Unraveling

Four o’clock rolled around, and my grandmother woke me up from my nap. My head felt considerably better than earlier, but my throat ached for water.

I took my time walking into the bathroom, turning on the sink water. Cupping my hands, I slurped from the water that pooled from the facet. It was pathetic, but I lacked the patience or energy to go downstairs.

Once I had quenched my thirst, I stripped out of my clothes and turned the water on for the shower. I took my time bathing, trying to rid myself of the scanty feelings of last night. It was time to be the well-behaved, professional granddaughter.

Nearly an hour later, I walked down the stairs to find my grandmother sitting in the kitchen table, putting on lipstick. She wore a soft purple dress that complimented her eyes wonderfully. She had curled her hair and applied make-up she didn’t normally wear.

“You look pretty, Grandma.” I said, taking a seat opposite her. She smacked her lips together, spreading her lipstick evenly around before her eyes moved to me.

“Let’s see how you look, Avery.”

I stood up, doing a twirl for her.

A black layered skirt hung off my hips, stopping mid-thigh. It was long enough to satisfy my grandmother, but emphasized the curve of my ass wonderfully. The lavender blouse I wore matched with my grandmother’s dress. The neckline was high enough to keep me appropriate, but low enough to give off a flirtatious vibe. I had straightened my hair and added the normal amount of make-up. In the outfit, I felt sophisticated. I felt flirtatious. I felt ready to do anything.

My grandmother smiled approvingly. “I like it.”

“Thanks.” I grinned, “Karen actually bought me the skirt a few years ago for my birthday. It’s good that I finally have the opportunity to wear it.”

She stood up, grabbing her purse from on the table, “She’s a good friend. But I don’t want to be late. We’d better go.”

I followed her out of the house, locking up. My grandmother walked over to the passenger’s seat, waiting patiently for me to unlock the car.

~*~

It was Saturday evening, and the restaurant was packed.

We parked toward the back of the parking lot, shivering against the cold, April air as we hurried inside. I held the door open for my grandmother, my eyes scanning the crowd. I didn’t know what Sylvia or her grandson looked like, but my grandmother did.

My grandmother walked up to the hostess station. I followed behind her, keeping my distance from the crowds around me.

“Table for two?” The hostess asked with her pen ready to write down a name.

My grandmother shook her head, “No, we’re here with another couple.”

“Name?”

“Nelson.”

“Ah, Ms. Nelson!” She ran a highlighter over our name, “Your companions already have been seated. If you’ll follow me this way…”

She grabbed two menus, directing us down the aisle and away from the crowded doorway. My grandmother and I exchanged a look.

If they had already been seated, it meant that they had arrived much earlier than we had. No one had made a reservation. We had been expecting to wait.

The hostess stopped at a booth along the far wall. She motioned with a smile for us to take a seat. An older woman, Sylvia I presumed, sat opposite a younger boy, smiling gently at us. My grandmother took a seat next to her friend, leaving me to sit next to Peter.

“Sylvia! How early did you get here?” My grandmother asked with astonishment as we settled into our places.

“We arrived ten minutes or so ago.” She waved it off, “Peter, here, had the wrong time on his watch. We thought we were thirty minutes late!”

The older women laughed.

“Oh yes,” My grandmother said, her eyes falling on me across from her, “This is my granddaughter, Avery.”

I smiled, meeting the eyes of the two strangers.

“Avery, that’s Peter, and Sylvia.”

I turned to my left, smiling at the boy next to me.

He may have been a year younger, but he certainly didn’t look it. Dark brown hair fell in layers atop his head. The light blue dress shirt hugged his body nicely. He stuck out a hand for me to shake, his grip firm.

“Hey, Avery.”

“Hi.” I smiled back.

“Peter is going to be attending your school for the rest of the year.” Sylvia said, trying to spark conversation between us, “He’s a year younger than you, Avery, but most of his classes are in the senior wing.”

“Oh, then maybe we’ll see each other around.” I looked between the two family members.

“Yeah,” Peter grinned, “Maybe you can show me how to get around. It took me forever to find the cafeteria. I don’t think I can do it again.”

I giggled, “Don’t worry; it’s not that hard once you get used to it.”

The waitress arrived at our table with a grin plastered across her lips, “Hey guys, welcome to Carrabba’s. I’m Cindy and I’ll be your waitress today. Can I start you off with something to drink?”

We went around the table, giving off our orders. She scribbled them down on a pad, promising to return in a few minutes for our food orders.

I opened the menu, scanning over the selection of choices.

My eyes landed on the pasta category, and within a few seconds I had found an option that apealed to me. I closed the menu, setting it off toward the end of the table.

I noticed Peter’s eyes on me out of the corner of my own. I turned to face him, giving him a polite smile, “So what classes are you taking in the senior wing?”

He ran a hand over his cheek as he thought, “I’m taking Calculus, Physics, and Psychology there. My grandmother and I took a tour through the school earlier this week. They’re pretty much next to each other.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Calc and physics? Aren’t you a junior?”

He gave me a sheepish look, “I’m kind of a nerd.”

My eyes moved down his body as I gave him a surprised look. From first look, he didn’t seem to be the kind of boy to care about his grades.

“Stop judging me.”

I laughed, “I’m not judging you!”

“You’re giving me those eyes.” He smirked.

I rolled my eyes, “You’re being ridiculous. I was not giving anyone any eyes. I was simply surprised.”

“Did you think I was one of those guys that would rather smoke a bowl than study for a test?” He asked teasingly.

I gave him an innocent look, “No, never!”

“Sure, sure.”

The waitress returned with our drinks. Once she had finished distributing them, and placing bread on our table, she grabbed a tablet, “Are you ready to order?”

The four of us looked around, nodding.

“I think so.” My grandmother said.

We gave our orders as the waitress scribbled them down once more. She hurried off to the kitchen to place them as we took a slice of bread, dipping it into the olive oil.

“So Avery,” Sylvia said, “Do you know which college you’re going to?”

I swallowed the bread in my mouth, taking a sip of water before answering, “Yeah. I got accepted into a few, but I’m going out of state to Penn State University.”

“Why so far?”

“She just wants to leave me.” My grandmother said dramatically. The three laughed as I defended myself.

“No, Grandma, I could never leave you!”

“But you are.” She shook her head.

I laughed, “I’ll visit every chance I get. You know I will.”

She rolled her eyes, “You’ll visit at Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I won’t mind. You’ll have plenty of parties to go to.”

“Grandma…”

She laughed.

She knew that I would visit her every chance I got. The university I was going to was only a few hours away from home.

“Peter, have you looked into any colleges?” My grandmother asked, turning the conversation back to the new boy.

His leg nudged mine as he answered, “Penn State.”

My grandmother raised her eyebrows, “Really?”

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, “He’s being smart, Grandma.”

“You caught me.”

We laughed.

As we waited for the food to arrive, I found that chatting with Peter was much easier than anticipated. He had a sense of humor that clicked with mine. The older women broke away and formed their own conversations once they realized we were clicking.

“When do you start school?” I asked, taking a sip of my water before me.

He made a face, “Monday.”

“Don’t worry. It’s going to suck just as much as your last high school did.” I smiled when he laughed at my joke.

“I think this might be worse. I at least knew where I was going in the old one.”

The food arrived then. We moved out of the way so that the waitress could place each tray before us on the table. She took my glass to refill the water, leaving us alone to enjoy our long awaited meal.

We ate in silence for a while. Once my drink was returned, it seemed that the silence had grown too long for the older women. They fell back into their conversation on the girls in their knitting club at the church. Peter and I didn’t know enough to participate in the conversation.

We finished up the meal calmly. Peter and I fell back into conversation a few minutes later, and eventually we formed a group discussion focused around the next potential presidents. It was nice having a sophisticated conversation with Peter. He was a smart boy, and I enjoyed the easy chatter we had.

We split off again to discuss calculus. I was in the class as well, and we pondered over the possibility of having the same class. It wasn’t impossible, but with the size of my current class, I highly doubted he’d be put into that one.

Nearly an hour later, we had finished our meal. We sat at the table, waiting for Sylvia’s credit card to be returned to her before we left. Both women had set their half of the tip on the table and my grandmother had paid Sylvia for our meals.

“Here you go.” The waitress said, handing Sylvia her credit card and a copy of the receipt. “Have a good evening.”

“You too.” My grandmother smiled as she walked away.

The four of us stood up, making our way toward the exit. Peter and I led the way out through the crowd that still lingered by the doors.

As we walked outside, we were hit by a blast of cold air. I crossed my arms over my chest as goose bumps rose on my skin.

“This was fun.” Peter said, grinning down at me.

“It was.” I returned the smile. “I’m glad we did this, Peter. I’ll have to find you in school Monday morning.”

“Please.” He begged. “I’m so nervous.”

We stopped by the cars, waiting for our grandmothers.

“Here, give me your phone.” I said, holding out a hand.

Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, placing it in my hand. I scrolled through his phone, opening a new contact. Quickly typing in my number, I returned the cellular device back to its owner, smiling.

“My number’s in there. If you get lost, give me a text, and I’ll come save you.”

“I’m definitely taking you up on that.” He glanced at my contact before tucking it into his pocket, “Thanks, Avery.”

I shrugged, “It’s my pleasure.”

I shivered as a particularly cold gush of air blew past.

“Oh, shoot!” Sylvia hissed.

Our heads perked up toward her.

“I left my purse in the restaurant!” She exclaimed irritably, “I need to go get that. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll go with you.” My grandmother said, following after her friend.

Peter laughed, shaking his head, “My grandmother’s so forgetful.”

“That happens when you get older.”

“Oh no, she doesn’t have Alzheimer’s.” He shook his head, “My dad says she’s always been like this.”

I laughed, shivering slightly.

“Are you cold?” He smirked, knowing the answer.

“Just a little.” The sarcasm seeped through my voice. I sighed, annoyed, “And my grandmother has our car keys.”

“I think I have a sweatshirt in the car if you’d like…” He trailed off, nodding toward the trunk of his car.

I bit my lip, “Would it be bad if I asked for it?”

“Not at all.” He laughed, shaking his head. Peter popped his trunk open, digging through it. I walked over to where he was, waiting patiently.

He tossed me a sweatshirt with his old school’s logo on it. I quickly shrugged it on over my head, grateful for some warmth.

“Thanks.” I smiled bashfully.

“Don’t worry about it.” He smirked, his eyes moving down to my legs, “You must be dying in that skirt.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think this one through…”

I looked up to see my grandmother emerging out of the building with Sylvia and her purse. They hurried through the cold over to the cars. I turned to Peter, ready to make our goodbyes and part our ways.

“It was nice meeting you, Peter.” I smiled.

“You too, Avery.”

My grandmother approached us, nearly out of breath. She eyed the new addition to my outfit suspiciously, “Are you two all done saying your goodbyes?”

I glanced back at Peter before nodding, “Yeah.”

“Let’s head home before I turn into an icicle.”

I laughed, heading toward my car.

“Thank you for inviting us to dinner, Sylvia!” My grandmother called.

“Oh thank you for coming!” She laughed. Sylvia’s eyes moved to me, where she smiled gratefully, “Thank you Avery for coming. Peter would have been bored out of his mind if you hadn’t been there.”

“It was my pleasure!” I grinned, climbing into the driver’s seat.

The two older women bid their farewells before my grandmother got into the passenger seat. I turned the car on, blasting the heat.

We drove off, heading home.

Five minutes into the ride, I finally stopped shivering from the cold air. I turned the heat down lower so that we didn’t fry ourselves.

My grandmother’s eyes moved over the sweatshirt as she raised an eyebrow, “Where’d you get that?”

“Peter let me borrow it.” I said my face lighting up, “He felt bad that I was in a skirt, and it was so cold outside.”

“He’s a good boy.”

“Very polite.”

“Indeed.”

I didn’t respond, waiting for my grandmother to add something to the conversation. I could sense she wanted to say something, but was holding it back. Surprisingly enough, for the remainder of the ride home, she kept her lips sealed.

“Thank you for coming Avery.” She said as we pulled into the drive way of our house. “I really appreciate it.”

“I don’t mind. Peter was cool.”

“You’ll probably be seeing more of him. I’m glad you two got along so well.” She laughed, shaking her head, “It wouldn’t be good if you hadn’t.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Sylvia… I’m closer with her than any of the other women.” My grandmother shrugged, “I think we’ll be spending more time together. And since you’re one of the only people Peter knows here, I think she’ll bring him more often.”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

She grinned, “Alright, I think I’m going to head to bed now. Are you going to church tomorrow morning?”

“No…”

She shrugged, “God won’t forgive you.”

“You’re such a hypocrite.”

She smiled, “I’m trying to expiate my sins.” With that she made her way up the stairs, leaving me by myself on the first floor.

I yawned, feeling my phone buzz in my pocket.

I pulled it out, examining the screen. It was a text from an unknown number.

‘Hey it’s Peter. I think I need a picture for your contact so I know who you are ;)’

I giggled, typing my reply back, ‘we’ll take a picture together in school Monday. Thanks for the sweatshirt’

‘No problem!’

I made my way up the stairs, stripping of his sweatshirt. I tucked it underneath my bed, knowing that Tyler would be annoyed if he saw it.

There would be no reason for his annoyance; Peter and I weren’t doing anything. But I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t like it.

I sighed, falling onto my bed and texting Peter for the remainder of the evening.

Superman never showed up.