I'll Be Here

He didn’t say anything, but it would be perfectly normal for my mother to share that sort of information with Brooke, and of course Brooke could have told Alex. 
    But would my relationship status or lack thereof cause Alex Faber to drop his plans and come see me at work?  Probably not.  It was dangerous to think like that. 
      I shrug at Macy, feigned indifference sneaking into my voice.  “I have no idea.  Probably not.” 
    “Hmmm.”  This is Colleen.  Her platinum hair is tied to one side in a spiky ponytail.  Her fingernails are painted an iridescent dark blue.  She’s already told me that I can borrow the color. 
    I like Colleen.  And she’s been amazingly cool that I’ve crashed their group of friends.  So has everyone else. 
    There’s Macy and then Dizzy, whose real name is Desiree but has gone by Dizzy since she was in kindergarten.  Laney and I were friends with her back in elementary school, but then she transferred to a snotty private school and we lost touch the way kids do.  She’s been back in the unfortunate public school system for a little over two years but I don’t think we had even spoken until this week. 
    Asher Grigsby is Dizzy’s boyfriend.  He’s tall and hulking and an itsy bit scary.  Asher’s got that whole emo, I-don’t-give-a-shit vibe nailed down.  The first time he talked to me I wouldn’t look him in the eye.  But then I realized something.  It’s all an act.  Maybe he’s a tad socially awkward and has multiple facial piercings, but Asher’s a total softy.  He lives with his grandparents and he dotes on his girlfriend and according to Laney he’s a genuine friend to animals, even going so far as to bring a baggy of bird seed with his lunch for our school’s finch population.  And he loves salt and vinegar potato chips with a passion.  Go figure. 
    And of course there’s Lance who I’ve grown ridiculously fond of in the short amount of time that we’ve spent together.  Lance used to work with Colleen and Laney at a music store downtown, but he quit last fall in protest of some dress code amendment about closed toe shoes.  I find this interesting since so far I’ve seen Lance in nothing but closed toes shoes, but Laney says that he insisted it was the principle of the whole thing. 
    Despite the dress code, the music store sounds like a good place to work.  They sell obscure vintage records as well as some current stuff in cd form. 
    Laney says that digital downloads haven’t exactly been good for business but that they’ve got a pretty solid customer base so they make it.  She also tells me in a whispering tone that their manager, a scrawny twenty-three year old with terrible teeth, is painfully in love with Colleen but she remains oblivious.  This doesn’t surprise me.  Colleen’s beautiful and cool in the effortless way that people that don’t try too hard and could care less what you think of them are cool.
    “And you haven’t seen him in over a year?”  Asher asks with a mouthful of salt and vinegar potato chips.  He always seems to have a bag nearby.  Seriously.
    I shake my head.  “No.  He did a work study thing last summer up in Atlanta and his parents said that he went to France for some school thing in the fall and then they went skiing over Christmas break.  I know that he was home to visit his family a couple other times in the past year but we… we kind of avoid each other.  It’s not like a rule or anything—just one of those things.  But then all of a sudden he was at my work.”
    “His mother knows where you work and sent him on this errand, right?  It sounds like a set-up to me.”  Laney concludes. 
    “It wasn’t even one of my normal days to work.”
    “Whatever.  Your mom probably told his mom.”  Her logic makes sense.  Brooke definitely knows that I work for Patty and she did send Alex to get the papers signed.  Could our mothers be trying to set us up?  That would be too weird. 
    “I’m sure it was just a coincidence,” I offer with an exaggerated shrug. 
    Lance is leaning his face back to catch the sun.  With his eyes still closed he says, “Well, I for one, want to hear what this guy looks like.”
    I’m about to say something generic that doesn’t leave too much of an impression.  Something like this: Alex Faber has dark hair and two eyes and two ears and a mouth and wears clothes.  Most of the time. 
    But Laney starts talking before I can speak up.