I'll Be Here

over one eye.
    “What about the campaign posters for King and Queen all over campus for you and Taylor?  Don’t you think it might be a tad awkward when you show up with someone else?”
    Dustin winces.  “I don’t care about that.” 
    He leans in closer and I can feel his warm breath against my face.  “I miss you Willow.  Trying to make prom court with Taylor was another mistake.  You know how she can be.  She’s obsessed with being Prom Queen and she thinks that I’m a shoo-in for King and honestly, I’m not sure if she ever really liked me like that or if—”  His voice falls off and he’s looking at me so intently I can practically feel his eyes like fingers over my skin. 
    “She’s just not you and the past few weeks have been one big disaster that I’m hoping we can help each other forget.  We used to be so good together.”
    I sink against the back of the booth.  “Did we Dustin?  I’m not so sure…”
    “Willow you can’t mean that.  Tonight I’ll call Taylor and—”
    Something clicks in my head and I stop him before he can go on.  “Wait.  Does Taylor even know that you’re here?”
    He shakes his head and glances at the waitress as she delivers a tray of steaming plates to the table in the corner.  “No.  I was planning on talking to her after I talked to you.”
    “God, Dustin.”
    He grips my hand tighter and his eyes plead with me.  “The thing is Willow that I realize now that I should have just been happy with just you.”
    Just me?   I think he means this as a compliment but it feels like a slap in the face. 
    Dustin rolls his shoulders slightly and I take the opportunity to pull my hand from his.  His eyes follow my fingers as they disappear under the table into my lap and I can tell that he is not expecting this.  I can see by his furrowed brow and his straight-line mouth that he thought I would respond differently.  I dig around my purse for a ten dollar bill.   
    “You’re absolutely right Dustin.  You should have been happy with just me but you weren’t and you can’t go back in time.  Now it’s too little too late.  Look, I’m sorry that things aren’t going well for you and Taylor,” I say, dropping the money onto the table in front of me.  The bill sticks to a glob of tomato sauce.  Oh well. 
    “I really am, but you shouldn’t be telling me this kind of stuff.  It doesn’t feel right anymore.”  My eyes are on Dustin.  “I don’t think that we can be friends after all.”
    Dustin’s mouth flops open.  “Willow…”  My name sounds like a complaint coming from him.  “What is this?”  He demands.
    “ This ,” I say, feeling a little tired, “is me leaving.”
    “Leaving?”  He echoes as I stand up.
    I look down.  His face is pinched. 
    “Dustin, I’m not trying to get back at you or be mean.  Honestly.  But the thing is that you hurt me and you did it in the worst possible way.  And I can forgive you and wish you the best in life and blah, blah, blah,” my fingers make curled quotations in the air, “but I can’t forget it, you know?” 
    I pull the strap of my bag onto my shoulder and move out of the booth in a half-sitting, half-standing crouch.
    Dustin’s mouth moves soundlessly like he’s working out something to say but I don’t give him the chance.  I turn.  My hair settles around my shoulders. 
    “I guess that I should have told you from the start that I have a boyfriend now and I don’t think that he’d want me to be having pizza with you.”
    And as I walk away I do feel like a girl in a movie.  My heart is swelling in my chest and my feet are light on the ground.  The waitress and the bar staff applaud as I move past them. Okay.  Not really.  But it sort of feels that way.
    EXIT LEFT.
    END SCENE.

 
     
     
    What we need are more people that specialize in the impossible.
    ~Theodore Roethke

 
    CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
     
    …And I lived happily ever after.
    Okay, maybe I’m jumping the gun, but that’s how I feel today—like I’ve vanquished the horned dragon and pushed the evil queen from the highest turret of the stone castle. 
    I am invincible.
    I am She-Ra, Princess of Power.
    I am woman, hear me ROAR.
    Today I am new. 
    I am standing outside, under the gaze of the yellow sun.  Scraggly, brown-tipped palmettos contrasting the liquid blue sky are the backdrop.  Fresh, musky smelling mulch is my platform.  My hands are on my hips.  My neck is craning. 
    Dustin