Page 51 of A Fine Line
This was going to be the best weekend ever.
After Lottie walked us to the main house, she shouted up that she would be at her place in case we needed to, and I quote, ‘make sweet love while no one’s home.’ To which I replied, ‘thank you,’ and slammed the door in her face.
“Come on, we can stay in my old room.” Crew followed me up the steps and down the hall where my childhood bedroom sat.
When we stepped into my room, the first thing that caught me was the walls. A pink blush with framed art of my favorite scientists and different quotes about life that seemed important to my young adult self.
My bed had the same super plush pink comforter that I could sink into, and a mountain of throw pillows in different shades of pink and a few with metallic accents, like rose gold.
I had a full-length mirror right by the closet next to a small bookshelf where I kept all of the books I couldn’t fit in my suitcase to Philly, and a few decorative pieces—like a cute photo frame with a picture of me and Lottie and some girls from high school. There’s a movie ticket that I was never going to admit to Crew was from my first date with he who won’t be named. I made a mental note to burn the thing when no one was looking.
I had a bulletin board filled with old Polaroids, fair ticket stubs, and random little memories pinned up from over the years. Crew set down his backpack- all he needed for the weekend apparently- and leaned in to see the newsletter cutouts and graduation flyers.
“Winnifred Meadows,” he turned on a heel to face me. “You were the it girl in high school weren’t you?”
I scoffed a laugh. “I was not.”
“Look at you,” he squinted at the picture. “Prom Queen and valedictorian. You never would have took a second glance my way.”
“Not true,” I sank into my fluffy mattress and wiggled my eyebrows. “You would have wowed me with your big city muscles and your elote.”
He snorted and joined me on the bed. “Nah, but I probably would have followed you around and got on your nerves until you noticed me.”
“Were those your moves back then?”
“Worked well for me for a little while. Homecoming with Becky Wright was excellent.” His brows wiggled.
“Oh my gosh, ew, I didn’t need to know that.”
He laughed and I caught myself smiling regardless of my hatred to this Becky. “You asked.”
“Well, I wish I didn’t.”
“It’s okay, you can tell me all about your Marshall escapades.”
“Well, not to mess this up for you, but most of those escapades were done on this bed.” I patted my mattress.
“Agh, gross.” He shot up, “Now you ruined it. I’m sleeping on the floor tonight.”
I giggled. Maybe it was being in my old room or being just away with Crew but I felt young. I felt fresh and new and excited.
“Hey,” I sat up. “Let’s skip dinner tonight.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Let’s go out to eat.” Not only because I felt like seeing the rest of the town, even for just a single meal, but also because I knew Crew had sensory issues and would probably appreciate not having two Meadows family dinners in a row with Thanksgiving coming Thursday. My family was excellent but they were loud and proud and had never known the word ‘shy’ or ‘demure’ a day in their lives.
Chances were my grandmother would tell Crew he was too skinny- despite my previous pestering that that is not a compliment to some people, and my cousin Knox would probably try to recruit him for his rivalry fantasy football teams that had lost every year for the last ten years.
“I did promise your grandfather I would be coming.”
“Eh, I’ll tell him we’ll make it up to him by watching the NASA documentary clip he’s been begging to watch with me for the last month.”
“Hmm, well then whatever you wanna do, I’m down for.”
“Mmkay.” I sighed and rolled onto my side to face him. Crew followed suit, resting back on his side and looking down at me.
“What’s going on in that head?” He flicked a piece of hair of my shoulder.