t seen much of you lately. What’ve you been up to?” I asked, trying to make some conversation.
“A little bit of everything, really,” he laughed, “I’ve been crazy busy with hockey, but hopefully over break in a few weeks I’ll get a chance to relax. How about you, are you still doing the choir thing?”
“Not as much anymore. My mom wanted me to sign up for the Honors History class, so that with the advanced English and Science has been keeping me away from it. But I think I’m going to get to join back up for the summer session.” I gladly told him.
“I didn’t know that, Marie. I thought you said you weren’t go to join choir again, after your fight with Mrs. Blokbacher, you said she was a disgusting bitch.” Kate chimed in. She was hating that Kyle was paying attention to me, and not her, so she add to had remind of that lovely conversation we had had a few months back. Kate was the kind of friend who you were sort of forced to be friends with. Our families were closer than we were, so if I ever put my foot down and tried to end our friendship after all the crazy things she's done to me, it wouldn't be worth it because I would see her all the time, anyway. She wasn't always the horrible person she usually is. I mean, sometimes she could be sweet. If things were going her way.
When she said that Kyle snorted, and some of my favorite Hawaiian Punch shot out his nose, and all over my new green and white polo. It looked like lava erupting from a volcano onto a beautiful, freshly laundered meadow, and Kate couldn’t be happier.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Kyle sprang out of the hefty oak dining room chair to help wipe the punch off my shirt.
His bruised hockey hands blotted at the stain on my stomach. Then, things took a weird turn when Kyle’s hand brushed the wrong spot and we had an Awkward Boob Touch situation on our hands, or an ABT if you will. Kyle turned his face up at me sheepishly, he had an apologetic look in his big brown eyes.
“Alright!” Sam stood up and clapped her hands, “I think we should leave you kids alone. C’mon you guys.” As she motioned for the younger kids to leave the room with her, I shot her a desperate look to stop, but she only replied with an unwanted, uncomfortable wink.
I sighed, running my hands nervously through my long brown hair, and looked up at Kyle. “Sorry about that, I’ll arrange for Sam to be murdered later.” Leave it to Sam to make a big deal out of the smallest thing, making the situation even more awkward.
Kyle was able to laugh it off, “Oh, that’s alright. My friends can be like that, too.” His smile was an understanding one.
“Alright, then, I think I’ll go up and change my shirt.”
I bustled out of the dining room and rushed up the stairs and threw on my favorite sweater, it was a white v-neck, and I liked to wear it on days like today, when my hair was extra curly. My hand had been resting on the top of my dresser, and when I picked it up to adjust my bangs, an old cup of water fell over, and water spilled all over onto my already cold feet.
“Damnit! This is NOT good day for me!” I yelled out in frustration without thinking. I didn’t know that Kyle was coming up the stairs at that moment, and saw my fit of anger.
“Oh, jeez, what’d you do now?” I heard an angry tone in his voice, but when I looked at his face I only saw a teasing smile.
I blushed and said, “God, I’m such a spaz, no it’s nothing really, I just spilled some water.” I leaned down and picked up the cup from the floor.
“I see. You want me to get you a towel?”
“Uh, yeah that’d be great.”
Kyle was back in a moment with a wad of towels in one hand, he gave a few to me and kept a few for himself, and together we mopped up the mess I had made. I wiped off a few water drops that had dripped on a picture I had on my dresser of Kyle, Jackie and I seven or eight years ago. All three of us were on the swings with giant smiles on our faces.
“Wow. I had forgotten about those days. We used to spend every summer together, remember?” Kyle said.
“Yeah. God, that seems like such a long time ago. Do you remember that time when we told Jackie that if she went outside without shoes her toes would fall off?” I asked, laughing.
“Oh my god, yeah! She used to believe everything we told her back then. It’s pretty crazy that we used to be that close and now we never get to see each other. It’s unfair really, I never wanted it to be like this.”
“Well, you know what? It doesn’t have to stay like this. Give me your cell phone number, we can still stay in touch. Get to know each other again.” I said, proud of myself, for once I was able to come up with a decent thing to say to Kyle, something that didn’t end up making me look like a spaz or a bitch or a geek. Kyle held out his hand for my cell phone and programmed his number in.
“Sure, that sounds great. All except the getting to know each other again part. I can see you haven’t changed a bit, you’re still less graceful than my Uncle Rich, and he has a prosthetic leg and an eye patch.” He teased.
“I remember Uncle Rich! He used to take us to get ice cream whenever our Moms wouldn’t allow it. I always loved watching all the other kids react to his eye patch at the ice cream parlor.”
We spent the rest of the day reminiscing about our childhood summers on the beach in Maine with our families. We used to all live within a few blocks, and would spend every day together. Now, everyone sold their properties, except for Uncle Rich, who still lived their with his daughter Jenn, who was in college now.
Over the next few weeks, I didn’t see much of Kyle, but we talked a lot. We were constantly texting each other, and I learned about him. He only likes the black and yellow jelly beans. He hates Mexican food, but it’s my favorite. He’s only been to two school dances. If he could, he would live solely on a diet of baked potatoes and hot dogs. He loves camping and the ocean. And, we both miss those summers in Maine when we first began our friendship.
