Once When You Were Mine

Chapter Five

                                                       "Love was all we knew, and all I knew was you..."

                                                                                  - The Moody Blues

I decided to get Austin to tell me more about his date with Liz during the bus ride to our marching band competition in Bellewood on Sunday.

Traditionally, Austin and I sat together on band bus trips; this didn't change even when I had dated Rob, because Rob played the tenor sax and was thus relegated to the woodwind bus. Liz was a flute, so the same went for her. The bus Austin and I were on was just for brass and percussion. And the last one was for the Color Guard. Last year, in honor of Championships, the guard hung a large sign in the bus window that spelled out "C-O-L-O-R G-A-U-R-D." We haven't stopped making fun of them for the misspelling yet.

The buses were sitting in the high school parking lot when my mom dropped me off that morning. When I climbed on, I found that Austin had already claimed a seat for us near the back of the bus where the seniors usually congregated. He grabbed my uniform bag from me and hung it on the window. By the time everyone had piled on the bus, all the windows were covered with black garment bags, giving our bus an odd appearance.

We had an hour on the road before it was necessary to start changing, so I had plenty of time to ply Austin for more details about Liz.

"I'm worried, Meg."

"What about?"

"I feel like Liz has been avoiding me, but I'm not sure if that's just me being paranoid or not. Have you heard anything?"

I shook my head. "No, I haven't heard any rumors about you two at all. Have you tried to talk to her?"

"I tried, but it's tough, because she's always got that gang of friends around her. I didn't know if she was blowing me off because they were there or not."

"Hmm. It's hard to say. Are you going to ask her out again?"

"I'd like to - but I'd have to get her alone first."

"Well, good luck with that. You really like her then?"

"Yeah, I think so. I just wish this weren't taking so much effort. It didn't seem to be this difficult with you and Rob. How did that all get started again?"

"Hmm - well, I don't think it was quite so effortless as you seem to believe. Let's see - we kind of flirted for a while."

"I know. I was there for that Nightmare on Elm Street movie, remember? You ignored me the whole night."

"Oh, Austin, I'm sorry!"

"Uh-huh."

"Anyway," I went on, "It was a big step from friendship and flirtation to dating. Dave actually ferried messages back and forth because neither of us had the nerve to talk face to face about it. Finally, at that band competition in Falls City, he asked me out. And things were fun at first, but as you know, it lasted about three weeks."

"So how's it going with him now?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled.

"I mean, you guys don't seem to be on very friendly terms since you broke up. It's not like you had a huge fight or anything, right?"

"I don't know. Things are just awkward now. It's as if dating put this whole weird spin on everything. The transition from boyfriend to friend just seems to be way more difficult than from friend to boyfriend." I paused. "We just don't know how to act around each other anymore. It makes me sad to think that dating ruined our friendship." I shook my head. "I'll tell you one thing, I'll never date a friend again."