Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ✔︎

3 | Let It Unfold

|photo by Geri Chapple from Unsplash|

It's a short drive downtown, and that's all the time it takes for me to catch Megan up on the scant details. She parallel parks on Center Street—effortlessly and without giving me any instructive commentary.

"You think I'm screwed," I say. "Helen will get her way no matter what Dad says."

Megan squints at me and her jaw muscles pulse. She has something she wants to say, but she's taking a moment to work out her delivery.

"Am I that bad?" I ask. But then I groan, collapsing back against the seat, because my frantic heart is already telling me the answer. I'm freaking out. "You don't have to say it. I'm calming down now."

"My mom told me about Mr. Nash," she says, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Are you sure Glenn's coming to the cookout?"

I have to smile because Mrs. Montes really does know every single thing that happens in this tiny town. "He hasn't replied to my text," I say, shrugging.

"I think I'm gonna settle down this year."

"What? Where did that come from?"

"I'm serious, Thea. I want to find someone who looks at me the way Glenn looks at you."

"What way is that?"

I know the answer but I want to hear her describe it.

"I've never told you this before, but I never thought Glenn was all that good looking."

"You have, actually. Multiple times."

"Quiet down—I have a point. It's you that makes Glenn handsome. He was always just kind of there before you guys hooked up. You know?"

"No, I don't." Glenn was my first friend in Haddock. He was quiet and kind—and definitely cute, with his floppy hair and toothy smile. Over the last few years I've watched his angles sharpen, his muscles harden—and yeah, maybe I cried a little after his first buzz cut, but to me, he's still the hottest boy around.

Megan puffs a small sigh of frustration that fluffs her bangs in the air. "It's hard to describe," she says, scanning Center Street like she's looking for the answer. "Without you, he was like that cardboard cutout." She points to the auto parts store—at the cardboard Dale Junior standing in the window—and grins, pleased with herself. "With you, Glenn's cute-factor tripled. But it's all in the eyes. They come alive when he looks at you. That's what I want to find."

"Dale Junior looks at you that way."

Megan punches my arm. "I'm going to reinvent myself at Haddock High. You know, take advantage of the opportunity to shake off my bad reputation?"

"What reputation?"

She presses her lips together and closes her eyes for one dramatic moment. "The clueless girl whose boyfriend sleeps around behind her back."

"Megan, you're the only person who thinks that," I say—mimicking her don't-be-a-moron tone. "That boy swore his fidelity on a stack of Bibles and I believe him."

"Yeah, but you're naive like that."

"And you don't think you might be a little hypersensitive, considering..."

I stop when Megan gives me The Look. I'm not allowed to talk about what happened with her dad.

"Let's get out and walk," she says, killing the engine and opening the door before I can protest.