We left and I turned on Vail when we reached the sidewalk again.
“What the hell was that?”
Vail blinked at me.
“What do you mean? We got you a dress. Did you need shoes? Fuck, we should have gotten you shoes, but I don’t want to deal withheragain.”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and started searching for shoes, I guessed.
“Vail,” I said, my voice snapping. “What is going on with you?”
She glanced up and then back down at the phone. “There’s a shoe place two blocks down that should work.”
Was she not listening to me? What was going on?
“I’m not going anywhere with you until you talk to me. I know neither of us were raised to talk about shit, but that’s not going to fly with me. You’ve been weird and cold to me ever since the party on Friday night and now you’re acting like you’d rather be anywhere but here. So, what’s. Going. On?”
Vail squinted up at the sky. “Nothing.”
“Okay, cool. See you at the wedding.” I turned to walk away, but she touched my arm.
“Wait.”
“For what?” I didn’t turn around all the way. She had to say something worthwhile to get me to stay.
“Let’s go…somewhere else. Okay?”
There was a little park just up the street with benches and trellises with roses that I remembered.
“Come on.” I nodded and started walking. She followed me silently.
* * *
We reachedthe park and I slumped down onto one of the benches and I set the bag with my dress next to me so it wasn’t on the ground. Vail sat next to me, but with space between us.
“The dress you chose is beautiful,” she said, her voice soft as we watched a few parents push their kids in strollers, a few joggers run by, and a few people walked their dogs. There was also a couple taking selfies with the roses.
“I wasn’t sure you noticed. You seemed pretty checked out.”
She sighed and I glanced over at her.
“I’m sorry. It’s not you. I’m just… I’m sorry. The wedding is this weekend and I’m having lunch with my brother on Thursday and it’s all bringing up a ton of crap that I usually try not to think about.”
Yeah, I could imagine. It was making me think about things too. No doubt I was going to see friends of my dad at the wedding. No doubt they would pump me for information about my life to bring back to him. As if I didn’t regularly talk to him and fill him in on my life during our regular fifteen-minute phone calls.
“I get that. But don’t take it out on me. That’s all I ask. Just treat me like a friend. We are friends, aren’t we?”
I gave her my full attention and she finally met my eyes.
“Yes, PT, we’re friends. I’m sorry. Did you still want to go get some shoes?”
I did need shoes, but I was going to do something else first. I hopped up from the bench and approached one of the rosebushes that was just starting to bloom. It was absolutely against the rules to pick any of these flowers, but I made sure no one was looking and grabbed just one tiny blossom and scampered back to Vail.
“Here.” I set the flower in her hand.
“What’s this for?”
I shrugged. “Just seemed like the right thing to do.”
