8

 

7:30 AM Monday. A day after Chicago. I went straight to school.

The student parking lot was virtually empty, school not starting for another hour. I didn’t need the comfort and sereneness that the park provided today. Still soaring from our weekend in Chicago and high from a shopping fix, I intended to put the finishing touches on an article for the school paper. Standing next to my locker was Jay and a couple of his friends.

“Hi, Jay,” I said. “When did you get back in town?”

“Last week,” he said.

“I didn’t see you,” I said.

He looked at his friends, Rick and Jared, who were smirking. They told him they would catch up with him later.

“I spent the weekend in Chicago,” I told him.

“Really?” He seemed surprised.

“Mom took me and Tiffany. We bought our prom dresses.”

“Oh,” he said. “You still going to the prom?”

“Yes,” I said, all of a sudden bewildered. “I thought we were going to the prom together.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Well what?” I asked.

Students were surrounding us as they opened their lockers.

“Let’s go outside,” he said.

We walked outside and stood under the tall oak tree in the center of the lawn.

“I’ve missed seeing you,” I said. “How did everything go in Atlanta at your grandmother’s funeral?”

“Good.”

There seemed to be a distance between us that had not been there before.

“While we were there the news about your dad’s firm was all over.” he said. “It’s just that my family thinks we should chill for a while. Let it flow. See what happens.”

“What? Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, not really. It’s just that maybe we shouldn’t go to the prom together. We can meet there, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. I turned and walked away, not knowing where I was going. I walked aimlessly across campus. The joy from my weekend away had been knocked out of me. My world was in a tailspin again, whirling and spinning and turning. I struggled, not knowing if I could come out of it. When I reached the track field, I saw Callie. The track team was running laps. I watched until they finished. Callie headed to the locker room for a quick shower.

I sat in the bleachers and waited for her. I never thought Jay would abandon me. He was the one bright spot in my life. How could he cancel our prom date? My life had been shaken to the core. I felt more alone than ever.

“What’s wrong?” Callie asked when she saw me. Sorrow must have been written all over my face. “I thought you would be happy. Did you find a dress?”

I nodded. “Jay doesn’t want to be seen with me, so he isn’t taking me to the prom.”

Callie sat beside me. “I’m not surprised. You do know that his friends, Rick and Jared, were the ones who spray painted your car?”

I shook my head sadly. I didn’t know. “Rick and Jared? I just saw them with Jay. I thought Mrs. Clancy said they were punished.”

“Punishment doesn’t extend to them being kicked out of school. The police department has them doing community service. They still get to come to school provided they don’t get into any more trouble.”

“Does Jay know what they did to my car?”

“I can’t say for sure, but he would have to be deaf not to have heard.”

The bell rang for the start of the school day.

“We have to go,” I said.

Callie gave me a ride back across campus. She pressed me for details on what exactly Jay had said. I told her his family told him not to see me.

Numbly I sat through my classes. I knew everybody knew that Jay had broken up with me. I could feel my classmates looking at me. When I looked up they rapidly looked away.

I didn’t know who to be upset with, Jay or his family. I thought his mother liked me. She worked on several charities with Mom. Whenever I was around her, either at their house or when our paths had crossed at the country club, she seemed friendly enough.

Mom had been pleased when Jay and I started hanging out together. She said that his family was “old money.” She also warned me that Jay’s Mom and other old money families looked down on us and the recent family additions to Fairfield as nouveau riche. I told her that Jay’s Mom treated me well.

Not so much!

They probably didn’t want his picture to appear in the paper or on TV if he was hanging out at my house. The media lounging around our gate didn’t bother me. I wasn’t the one they wanted to talk to. I was used to seeing them there when I left for school and when I returned in the evening. There were fewer and fewer of them each day. I took that as a sign that Dad was being cleared, slowly but surely.

“What was the use of going to Chicago? I have a dress and no one to take me to the prom. This would be real funny if I didn’t feel like crying.”