My Butterfly

smiling when the corners of Matt’s mouth started to twitch upward.
    “This only happens maybe once in a lifetime,” Chris said, his eyes big.
    Matt shrugged his shoulders.
    “We can figure the rest out as it comes, I guess,” Matt said.
    I glanced at Daniel. He was nodding his head in agreement.
    My eyes fell back onto Jesse, who had since abandoned the papers on his desk and now seemed to devote his full attention to the four of us.
    “I think we’re in,” I said to him.
    Jesse slowly nodded and then smiled.
    “I thought you would be,” he said.

Chapter Thirty-Two
    Reunion 
     
     
    “I mean, really, is this really necessary?” Rachel asked, as she elbowed me in the arm. “I see these people almost everyday. And if I wanted to see them at night, I could do that too. The keyword here is if .”
    “Oh, come on, Rach,” I said. “It isn’t that bad. Your five-year high school reunion only comes around once in a lifetime.”
    She glared at me with narrowed eyes.
    “The invitation said, ‘no guests,’” she continued. “What kind of a party do you go to that you can’t bring any guests?”
    I shrugged my shoulders.
    “I didn’t make the rules, Rach,” I said.
    I grabbed two drinks from the counter, and at the same time, noticed a big guy in the opposite corner of the room.
    “Wait, Rach, isn’t that Jon over there?” I asked.
    “Hmm?” she asked.
    She seemed disinterested.
    “Jon,” I repeated.
    “Oh, yeah, I brought him anyway,” she said, flipping her hand in the air.
    I stared at her for a second as she walked away. Then, I smiled and followed her to a table in the corner of the room. We sat down, and I slid her a drink. She took a big gulp of it and then set the glass down.
    “Great,” she exclaimed then, under her breath.
    “What?” I asked.
    “Don’t look back,” she said. “Maybe she won’t see us.”
    “What?” I asked.
    “Rachel! Will!”
    I turned in my chair, but before I could get all the way around, a woman was already wrapping one arm around my back and hooking her hand onto my shoulder. She smelled of strong perfume.
    “Janette,” Rachel said, in a hollow and unenthused tone.
    I caught Rachel’s glare and smiled, knowingly.
    “I didn’t know you two were going to be here,” Janette exclaimed, pulling up a chair and squeezing in between Rachel and me.
    Rachel looked at me sideways. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled back at her.
    “It’s our class reunion, Janette,” Rachel said. “Who did you expect to see here?”
    Janette hadn’t seemed to have heard Rachel’s question, and if she had, she ignored it.
    “Now, what are you two up to these days?” Janette asked in a high-pitched voice.
    Rachel let out an exasperated puff of air.
    “I’m teaching…,” Rachel started.
    “That’s right,” Janette interrupted, as she tossed back her head and laughed. “That’s a silly question. You’re in Hartsville, and Will, are you still fighting those fires?”
    She winked at me, and at the same time, she dug her long, red talons into my bicep.
    “Yes, Janette,” I said, smiling up at Rachel.
    Rachel scowled at me.
    “Have you heard that my boyfriend just got a job at the bank?” she asked. “He’s in the accounting department. I don’t think you’ve met him. He went to Northwest Missouri, graduated near the top of his class.”
    I watched as Rachel’s lips twitched but then finally formed a fake smile.
    “He’s probably going to propose to me at any moment now,” she continued. “We’ve already talked about buying a house here in town, and he wants two kids. But we’re going to start off with a dog first, you know. We’re going to skip the plant. God knows we can take care of a plant,” she said, laughing up into the air. “That’s just a waste of our time. Time’s a tickin’, you know.”
    Janette paused and smiled at Rachel.
    Rachel forced her fake smile higher up her face and slowly shook her head back and forth.
    “It’s a tickin’,” Rachel repeated. “But sadly, not fast enough,” she added under her breath, while flashing me an impatient glare.
    Suddenly, Janette’s purse burst to life then with the help of some off-beat tune, and immediately, Janette’s attention flew to the bag. I watched her root in the purse for a second before I noticed Rachel’s eyes on me again. They were big and telling, and I just knew she wanted to strangle Janette or run or something. I chuckled to myself and lowered my eyes.
    Janette