Still lost in a daze, I watched as the headlights of Lance's car slowly backed down the driveway, and then out of sight. On the way home from the carnival, neither one of us said a word. I think he was nervous that I didn't enjoy or appreciate the kiss... both of which I did, very much. The light inside the front hall turned on, and someone opened the door.
"Han? You gonna come in or just stand in the middle of the yard all night?" I turned to see Aubrey standing in the doorway, a hand on her hip and a smug smile across her face.
"Huh? Oh, sorry… was thinking."
I followed her inside to the living room. She all but forced me into dad's overstuffed armchair, then plopped down right in front of me.
"I want details." she said, rubbing her hands together.
"And would you like some popcorn with tonight's main feature?" I replied sarcastically, swinging my legs over one of the arms.
"Actually, I AM hungry." she thought for a moment, "Be right back."
It was obvious she had been absent from the dating scene for a while, or else she wouldn't be counting on her younger sister to provide a play-by-play of her date.
She trudged back into the room a few minutes later, her arms laden with two glasses, a liter of Cherry Coke and a bag of nacho Doritos hanging from her teeth.
"Hewe....ake eese." she mumbled, swinging the bag in my direction. The bag landed just shy of the chair, and onto the floor. Good thing it wasn't hardwood, or our food would have been chiplets, "Okay, spill it."
"You are incorrigible, you know that?"
"It's a gift," she grinned, "now spill it!"
I told her about the carnival, Lance proving himself as a man at the strength tester, and finally the kiss. I could still see the corners of Lance's mouth curl up as he tilted his head in my direction. His cologne was strong and musky. I felt just so safe in his arms...
"Hannah? What happened after that?" Aubrey was shaking my arm.
I refocused, totally bypassing her and fixed my gaze on the mantel clock. It was after 1:30!
"Dude, I've got to get to bed." I said, getting up.
"B-b-but..."
Upstairs, I fell back on the bed and sighed as all the memories replayed themselves inside my head. There should be some sort of mechanism that let's you capture specific moments in your mind.
---
It was your typical summer morning...the sky was clear blue, not a cloud to be seen for miles. I was sitting on the kitchen counter slurping up the last of a large bowl of Golden Grahams, my favorite cereal. This was one of the main reasons I loved coming home: mom would buy the stuff I couldn't afford back at the dorm and stock the house full. Meaning, of course, I would be bringing the remnants back with me.
"Mornin Mom." she came into the kitchen and gave me the evil eye. She moved her gaze down to the level of the counter. Smiling sheepishly, I slid off the counter and instead leaned up against it, "Sorry, force of habit."
Taking in the last bit of milk, mom turned on her morning ritual of talk shows. This was my cue to skedaddle on out of there. I scampered up the stairs like a little puppy, my tongue hanging out and all. I could tell it was gonna be a scorcher, so I dressed accordingly. A cute little yellow tank top I had found at the second hand store back in Atlanta. It had bright pink flowers splashed across the front, and you could see that at one point there was glitter in the centers, and a pair of faded blue jean shorts.
Looking in the bathroom mirror as I fixed up my hair, I found myself humming a cheesy love song.
"Hannah you're gorgeous."
I spun around at the sound of the male voice, "Who's there?"
"Hannie, who are you talking to?" Mom called from the base of the stairs.
"Uh, oh I was just watching tv. It's nothing!" I fibbed, biting my lip. I brought my hair up into a coiled bun and secured it with a gazillion bobby pins.
"You know you want me." came the voice again, but this time it was more familiar. Thinking for a moment, the first image that popped into my head were a pair of bright green eyes.
"Lance." I said, shaking my head at the thought.
"Sweetie, phone for you! It's a bo-oy!"
"Oh geez." I rolled my eyes, wandering out into the hallway and picked up the extension, "I got it! Hello?"
"Hey Hannah." Lance said with a small laugh.
"Uh hi... what's up?" I asked, trying to cover up my nervousness. This was like deja vu or something like that.
"I was wonderin'... are you busy today?"
"Well, kinda sorta not really. I have some stuff to do, but it can wait until later. What'd you have in mind?"
"I thought maybe we could just sit and talk."
Yeah, he'd be the one talking and I'd be the one drooling. And can you tell I have a weakness with men?
"Uh, sure... that could be cool. You wanna come over here? We could have a picnic maybe?" okay, that sounded totally lame, like we were 7 years old again and I was going to bring out my pink plastic china set.
"Sounds great. I'll be there in about... a half hour. Cool with you?"
I agreed and hung up. Then something jarred my memory. It was the day after the fourth... so the fifth. Oh damn. I booked it back down the stairs and flew over to the calendar.
"Shit shit shit!" I said between clenched teeth.
"Nice language there, Hannah Rose."
Stomping my foot down on the floor, I continued the rant of cuss words for a few more seconds. How could I have forgotten that I would be leaving to go back to school the next day?
-----
"Yo Banana, door for you."
With the picnic table on the porch set with a red and white checked cloth and two tall glasses full of Cherry Coke fizzing in the center, I went through the house to the front door. Lance stood there dressed in an orange short-sleeved sweater (which really set off his tan) and khaki cargo shorts. He gave a small smile and lowered his sunglasses.
"Uh, are you okay?"
I shrugged off the daydream like it was nothing.
"Huh? Oh... yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Come on out back."
We sat down to the lunch of good old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I wasn't a master cook of any sorts... my only specialty was mac n cheese with a dusting of black pepper on the top.
"So, I was thinking...about last night." he began, setting his glass down.
'Yeah, I've been thinking about nothing but', I thought.
"And," he stalled for a microsecond, "Would you do me the honor of being my guest at a party this weekend?"
My face fell, along with the full glass of Cherry Coke. It sent soda flying every which way. Luckily, neither one of us go caught in the crossfire.
"Damn. Uh Lance, I'm flattered... but..."
"Let me guess, you already have a boyfriend?" he asked, a solemn look on his face.
"NO! God no... um, I have to, uh... go back to school tomorrow." I spit out the words like they were heaped with sauerkraut.
"Oh. In Atlanta, right?"
"Yeah, well a suburb of."
There was an moment of silence. I could tell he was disappointed. Hell, I was disappointed, but I knew I had to get back before Friday when classes began again.
"C-can I have your number? So maybe.. maybe I could give you a call?"
This made my demeanor brighten slightly, "Sure! Let me go get a pen."
I scribbled down both the number for my dorm room and my cell and handed it to him, "I'm usually in my room during the day, but if you want to get ahold of me at night, the cell is your best bet."
"Alright, cool. Here's my cell number too." he handed me a small card.
"Wow, pretty professional. I'm impressed."
"Yeah well, a group of my friends and I got them made up a while ago. Just as a joke, you know."
"Just as long as you're not a pimp, it's all good." I teased.
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