Small Town Famous (The Small Town Trilogy Book 1)

by Alison Ryan

  “Such a gentleman,” I said.

  “I try. My mom taught me well.” He took my hand and led me to the door.

  As soon as we got in there, things got weird.

  “Dammit.” Ryan had seen something towards the back of the diner that made him unhappy.

  “What’s wrong?” I said. The hostess looked at both of us and asked, “Booth or counter top?”

  “Where’s the booth?” Ryan asked, still looking over in the corner.

  “Over there,” the hostess said, pointing to the opposite side of the room. Ryan looked relieved.

  “Yeah, that’s perfect. Come on, Addie.” He pulled me by the hand across the restaurant, past families feeding their kids chicken fingers and old men sipping soup.

  As we sat down, I was starting to feel uneasy.

  “You need to tell me why you’re being all weird.” I opened my menu.

  “I’m sorry,” he said grabbing my hand across the table, “It’s just Courtney Showalter is here. I’m hoping she didn’t see me. She’s Rachel’s best friend.”

  It was the first time he had mentioned her name since the day I asked about her on my porch. As soon as I heard it, my stomach dropped. I was hoping she had disappeared from his mind and life. It felt like she wasn’t a real person, just an idea of one. But hearing him say her name reminded me she was real and that one day she would be back to claim what was once hers.

  We ordered strawberry milkshakes and talked about Grandma and Mom, how they seemed to be doing so well now. He asked me how I was holding up.

  “Honestly, you’ve been a huge distraction from everything,” I said. “I feel kind of bad. I guess I’m still processing everything. When I see her she looks so different from how she looked before she was sick. But her mind and heart are completely the same. So it’s hard for me to remember how sick she is, how serious all of this is. I mean, they’re setting up hospice care at our house next week.” My hands shook under his. This wasn’t the time or place to have a breakdown.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said as he moved over to my side of the booth. He wrapped his arms around me. “I can’t imagine how scary that is for you.”

  The waitress brought us our shakes. They were in tall silver glasses and she put another frosted aluminum cup next to them with even more milkshake in it.

  “This is a lot to drink,” I said, happy to change the topic.

  “Yeah, they don’t mess around at Juniper’s.” Ryan didn’t even bother putting a straw in his. He gulped half of it down at once, leaving a thick strawberry mustache over his lip.

  “Is there something on my face?” he asked putting his mouth close to mine.

  “Maybe something.” I said and he kissed me, leaving milkshake on my mouth.

  “Well, someone moved on fast.”

  We both turned our heads. There, standing at the end of the table with her hand on her hip, was a tall, athletic girl with sandy blonde hair and sun kissed skin. She was wearing the tiniest pair of denim shorts that were possible to wear in public without being arrested. Her shirt was a baby tee with USA ’96 Atlanta printed across her chest.

  “Hey, Court.” Ryan sighed. “I thought you were a camp counselor this summer.”

  “I am,” Courtney Showalter said. “But I’m back this week for my sister’s wedding.” She stared at me, “Who are you?”

  I didn’t answer. Ryan spoke instead, “Not that it’s any of your business, but this is Addie McCurtis.”

  “Are you new?” she asked. Another girl had joined her. The girl stared at Ryan and me, her mouth unattractively open in surprise.

  “I’m visiting for the summer,” I said.

  Courtney rolled her eyes, “That explains it. You’re Ryan’s summer friend. Just so you know, my best friend is his girlfriend. Her name’s Rachel.”

  I looked over at Ryan who looked like he wanted to throw Courtney Showalter out the window.

  “Rachel’s not my girlfriend. And Addie doesn’t care or even need to care about someone who isn’t even here. Rachel doesn’t need you to fight her non-existent battles, Courtney.”

  Courtney smirked, “I’m just trying to be a girl’s girl here. And remind Abby that you’re on the rebound and couldn’t possibly be serious about anyone. Especially after being with someone like Rachel.” She looked me up and down, clearly wanting to make it clear I wasn’t impressive to her.

  “The name’s Addie,” I said. “And I’m also going to be a girl’s girl and let you know that wearing shorts that tight can be damaging to your labia. And cause yeast infections.” She recoiled, clearly stunned. “Just wanted to give you a heads up.”

  “Gross,” she said, but I could tell I had hit my mark. She crossed her legs over one another. “Anyway, freak. I thought I would help you out by letting you know that by the end of the summer you won’t matter. But you’re probably used to that if you’re a McCurtis.”

  I knew it was meant to be a cruel last jab, but it didn’t even bother me. It seemed more like a desperate ploy than anything. I laughed instead, saying nothing else.

  Courtney dramatically turned to leave the diner, her friend scurrying off behind her. As she left, Ryan started clapping his hands in applause.

  “Wow. Bravo, Addie. Courtney Showalter is a formidable foe in Teen Girl Bitchland and you just gave her a dose of her own medicine,” he took me by the hand. “That was pretty epic. But I’m sorry she was so nasty to you. She’s up Rachel’s ass. Always has been.”

  I looked at him and smiled. But part of me wondered if maybe some of what she said was true. Because as much as I adored this boy and knew that he adored me, it was hard to forget about the past Ryan, the one who had loved someone else.

  21

  When Ryan dropped me off at my house, McKenna and Rhiannon were waiting for me on the porch.

  They watched as Ryan opened the passenger side door for me and stared as he gave me a long kiss goodbye.

  “Have a good night, ladies.” He waved to them and smiled, “Don’t get into too much trouble.”

  “You either, Ryan.” McKenna called back, her face solemn. He just laughed, hopped back in his truck and skidded down the driveway, honking back at us when he was almost out of sight.

  “Hey, guys.” I bounded over to them and joined them on the front steps.

  “You’re in a good mood,” Rhiannon observed.

  “I am. I can’t help it,” I said looking at McKenna. “I feel bad saying that but today made me really happy. Well, except for running into some girl named Courtney Showalter, but even that turned out okay.”

  McKenna grabbed my arm, “You ran into Courtney?” Her voice was panicked.

  “Yeah. And don’t worry, I know she’s a bitch. She showed those colors very quickly. She doesn’t waste time.” I stretched my legs out and laid on my back.

  “She’s Rachel’s best friend,” said McKenna. “What did she say to you?”

  I shrugged, “What you say. That I shouldn’t get used to Ryan because of the great and powerful Rachel Lawson. And how he still loves her. And that I don’t matter because I’m a McCurtis. Whatever that means.”

  Rhiannon and McKenna exchanged glances.

  “Yeah, I don’t get the McCurtis part. Unless word about your mom has spread. This is a really small town.” McKenna laid down next to me, “But other than that, that’s just Courtney wanting to somehow score points with Rachel. She’s overly loyal to her.”

  “It’s actually kind of creepy,” Rhiannon added. “They do everything together. And Courtney is constantly name dropping their friendship. ‘Well, Rachel and I did this’ or ‘Rachel says I should’ blah blah, shut up.”

  McKenna laughed, “It’s so true. I don’t know how Courtney is functioning this summer without her best buddy.”

  “Well someone should tell her to wear shorts that aren’t sized for a Kindergartner.” I said.

  All three of us giggled.

  We laid there for a while, just talking about our days. McKenna had sl
ept most of the morning and later met up with Rhiannon and Jackson.

  “Do you know how annoying it is to be the third wheel with a couple?” McKenna asked.

  “We are not a couple,” Rhiannon protested. “I don’t think we are anyway. I mean, how do you even know? It seems stupid to say ‘Hey, are we a couple?’ Right?”

  “Don’t ask me. I’m going to die alone.” McKenna started fake crying and we both rolled our eyes.

  I noticed my bouquet of flowers from earlier was on the patio table next to the front door. I sat up suddenly. I had an idea. I hadn’t noticed until right then but the truck was gone from the driveway.

  “I wonder where my mom and Grandma went?” I said.

  “Oh, actually we’re supposed to tell you. They ran up to the Food Lion for groceries. Your grandma wanted to ‘get out and about’. Her words, not mine.” McKenna said, sitting up next to me. “She left the front door open for you.”

  “Rhiannon do you have your car?” I unexpectedly asked. “Do you want to drive me somewhere real quick?”

  “Sure,” Rhiannon said, standing up. “Where we going?”

  “This is going to sound weird, but do you know where Rutledgeville Cemetery is?”

  I had never actually been to a cemetery. When I thought of them I thought of the scene in Steel Magnolias where Sally Field has that absolutely profoundly beautiful breakdown that makes me bawl every time I watch her cry for her Shelby. The women in that scene are surrounded by tall headstones and concrete benches and trees.

  Rutledgeville Cemetery was much smaller but it had the same type of layout. Numerous headstones, some tall with statues. Others short and square. There are some shaped like hearts and others shaped like angels. A few are flat. Beautiful live oaks acted as shade for the dead. It was quiet. We could only hear the breeze whispering through the leaves of the trees.

  I had explained to the girls my plan. I had never visited Granddaddy’s grave and I knew it was because my grandma didn’t want me to see her emotional. She liked to stay strong for me. So by going on my own I was doing her a favor. And it was a win for me, because now I could pay my respects and give him the daisies they had forgotten to take with them when they visited earlier today.

  “But how the hell are you going to find his grave if you’ve never been here before?” McKenna asked as we pulled up to the small lot adjacent to the cemetery.

  “Oh. Well, I hadn’t really thought of that,” I admitted. “But between the three of us, one of us is sure to see something. I know that my great-grandparents are buried here too. And I think my Granddaddy’s brother. So there should be a cluster of McCurtis’s around here, right?”

  McKenna rolled her eyes, “You’re lucky I love you. I would only do this for you or Rhiannon. Running around among the deceased was not on my agenda when I woke up this morning.”

  I hugged her neck, “And I’ll never forget you did this. I owe you. And just think, once we know where it is, we never have to do this again.”

  “Yaaaaay,” McKenna sarcastically said, clapping her hands. “So stoked.”

  The cemetery was split up into three parts that were dissected by paths. Rhiannon ran down to the one farthest away. I took the middle one and McKenna started at the part nearest the parking lot.

  I read the names of each gravestone quickly as I walked by, pausing at any that started with Mc. McGuire. McDonnell. MacDougall. McNeil. Hughes. Smith. Canfield. Abbott. It was tiring.

  The heart shaped stones made my heart break. Most of them were couples, now lying next to one another for eternity. Some of them had dates of death that weren’t filled in yet. It must be weird to be out living in the world and have a place like this already waiting for you. I supposed Grandma knew what that was like but I couldn’t think of it too long or I’d forget why I came here at all.

  It took me about twenty minutes before I had walked down every row. I had yet to see a McCurtis. I glanced over at McKenna. She was pausing a lot, browsing the names. On the other side, Rhiannon was like me, quick and decisive. Suddenly she started jumping up and down.

  “Hey! I think I found him!” Rhiannon called out. “Is his name Duncan?”

  I nodded enthusiastically, “Yes! That’s him!”

  “Thank God!” McKenna called out. She did a cartwheel across the grassy knoll next to Big Rhoda.

  “Did you just do a cartwheel in a cemetery?” I asked as she ran up to me.

  “Sure did. Bet it’s the only one this place has ever seen.”

  We hurried over to Rhiannon who was doing the Arsenio Hall whomp whomp motion with her arm.

  “I feel like a winner,” she said.

  Sure enough, there was Granddaddy.

  Duncan George McCurtis

  Born February 18, 1929

  Died August 3, 1993

  Beloved Husband, Father, and Grandfather

  We know what love is, because he lived

  My heart skipped a few beats. It was the perfect epitaph. It was Granddaddy’s entire life encapsulated perfectly into a brief sentence. I missed him so much in that sudden moment.

  “Hey,” Rhiannon hugged me. “Do you want a moment with him? Alone?”

  I nodded, still looking at the headstone, my eyes filled with tears, “Yes. If that’s okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to be this sad when I saw this.”

  “We’ll be over there, by that tree.” Rhiannon pointed to one in the section where I had just been. “You take your time. I’m pretty sure one of my grandmas is buried in here too. So maybe I’ll look.”

  The two of them both squeezed my arm as they walked away.

  The bouquet of daisies was still in my hands, along with a small little note I had written out on our way there. It didn’t feel right to leave flowers without a note. There were some wilting daisies from the previous week, probably from Grandma. I put the fresh ones from Ryan on top of them and kneeled on the ground in front of the grave. It was strange to know my Granddaddy was underneath this soft earth. But it was comforting in a way, to know he was resting so close to me.

  “Hi, Granddaddy,” I started. “It’s me, Addie.” I ran my hand along his name etched in stone. “I miss you so much. Nothing has been the same in my heart since you left. I don’t think it’s been the same in Grandma’s either. It took her a long time to even visit you and now I understand why. The absence of you is something we feel every day. We don’t forget it. It’s like losing a limb. I have phantom itches where you used to be. I’ll think ‘Granddaddy would like this’ and I try to remember it so I can tell you later. I’ve been doing this for years, Granddaddy.” Tears fell down my cheeks. “None of us even talk about you in past tense, if we’re able to even talk about you at all. When does it get easier? And just when I think I can live my life without you I find out my other limb is going to be lost soon too. Grandma is so sick.” I choke on a sob, leaning against the headstone. “She’s really sick and I know she won’t be here long. And it’s cruel, Granddaddy. I don’t have anyone else that will miss her as much as I will because you’re not here. And if you were, I could maybe get through this. But without either of you here, I don’t even know how the world will keep spinning. Because she is my entire world. She’s the axle on the wheel that’s my life and if she’s gone, I can’t keep turning. I know I can’t. And you’re not here to tell me it’s going to be okay. I miss you so much.” I shook with grief. “Being alive is painful enough sometimes. But without my Grandma, how will it work?”

  I felt like the six year old who stood on the porch, clinging to her Grandma’s legs when a foreign woman invaded her life. I was lost just like she was, and being in the cemetery seeing the spot Grandma would be next to the Granddaddy I missed more than anything, it was just the most overwhelming burden to carry. There is nothing worse than knowing that the most painful event in your life is coming and there is nothing that you can do about it.

  As I knelt by that headstone I could suddenly feel McKenna and Rhiannon’s arms around me. Nothing was said
. They just did what best friends do; they let me grieve the past and the future and they cried by that grave with me.

  Once I was able to get myself together and the tears had finally ceased we walked back to the car together, arm in arm.

  “You know,” Rhiannon said. “Your Granddaddy would be really glad you’re here.”

  I nodded, “I know.” I hugged her, “Thanks for bringing me here.”

  “Oh, shit! I left my purse over by Duncan!” McKenna said. I laughed, “He’s holding it for you like the gentleman he is. I’ll go get it.”

  “I’ll come with.”

  When we got back to the headstone I noticed the breeze had blown a couple of the daisies over to a grave next to the Duncan McCurtis plot. As I picked them up the name on it stopped me in my tracks.

  “Hey, there’s another McCurtis here,” I said, reaching down to look at the flat headstone on the ground.

  Bennett Duncan McCurtis

  Born June 8, 1968

  Died August 11, 1979

  “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I’d walk through my garden forever”

  “Tennyson.” I said. My grandma had said that line to me a million times. She had it embroidered on a pillow in her room. Who was Bennett?

  “Do you know him? Wow. He was only 11 years old,” McKenna said touching his date of death.

  “He has my birthday.” I said. I felt dizzy all of a sudden.

  McKenna looked at me, her face worried. “That’s a pretty huge coincidence. You’ve never heard of him?”

  I shook my head, “No, I definitely haven’t. And it just seems too much of a coincidence that he shares my last name and happens to be buried next to my relatives that there isn’t some story behind this.” My stomach dropped.

  “Let’s get you home,” McKenna said. “This is a lot. I’m sure your grandma can explain it.”

  As I walked back towards Big Rhoda my mind swirled around what I had just discovered. Why were there so many secrets? I was used to them with Mom. But Grandma had never kept anything from me. She had always been honest with me, told me as much as she could about what she knew. But seeing Bennett’s grave had suddenly changed everything. I was exhausted by this week. I wished I could escape to the water tower and be alone with my thoughts for a while. But until then, I would go home and seek the answers I knew I deserved.