Another Teen Love Story

Don’t ask me how, but I was somehow able to balance two pizzas in one hand and steer my bike with the other. Even more eyes followed me on my trek back home, and I didn’t blame them. I probably looked like I belonged in a circus.

Dinner was uneventful. May sent glares at those of us who were eating meat, my Dad made Ariel (who smashed her pizza into mush) laugh by balancing a spoon on his nose, and my mom rambled on about how we should host a party and invite the neighbors so we could get to know them.

After dinner I retreated to my room, feeling exhausted. I collapsed onto my bed, appreciating how the mattress curved and molded to fit my body. It had been an unbelievably long day. I felt like arriving here in Midford happened a month ago.

I wanted to just fall asleep on the bed, but I knew I had my duty to Christy to call her. I had promised, after all. I grabbed my cell phone and my thumbs trailed across the pads in an automatic fashion. Within seconds the phone was ringing.

“Hello?” a feminine, all too familiar voice asked from the other end of the line.

“Guess who…?”

“Anna! Oh my gosh! You’re alive! What happened? I hadn’t heard anything from you since that text you sent from the Wisconsin Cheese Museum!”

I laughed, remembering what I had sent in the text. I was pleading for her to wire money to me for a ticket back home, as the museum was deadly boring. On the trip over to Maine my dad made frequent stops to out of the way tourist destinations, like Yellowstone, The Cheese Museum, and even to see the Largest Dixie Cup located in Kentucky. If my dad hadn’t spent so long on those meaningless stops we would have arrived in Maine in half the time.

“I’m so sorry, Christy. Really. Things just got really busy.”

“S’all right. So, are you in Dead Ford yet?”

Again, I laughed. “Yeah. Arrived this morning.”

“Is it as terrible as you thought?”

“Worse.”

“Oh. Do tell,” Christy said, anxious to hear just how terrible Maine was.

I told her everything, from the dizzying suburb we were now a part of to the cute guy at the pizza parlor. Christy laughed, sighed, and gasped at all the right places. There was a reason I chose her to be my best friend. She really understood.

“But get this! Not only do I get my own room, but I have a walk-in closet and my own personal bathroom! Can you imagine how amazing it will be when I don’t have to share a bathroom with every other family member? I will actually have hot water! I will have privacy!”

I took a deep breath to calm my frenzied explanation. There was only silence from the other line. I frowned. Christy wasn’t the one to be silent. “Christy, you still there?”

“Yes.”

“What’s up? You’re being all quiet.”

“It’s nothing, but…Well…You’re starting to sound like you like Maine.”

“What? But I don’t…”

“Well, you were talking about the cute pizza guy, and then you started rambling about having your privacy, which you never had in Seattle…” she trailed off. I could hear the hurt woven in her voice.

“Yeah, but do you know what I won’t have here, in Maine? You guys. I miss you all like crazy. I would trade a thousand walk-in closets to be back there with you guys.”

“Would you trade your bathroom?”

I grimaced and inhaled sharply. “Well, I do like my bathroom…” A smile played on my face.

“Anna!” Christy laughed.

“Yes, I would trade my bathroom,” I laughed.

After that Christy went on to talk about everything that has happened since I left. Christy dumped Ross after he forgot their four and a half month anniversary, but decided to get back together with him after his summer baseball league won the county tournament. Eric got an internship at the local news channel. Things were pretty uneventful, according to Christy.

“And what about Jeff?” I asked tentatively. It was the question that had been buzzing on my mind, playing on my lips, waiting to be asked.

Christy was silent for a moment. “Jeff is…Good. I mean, it’s really hard for him, you know? He misses you like crazy.” She was silent again, but then she asked a question that had probably been on her mind since the beginning of our conversation. “Is it really true that Jeff asked you to marry him?”

My jaw dropped in shock. “Where did you hear that from?”

“Eric heard it from Ross, who was told by Jeff. So it’s true?”

A deep blush coated my face. I was glad Christy couldn’t see me. She always made fun of my blush. “Yes.”

Christy squealed from her end of the line, and I was forced to hold the phone several inches from my ear. “Why the hell didn’t you say yes?”

“Because. I’m not ready to get married. I’m not even eighteen, and neither is he.”

“So? Jeff is a great guy! He would make an excellent husband!”

“I know…” I bit my lip and smiled. Jeff really was great.

“Did you want to say yes?” Christy asked.

“Of course! You should have seen him. I had never seen his face so sincere and pleading. He was completely vulnerable. It was adorable.” I smiled and my stomach erupted into butterflies just at the thought of Jeff’s expression at the moment he proposed. So loving, so caring, and yet so sad.

Christy sighed from the other end of the line. “That is so romantic, though. What a perfect memory of Jeff to hold onto until you come for winter break.”

“Actually, I was thinking of stopping by during Thanksgiving. I have that week off, and I am dying to see you guys. Not to mention Eric’s mom makes a top notch turkey.”

From there we talked about senseless things. Shoes, boys, celebrity gossip. Our conversations were never centered on just one topic.

By chance I looked at the clock. It was nine thirty. I had been talking on the phone with Anna for two hours. Good thing I had unlimited minutes.

“Shoot, Christy. I’m sorry, but I have to go. I want to call Jeff before I go to bed.”

“Oh, yeah, of course you do. Well, I got to go eat dinner anyways.” Dinner? That’s right. It was seven-ish over in Seattle. I forgot about the time difference. Christy and I said our quick goodbyes, and hung up.

I spent a long time looking at my phone before I actually dialed Jeff’s number. What was I going to say to him? What was he going to say to me? Was he going to sound depressed and sad? I couldn’t bear it if he were sad…

Here goes nothing, I thought to myself, and I dialed Jeff’s number with thought. He answered on the second ring.

“Anna!” he exclaimed. I could hear the smile on his face. My heart soared at the sound of his voice saying my name. I really missed him.

Jeff and I spent hours and hours talking. We spent a good amount of time with the whole “I miss you,” “I miss you too,” “I miss you more,” “No, I miss you more,” conversation, and even more on the “I love you,” “I love you too,” “I love you more,” “No, I love you more,” conversation. It was all so cliché, but I loved every minute of it.

Whereas my conversations with Christy were mostly superficial, Jeff and I normally talked about relevant things. Instead of shoes and lip gloss, we talked about plans for the future, like colleges, jobs, and family. Jeff and I both wanted to go to Western Washington University. I wanted to major in English, and Jeff wanted to become a journalist. We both wanted three kids, older twin boys and a younger girl. I liked the names Brian and Elliott for the boys. Jeff liked the name Astrid for the girl.

“Astrid? Are you kidding me? Do you want her to be teased in school?”

“Astrid happens to be the name of a Scandinavian warrior. It wouldn’t matter if she were teased. She could beat them up,” Jeff countered.

“I don’t think that is the way the naming thing works, Jeff.”

“Fine. What about Charlotte. It’s classic, and there are about a dozen nick names that could go along with it.”

“Charlotte,” I mulled the name around in my mouth. “Charlie. Char. Lottie. Little Lottie.” I smiled. “I think Charlotte is a great name.”

“Now let’s talk about the name Elliott…”

“What’s wrong with that name?” I asked, appalled that Jeff didn’t like the name.

“It’s a nerd name.”

“It is not! It’s the name of the kid from E.T.! Who wouldn’t want to be named after a kid who befriends extra-terrestrial life?”

“I guess you got me there…”

“Ha! Another point for Anna!”

We continued to talk. It was late into the night; the rest of my family members were already in bed. But I wasn’t nearly as tired as I was when I first came to my room. Talking to Jeff energized me.

Sometime around three in the morning I started to yawn consistently. Jeff took notice of this.

“Shoot, Anna. I forgot about the time difference. Is it three AM over there?”

I yawned and nodded. “Something like that.”

“I’m sorry to keep you up. We should probably hang up. You need your sleep.”

“But I want to keep talking with you…” I complained.

“How about this, you get into bed and I will talk until you sleep. Sound good?”

“Mmmm…” My head was already on the pillow, my cell phone lying open against my face. I could hear everything Jeff said. His gentle, low voice lulled me to sleep in no time. My dreams that night centered on nothing but Jeff; Jeff and his wonderful, comforting, loving voice.