Falling in the Dark | ✓

26 | Tears

"Vera and Liam are waiting by the door," I say. "We couldn't find a table."

The noise is still loud as ever, but having been inside The Blacktop for several minutes now, my ears are almost fully accustomed to it. Suddenly, a taller girl's arm collides with mine as she hurries past me. She calls an apology over her shoulder and keeps walking.

"Yeah, the place is packed. I don't know how long we'd have to wait," Felix replies, surveying the crowd around him. Then, he turns his head to look down at me, narrowing his eyes appraisingly.

My skin prickles uncomfortably under his scrutiny. Finally, he says, "You look different."

"Yeah, well." I reach up to touch my face self-consciously, defensively. "All thanks to Vera."

I don't get a chance to hear his response to that because we've already reached the spot where Liam and Vera are waiting, constantly shuffling around as people keep entering and leaving through the entrance.

"Finally," Vera sighs in relief when she sees me approaching. "What took you so long?"

"It's my fault," Felix steps in, smiling apologetically and extending his hand to her. "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet properly the last time."

"No problem," she says breathily, shaking his hand. She smiles and gestures to Liam. "This is my boyfriend, Liam."

Although Felix and Liam are perfectly amicable with each other, and Vera's eyes are shining with delight, I feel nothing but a sense of dread and disorientation. It's like the time my parents took me out to a local fair in the summer when I was six.

Mom had my hand grasped firmly in hers, but I pulled away to pick up a pink beaded bracelet that I had stepped on. We had broken contact for just one moment, but that was enough for the throngs of people to separate me from my parents. Scared and lost, I let the crowd carry me like a wave - the muddy bracelet slipping from my fingers - and stumbled to the nearest stand. I stood there on tiptoes, my cheeks wet with tears, craning my neck in search of the familiarity of my parents' faces among hundreds of strangers. I have no memory of what followed, except that I was somehow reunited with my relieved parents sooner than later. And by the time we got to the ice cream stand that was selling special coconut cones, I'd put the whole ordeal behind me.

Wishing I had some coconut ice cream to make everything okay now, I snap back to the moment. I look around at the three people in front of me, engrossed in a conversation that I haven't paid any attention to.

". . . been a while already," Vera complains, tapping her foot on the smooth floor impatiently.

I look around and notice that for every group of friends that leaves, another that was here before us takes their place at the tables. My stomach rumbles at the thought of the long wait ahead of us.

"We can just go to the cafeteria . . . ?" I say with a small shrug. But my suggestion is not received well as Vera, Liam and Felix shake their heads with such vigor that it makes me laugh.

"Okay, never mind." I raise my hands in surrender. "But we can't wait here all night."

"We could drive to a restaurant somewhere else," Felix says, looking to each of us for approval.

Vera's response is immediate and enthusiastic, "Yeah!"

I'm rather tempted to say, "Maybe we should do this some other time." Besides, the big concert is tomorrow and exams are coming up . . . but I don't have the heart to disappoint Vera any more than I already have. So, I just nod and say instead, "Where to?"

"There's this really pretentious hipster restaurant not very far from here," Vera grins as though she's suggesting we go there just for a laugh. By way of explanation she adds, "I went with Chick and the others once."