WAY OFF

That night, Rachel calls me.

She says she misses me!

I’m relieved. But nervous.

Of course I’m nervous.

I deserve to be shot.

“Can you believe, Maise,

I haven’t heard from Gino

outside one brief phone call!

He was supposed to model for me again.

He says he loves my drawings of him.

He told me his mother

was taking him away for the weekend.

Something’s off, Maisie, way off!

Don’t you agree?”

“I guess so…,” says the breathless hypocrite

on the other end of the phone.

So I drop by her house

and listen to her Gino theories

while I braid her hair.

It’s the least I can do.

We slow dance to the radio,

singing the Patsy Cline song.

“Oh crazy

For thinking that my love could hold you …

I’m crazy for trying

And crazy for crying

And I’m crazy for loving

you.”

But really what’s crazy

is how I’m letting this boy

become everything to me.

What’s crazy is

how I’m lying to my best friend.