Changes
Sharp pointed fingernails scrape on my bare shoulder. Megan has returned as promised. Suddenly “With or Without You” stops playing in the middle and Pharrell’s “Happy” begins playing and receives a chorus of moans in response from those who found they could slow dance to the U2 song. You can’t slow dance to “Happy.” I guess you could if you were really intent upon it.
I glance over my shoulder and see Brittany grinning and the DJ is shaking his head, but laughing.
“It’s my turn,” Megan says. Saccharine sweetness oozes from her voice now. She slips her arm around Steve’s waist and smiles up at him.
“You know, I’m probably danced out. I don’t usually dance at all,” he says.
“I would never have guessed. You do it so well. A real sense of rhythm.”
I bite my lip, but then smile any way even though she’s practically dragging him back to the table. How was this behavior acceptable to me before? I guess the answer is that I am different. These two weeks have changed me. But will the changes stay in place when I return home? What will I be returning home to anyway? A dead-end job that I don’t like. A best friend who I’ve just discovered is really a frenemy? The one consideration is Grams, but knowing her, she’d pooh-pooh that excuse.
I could do this. I could move to Virginia Beach or one of the nearby towns. I could be a beach bum and pursue writing and get a dead-end job here that would pay rent. Why not?
I feel Steve’s eyes on me and grin at him. He shakes his head and chuckles.
“Princess, that mind of yours is whirling,” he says.
Megan narrows her blue eyes at me. “What have I missed?”
“Now those are smoldering glances if I ever saw a smoldering glance,” Grams says as she flops down on her chair. She’s looking from Steve to me. “Maybe you two should get a room or a fire extinguisher. One or the other.”
Brittany sits down and takes a long draught her beer. “I vote room.”
My face flames while Steve’s grin just grows. His eyes glitter. I grin in response, feeling myself lift like something ethereal, a cloud, my thoughts sailing away to possibilities.
end 7/4/2017
Sascha Darlington