Against The Wall

Chapter Nine

"Holy hell,” I say, watching my best friend step into my classroom. “You look like shit. Are you sure you’re okay to be back at work?” She’s had the flu since Sunday morning. Her face looks swollen, and she looks like she needs to sleep for another five days before she can even begin to appear rested.

“Are you frickin’ kidding? I’m dying to hear about your love fest with Matt. I couldn’t wait another day. I’ll be fine.” She plops herself in a chair next to me and rests her head on my desk. “Now spill. You have twenty minutes. Give me the short but detailed version, if there’s such a thing.” Her voice sounds like she's plugging her nose, and I look at the can of Lysol on my file cabinet and have to stop myself from spraying her with it. I have no desire to get sick right now and put a damper on any future 'love fests' with Matty. Taking a swig of my Diet Coke, I think a beer would be so much better for this story, but it will have to do. I take a deep breath before I recount the details beginning with Friday night when Mel left. I can’t give her the minute-by-minute play by play, but I’ll try my best.

“Here it goes. Friday night. He took me home. Thanks.” I nod at her, and she snickers. “Invited him in. Drank a beer. He kissed me. I questioned it. Not to worry. Just go with it. No strings attached. Invited him to stay. To sleep only. Slept in bed. Me in jammies. He in his boxers. Looked like Marky Mark ad, by the way. Woke up. He was gone. Almost died. He went to get breakfast. Got me Captain Crunch.” Mel gasps. I nod in agreement. “We ate. He decided to stay, be lazy, and watch movies. Started with The Notebook. Got steamy.” Mel’s eyes get wide. “I know,” I add. “So we kissed like crazy. Stopped. No sex till I’m in love with him.” We both roll our eyes. “Then Matty got to second base. We bumped bare chests, not uglies. Got some burgers. Watched The Shooter. Kissed again. Think my lips will be swollen for a month. Ate cereal and beer for dinner and a rice crispy for dessert. Slept together again. Only sleeping. Woke up and did a repeat of the day before. He went home early Monday morning to get ready for work.” Done.

I lean back in my chair, out of breath, and then take another drink of my soda to soothe my parched throat.

"Fucking awesome.” Mel dabs at the corners of her eyes with a tissue.

“Are you crying? Cut it out.” She’s so emotional all the time, crying at commercials or love songs on the radio. She dabs again and asks.

“What now? How’s work been?”

“He said he doesn’t want to crowd me. Or freak me out. So he’s staying away during the week. He wants me to miss him, I think. And it’s working. He might have lunch with me tomorrow.”

“Oh, Shelly, I’m so happy for you.” She rises out of her seat and hugs me. I hug her back, swaying back and forth. “I gotta run. I’ll call you later to keep your mind off him. You don’t want to start calling him right away and seem needy.”

“Too late. I called him before you got here. No games here. If I wanna talk to him, I’ll call him. If he can’t handle the real me, impatient and needy, then it’s not meant to be.”

“Good idea,” she says, leaving my room. On my way out, I decide to stop in and check on Mel. She looked terrible today. Maybe she’ll let me cook dinner for her and Nick. What am I thinking? Of course she will. I’ll have to think about what I can throw together. I can’t go over there with a 12-pack and beer nuts to heal her.

“Hi,” I say to the stranger sitting at Mel’s desk.

“Is Mrs. Cruz around?” The older guy looks up.

“She went home early. I subbed for her the last part of the day. I’m just finishing up my comments to her.”

“I see. Did her kids behave?” I can’t help but ask. Whenever I’m out, I’m always thinking about my class and how things are going, or not going.