Catching You (19 page)

“I’m ready,” I said, squeezing his hand.

I stood on my tiptoes to reach my
suitcase that I’d stored in my closet back in August.
“
Why didn’t you
just store it under your bed like Taylor did?” I mumbled to myself. Groaning, I
grabbed the edge of it and pulled, throwing myself backwards onto the floor.

My roommate, Taylor, walked in a
few moments later. “I see that you’re doing the last minute packing thing
again.” She laughed, tossing her backpack on her bed, flopping down beside it.

“You know me.”I smiled over at her.
Taylor had dyed her hair caramel brown a few months earlier and her blonde
roots were finally beginning to show.

“After living together for four
months I think that I would know you well enough.” She rolled on her side and
watched as I began taking clothes out of the closet and began throwing them on
the bed.

“Are you all done with classes?” I
asked in order to fill the silence.

Taylor nodded. “I just finished my
last final. I can’t wait to go home. What about you? Does your family do
anything big for the holidays?”

“Yeah. My mom is really big on
celebrating Christmas because of my younger brothers. They’re five years old
and still believe in Santa Claus and everything. She has my father dress as
Santa and it’s so funny. I wish could still be as innocent and trusting as them,”
I said wistfully. If she noticed my change in mood, she didn’t say anything.

 I hadn’t told Taylor about Ryan
even though we’d become really good friends in the last few months. I just
didn’t feel comfortable enough. All I wanted to do was just trying to forget
the whole incident and move on with my life. It was something that I didn’t want
to remember.

 After we got home from the cabin,
I went to the police with Bryn’s confession and both her and Nick were
arrested. Since Bryn was only seventeen years old, she was sent to the Joplin
detention center in Trabuco Canyon for four years Not even Nick’s parent’s’
money could get him off for murder, so he was now in prison for ten years since
he told the truth about Ryan’s death,

 He had begged and pleaded for my
forgiveness for what he’d done, but I just couldn’t do it. Our relationship or
what there was of one, ended the day he confessed to causing the accident.

 “Earth to Lauren…” I shook my
head bringing my thoughts back to the present.

 “What?” I asked, looking over at
Taylor waving her hands in front of my face.

 “You’ve been standing there
staring off into space for the last few moments. Is everything okay?” she
asked, concern in her voice.

 “Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. As much
as I was looking forward to going home for break, I was nervous to see my
friends. So much had changed since we graduated.

 “If you say so,” she said,
glancing down at her watch. “Well, unfortunately the dining hall is now closed,
but if we hurry, we could probably still get a sandwich or something from The
Market.”

“That sounds good. I haven’t eaten
since lunch.” As if to show proof, my stomach let out a big growl. Taylor
laughed.

“We’d better get you something to
eat, like now.” She sat up and walked over to her desk, grabbed her jacket off
the back of it. “Now, get ready!”

“Okay, okay.” I grinned at Taylor.
I grabbed a sweatshirt out of my side of the closet and threw it over my head.
Taylor glanced over, “I like the sweatshirt,” and she smiled. “Was it a gift
from Derrick?” she asked in a singsong voice.

“Yeah it just came a few days ago.
It’s kind of a little joke between us. This summer he was picking on me and
saying that I’d be cold here in L.A.” I said pushing her out the door. I got my
room key out of my pocket and locked it behind me.

“I don’t get it. Don’t you live
two hours south of here, anyway? Mission something, I think.” Taylor frowned.

“Yeah that’s the joke. I’m always
cold even when its 70° degrees out and always have a sweatshirt on.” I replied
walking down the hall. Taylor had to run to catch up.

“Wait for me you’re walking too
fast. You must really be hungry.” She said.

“Yeah, I am.” I replied.

She nodded. “I get it now. That’s
sweet of him. I remember you showed me a picture of him. He’s cute, kind of the
“boy next door” look.”

“Yeah he’s been my rock these last
few months,” I blurted out before I could stop the words.

“What do you mean?” She asked
putting her hand on my arm. I stopped outside the door.

“It’s a long story. I don’t really
want to get into it right now. Can we just get to The Market before they close,
too?” I whined.

“Yeah, sorry.” Taylor and I walked
the rest of the way in silence.

There were a handful of students
inside The Market when we got there and I got in line behind a guy wearing
headphones around his neck. I could hear music coming out of them.

“I’m sorry if I said something
wrong.” I jumped at Taylor’s voice behind me.

 I turned to her.

“Forget about it. It wasn’t you.
I’m just trying to forget stuff that happened this summer.” I sighed.

“Well, I’m here if you need
someone to talk to,” she said. I thanked her and waited patiently for the guy
with the headphones to be done ordering his sandwich. I think that he got every
single kind of meat they had piled on it.

“What can I get you?” the lady
behind the counter asked. She put on a fresh pair of plastic gloves as she asked
me.

“I want a tuna melt with provolone
cheese and lettuce on a plain bagel,” I requested, looking over the counter.

“No plain bagels left. Is there
another kind that you want?” she asked. I sighed. I ordered an everything bagel
instead and waited for my sandwich.

I walked over and placed my bag on
the counter. “I’d like a Coke with crushed ice please.”

“Here you go.” I handed the lady
my meal card. She handed it back and I got out of the way so Taylor could pay
for her food.

A few minutes later, food in hand
we were walking back to the dorm when I stopped.

“Listen if you really want to know
the truth about this summer I’ll tell you while we eat. I’m starting to feel
bad that I haven’t told you yet, anyway.”

“Only if you really want to tell
me,” Taylor responded. Of course she had to be all politically correct about
it.

“I do.” I pushed open the outer
door to the dorms and dug my key card out of my pocket. The dorms gave you key
cards for every dorm, so that people couldn’t randomly get in others peoples
dorms, but students knew that if you wanted your friends to get in, all you had
to do was prop a door open.

Back in the dorm room, I set my
bag on my desk and slipped my flip flops off my feet.

“So you want to know about my
summer,” I said lying down on my bed. And through bites of my sandwich I told
Taylor the whole sordid tale about Ryan’s death.

“I don’t think I’d be able to
trust anyone after that.” She said lying on her bed. It was now a few hours
later and we were curled under covers in our pjs.

“Sometimes I still have trouble
trusting people, but it’s getting better. Derrick helps me a lot. I think he’s
a lot of the reason I’m still sane and not in a psych ward right now,” I
answered truthfully.

“He sounds like a good catch.” She
glanced over at the clock. “How did it get to be after midnight already?” she
asked. “You have a flight to catch in less than six hours young lady you better
get some sleep.”

“I know.” I yawned and snuggled
deeper under the covers.

“Night Lauren.” Taylor turned off
her bedside lamp and got cozier under her own covers.

 “Night.” I closed my eyes and
slept soundly until the alarm woke me the next morning.

“Lauren, if you don’t get going
now you’re going to miss your flight.” Taylor’s voice roused me from sleep.

“What?” I glanced over at the
clock. 6:00.a.m. I had two hours till my flight left and I hadn’t even gotten
dressed yet. Let alone pack. When Taylor and I got back from The Market last
night I finally broke down and told her about everything that happened this summer
and we didn’t end up going to bed till after 1 am. I’d barely had 5 hours of
sleep, ugh.

I pushed the covers off of me and
hurriedly began grabbing clothes out of my closet and throwing them haphazardly
into my suitcase. I don’t even know what I packed. I didn’t have time for a
shower, so I just put on a bra, some deodorant and threw my feet into some flip
flops. I put my UCSD sweatshirt on over my camisole and grabbed my suitcase.

I turned to Taylor arms out. “I
guess I’ll see you in a few weeks. Be good and don’t do anything I wouldn’t
do.”

“You, too. I want to hear all
about it when we get back.” She reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “Have a
good break.”

I smiled sadly and walked out the
door. I walked down the hall, glancing around at all the empty dorm rooms.
There were a few people still around, but mostly everyone went home right after
their last final was over.

I stood outside, shivering in the
cold waiting for my taxi. When it showed up a few minutes later, I opened the
door, threw my bag at my feet and told the driver I needed to get to the
airport. The ride to the airport was silent because I guess the cab driver saw
I didn’t feel like talking. When we arrived at the airport, I paid him and
quickly jumped out. I only had thirty minutes before my flight started
boarding, so I ran over to the express check in and began checking my bag.

I checked my ticket and saw that
my gate was at the end of the terminal. Unfortunately, I’d worn my flip flops
instead of my tennis shoes because they were the closest ones I could find. I
pulled them off my feet, hustled over to security, and groaned at the line.
I’m
never going to make my flight.
The older woman in front of me was having
trouble getting the bins apart, so I reached over and yanked them apart for
her.

“There you go,” I said smiling.

“Thank you, miss.” I tossed my
shoes in a separate bin, threw my computer bag on the conveyer, and waited for
my turn. The woman seemed to be taking forever Finally, I was able to grab my
stuff off the belt and put on my shoes. I glanced down at my watch ad saw that
if I ran fast, I would make my flight. I don’t think I ran so fast in my entire
life.

I settled into my seat, tossed my
carryon bag underneath the seat in front of me, and buckled my seat belt. I’d
brought things to keep myself occupied during the two hour flight, but as soon
as I laid my head back, I was asleep.

I jolted awake as the pilot came
on the speaker. “We are beginning our final descent into John Wayne Airport.
Please make sure seat belts are buckled and trays are in the upright position.”
I wiped the sleep from my eyes and glanced down at my watch, it was only
10’oclock in the morning.

I glanced around and chuckled. I
wasn’t the only college student on this flight. Half the plane looked like it
was full of blurry-eyed freshmen, just wanting to get home. As soon as the
voice came over the loudspeaker that we could, I was out of my seat and down
the aisle.

I walked briskly down the flight
deck brining with excitement. I couldn’t wait to see my parents. All I wanted
right now was my nice, warm bed. I was exhausted. If I didn’t get at least 6
hours of sleep, I was a major bitch! Although, I slept on the plane, my neck
had the biggest crick in it from trying to sleep sitting up. I glanced over the
few people waiting for the plane and didn’t see my parents.

They’re probably waiting at the
baggage claim,
I thought to myself. I
hefted my computer bag over my shoulder and made my way through the sparse
crowd down to the lower level. The baggage claim looked like a ghost town this
early in the morning, but I still didn’t see anyone waiting for me. I found the
sitting area and decided to sit down and wait for my bags.

Someone walked by with one of
those rolling suitcase and bumped into my leg. “Sorry,” they mumbled. I glanced
up to say something and that’s when I saw him. Derrick was standing in the
middle of the almost empty room holding a cup of coffee and a dozen roses. What
happened next was just like out of the movies. I dropped my computer bag on the
ground, ran up, and threw my arms around his neck, almost making him drop the
coffee and the roses.

“What are you doing here? I
thought my dad was picking me up.” I said between kisses.

“Well, I called your dad a few
days ago and he mentioned that you were coming home this morning and I offered
to come pick you up. Believe me, he didn’t seem to mind. I think he wanted the
sleep anyway.”

I grinned. “You don’t know how
happy I am to see you!” I exclaimed.

“Oh believe me, I think I know.”
He grinned. “It hasn’t been the same around here without you.” He didn’t know
how good it felt to hear those words coming from his mouth.

“I missed you too.” I said.