my phone number and beeper number on while I was in the kitchen earlier.
“Ok,” he said. “If it’s too late I’ll just beep you. I’ll put 101. Do you know what that will mean?”
I had to think a minute before blurting out, “That was our room number.”
“Yes, that was the best night of my life,” he said as he bent down to kiss me. “Now, tell me how to get back to the bridge.”
With a heavy heart I gave him the simple directions that would lead him on his journey back home and far away from me. He hugged me tight for about 5 minutes before letting me go. I could have stayed like that forever, just us holding each other, simple and tender. He hopped in the Jeep and shouted, “Later, Kid,” as he drove away. Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched the red tail lights disappear down the street.
When I went back in my house, I filled my parents in on details from my weekend, omitting the part where I shared a room with Ramsey. My father said that he seemed like a really nice, respectful boy with a good head on his shoulders and that made me so happy. My father didn’t always like my boyfriends which would make my relationships difficult at times, so hearing that he actually liked someone I brought home was a rare treat.
After we ate dinner and cleaned up the dishes, I retreated to my bedroom. I unpacked my duffel and began to get my things together for school the next day. I got my uniform together and laid it over the banister in the hall for the morning. I took another shower only to kill a little time while I waited for Ramsey to call me back. Wrapping a towel around my head, I went back into my room and looked at my clock. 8:30. I ran to check my beeper to see if there was anything from him. Nothing. I cracked open my door and shouted, “Anyone call while I was in the shower?”
“No sweetie,” my mother shouted up the stairs and I could feel my heart break a little tiny bit.
I guess I had to wait it out. I didn’t have his phone number and there was no shot in hell that I was going to call Lauri to get it. I’d just wait. He’d call. I was counting on it.
11
My eyes flew open as the buzzing of my alarm clock began at 6:00. I waited up as long as I could in hopes to hear from Ramsey the night before, but I never did. I kept my beeper next to my pillow that night, hoping to hear it go off at some point to let me know that Ramsey had made it home. I checked it as soon as I woke up, only to find that there wasn’t a message that read 101. Even though I had been through a lot with David, this felt like one of the most disappointing moments in my life. I don’t know if it was fear that something bad had happened to him, or fear that the weekend was a sham that scared me more. Either way, I was miserable and I had no way to get in touch with him.
Going back to school and facing David after the prom hadn’t been a thought in my mind since I had met Ramsey. I had been on could nine all weekend, and didn’t have a worry or care in the world. I was planning on walking down those school halls with a smile on my face and my head held high because for the first time in weeks, I was starting to get my confidence back. I had a wonderful, gorgeous, smart guy who seemed to really like me, or so I thought. It wasn’t until I didn’t hear from Ramsey that my insecurities, anxiety and nerves came back. Oh God, how was I going to get through the day?
I struggled to get dressed and out of the house that morning, but when I finally grabbed my books and stepped outside, Sean was already there waiting for me. Sean was a guy that I had met my freshman year at Holy Family. We lived a few short blocks away from each other and he would meet me at my house every single morning so we could walk to school together. Although I wasn’t going to miss school once it was over, I sure was going to miss my morning walks with Sean.
“Well good morning, gorgeous,” he said as I walked down my steps, greeting me with the same words he used every morning for the past four years.
“Is it a good morning?” I miserably asked, knowing that he would assume my misery was due to Davids absence in my life.
“Ah, Ka, you’ll be ok,” he said as he rubbed my back while we walked. “You know his schedule. Just steer clear of where you know he will be, and before you know it the day will be over. We only have a couple left anyway,” he said with pure excitement.
“I know, I know,” I said, appeasing him. “I just don’t even want to over hear people talking about the friggen prom, ya know. I just don’t want to hear it. Not today,” I said. “So how was it anyway?”
“Really, Karen? You really want to know?” Sean asked.
“Yeah. If I’m gonna hear it from anyone, I’d rather hear it from you,” I told him.
“Well, it was great,” he said with a huge smile on his face. “Jeanette and I had a great time.” He took a second before speaking again. “David was there with a junior. I only saw them once. I stayed far away,” he told me. That’s why I loved Sean. He knew that I was politely asking about his experience, but really wanted to know about David. I was really going to miss him next year, as he was going down south to go to school.
We made small talk the rest of the short walk to school. As we came to the grand entrance at the top of the hill, I started to get nervous. And as we walked down the steep hill, being met by classmates saying how fantastic the prom was, I thought I was going to faint. Again, I didn’t know how I would make it through the rest of the day.
When we got in the building, Sean walked me to my locker. This was something new that he did ever since David and I split up. He did it to protect me as best as he could from David, as he knew what a fragile state I was in. Sean was going to make someone a very lucky lady one of these days.
“You gonna be ok?” he sympathetically asked.
“I’ll be fine. Thanks Sean,” I said, lying through my teeth. He kissed me on the top of my head in typical grandfather fashion before he walked away.
My shitty morning quickly escalated into an extremely shitty morning quite rapidly. As I stood next to my locker getting my books together, of course David was walking in my direction. I could see him out of the corner of my eye coming closer and closer. He wasn’t alone, though. He was with a junior. A young, blonde beauty and they were holding hands. I’m assuming this was the girl whom he had taken to the prom in my place. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t help but stare. David caught my eye and said, “Hey, Ka, what’s up?”
“Not much,” I responded, giving the nameless blonde a truly fake smile.
“Hey, I heard you went to Jersey this weekend. Did you have fun?” he inquired.
Jersey this weekend, thanks for reminding me, asshole. Another fake smile spread across my face. “Uh huh, it was a lot of fun,” I answered.
The bell rang, thank God. The blonde stood on her tippy toes and gave David a kiss on his cheek and said, “I have to go babe. I’ll see you later.” She had a shit eating grin on her face when she looked back at me and I was tempted to punch her in her mouth, although none of this was her fault.
“Ok, doll,” he said as she began to walk away. After she disappeared into the sea of students, David said to me, “I have to go too. Glad you had a good weekend Karen, and you got a killer tan.” He rubbed his thumb over my cheek and my breath hitched. He smiled at me and my heart clenched. With all the hate I felt for him, there was also still a lot of love there and being face to face with him brought back all of those feelings.
Yet another fake smile grew on my face, as I fought back tears. I didn’t know why I was upset. I did have a great weekend, and he was right, I did have a killer tan. I also met an amazing guy who made me happy when I was with him. I guess it was just everything coming apart at once, Ramsey never calling me and seeing David with another girl, which made me run to the bathroom and vomit. I stayed in the stall and vomited for twenty minutes.
Even though I vomited all of my feelings out, I couldn’t shake the nausea. The nauseous feeling stayed with me for a while, so I went to the school nurse and told her that I needed to go home. Being in