The Twists and Turns of Love

The train ride was long and tedious, and pretty awkward too, but after the grueling, silent span of thirty minutes, they arrived at Sarah’s and Claire’s hometown.

Claire was a mix of emotions: she seemed down because Sarah had left, but glad that they were going to take her back to her rightful place. And on top of that, she was going to see her city after a while of being away.

On the train, she had explained about Sarah’s school incident and then a little about a quarrel they had had, although there seemed to be more to it than she was telling him.

As he walked around, lost, Claire led him expertly around her town. Luckily, Sarah’s house wasn’t too far from the train station and they didn’t have to keep making small talk, which had gotten old after the first fifteen minutes.

She lived in a nice little neighborhood that was the perfect picture of the American lifestyle. Every house on the block was the typical colonial style American house, each with a few cars that weren’t too shabby and a wide front lawn. Everything seemed perfectly organized, but in a cookie cutter sort of way.

“This is it,” Claire said, contemplating it from a distance and smiling, “ There used to be a tire swing on that tree over there. I remember Sarah once tried to use it to jump into her kiddie pool.”

“And how did that work out?” he asked, amused.

“Pretty badly. Her knees were black and blue for weeks. But they kind of blended in with all the other cuts and scrapes.”

After ringing on the doorbell a few times, they arrived at the conclusion that there was no one there.

“Where else could she be?”

“I don’t know. She could be anywhere.”

“That makes things a lot easier,” Eric replied sarcastically.

“We could just go around asking for her.”

Eric felt his stomach grumble. He hadn’t eaten in a long time.

“Can we grab something to eat first? I’m starving.”

As they walked around, looking for a place to eat, Eric spotted a McDonald’s.

“Why don’t we go there?”

“No way. Once I found a hair in my food there,” Claire said, scrunching up her face in disgust.

“Well, then where do we go?”

“I know this really good place that makes the best food around and it’s pretty cheap.”

“Is it near? Cause I might just go for the hairy hamburger,” he smiled.

“It’s a few blocks from here, but if you’d rather the expensive and disgusting franchise, go for it,” she said, pretending to be serious.

“Nah, I’ll trust you,” he said, grinning at her.

She smiled at him and continued walking. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly realized how pretty Claire was, but he quickly shook that thought out of his mind. He felt like he was betraying Sarah by thinking that about Claire. Yet he couldn’t quite shake it from his head. If Sarah cared about him so much, why did she just leave like that? Wouldn’t someone that felt something for him stay?

“Will you make up your mind? Are you coming or not?” Claire teased. It seems he had been zoning out.

“Yeah, I think I have made up my mind,” he replied, rushing to catch up to her.