Taken In by the Pack: Second Chances

by Alana Hart

  It wasn’t too long before my salad arrived, and his food started arriving in a steady stream not long thereafter. I ate in silence, alternating between staring at my food as if this was the most fascinating salad ever placed in front of me, and studying him, and my feelings about him being there.

  The way he was packing it in, he seemed to be enjoying his food with a hearty exuberance. It was a little disconcerting, actually, but at least he had good table manners. None of the smacking and slurping that so many guys devolved to when they enjoyed food.

  When I finished my salad, I put my fork in the dish, tines down, and slid it to the edge of the table. I sat quietly for a long moment, waiting for him to finish, but then realized that was ridiculous. He had just inflicted himself on me whether I liked it or not; I didn’t owe him any politeness in return.

  I folded my hands on the table, looking at him as sharply as I could manage.

  “Bryson.” He looked up, smiling a bit, and swallowed his mouthful of food.

  “Yes, Adalyn?”

  I frowned at the faintly mocking tone in his voice. “Why are you here?”

  He raised a brow, looking down at the multiple plates in front of him, and gestured vaguely with his hands.

  “I’m eating dinner?” His reply was the epitome of innocent confusion. I didn’t buy it for a second.

  “You know what I mean, Bryson. Why are you here? Why did you follow me?”

  “Is it so wrong to want to see an old friend?”

  I just stared, too shocked to respond for several heartbeats. “An old friend? Is that what I am? Don’t friends usually keep in contact when they up and leave town with no warning? For that matter, do friends even leave town without warning?” If my tone was rather acidic, well, I didn’t think anyone could blame me.

  To his credit, he actually flinched, his gaze lowering to his plates for a long moment. “Probably not. But everyone is capable of making mistakes, right?” He looked back up at me, his expression boyish and almost pleading.

  I sighed heavily, frustrated. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?” I asked sharply.

  “Come on, Ada, I told you already. I just wanted to see you.”

  “You haven’t come to see me — or even so much as call me — for the last few years. Yet apparently you’ve been here barely an hour away. Why start now?”

  He grimaced slightly but didn’t answer.

  I scowled and didn’t even try any further to get answers. I flagged down the waitress for my check — I certainly wasn’t paying for the ridiculous amount of food he’d just made disappear. When she returned, he grabbed it out of the waitress’s hand before I could take it. I started to protest, but then shrugged. It wasn’t worth the argument, and my wallet would certainly appreciate it.

  I managed a brusque “Thanks,” as I grabbed my purse and book, and stood.

  “Adalyn…” he started, and for a moment I thought he was going to reach to grab my hand, but he didn’t.

  “Yes?”

  He seemed torn for a moment, but then finished rather lamely, “Take care of yourself, okay?”

  I looked at him for a long moment. “Yeah,” I agreed, then turned and made my way to the door.

  Once I got to my Prius, I just sat for a long time, shaking a bit, before finally turning it on and heading for home. It felt like a very, very long drive.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Though it felt like several hours at least, I was through my front door less than fifteen minutes later. I tossed my book bag in the corner dispiritedly, and headed straight for the bathroom. My apartment was tiny, barely bigger than a dorm room with an added little kitchen/living room combo, but it was mine, and private — including the bathroom — unlike a dorm room.

  I chucked my clothes as unceremoniously as I had the book bag. I turned on the hot water, and while I waited I brushed out my long, boring brown hair, then climbed into the shower.

  I was finished with the necessities pretty quickly, but I stayed in the shower for quite a while, trying to relax. It wasn’t until the water started getting cold that I finally turned it off and stepped onto my ridiculously plush, bright pink cotton bath mat. It was so silly looking, but it made stepping out of the shower so much more pleasant.

  I looked at myself critically in the mirror, trying to see myself with honest eyes. Not that I expected to see anything amiss, but it was a regular ritual. I was pretty enough, a heart shaped face framed by my straight dark hair. I rarely wore any more makeup than a little eyeshadow and lip gloss, maybe some eyeliner; I didn’t need it, really.

  I had always enjoyed athletics but didn’t actively pursue them, and my body reflected that; strong enough, but still slender, sleek. I wished sometimes that my hips and chest were a little more pronounced, but not so much that I was actually unhappy with what I did have.

  Once I was satisfied that I had given myself a critical appraisal, I combed out my hair again, slapped on some moisturizer on my face, arms, and legs, and went into my bedroom, pulling on a pair of soft cotton-knit boxers and a tank top.

  I went back out front, grabbing a handful of grapes, and retrieved my book from my book bag.

  I returned to my bedroom and flopped back on my bed, opening to where I had left off when I’d been interrupted by Bryson at dinner.

  Bryson… I sighed, popping a grape into my mouth, staring at the book but only seeing his face instead of the words.

  I had been so head-over-heels in love with him when we were dating. He’d been sweet, he’d been strong, he’d been gorgeous, and he’d been mine. He had been everything a high school girl could want, he was perfect. We had been perfect together.

  Until one day, he didn’t show up for school. I’d gone to his house that afternoon, to see if he was sick or something, but there was no one home. I’d been so worried; had there been an accident? Was he in the hospital and I didn’t even know it? I tried his cell (maybe a few dozen times…), but there was no answer.

  I’d spent that night worried sick, literally. When I got to school the next day, there was still no sign of him. Still no answer on his phone. Still no one at his house that afternoon. I’d been unable to eat, unable to sleep, totally unable to function. Where was he? What had happened?

  On the third day, though, my life had really crumbled.

  When I tried his cell at lunch, a prim voice informed me that the number was no longer in service. I panicked. When I went to his house after school that day, there had been a ‘for rent’ sign in the yard. I had collapsed right then and there; a neighbor who recognized me called my mom to come get me.

  I had missed the remainder of that week from school, and it was weeks before I had regained any semblance of normalcy.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Clearly, I wasn’t going to get any reading done tonight. I replaced the bookmark right where it had been, and set it on my dresser/nightstand. While I was leaned over, I went ahead and switched off the bedside lamp, and nestled in between the sheets.

  I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but my mind wouldn’t shut up.

  As if all the painful details of that horrible time in high school weren’t enough, now my memory was supplying me with even older, hazier events. The edges were worn, the details lost, but I remembered the broad strokes, I remembered how it had felt.

  The comparisons between those older memories with what Bryson had done to me were uncomfortable to put it mildly.

  I had barely been five at the time. My mom had come late to get me from school. Her eyes had been red and puffy; that detail I remembered clearly, because I’d asked her if she was sick. “No, baby, I’m not sick,” she’d answered with a little half-sob half-laugh. “We’re gonna go spend some time at grandma’s, okay?”

  That had excited me, until we got to the house for me to grab my things.

  The house was a disaster; things were strewn everywhere, things were broken. As I went in my room, I saw in Mommy and Daddy’s room… the closet was open, half empty; Daddy’s
dresser drawers were all open and empty, too. I had started to be afraid, then, and hurried to get my things.

  When I had gotten back to the living room, my mother was sitting on the couch, face in her hands, crying softly. I’d given her a tight hug, and she hugged me back, crying in earnest for a minute.

  It wasn’t until years later that I understood what had really happened that day.

  The night before, my father had gone out ‘drinking with the boys’. The next morning, he told my mother that he ‘had to leave’. She’d assumed he meant for a few hours for a job or such. She’d given him a kiss and gone out shopping as she’d planned. But when she returned, it was to what I had witnessed later that afternoon — he had packed up all his things, and left. Just gone. He left behind his wife and five year old daughter with no real warning, and no idea where he had gone.

  Needless to say, it had been hard for me to trust guys most of my life.

  Bryson had broken through my walls, though; he had been so sweet, and gentle, and patient. Like I said, we’d been perfect together.

  Then he had done the exact same thing.

  I’d learned my lesson. I’d never trusted another guy since. I didn’t date, not even casually. I kept almost everyone at arm’s length, or further. It just wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth opening yourself up, investing your emotions in someone, just for them to abandon you, to disappear and leave you broken. Better to just stay alone in the first place.

  And yet… there he’d been. Unexpected, unsought, but undeniably there. He had even followed me, wanted to spend time with me (even after I tried to rebuff him).

  Ugh. I needed to sleep, not keep chewing over this crap.

  I rolled over with a groan, and clenched my eyes shut, because obviously that would help. Right.

  My mind kept tumbling end over end for hours, memories stinging me like a swarm of angry bees.

  Chapter Two

  By the next morning, I felt hardly more rested than when I’d gone to bed. Oh yes, this was just what I needed — not!

  At least I managed to get to campus with plenty of time to spare. I even beat Angie to the plaza, if only by a couple of minutes.

  While I was waiting, I watched all the students and professors passing by in the large courtyard. I wondered idly if I would see Bryson, but refused to let myself focus on the corner where I had spotted him the day before.

  There were a number of people just hanging out in the big open area as well, of course, sitting on benches or the edges of the concrete raised flower beds. One in particular caught my eye, though, because he seemed so out of place. He was older than most of the people here, more of an age to be a professor than a student — late thirties or early forties — but he wasn’t dressed like a professor; in tatty jeans, an old t-shirt, and a black leather vest, he looked more like a biker than a teacher. Though, those mutton chops look stodgy enough for a professor!

  Not that older bikers can’t go back to school or anything, of course. It was just unusual.

  Angie pulled me out of my reverie a moment later. I smiled sheepishly at her.

  “Sorry about yesterday, Ang. I’ll do better today, promise.”

  “Pssh. Everyone has their off days. Need my notes to copy?”

  “Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?” I grinned.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just love me when you need to use me.” We both laughed as we headed across the plaza. We chattered happily about nothing in particular, until the professor finally called the class to order.

  When the class was over, we went to one of our favorite study spots, on the lush grass under a big oak tree in one of the many mini-parks scattered around campus.

  Angie handed me her notes from yesterday, and with a grateful smile, I began to copy them.

  After I finished the first set, I leaned back on my arms, taking a break, looking out at the campus and the mid-day hustle and bustle. In this corner of campus, I recognized at least half of the people who went past, by sight if not by name.

  My gaze focused on one particular person, sitting in front of one of the buildings not far away. It was that same incongruous-seeming man from this morning, with the overgrown sideburns. He seemed to be reading, but it just looked like a paperback rather than any kind of textbook.

  For a moment, I had the ridiculous notion that he was following me. But that’s silly, I reassured myself. Why would some random biker-dude be following me from class to class?

  “Hey Ang,” I spoke up after a few moments of watching him.

  “Yeah?” She looked up from her book, over to me.

  “Do you recognize him? That guy, hanging out in front of the computer building.” I nodded in that direction vaguely.

  She looked over, scanning for a moment before settling on who I was talking about. “Oh, him… uhm… no? He seems awfully out of place, doesn’t he?”

  I chuckled softly. “Exactly what I was thinking. Glad it isn’t just me.”

  It was nice that my feeling was affirmed, though it left me feeling a little uneasy all the same.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Since our next class wasn’t until two, we took our time, meandering across campus to get lunch. It was a lovely late spring day, just warm enough for the cutoff shorts and tee I was wearing. I tried — and mostly failed — not to think about the strange occurrences of the last two days.

  “Been a weird couple of days, hasn’t it?” Angie piped up. I looked over at her, lifting a querying brow.

  “You developing telepathy of something, now?” I asked her dryly.

  She laughed, shaking her bushy blond hair from side to side. “Nah, just been weird.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. Yesterday, after I left, Bryson followed me, and just sat down and had dinner with me without so much as a by-your-leave. Then didn’t really say or do much of anything. It was bizarre.” I didn’t even mention the coffee shop in between; that was just too weird.

  All the same, she gaped at me, her steps slowing. “Are you serious? Girl, that ain’t cool.”

  “Yeah, no kidding. It was kinda creepy.”

  “Just ‘kinda’?” Angie snorted softly, implying that was a vast understatement.

  It took me an inordinate amount of time to decide what to eat at lunch. I usually just grabbed a salad, but all I could think about when I looked at them was last night at the restaurant.

  I finally settled on soup and a half sandwich. We took our trays outside to eat since it was such a pretty day.

  While we sat, eating and chatting about nothing in particular, a couple of guys came up. They were friends of Angie’s, or at least the brown-haired one, Josh, was; I hadn’t had the chance to really get to know him, but I knew she’d been crushing on him something awful.

  “Hey ladies, how’s it going?” asked Josh, bending in to give Angie a half-hug, which she returned happily.

  “Hey, Josh! It’s going okay, how about you guys?”

  “Great!” he replied, seeming wholly enthusiastic. It was mildly jolting to realize that not everyone was experiencing the peculiarity I had in the last two days.

  “So, listen, we’re gonna be having a bonfire out at Troy’s place Saturday night. You girls want to come join us?”

  Angie’s eyes lit up. I’d heard her mention Josh before, she totally had the hots for him. She was no less enthusiastic than he had been with her affirmative, before looking to me questioningly, as though it didn’t occur to her at first that I might have a different opinion.

  I chuckled and shrugged a bit. “Sure, why not? Could be fun.” Josh’s ginger companion smiled at me winsomely.

  “Excellent!” Josh exclaimed. He was unpleasantly exuberant, I decided. People that boisterous just grated on my nerves. “Can’t wait to see you two there! You know how to get there, right?”

  When I nodded, he grinned and gave a thumbs up. He kissed Angie on the forehead, and patted her shoulder, before they continued on their way.

  Ang was all but vib
rating in her seat, and after the two boys went inside and the door shut, she let out a high-pitched little squeal of excitement. I winced playfully and laughed.

  “I take it you’re happy,” I drawled.

  “Yes! Oh-em-GEE! This is gonna be so great! Oh, we have to go shopping, I need something new to wear!”

  I laughed again, shaking my head. “You are so adorable. After classes this evening?”