Missed Me, Missed Me, Now You Gotta Kiss Me

Now You Gotta Kiss Me

   “Admit it, you’ve been looking forward to this all week,” Liam said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Driving around in your noisy truck? Oh yes, I do so enjoy it’s interruptions.”

  The truth was, though, I had been looking forward to this all week. As soon as my parents left, I decided to let that week to be my “mourning week”, if you will, and then to be over it. So I had bought instant cookies, brownie mix, two things of Ben & Jerry’s, Cheeze-Its, and a bunch of other junk food I would have to work off in the next week. I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of VHSes—stuff like Love Actually, Lethal Weapon, Lost Boys, Happy Gilmore, Insomnia.

  I had never seen Lost Boys before, but I loved all its corniness. Ah, the good ol’ days when girls weren’t overly fauning over vampires. Remember? When they burnt in the sunlight and died by a wooden stake? Personally, my favorite part was the vampire that died in the tub of holy water. Epic classic! Upon loving Kiefer Sutherland’s hair, thinking Jason Patrick—despite his decent acting—was the sexiest guy ever, Edgar and Alan Frog made that movie. They were just too awesome.

  All the other movies I’d seen before—except Insomnia, but I hadn’t watched it yet. I dubbed it “Vampire Week”, though, and rented Vampire’s Suck at the only video store—called The Video Store—in Marshal County, thanks to Netflix and Redbox.

  Needless to say, I was awful that week. I skipped school, claiming I was sick with the flu—in April—and the teachers actually bought it. I’d be done with school the second week of May, anyway. Although what my summer would look like now was a question, as I was meant to spend it in Arizona with Sooki. Maybe I’d just stay with one of my other friends there.

  But when Friday night came, I shaped up. I ditched the movies and the food, cleansed it off with a nice bath and reading ‘The Joy Luck Club’—the only homework I actually did that week. Saturday morning, I felt renewed and refreshed, waiting for whatever the hell Liam had planned.

  We were driving passed the ‘Welcome to Lewisburg’ sign, on the road to Columbia, so it could be anywhere.

  “Alright,” I said, not quite able to help a small grin. “So when are you gonna tell me where we’re going?”

  Liam chuckled. “Hold your horses, willya? It’s just’a few more minutes away.”

  “So,” I said, smiling up at him. “What’d you do all week without me?”

  “Are you assuming I can’t do anything without you?” Liam teased, raising a brow.

  “Duh.”

  He shook his head, but even I could see that hidden smile. “Mainly, I worked with Terry.”

  “Terry!” I gasped. God, I was so terrible! The entire week, I’d only been concerned with myself. I hadn’t even thought of poor Terry. “So how’s my dear, darling colt?”

  “You better stop getting so attached to him,” Liam warned.

  I shrugged. “Too late. So…..”

  “’So’ what?”

  I rolled my eyes. “How’s little Mystery doing?”

  “Fine. He’s lungin’ a lot better.”

  I waited for him to add more. When he didn’t, I said, “And….”

  Liam shrugged. “And nothing. Nothing new.” He gave me a sideways smirk. “He’s not that interesting, Pipe.”

  “Psh, so you say. You’ve trained tons of horses. I’m sure they all seem boring after a while.”

  I stopped talking as Liam turned into a parking lot right off the road. It was a plain beige building with a red roof and plain white, Arial lettering that read “Momma’s Country”. Just before the building was a sign with a plastic black and white horse atop of it. Weird. What was weirder was how many cars—well, trucks—were there.