And so, apparently, was a killer party.
* * *
Dean
“Lori, you’re out of your mind.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled a glare at my best friend. In return, she pouted out her bottom lip and batted her eyes at me.
“Deeeeeeaan . . . c’mon.” She clasped her hands together under her chin. “Please. I never get to see you anymore, and this is the last weekend before you go back to prison—”
“It’s not prison, Lori. It’s my school. It’s West Point. You know, it’s a huge honor to be admitted . . . and then, oh, yeah, I’m also starting quarterback for the football team this year, so I’m not exactly dreading it.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “I hate it. You never spend any time at home, you barely get a few hours off between semesters—”
“Also not true. I’ve gotten leave, but I’ve chosen to take advantage of some of the incredible opportunities that don’t come around every day. I got to travel to Africa and Japan and Italy. Can you even imagine? For someone like me—like us—from Podunk, PA, to be in those places?”
This time, Lori’s lip curled, and derision filled her voice. “Someone like us—what you mean is a loser like me who doesn’t care what might be out there in the world. Someone like me who thinks that what we have here in Pebbleton is just fine.” She tossed her long dark hair over one shoulder.
“I’m not putting you down, Lore. I’m not putting down where we live. I’m just saying there’s more to life than what’s here.” I felt like a broken record. It was the same tired old argument I’d had with her since the day I’d won my appointment to the Academy over four years ago.
Lori and I had been best friends since we were in grade school. We’d both grown up in the same crummy neighborhood with a bar on the corner where our fathers spent every non-working hour. Our mothers worked at the same factory just beyond the town border, midway between Pebbleton and Crowder, the nearby college town.
The difference between us was that Lori had never wanted anything else except what our parents had had . . . the same lives and dead-end futures that our grandparents had known.
And I wanted so much more.
The United States Military Academy had opened the door for those dreams. From the moment I’d found out that I was going, I’d made big plans, and then I’d worked to make those plans reality.
“Look.” I tried to keep my tone even and reasonable. “I’ve been here this week because you and my mom both begged me to come home before I headed back up to the Point for training.”
“It’s stupid that you have to be there so early,” Lori interrupted. “It’s stillsummer, for God’s sake. No one else I know is going back to college for another month at least.”
“The Corps goes back before civilian schools. Football players have to report back before the rest of the cadets. We have to be ready for the first game of the season. Even if I were playing for another school, a civilian college, I’d have to leave around the same time for training.” I’d already explained this more than once during the week I’d been home. “But I carved out this week to stay here for a few days to see Mom and hang out with you.”
What I didn’t add was that I’d also felt a little twinge of guilt about not having seen Lori for a long time. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was outgrowing my old hometown and the people who lived in it. I didn’t want to think about that tonight, though. I just wanted to relax and have fun on my last night home.
But Lori was trying to wheedle me into taking her to a party that one of our old high school buddies was throwing. I didn’t want to go, and I hadn’t made any secret about it. I’d never really liked the guy, even when we’d been in school together. He hadn’t done anything in the three years since then to make me change my opinion of him. I really didn’t feel like hanging out with a bunch people who were threatened by my life choices and liked to give me a bunch of shit for thinking I was better than them.
Lori wasn’t going to give up easily, though. She’d been arguing with me for the last hour, even though I’d dangled other appealing options in front of her. I’d offered to take her to dinner at her favorite restaurant in Lancaster, which was a good two-hour drive away. I’d suggested that we could see a movie together. But she wasn’t budging, and I was starting to have the feeling that I’d have to go or risk leaving tomorrow with her being pissed off at me.
Strangely, that proposition didn’t upset me as much as it once had. Maybe Lori was right. Maybe I’d changed more than I realized. When I thought about it rationally, I knew that other things—and other people—had taken priority in my life. Tomorrow morning, I’d get into my brand-new-to-me car—as a first classman, I was finally allowed to have a car on post—and drive north to West Point, the place where I felt at home, free to live the way I’d always secretly wished I could, with people I liked and respected. My fellow cadets, the guys on the football team . . . our shared experiences meant a lot. And sometimes my growing-up years—and the family and friends who’d been part of those years—felt very distant.
The fact that Lori was so hostile about my new life didn’t make spending time with her any easier. I had a feeling that once I’d graduated and launched my Army career, we’d probably grow apart for good. Maybe I’d see her every few years when I made it back to visit my parents . . . but then again, she might notwantto see me then.
Thinking about that possibility—that tonight might be our last real time together, that it might be our friendship’s swan song—softened me a little.
“Hey.” I reached across the table and touched her arm. “I guess we could go to the lame party . . . but I’m not staying long, got it? I’ll go, have a beer, then I’m out of there. If you want to stay later, that’s up to you.”
“Yay!!” She jumped up and came around to hug me from behind. “Thank you, Dean! We’ll have a bitchin’ time, I promise.”
“Sure we will.” I rolled my eyes.
Her mouth thinned to a tight line, and her eyes glittered, hard and cold. “If you’re going to go with a shitty attitude, then you may as well just go home and watch TV with your mother. I don’t need to put up with your crap.”
“Not me.” I waved one hand as though clearing the air. “My attitude is clean and shiny. It’s like a fucking diamond. This party—” I slapped a hand to my chest. “It’s going to be so amazing that it’s probably going to change my life.”
“Now you’re just being snarky. But whatever. Let’s go now.”
