“Come in,” I yelled through a mouthful of toothpaste.
In walked my mother, “I hope you said come in, I couldn’t
understand you through the toothpaste.” I glared at her over the sink. I spit.
“Yes, what do you need” I asked.
“I was hoping you’d be able to watch your little brothers
for a while. I need to do some errands and it’s so much easier without them
around.” I sighed.
“I guess so. I have plans with Bryn later, though.”
“Thank you, thank you.” She exited the room and I followed,
going to check on my brothers. I found them downstairs watching cartoons.
“Morning,” I mumbled. Neither one of them moved. This should
be an easy babysitting job; they didn’t seem to want to get away from the
television. Wandering over to the coffee maker, I glanced up at the clock,
shocked it was already 10’oclock.
“Why did you let me sleep so late? It’s after 10’oclock.
Bryn and I were supposed to go to the mall at noon” I whined, pouring coffee
into an empty mug on the counter.
“I thought I’d let you sleep, you were up late it seems.” I
blushed. I guess my parents had heard my cell phone ring last night.
“Bryn was having another one of her major crises and she
needed my help.”
“Tell her not to call so late next time,” my mother scolded.“Well,
I’m going to sneak out of here before they know I’m gone, you know how they
get. Tell them to go get dressed and take them to play at the park or
something.”
I looked over at the living room and saw them glued to the
television and didn’t think that they would care either way if my mother left,
but I wasn’t going to tell her that. I nodded, taking a sip of my coffee. I
waved goodbye to my mother and finished my coffee. I set my empty mug in the
sink and called to my brothers,
“Hey, who wants to get on their bathing suits and play on
the slip-slide in the backyard?” I yelled into the living room. I was met with
a chorus of “I do!” I shuttled them upstairs, hearing them giggle the whole
way.
For the next hour, the only sounds that I could hear were
giggles, and shouts of joy as they continuously played around the backyard. I
heard the jingle of keys on the lock and told my brothers to go give my mom a
big, wet hug. She would love it.
“You two look like you’ve been having lots of fun. Lauren
let you on the slip n slide, did she?” My mother raised her eyebrows at me over
my brothers’ heads. I grinned.
“What? I thought they’d have fun, but now that you’re home
I’m going to head over to Bryn’s house for a while.”
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Bryn lately, are
you and Elisabeth still not talking?” she asked. I shrugged.
“I don’t know. The last time I saw her was at the fireworks
on 4
th
of July. Bryn had invited her without telling me. We didn’t
talk much though because Nick dragged me away.”
“You know why I don’t want you hanging around him, Lauren.
Are you trying to be his next victim?” she asked.
“No!” I exclaimed. “I’m trying to save anyone else from
becoming one. I’m going to go to get Bryn now. I’ll be back later.” I grabbed
the car keys off the front table and slammed the door behind me.
I put the car in gear and pulled out of the driveway,
narrowly missing another car coming down the street because I hadn’t looked in
my rear view mirror. A car horn made me hit the brakes, breathing heavy.
Why
didn’t you look behind you, you dumbass. You almost got into another accident.
Wasn’t one enough?
I pulled out of the driveway slowly, making sure that I
looked both ways first and made a left at the end of the street. Bryn didn’t
live to far away, so I made to her house in less than ten minutes.
I stood in front of Bryn’s house ready to knock when the
door suddenly opened. She stood in front of me wiping flour on her pants.
“What were you just doing?” I asked, coming into the house.
She closed the door behind me. Mom, Lauren’s here. We’re going to go up to my
room for a while.”
“I was in the kitchen helping my mom make some cookies. Is
everything okay?” she asked. I didn’t answer her as I stood in the doorway
glancing around. Bryn walked over to her mother. She was an older version of
Bryn: heavy set with medium length, brown hair and brown eyes.
“That’s fine.”She answered while putting cookie dough on a
cookie sheet. Bryn took a spoonful of raw dough and stuck it in her mouth.
“Yummy.” She said, walking out of the kitchen and up the
stairs.
When we got to her bedroom she closed the door before saying
anything. I sat down on Bryn’s bed and faced her.
“I’m mad at you,” she said, sitting down next to me.
“What do you mean? If anyone should be mad, it should be me.
You tell me that my ex’s best friend is a killer and you want me to date him.
Shouldn’t you be trying to keep me out of danger, not throwing me to the
wolves, per se?”
She shrugged. “Ryan was your boyfriend so you seemed to be the
perfect person to do this.”
“Thanks a lot!” I grumbled.
“Well, you don’t have to get bent out of shape. It’s not
like he would have dated me. I mean, look at you. Are you going to miss him
when you leave?” she asked changing the subject.
“Of course.”
“Are you going to come back to visit him in jail?” I was
taken aback to hear that come from her mouth. I bit my lip, not sure how to
answer her.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure how willing he is going to be to
see me after I turn him into the police,” I responded
“I’m glad to hear that. I thought that you were chickening
out on me.” She smiled showing her slightly crooked teeth.
“No. I’m still planning it.”
“I still can’t believe any of this is real. Ryan’s dead and
we’re going after Nick for murder.” I paused. “Don’t you feel bad that were
wrecking everyone’s last summer together, though?”
“No. The summer was already wrecked the night of the
accident.” Bryn stated.
I stayed silent.
“I guess you could say that. I’m just finding it easier to
be numb over the whole thing than actually let it get to me. I can’t quite
explain it.”
“I don’t want you to take this wrong, but Elisabeth and I
have been talking the last few days and she seems to think that you didn’t
really love Ryan, considering how quickly you moved on,” she stated.
“Bryn! You should know that I haven’t moved on. This
“relationship” that Nick and I are having is all for show. I can’t have him
getting suspicious about anything. But, of course Elisabeth would say that. She
was sleeping with Ryan!” I exclaimed, gritting my teeth, “How stupid can you
be?” I quickly realized what I’d said. “Oh, I’m so sorry Bryn. I didn’t mean it
to come out like that at all. I guess I’m, still bitter about the whole thing.”
“I really think you need to rethink this whole thing with
Nick. He’s dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She set her
hand on my arm.
“I’m getting sick of you telling me that Nick is dangerous.
Don’t you think that I know this? You’re the one who just told me I needed to
turn Nick in. Make up your mind already. Don’t worry, I’m being careful. I‘m
realizing I just don’t have the best track record with guys.”
“Stop blaming yourself, Ryan cheating on you isn’t your
fault.” She leaned over and squeezed my shoulder.
I sighed. “How I am not supposed to when I find out that my
boyfriend had been cheating on me right under my nose. And, with my best
friend! Who doesn’t notice something like that?”
“You just thought he was being a teenage guy. You know they
can’t make up their minds.”
“I guess. I just am trying to understand it all. And, all
summer all I’ve heard is how my actions will affect Ryan’s memory or what would
he think about this or that and I’m sick of it. I took a deep breath. “Ryan
died. I didn’t. And I’m trying to move on with my life, but that’s a little
hard to do when nobody will let me.”
“I’m just worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine, I always am.” I smiled to show her I wasn’t
angry. I knew that Bryn was just trying to help me by giving advice, but I
already had a mother for that kind of stuff.
“Well, I better get home, my mother is probably going
absolutely bonkers with the boys right now and could use some help.” I turned
to go.
“Wait, I thought you came to hang out.” She glanced at the
clock. It said twelve thirty. “You’ve only been here an half an hour. Do you
really want to leave?”
“Yeah, I feel better,” I said, getting up off the bed.“I’ll
see you later.”
“See you later.”
I soon fell into a daily pattern: work, hanging with Bryn
and going on dates with Nick. I was counting the days down until the cabin
trip. It was a few days before we were going to leave when I saw Elisabeth
again.
I sighed. My feet were killing me and all I wanted to do was
go home and soak in a hot bath. I leaned over and sniffed my shirt. I wrinkled
my nose; it still smelled like burnt hamburger. I grabbed my jacket off the
hook and slipped it on. With my purse over my shoulder, I waved to Ellen, who
was in the kitchen, on my way out.
I stopped dead in my tracks. Elisabeth was standing by the
host stand, looking nervous.
“Lauren, can we please talk?” she asked quietly. I started
to walk past her, but changed my mind. All I wanted to do was go home.
Why did she have to show up now
? I thought to
myself.
“Fine, but can we do it somewhere else? I’ve been working
since 7’o clock this morning and just want to go home.” She nodded, pushing the
door open. Outside, I stood there waiting for her to say something to me.
“Well?” I asked.
“I haven’t talked to you since the fireworks and I wanted to
make sure that you weren’t still mad at me.”
“Not still mad at you? How can you even ask me that! I may
have been nice to you that night, but that was mostly for Bryn’s benefit. She
wants us to be friends again, but I can’t do that. You really hurt me, Lizzie. I
don’t understand how you could do this to me. I paused and took a breath. “He
was my boyfriend and you slept with him. You are supposed to be my best friend.
Friends don’t do this kind of stuff to each other.” I turned and began walking
away.
“Lauren, please wait. I need to tell you the whole story,
please listen to me.”
I turned around, “All right, talk.” I said, tapping my foot.
“Can we at least go to your car or something? I don’t want
to have this conversation right here,” she requested, gesturing to the
sidewalk.
“Get in the car. We can talk there.”I walked over to the
car, unlocked it, and got in. I leaned over and unlocked the passenger side so
Elisabeth could get in. We sat there for a few minutes in silence, me waiting
for her to start talking.
She took a deep breath. “I don’t know where to start. We’d
been talking for a few weeks, but it didn’t turn romantic until you left for
Camp Wabaunsee. He was angry that you’d choose to spend the whole summer in the
middle of nowhere instead of staying home. It was the summer before senior
year. He was lonely.”
I laughed. “Wait; let me see if I got this right. He was mad
at me so instead of talking to me he decides to sleep with my best friend? Do I
have that right?”
“We didn’t plan for that to happen. He told me that you two
had been fighting a lot and he was thinking about ending the relationship.
Although he wasn’t sure yet because he still loved you,” she said
I gritted my teeth in anger. “I’m still not sure I
understand why he did it, but why did you? You were my best friend.”
“Ryan and I started hanging out together and I began to
enjoy our talks, almost needed them. And so, when he told me he was going to
break up with you I thought that I could take a chance with him. I thought that
it was okay. I really liked him.”
I glanced over and saw Elisabeth’s eyes had filled with
tears. She may act tough around everyone else, but deep down she just wanted
someone to love her.
“I just can’t believe that you thought it was
okay
to
be with my boyfriend. When you knew that we hadn’t broken up. Don’t you have
any self-esteem, Elisabeth?” I asked.
“I guess not. I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that, but you don’t seem to show it at all.
Do you know how it made me feel to hear that my boyfriend of four years had
cheated on me with my best friend? It didn’t feel good at all.” I took a
breath. “Why couldn’t you have told him no and come to me and tell me that he had
hit on you?” I asked. She didn’t answer.
“I just want you to know that after this conversation, I don’t
want anything to do with you. I just wish that you hadn’t thrown away six years
of friendship over him, but you did. Now, get out of my car.”
“Lauren, don’t act like this. It’s stupid to stop talking
over this; I would think that we would need each other more now than ever.”
“No. I don’t give second chances. Now, get out.” I watched
her open the door and walk away.
I turned on the car and let it run for a few minutes while I
dialed Bryn’s number. Something that Elisabeth had said had got me wondering.
What
did she mean?
I waited a few minutes while it rang. I noticed she changed
her ring back to Chris Daugherty’s
Home,
I liked that song.
“Hello?” I heard Bryn’s voice.
“Bryn, it’s me. I was just talking to Elisabeth and she said
something that had me wondering if Nick wasn’t the only one behind the car
accident.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. I pulled into the
intersection ignoring Bryn for a second as a truck two times as big as my car
tried to cut me off. I took a deep breath, “Wow that was close.” I sighed.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I just got off work and am heading home. I had to call you
and tell you the news, though.”