Say When

T H I R T Y

I stared at the sky. I prayed for God to grant my friend the gift of being less extra.

"Okay. Go." Rita instructed me. I reach for the blue metal handle of the mailbox and pulled open the door. I had the envelope halfway in.

"Wait wait! You're still going too fast. I'm trying to get the right shot." Half of her face was blocked by her cell phone.

"You're driving me crazy." I deadpanned.

"Just do a video! You can take stills in the video." Chris reached over and took the phone from her hands. She immediately snatched it back.

"It needs to be in portrait mode. I need to capture her full beauty in this moment." Rita took a giant step away from Chris' grasping hand.

"We're going to be late for school. Just take the damn picture." I snapped at them both. We'd been in front of the mailbox on the corner of my block for nearly ten minutes trying to get a photo of me mailing off my first-year payment to Columbia. First, there was a bus behind me. Then the clouds were blocking the natural sunlight. And now apparently I was mailing too quickly. I was excited about capturing the moment but now I was just hot, annoyed, and through.

"Rudeness, eww. Say 'education'!" Rita threw back at me. My smile was strained as I pulled down the door on the mailbox again, but this time I paused with the envelope in hand allowing Rita proper picture time before tossing it in and slamming the door shut.

"Good?" I asked her.

"So damn good! Look." She flipped the phone toward me.

I'd lost weight over the past few months. I looked at my new slimmer silhouette. All the years of dieting and it seems like what I really needed was to get out of the house more and experience life. I wasn't sitting in my room eating snacks and reading all day. I recognized the girl in the photo. She looked like me but the way she held her chin a little higher, her spine straight and shoulders back. A metaphysical shift.

"It's me," I said.

"It's official. You're getting the hell out of here." Chris gestured at our neighborhood. I pushed away the small bout of nostalgia that swept through me. It wasn't real to me yet that in a few months this place wouldn't be home anymore. Just the thought of college made me giddy.

"Finally." I exhaled into the air and held my hands out at my sides feeling like I could take flight.

"Don't forget about your peeps though." Rita quipped. I could see her pout from a mile away. She'd been accepted to Syracuse. Though only four hours away by car and a little over an hour by plane Rita insisted on us reacting as if she'd be on the other side of the earth. I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind and walked with her, my footsteps shadowing hers.

"We'll never be apart! I'm stuck to you like glue no matter what."

"Promise?" She asked in her obnoxious baby voice.

"Promise. Now, let's go. Seriously, were going to be late."

"Bri, you graduate in two weeks. Give it a break." Chris said.

"Gotta finish strong!" I said before I trodded off toward the bus stop.

>>

I walked out of school a few hours later. I had the night off from work and was looking forward to having a quiet night at home. As much as I loathed the hours I passed locked in the house before, I also missed the quiet time. I wanted to curl up with a book and relax. No school. No work. No skimming. Just me and quiet. I settled onto the bus and called Jax.