Melanie

“Where’s your car sis?”

“It’s at the bar. I need to go get it. Will you give me a ride down there in a minute? I would have asked mom, but she would have given me a hard time for going there in the first place.”

“She should. Are you even old enough to drink?”

I ignored his question and asked him if he was going to give me a ride or not. I was kind of grouchy and wasn’t in the mood to answer all of his questions right now.

“How did you get home?”

“I got a ride. What’s with all the questions?”

Scott had a suspicious look on his face and I wondered if I was looking guilty. I bet I was because all I could remember clearly about some of the night was a kiss that I shared with Carl. It hadn’t went far, certainly not as far as I wanted it to, but Carl had made it clear that I have to stay away. My brother was trying to protect me, but he was the reason that it hadn’t gone further.

“Because I just want to know that you aren’t doing anything stupid. You look hungover.”

I was, badly so and it was a lot of work to even keep my eyes open at this particular moment in time. There was still too much noise and light, but if I stayed in bed too long, the questions would come from mom and she would be certain that I was sick.

“I might be a little hungover, but it’s no big deal. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Has mom seen you?”

“No and I would like to get the car back before then. I don’t want to hear it from her already. I just got back. Can’t you have a little compassion for your sister?”

“Fine, let’s go. But we got to swing by Bianca’s to pick up Carl. He’s going to help me with a couple of things around the house. Dad wants me to get them done and I told him that I would. Carl is handy with most everything, so he offered to come over yesterday. I swear that guy can do anything”

As soon as I heard his name, I perked up and paid attention. I wanted to see him again, even though he might not want to see me. I didn’t know who Bianca was though.

“Bianca?”

“Grawly. You know her. She used to work at the canteen before it closed up.”

I searched my mind for who he was talking about, but I couldn’t remember. The canteen had been closed for a long time and even when I was back home for a visit, I never stayed around here that much. I didn’t know who he was talking about until we pulled up at her house and I instantly knew I didn’t like her.

I’d only seen her couple of times before in town and she was someone that hadn’t even looked at me when I’d passed her. She was better than everyone or so she thought and you could see it written all over her face.

Now the woman was staring at me in the same way as she had before and I could tell that she hadn’t changed much since I’d seen her last. But now she looked at me like competition and I made sure to smile and wave at her. She didn’t smile back and I scooched over for Carl to get in before I looked back through the windshield at her. The blonde was not happy and she stared daggers through the glass like she knew what I was thinking. Did she know about the kiss? I didn’t think that Carl was the type to tell his secrets and I really didn’t like the fact that he had a girlfriend that he had to withhold information from in the first place.

Why hadn’t I known about her? And if I had known about her, would I have cared? I didn’t now, so I don’t think that I would have back then either.

Carl’s knee touched mine before he moved it away and Scott got back in. I was stuck between the two of them and I didn’t look back up at Bianca. She had nothing but something akin to hate in her eyes and I didn’t want to see it anymore. I shouldn’t have smiled at her like I did.

The two guys talked about a few things and then we were at the bar and I was driving back home. I was turning down the street and saw that they were already back and instead of going back home, I went instead to see Lily. I said I would and I realized that it was a good way to forget about what was going on.

Lily had been my boss and friend for many years. She’d been the one that had first thought of boarding school. I was going down the wrong path, that’s what everyone said and getting me away from it all was better than getting trouble. I was sent away and it worked in some aspects because I stopped getting in trouble. The reasons were of course different, but I’m glad that I left. It was all because of Lily and her time in boarding school that got me thinking about it.

When I pulled up it looked the same as it always had. The small white house was down by the small river that cut through town and everything was starting to bloom. I was sure that she would be out in her garden as beautiful as the weather was and when I got out and went behind the house, there she was, right where I knew she would be. I liked the predictability of Lily. I always had.

Waving to her when she looked up and saw me, Lily smiled and put down her ho. “Well Melanie, it’s been a while? I thought I would see you in a couple of months when the year was done?”

“You get to see me sooner Lily. I decided to come home for a while, maybe just skip the rest of the term. I passed by the market last night and saw it was sold. I had to come see you and find out what was going on.”

She smiled in that tired way she had picked up the last couple of years and shrugged. “It was time to move on Melanie. Sometimes, it’s just time. I’ve been living in the past since George died, so now I have to move on.”