Home > 10 Years Later(14)

10 Years Later(14)
Author: J. Sterling

“No shit. And isn’t it a little early for the let’s-get-drunk-and-fuck mood lighting?” Kristy asked, noting the room’s already semi-darkened state.

Glancing across the space, I couldn’t help myself as I scanned the room for that one particular person. After a quick sweep of the area, I determined that he wasn’t here yet, if he showed up at all.

“Hey, girls! So good to see you.” A busty woman came up and hugged each of us as I glanced at her nametag, thankful again for the senior picture that it included.

“Hi, Teresa! It’s so nice to see you. How are you?”

Teresa regaled us with the woes of being married—and divorced—already. She had two kids, was now a single mom, and worked full time at a thankless job. Her words, not mine. Apparently she had married her high school sweetheart, Jim, someone I couldn’t quite remember, but was told I’d know him if I saw him. Then she launched into an emotional diatribe about how he had better not show up to this event tonight because he was supposed to be watching the kids, and she wanted to have one nice night without him rubbing his new life in her face. She claimed the last thing she could handle would be seeing his worthless ass here with his new nineteen-year-old girlfriend.

Kristy politely excused us after that.

“That was fun.” I widened my eyes in mock disbelief of my own words.

“She seems really happy.” Kristy mimicked my facial expression, and I laughed.

“Nineteen-year-old girlfriend, though? That’s horrible. What is it with guys?” I added with a frown.

“They’re wildly insecure and can’t stand getting older. We handle it with grace, dignity, and Botox.” She flipped her hair and smiled. “They handle it with new cars, new girlfriends, and Viagra.”

I laughed at her assessment and wanted to disagree, but couldn’t. “We should find somewhere to sit. I feel exposed standing here, like we’ll attract more horror stories.” I glanced around, more than ready to find our table.

“Right. ’Cause no one will be bitter or crazy if we’re seated at a table,” Kristy said sarcastically, and I made an annoyed face at her.

I had no idea what direction to head in, so I didn’t move. “Where should we go?”

She looked around the room, scanning the occupants through narrowed eyes. “I see seats over at Jenna Carlson’s table.”

“How the hell do you recognize everyone?” Even though most of these faces were on Facebook every day, they still looked different all dolled up, not Photoshopped, and in person. Not to mention the fact that I was terrible with names and faces.

“It’s a gift,” she said with a smile. “Let’s go sit with over there, okay?”

“Sounds fine to me.”

I barely remembered Jenna Carlson, but I knew I didn’t dislike her. To be honest, I disliked very few people in high school. Unless you gave me a reason to hate you, I simply didn’t.

Jenna stood up from her chair and squealed like an overly exuberant sorority girl at the sight of us, and I fought off the urge to run in the opposite direction.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! It’s Cammie and Kristy! You two look amazing and exactly the same! Wow! Don’t you age? How have you been? It’s been too long!”

She continued to shout out rapid-fire questions, and her smile was so big I thought her cheeks might split. But when she opened her arms, I gave in to her enthusiasm and hugged her back.

“You look great too,” I said as I glanced around the room. “Actually, everyone looks pretty great, to be honest.” I reached for one of the glasses of water on the table and gulped some down.

“Especially us girls,” Jenna said before laughing a little too loudly and sitting back down.

I glanced over at Kristy, who shrugged her shoulders and forced a fake smile as she sat down beside me.

“Do you know if Dalton’s going to be here tonight?” Kristy asked Jenna, and I almost spit my water all over the two of them with my surprise.

Jenna developed a crease between her pretty eyes. “Dalton? Gosh, I don’t know. No one’s really heard from him since graduation. He sort of disappeared, but I mean, he was our class president so he has to be here, right? God, he was so hot.”

I wanted to disagree, to argue, because Dalton wasn’t really “so hot,” but then again he was. That damn personality of his made him so much more attractive. Why couldn’t I hate him? I really wanted to hate him, although I knew hating him wouldn’t solve anything.

“I know you work at the radio station, Cammie. How is it? Is it as fun as it sounds?” Jenna asked, still smiling.

“It’s awesome. I love it.”

“John and Tom are so funny. I listen to them every morning on my way to work. I hear them talk about you sometimes and I’m always like, Oh my God, I know her, to myself, you know? ’Cause I’m like, in my car, by myself and stuff.” Jenna giggled again and I wanted to stab myself in the ear with a fork.

“Yeah, they’re pretty funny. They love to make fun of me,” I said, trying to smile politely.

“I can’t believe I almost forgot!” Her eyes widened, and she leaned forward to tap me on the arm. “Who were you talking about having a crush on? When they were asking you about the guy from high school, who was it? I was racking my brain trying to think about who you dated back then, but I kept coming up empty, just like that caller. All I kept thinking of was that one guy from the band that you loved. Remember that?” Then she laughed, a high-pitched trilling sound that made me want to smack her.

   
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