Seventy-Two Hours Read Free Page A

gossip (which was provided by some of the finest church ladies with a
good ear for the morbid, the bizarre, and the scandalous.) That year, a new
topic had pushed all others aside to rank number one. Our high school had
graduated its last official class and would be merging with our cross town
rival school. To hear some folks talk, it was the end of the world. Many had
attempted to stop it, but once the board voted, it was a done deal.
    My best friend and I had wandered away from
our families. Lisa was animated while speculating what our senior year would
be like with being the first “experimental” class of the merged school
districts. She was nervous. We’d be going to their school. Their turf. I
didn’t know how I felt about it. I had other things on my mind.
    We came to a stop behind White’s General
Store. Away from prying eyes as we each lit up cigarettes that came from a
crushed pack of Marlboros Lisa had kept stuffed in the front pocket of her
cut-off jean shorts. Taking a long pull, I held my breath a moment before
exhaling through rounded, practiced lips. As always, the first drag made my
head swim and I found myself swaying in place momentarily.
    “I broke up with Chris last night,” I told my
friend something I hadn’t shared with anyone else. Not even my family. Some
days, I thought they liked him more than they liked me.
    “No way! Why?”
    I shrugged and looked at the school in the
distance. “He’s leaving for college in a few weeks.”
    “So.”
    Lisa wouldn’t understand, but I’d attempt an
explanation anyway. “I don’t want to be tied down my senior year. Besides
Chris is way too serious about us.”
    “The two of you aren’t doing it, are you?”
    I felt my face flush at her direct question.
“No. No. It isn’t that. He just talks about when we’re married and stuff.
It’s too intense. I told him last night that he would thank me for it when he
got to college. He’d have his freedom to see other people and have fun.
That’s what it’s supposed to be like.”
    Lisa seemed to take in what I was saying for
a bit before replying, “Dave is definitely less mature than Chris. The only
thing he likes to talk about with me is dirt bikes and that’s when I’m not
fighting him off. He whines like a baby when I stop him.”
    Lisa and Dave started going out after
Christmas break. I didn’t like him. Not at all. There was something about
him that gave me the willies. I’d warned Lisa before about him, but she didn’t
see it. And now, of course, she was in love.
    “Lisa, don’t do anything with him that you
don’t want to do.”
    “I know. I’m not,” she told me as she blew
out a stream of smoke, dropped her cigarette to the ground, and crushed it
under her flip flop.
    We could hear the parade starting up. I
followed her action with my cigarette and put it out before we parted ways and returned
to our families. I almost stopped dead when I saw that Chris had joined my
parents. Instead, I simply slowed my approach. My mother was sitting beside
my grandmother in matching woven lawn chairs. Chris was standing behind my
mother and massaging her shoulders. He was always doing nice things. My
mother laughed and patted his hand in response to something he said.
    My father saw me first when he glanced over
his shoulder accessing the crowd. He asked where I had disappeared to which drew
Chris’ attention. He stopped what he was doing and came over to me already
looking like a college coed wearing his baggy workout shorts and a loose tank
top. The skin of his lean, muscular arms and legs colored a deep bronze from working
outdoors on his neighbor’s farm. His brown hair had also lightened from the
sun and gave him a very healthy appearance.
    For those witnessing our greeting, it looked
as if nothing had changed between us. They wouldn’t have guessed that less
than 12 hours prior, I’d broken up with him. He bent down and kissed me
possessively before taking my hand and leading me