The Safety Pin Affair

f o r t y - they could be awhile

The other two boys, Dan and Josh, are the farthest away. Dan is at school in Boston, but we all knew he'd never stay in Vermont. He's planning to stay out there after graduation, which is good for him. And Josh is still at the University of Iowa.

I talk to him all the time and it's not like we cut ties as soon as he went away to school. He did leave in the middle of the summer after our high school graduation, so I didn't see him for awhile. I still hardly see him, unless he comes home for his breaks, which are usually different from mine. We're not together and we came to an agreement that we should stick to being just friends. It's been that way since the day he told me he chose Iowa.

Of course I was hurt for awhile when we decided to keep things on a platonic level. I finally sorted out my feelings and then things got all messed up. But after a few months, I digested it all and I knew we made the right choice.

Being together with so many miles and life changes between us wouldn't have made things any easier. We knew that we wanted to be in each other's lives, but then and even now isn't the right time. All we hope for is that we end up together somehow.

So he's doing the wrestling thing and killing it every season, as we all thought he would. He belongs at that school, no matter what he says. It's a lot different from high school wrestling, obviously, but he absolutely loves it. And if he's happy, then I'm happy.

While doing that, he's majoring in sports studies so that he can eventually try to become a wrestling coach. He's sort of following in Coach Brown's footsteps, but that man is his idol so no one can blame him.

Everyone's been doing good, that's all I can say. A lot has changed over the years, but we're all fine. We're in different areas of the country, doing our own things and making new lives for ourselves, yet we're still the same group of goofy kids we've always been.

As Blair and I ate our appetizers and talked about our plans for this summer, someone interrupted our conversation.

"Mind if I join you ladies?"

We both glanced up to see Rick standing at the end of our table, grinning at the two of us.

"Rick!" I jumped up from my booth and wrapped my arms around him. He laughed in my ear, crushing me in a tight hug. We've all been so busy with finals for the past few weeks that I barely saw Rick during this crunch time. "What are you doing here?" I smiled once we pulled apart.

"I figured you guys might be here, so I wanted to come say hey," he shrugged with a smirk. He looked to Blair and gave her a hug as well, then sat down next to her on her side of the booth.

"So what's up? How have you been?" Blair chirped, sticking her straw in her mouth and taking a sip of her lemon water.

"Alright," he sighed, spreading his arms across the back of the booth casually. "So fucking glad finals are done. I couldn't wait for this semester to end."

"Me neither," I chuckled in agreement.

The three of us chatted, picking on our appetizers while Rick ordered a beer for himself. At that, Blair let out a whine about how everyone is twenty-one but her. Rick and I just sipped on our drinks with smirks on our faces.

While we were discussing the idea of planning a vacation for all of us to take sometime during the summer as one last jamboree, another person walked up to our table and interrupted our conversation. Except they didn't say anything like Rick –  they're appearance alone was enough of a shock to get us to shut up.