Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ✔︎

33 | The Whole Show

|photo by Pankaj Patel from Unsplash|

It's rainy and cold the day my grandparents leave. I stand on the front porch, sandwiched by Mom and Dad. We wave and we smile, and we sigh with collective relief when their car turns out of our driveway. And then Glenn comes out of his house, looking in our direction and I take a step back, hiding behind Dad.

"Go on back to Megan's house if you need to," Dad says. I look to Mom for confirmation and she nods.

But when I wake up Saturday morning, Glenn's truck is parked in Megan's driveway.

"We're not going to do anything fun today, are we?" she says, staring out the window. I shake my head—not that she sees it. "I feel sorry for the guy. Look at him."

I scoot to the edge of the bed so I can join her. Glenn is leaning against his truck, phone in hand, frowning at Megan's front door. I walk back to the bed and launch myself across it. "Torturing Jenny is fun," I say, but it's more like a question. Megan and Jenny have a bond I can't relate to. They fight a lot, but sometimes they're oddly protective of each other.

Megan plops on the bed beside me, grinning. "Okay. Yeah. That is fun."

My phone buzzes, another text. I read it out loud: "I wish I could take back my question but I swear to you, Thea, the answer to yours is yes. I want you back. No matter what."

"The word yes is in all-caps and there are three exclamation points," I tell her. "Is he shouting at me?"

"Let me see." I hand Megan the phone. "That's passion," she says. "Are you going to tell him you didn't have sex with Conner?"

I shrug. "Is it mean that I want him to stew over it for awhile?"

"No. He deserves that. But can't you get him to stew somewhere else? There's a movie I want us to see."

"You mean you want to go see your movie-theatre guy."

Megan rolls onto her stomach. "That didn't really work out," she says, like it's no big deal. But she's examining her fingernails—which is such a tell.

"Since when?"

"He's not what I thought he was. He's..."

"A very nice guy," I finish. "And I know this from experience because I've spent time with him."

"When did you spend time with Jordan Weaver?"

"At every one of Glenn's senior-year football games—because you wouldn't go with me."

"That was a bad year for me," she says, defensive. "And it was two years ago."

"Yeah, but I've seen Jordan at The Point a bunch of times since then, and he hasn't changed. He's a good guy. And he's cute. I know you like him. So what's the problem?"

"The thing I liked most about him was that he was kind of invisible, you know? That's changed now that we've gone out a few times."

"Um, ye-ah. Because you put him on the radar, Megan. You've always drawn that kind of attention. I'd think you'd be used to it by now."

Megan nods but not because she's with me. Her eyes are glazed over, distant.

"I know what this is about," I say and she focuses on me, eyebrows pulled together. "And I know you don't want to talk about it, but I'd be a shitty friend if I didn't tell you that you need to talk to someone about what happened between your parents."

"I'm not going to a head doctor."

"Then talk to me. Admit you're afraid that Jordan, or any guy—admit you think every guy you're ever going to like is going to cheat on you."