The Space In Between (21 page)

MY EYES WERE trying their best to
stay open as a hot mess Michelle was sitting next to me. She stared into my
eyes and for a while there appeared to be two of her…then three…okay, back to
two. I apologized to her for not noticing she was engaged, and she informed me
that she didn’t want to throw it into my face after the accident. I shrugged
and told her I was happy for her and Eric. It was about time, actually. They
had been dating since middle school like Derrick and me.

They were meant for each other—everyone knew it. So there
wasn’t much of a different road they could have traveled down.

Or so I thought.

“How did you know, Andrea?” she whispered as she laid her
head against the nasty, sticky bar countertop. She didn’t care. I didn’t try to
stop her. Her eyes were looking at me with real concern and I smirked towards
her.

“Know what?”

“That he was the one. That you were ready to spend the rest
of your life with him? I mean heck. Am I really ready to settle down for the
rest of my life?” She was looking at me, but she wasn’t talking to me anymore.
It was as if she were looking through me. Her eyes were heavy with sadness and
I couldn’t help but sober up a bit. Tears started falling from her eyes and she
was quick to wipe them.

“Michelle…Are you okay?” I was concerned. I’d never seen her
in such a state of un-perkiness. Something was seriously wrong.

She blinked and came back to me. She shook her head, put on
her bright smile, and laughed loudly. Her typical Michelle laugh. Tossing her
hands up in the air she looked towards Colin and yelled, “Two more shots!”

“No more shots. Time to go.” I turned in my chair and stared
at Cooper standing over me. He tossed Michelle’s coat to her and held mine up
to help me into it. I was still so embarrassed—drunk, but embarrassed
nonetheless—by how he had rejected my soda pop offer. I snatched my coat from
him and rolled my eyes.

“I can do it myself.”

I watched him frown as Eric stumbled over to us with his arm
wrapped around a drunken Ladasha. It appeared he had sobered up quite a bit,
but Cooper still said he should drive us all home.

Piling us three girls into the backseat of the car, Cooper
and Eric sat in the front. I was lucky enough to ride bitch, also known as
sitting in the most uncomfortable seat positioned between Michelle and Ladasha.

“Questions!” Michelle drunkenly screamed. I knew exactly
what she was referring to when she said it. I remembered taking many drunken
walks, drives, and runs with Michelle where we would always play the game of
Questions on our way home. I explained to Cooper and Ladasha that Questions
involved asking any question you would probably not ask if you were sober.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Cooper murmured from the
driver’s seat. He was really determined to be a party pooper.

“It’s a great idea!” I yelled. “You go first, Michelle.”

“Okay. Question. Is it normal to smell your breath in the
palm of your hand and then lick the air to taste it?”

I burst out laughing at the random, stupid question from
Michelle. And, all of us except Cooper, cupped our hands, blew into them, and
licked the air. Gross.

“My turn.” I smiled and shifted over as Michelle rearranged
her body in the car. “Would you rather have a soda pop or a sour lemon?”

Eric smirked. “Who the hell calls it soda pop?”

I glanced at Cooper through the rearview mirror and knew he
was looking towards me. He was giving me a stern look—warning me to not push
the subject. My heart skipped a beat as I broke eye contact. “I don’t know.
Some people.”

Michelle giggled, yawned into my shoulder, and closed her
eyes. “That’s the stupidest question ever.” She was fading to sleep—probably
the best idea.

“I think this is the stupidest game ever,” Cooper huffed.
I’d never seen him in such a bad mood. I wondered what the hell was wrong with
him.

“Okay, my turn.” Ladasha turned towards me, smiling as I
kissed her nose.

“Could a stripper who was a bit wacky and a teacher who was
handsome and smart and charming ever have a shot with one another?”

My heart sank into my stomach as I placed my hand on my
chest. “Oh Dasha…” I felt so awful for her, and I looked as Eric turned to
stare at her from his seat. Luckily Michelle had fallen asleep. Otherwise this
had the possibility to be an extremely awkward situation.

Eric cleared his throat and turned back forward. Ladasha
rolled her eyes and spoke softly. Tears formed in her eyes. “I’m so stupid…”

“You’re not,” I promised. Even Cooper’s look showed sadness.
Ladasha had lived a tough enough life, and the last thing she needed was to set
herself up for another heartbreak by going for an engaged man. My brother.

The silence filling the space was heavy, somewhat tainted.
Eric cleared his throat again stared straight out into the darkness. “It
depends,” he said. Ladasha sat up and looked at him, waiting for him to
explain.

“On what?” she asked.

Eric turned as far back to face us as he could, ready to
enlighten us. “It’s like a kite. There are millions of kites in the world.
Different shapes. Different sizes. Some kites are made for the crazy winds.
Some get torn a little. And some plop! Instantly hitting the ground right out
of the package.” He locked eyes with Ladasha as he continued.

“And then there are the kites that are breathtakingly
beautiful. The kites that have never even tried to fly because other bad kites
told them they weren’t good enough to soar. So that breathtakingly beautiful
kite believed them. It wasn’t her fault. She did what she was taught. She lived
in self-doubt. She stayed grounded. That kite was stripped of a chance to
ascend from the ground and rocket past the trees, into the blue sky.”

Oh crap. Ladasha wasn’t the only one who was tearing up now.
Eric continued.

“So your question was, could a stripper who was a bit
wacky—in the best possible way—and a teacher who was…” he said, smirking and
winking towards Ladasha, “handsome, smart, charming, dapper, strong…”

“Yeah yeah, we get it.” Ladasha laughed.

“Right. Could they ever have a shot with one another? Well,
for starters, I think the girl isn’t a stripper. She just stripped. There’s a
big difference. But if the timing was different, and the teacher wasn’t already
engulfed in a different lesson plan, there would be no way in hell he could let
her beautiful kite pass his way without entangling their strings together
forever. And ever.”

And that was the end of it. He turned back forward and
everyone went silent. Cooper pulled up to the house and Ladasha quickly shot
out of the car, running for the house. Cooper chuckled to himself as he helped
Michelle out of the car. I followed after her. Cooper laid the passed out
Michelle in Eric’s arms. He continued to chuckle as I turned away from him to
get rid of the idea of how much I was falling for his laugh. Eric turned
towards him. “What is it?”

“That was a good speech you gave.”

Eric laughed and shrugged as he opened his door. “I majored
in English.”

I SHUT THE car door, watching Eric
carry Michelle towards the house. What a fucking night. Andrea looked at me and
I gave her a half smile. She still looked pretty drunk, and cold. “Let’s get
inside.”

“Wait,” she said as she walked closer to me. I took her cold
hands and rubbed them together between my hands to warm them up.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know from day one my signals
towards you have been confusing and all over the place. And I make rules. And I
change them. I cry and say panda. But next I’m begging for soda pop. Then I
want you to go away. And I change the rules again. And now we are friends, with
no benefits, and I don’t know how I messed this up so much.”

“It’s all right, Andie.”

She chuckled. “It’s not. I just wish…” She wandered off with
her sentence, shifting her feet on the ground. I kissed the top of her head and
rubbed her arms.

“You’re drunk.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m wide awake. And I know deep
down in my heart that if today were opposite day and you had told me you hated
me…I want you to know that I would say I hate you, too.”

Her eyes glimmered like the white snow as she poured her
heart out to me.
She loves me.
I went to open my mouth to speak, but
before I could, she was bending over, violently vomiting on my shoes.

How fucking romantic.

“THIS SUCKS,” ANDREA moaned into the
toilet as I sat on the edge of the tub.

“At least with your new haircut you don’t have to worry
about holding your hair back.” I chuckled towards the tequila-suffering beauty.
Tequila was never a good choice. It had a way of making you feel like its best
friend and suddenly, without any warning, it stabs you in the back and mocks
you.

“I’m never drinking again…” she whispered. I laughed,
secretly hoping she would remember her confession to me. My smile faded a bit
as I thought of the other confession I’d heard today from Steve. I was beating
myself up for knowing the lies Derrick had kept from her. But Derrick was gone,
so what good would it be to tell her about Rachel and him? I wondered if she
would still be mourning over a cheater…

I should tell her. If it came out I’d known and hadn’t told
her, she would kill me. Even worse, she would hate me. And I didn’t mean the
‘opposite day’ kind of hate. And there were all the things I already wasn’t
telling her—all the information about Iris, my past, and the paparazzi that she
deserved to know.

I’d tell her when the time was right—and when her head
wasn’t in the toilet.