I'll Be Here

the airport where the only items on the menu were either drenched in gravy or deep fried. 
    Uncle Danny ordered brisket and a basket of onion rings on the side.  While he was waiting for the line cook to fry up his order and cursing under his breath at his misfortune, the door of the diner opened and a plucky blonde breezed into his life with a gust of cold night air.  He took one look at her and decided that Topeka, Kansas was the greatest place in the world.
    That’s the story of how Uncle Danny met Aunt Tilly. 
    They got divorced ten years later but Uncle Danny keeps telling the story.  He says that fate brought him and Tilly together and then fate broke them apart.  If it wasn’t for his divorce he never would have left Topeka, which means that he never would have moved to Key West, which means that he never would have started his own business.  Uncle Danny makes beach towels and t-shirts for tourists.  He’s happy.  Plus, he says that the brisket at that diner was the best brisket he’d ever eaten.
    I guess it’s all about perspective.
    My mom says it’s about going with the flow.  Historically, I’m not particularly good at that. 
    The best part about the week is eating lunch with Laney and her friends on Thursday and Friday.  For forty minutes I zone out and listen to them talk about concerts that they’ve seen, places they’re going to visit on a road trip this summer, classes and classmates that they can’t wait to leave behind.  No one gives me a funny look or blatantly ignores me or asks how I’m doing.  I guess they all assume I would answer honestly—that I’m sort of a mess. 
    How does it feel when I see my ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend (yes, they are official) walking down the hallway her hand knitted in the crook of his arm?
    It’s like being sucker-punched.  That’s how it feels.  I’ll be standing in front of my locker, switching out my heavy morning textbooks for my slimmer Spanish notebook and I’ll be feeling okay, and then Taylor’s face will rise up in front of me like a phoenix and Dustin’s hand will be resting on her lower back.  Ugh.  Or maybe they’re laughing with their heads tucked together thick as thieves.  Or maybe he’s toying absentmindedly with the ends of her fingers the way he used to do with mine. 
    It knocks the wind out of me. 
    It’s acute.  It’s painful.  It’s all mine.
    “At least,” Nate points out to me when we pair up again in Sociology, “the mob seems to have died down.”
    He’s right.  I haven’t had to deal with much crap since my lockerside confrontation with Taylor.  There aren’t as many blatant stares and no one’s tripped me.    
    “Woop-di-doo!”  I swirl my finger by my head in mock excitement. 
    Nate is packing his things.  He drops our answers at our teacher’s desk and we step out of the classroom together. 
    “I hope that you realize that Taylor orchestrated all that because she was insecure about what went down and she wanted to make sure that you stayed in your place.”
    I give him a wry look.  “Taylor—insecure?  You, my friend, are thinking of the wrong girl.”
    “Hot body, blonde hair, about yay high,” he holds his hand up to his shoulder, “popcorn for brains?”
    That makes me laugh.  “Okay, maybe we’re thinking of the same person.” 
    We stop in the courtyard in front of the main office.  We both have our next class in the same building but our tentative friendship doesn’t seem to extend beyond the corridor where our Sociology class is located. 
    “But, Taylor doesn’t worry about me being in my place.  There’s no need.  I’m like the sludge she cleans from the bottom of her shoes.”
    “Willow, I’m going to give you a tip.  I wouldn’t be so sure that you know everything about Taylor Irwin.  She’s Queen Bee around here but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel threatened.”
    “You’re a cute, awesome girl with a lot more class than most of the chicks in this place and just because Dustin and a few of Taylor’s groupies have forgotten that for a nanosecond doesn’t mean that everyone else has.”
    Have I mentioned how much I like Nate?
    ***
    Later that night Laney picks me up in her Dad’s old Nissan SUV.  I get into the backseat because her friend Lance has already claimed shotgun.  Lance is the group’s token gay friend but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at him.  He’s all muscle and meat and dark sexy