The Ugly Truth

It was Saturday all too soon. For some reason, I was really nervous. How lame was it to be scared of volunteering at an event? Even though I was nervous, I was excited too. I mean, for one I would see John again and I would be at an awesome festival.

But for some reason, something felt wrong. Like when you leave your house and you feel like you forget something, but don’t know what it is until you need it. Well, that’s how I felt: not entirely convinced everything was as fine as it seemed. Well, of course, I was under Caroline’s orders, but for now it was going pretty well. And I hoped it would remain that way.

Almost as if I had called her with my thoughts, I received an email from Caroline. Seriously, where the heck did she get it from? It was like I had a stalker.

There’s a beach concert later on today. I know the band, and they always ask for a girl to join them onstage when they sing their most lovey dovey song. Guess who that girl’s going to be? Now, you’ll have to make sure the singer chooses you. Or else.

Again, it seemed like Caroline was stalking me. I hate being the center of attention and Caroline seemed to know that all too well. But it could have been a lot worse.

“Good morning,” my mom said as I entered the kitchen, “Are you almost ready?”

“Ready for what?” I asked, confused.

“We’re going to the Johnsons’ for lunch today.”

The Johnsons were the perkiest family you could ever meet. They were so positive all the time it started to annoy at one point, although I never told my parents this, of course.

“You didn’t tell me we were going to their house for lunch,” I replied, freaking out a little.

“Of course I did. I wouldn’t forget something so important.”

“Well, you did.”

And I wasn’t lying, she hadn’t told me anything about it.

“It doesn’t matter. Eat breakfast and start getting ready so we can leave as soon as possible.”

“I have plans, Mom,” I protested

“You’ll have to cancel them,” she replied in her most matter-of-fact voice.
“I can’t.”

So this was how it was going to end. I would miss Caroline’s challenge not because I didn’t have the courage to do it, but because my mom wouldn’t let me go. I just couldn’t go down like that.

“It’s for a summer project I have to do.”

And the lie just slipped out by itself. I hadn’t wanted to say it, but it seemed to have a life of its own and managed to escape from my mouth.

“A summer project? How come I haven’t heard of such a thing yet?” she pointed out, suspicious.

“It’s because I haven’t really thought about what subject to do it on, but some friends are going to help me out.”

She seemed to be pondering if to believe me or not.

“Alright, you can stay but only because it’s for school.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

I felt like a monster. I had never really lied to my parents. Sure, I might have lied about something insignificant at some point, but never something like this. I felt like I was disappointing them because that had been a cheap shot. Schoolwork is one of those untouchable things in my house that allows me to miss anything. I had never used it for my own personal benefit and it felt horrible. But everyone seeing me in my underwear seemed a lot more horrible. And that made me even more ashamed, because I was willing to lie to my parents instead of a bunch of people that I didn’t even care about seeing some old picture of me in my underwear.

After my parents had left, I had no idea what to do until five.

I decided to put my pool to good use. After all, I hadn’t taken a proper swim that summer. I put on my bathing suit and jumped into the cool water. It was funny how many times I had been in swimming pools in the little summer that had gone by.

I swam around until the tips of my fingers wrinkled up. Usually, I wouldn’t have minded but swimming alone can get dull. As I dried up, laying on a towel beside the pool, I stared up at the clear blue sky. Somehow, that trademark summer moment made me feel like happy inside. I imagined that was the type of scenery singers had when they felt inspired to write those catchy summer songs.

When five o’clock neared, I was reluctant to leave my relaxing spot, but I wasn’t about to miss something I had lied for.

I wasn’t sure if to call John or if he would call me, so I decided to spare myself the trouble and just wait. And it’s not like I would perish if he didn’t call. Even though I wasn’t really waiting for his call, a little part of me still wished he would call.

The moment I neared the spot, I saw a buzz of people walking around and placing things where they should be, all wearing white tees with staff written across the back in big, black letters. I got out of my car carefully, not wanting to repeat the Ethan incident.

Everyone seemed in such a rush that I didn’t want to disrupt them to ask where I was supposed to go.

“Are you a volunteer?” a man that was clearly part of the security team asked me, almost in a threatening way. He was so tall and robust that, on top of his unfriendly glare, made him even more intimidating.

“Yeah. I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go though,” I responded, trying to look as sweet and innocent as possible.

“There’s a table over there where you’ll get a tee and they’ll tell you where you’re assigned,” he replied, transforming into a smiling person.

I headed over to the stand he had pointed out, where they asked my name and, after checking it off on a clipboard, handed me one of the staff tees.

“You’ll be assigned to the water booth. Basically, what you have to do is give people water to make sure they don’t get dehydrated. Usually, when people see it’s free they ask for it, but if you see someone that seems to need it, you can go offer it to them. You’ll be paired with…,” she paused as she searched for the name of the other person on her list, “John Williams. Your booth is the first one in the line of stalls, near the entrance, so you won’t have any trouble finding it.”

“Alright, thanks,” I said, checking out the shirt I would have to change into.

The same woman showed me to a portable toilet where I could change. I had always hated them but there was no other choice, so I quickly put on the t-shirt and stuffed the one I was wearing before into my purse.

The fabric of the shirt wasn’t the most adequate for a hot day and the sleeves were a little too long, so I rolled them up as much as I could, although I was burning nonetheless.

When I was back at the booth with the woman who had oriented me, I saw the back of a familiar blonde head talking to her. He turned and smiled at me.

“So, we’re going to be working together today,” he said, approaching me, t-shirt in hand.

“Yeah, what a coincidence, huh?”

“Well…” he replied, smiling slyly, “If you ask them to pair you with someone, they usually do, you know.”

I wasn’t sure if to thank him for wanting to be with me or yell at him for not telling me before, although I wouldn’t have known anyone to choose anyways.

“It would have been too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?” he teased as we walked towards out stand.

“Maybe,” I answered, feeling dumb for having thought it had actually been one.

“Hey, look, there it is.”

Our booth had a white EZ Up canopy tent with a big sign that read free water . There was a table, with all sorts of flyers advertising the different companies that had booths, as well as a few large coolers, lots of paper cups and two plastic chairs.

“Do you think this water will be enough to last the whole event?” I asked, looking doubtfully at the coolers.

“They said they’d bring more periodically.”

“Oh ok.”

Why did no one ever tell me things so I wouldn’t ask stupid questions?

“So, how come we live in the same town but we’ve never met?” John asked me as he sat down in one of the chairs.

I hate when people ask questions you don’t really have an answer to.

“Well, it’s destiny, I suppose?”

And I was at it again, saying foolish things.

“Hmm… maybe. So, according to your theory, then it’s destiny’s fault we met and it happened for a reason, right?”

“Yeah.”

He just smiled at me and I looked at my shoes, embarrassed.

“Hey, do you mind if I change my shirt here?”

What? Had I heard right?

“Yeah, sure.”

I looked away as he pulled his tee over his head. I was so uncomfortable that I don’t think I breathed out until he had the other shirt on.

Luckily, he didn’t find it embarrassing in the least bit and continued as calm as before.

We chatted lightheartedly until the event began, and then it was chaos. A mass of people appeared as if by magic, flooding the space between our booth and the one across, which was a considerable length away. Right from the beginning people attacked our stand, after all, when something is free, everyone wants some.

“Hey, can you give me some water?” a stubby man with a too tight shirt and stubble demanded.

“Sure,” I replied, grabbing a cup and a bottle of water from the cooler. As I was pouring it in, John slightly shoved me by accident and I spilled a large amount of water on myself.

“I’m so sorry,” John remarked, as he handed me so napkins.

“Can you get me my water?!”

“Can you wait a second please?” I snapped.

The problem wasn’t the freezing water, because it actually felt good because of the heat, but that the shirt was white and soon would be transparent.

“Here,” John said, handing me his sweater. It was unbelievably hot but I would rather be roasting than showing anything.

As I poured the man some water, he continued complaining.

“What’s your name? I’m going to complain about your service. You don’t have a name tag on like the boy with you,” he said, annoying me in such a way I was sure I would explode at any time.

“Can you just leave?” John said, pissed off.

The man grabbed his cup and walked away, mumbling insults at us.

“You really do need a name tag,” John said when the man was out of earshot.

“I didn’t get one.”

“They must have forgotten to give you one. If you want, I’ll go get you one.”

He rushed off and returned quicker than I expected. I was so hot in his sweater that I was getting a little dizzy.

“Are you okay?” he asked, worried.

“Yeah, I’m just a little lightheaded.”

“Have some water, and take off that sweater!” he affirmed, handing me a paper cup.

“But… I can’t.”

He seemed to understand.

“Well, you can put on my shirt and I’ll put on yours.”

“Won’t you look ridiculous in my shirt?” I asked, grinning at the thought.

“Yeah, probably, but it’s better than you fainting,” John pointed out.

“But we can’t just leave the booth unattended,” I replied.

“I don’t think anyone will miss us if we leave for just a second.”

So we quickly sneaked behind the tent. He took of his shirt and handed it to me.

I took off his sweater and gave it to him, and he instantly turned around to give me privacy. Which only made it a little less awkward. I put on his shirt as rapidly as I could and practically shoved my shirt into his hands. I was just so embarrassed of the situation that I didn’t even wait for him to change and returned to the front of the booth.

After John emerged, he simply smiled at me and we continued working. We completely forgot about the name tag until I reminded him when he asked me to go ask someone in charge to bring more water, because they had forgotten to do their 7 o’clock round.

As I left, I thought I heard Riley’s voice somewhere in the distance.