Second Chance (61 page)

A
neon orange sun set
s
behind the old
ghost town
. Dylan still has weeds tied in her hair
and dust all over her clothes
. I smile and tell her she’s
more
herself
today.

She leans back on her hands. “It’s weird, but I feel the most at home when I’m roaming.”
I nod because t
he more time I get to spend with her, the more I witness how this is true.

Dylan
’s
phone
suddenly
rings and
the sound
makes her scream
with surprise
. I almost jump off the ground.

“You really need to stop doing that,” I say.

“Sorry,” she
says, and
looks at the screen
.
“It’s the gallery.”
She answers it
and while she
listens
h
er eyes light up.

“
What
?”she
asks
.
“He’s interested in hiring
me
?” She
laughs and listens for another
minute and something in her face changes. Her smile turns to disappointment.

“Oh,” she says
, the excitement slipping out of her voice
. “I don’t know if
I can commit to that.
Yeah, if I’m interested I’ll call him. Thanks
so much for the reference, Mary.” She hang
s up and looks out at the sunset, but her eyes are dazed
.

“What happened
?” I ask.

“A travel photographer came into
the gallery
,” she says.
“He’s looking for an assistant and he liked my work, so Mary recommended me.
He’s interested in hiring me.”

“Are you serious?
”
I ask.
“That’s great.”

“The shoot’s in Australia,” she says.

“Isn’t that on your wish list?” I ask.

She nods.  “It’s number one on my wish list.”

“Then call him, what are you waiting for?” She looks at me as if I’m forgetting something. I start to register what’s wrong.

“How long is the job
for
?” I ask her.

“He has a three month shoot scheduled, starting next month, but he wants to stay for a year if he can get
enough
work.”

I nod at this new
s and my own excitement for her
deflates.
One year?

“I’m not going to call him,” she
decides
and shakes her head quickly
.

“Dylan—”

“It
isn’t meant to be,” she says.
She looks back at the church and
continues with
our
story and I watc
h her closely while she talks.
I feel a pang of guilt in my chest.
W
e’re
going to destroy
her
if we keep her here. I
t’s like holding someone hostage. 

So why am I allowing her to stay? 

W
e don’t get halfway through the
story
before we hear a car
coming
towards us,
Nine Inch Nails blaring out
the open windows
.
We watch Lenny’
s blue Toyota speed up to us and
tak
e
our time to finish off the last of our crackers
.
I brush a few crumbs off my
shirt.

Lenny rolls to a stop and pokes her head out to glare at us
.

“Did you find it okay?” I ask
.
She narrows her eyes at me, clearly annoyed
.

“I just have one question,” she says
.

Dylan and I look at each other and then back at Lenny.

“Are you two planning on getting married
someday?” sh
e asks
.

My face heats
up
.
“Why?”
I ask
.

“Because I’m officially worried for your children,” she says
.

GRAY

A week later,
Todd becomes my first friend to officially hit
marriage
status
.
Scary
.
Getting married is probabl
y the lamest thing you can do in
college
.
College marks your pre-adulthood years,
where you
’re
meant to screw up on a daily basis
.
This includes
embracing your curfew-free schedule, studying only when you experience a lag in social engagements, and enjoying drunken debauchery with your fellow peers
.
Not
discussing matrimony dates and
picking out dishware
and sheet sets
.
 

Bubba and I hide
out
on the front porch to escape the overbearing estrogen levels concentrated in our living room
.
T
he Liz Wedding
P
arty
is
currently
spre
ad out watching the
DVD
of their
ceremony
.
I’ve already seen it
.
Twice
.
Bubba’s chewing and he hocks a thick wad of brown spit off our front porch into the grass
. T
he stream
barely misses my shoulder
.

“Dude, that’s sick,” I say
.

Bubba shakes his head
.
“Not as sick as the freak show happening in my living room
right now
.
Since when did our house become
the headquarters of
Future Housewives of America
?”

Just as he says this there’s a chorus of laughter inside, all high
pitch
ed
squeals
.
Bubba
shudder
s
.

“If I ever, even consider getting married, will you do me a favor?” he asks
.
He looks at me with serious eyes and I nod
.
“Shoot me in the head?” he asks
.
“Poison me, knock me unconscious, anything
.
Just
talk me out of it
.”

I chuckle at this and
finger
-
pick a
few
strings
on my guitar
.
“It
couldn’t be
that bad,” I say
.
“I hear it’s a pretty common r
elationship move.”
A long stream of sighs escapes
from all the girls inside
.

“And half of those moves end in divorce,” Bubba points out
.
He
glances in the window
.
“
I
just
can’t believe
Todd got married
in the middle of
the
season
.
They’re not even living together until
the
fall
.
What’s the point of getting married if you can’t at least
bang
each other on a daily basis?
”

“Love makes you do crazy things,” I say.

“
Tell me about it
.
Look at Miles
.
Pretending to like
mediocre
chick bands that play
covers of other
mediocre
chick band
’s
music
.
”
He
shakes
his
head with dis
appointment
.

“
Cat’s good, you have to admit,” I say
.
I decide to call him on his own behavior.