Noon
With only a mile left in our journey, it felt like a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around my chest. And by the time we got to Highway 55, where Leon and Johnny would turn off toward their car, I thought I might be having one of those anxious episodes. Like the one I’d had in front of the Mid-South Coliseum three years earlier. I felt lightheaded. I could hardly breathe. Leon and I hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers.
I dug inside my purse for paper, finding Ron’s letters and my checkbook. Once I’d found a fountain pen, I pulled on Leon’s arm and handed him one of the envelopes. “I need your address, please.”
He took the pen from my grasp. Instead of writing on the envelope, he tattooed his name on the inside of my forearm, in large all-capital letters. Underneath he added his parents’ address, phone number, and the name of his dorm at Penn State. “I don’t know the number at my new dorm, but Mom will,” he said, then let loose one of his man-giggles. I would so miss that man-giggle. Handing me back the pen, he held out his own arm. “Give me yours.”
“I don’t know where I’m going,” I said with a slight tremor in my voice. I could feel tears threatening to fall.
“Just give me something. I’ll find you.”
Biting down on the inside of my cheek, I printed my name, home address, and phone number on the inside of his arm. I added the name of my dorm—the one I was supposed to live in should I end up going back to Union.
He plucked the pen from my grasp and encircled my name with a heart.
Eyeing that heart made the tears I’d been determined to block fall anyway.
“Hey,” he said, clasping my cheek. “This isn’tgoodbye. It’ssee ya soon.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.” Leon tapped his heart, not his head. “Can you trust me?”
I gave him a slow, but confident, nod.
He slipped the chain holding his silver-and-turquoise cross over his head, then slid it over my neck, pulling my hair out from underneath.
“You don’t have to—”
“You can give it back next time we see each other,” he said with a wink. Slipping his arms underneath mine, he lifted me off the ground, guiding my legs around his hips. I buried my nose inside his neck. To memorize his smell. And breathe him one last time.
We held on to each other until Johnny placed his hands on our shoulders. “I don’t mean to be a killjoy, man, but we gotta split.”
Feeling Leon’s arms give way, I slid slowly down his body until I felt grass underneath my bare feet. As I pulled away, he reached out to tickle my stomach. “You look sweet in that halter top.”
“I’ll keep it forever.”
Ron stepped between us. “Great to meet you,” he said, shaking Leon’s hand first, then Johnny’s.
“Likewise,” Leon told him. “Good luck in Canada, man.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna need it,” said Ron.
“See you there, man,” said Johnny.
“You’ve got the address of my crash pad, right?” Ron asked him.
“Right on,” Johnny answered. “Thanks for your help.”
The hug Livy gave Johnny lasted much longer than the one she gave Leon. “You and Ron will be fast friends in Montreal,” she told him. “I’m always here to help.” She turned to Leon with a knitted brow. “Are you sure you’re not a Leo?”
“Positive. Aquarius,” he said.
As if on cue, Johnny sang, “‘The Age of Aquarius.’”
“You are a helluva terrible singer,” Leon told him.
“And you’re any better?” said Johnny.
