Better Than Me

"Mom! Dad!" Corinne's gleeful shout drew the attention of her parents, who were waiting near the luggage carousel for their daughter and Riley.

"Cori!" Mrs. Howard said fondly.

Corinne ran forward and hugged her mother, then her father.

"Hello, Riley," Mrs. Howard said, drawing the second girl in for a hug as well.

Riley had practically lived with Corinne during their high school years. Mr. and Mrs. Howard were like her second set of parents. She and Corinne were going to stay with them tonight and tomorrow (the night of the reunion). On Saturday, they would be renting a car and driving up to Cullman for a couple of nights with Mr. and Mrs. Winters, who had moved away from Trussville not long after Riley had migrated to Los Angeles.

Smiling, Riley squeezed Mrs. Howard. "Hi."

Mr. Howard ruffled Riley's hair affectionately. "How's it going, Squirt?"

Riley rolled her eyes, but her smile remained. Being small in stature had earned Riley several nicknames over the years, and she'd been "Squirt" to Mr. Howard since day one.

"Are y'all hungry?" Mrs. Howard asked as the girls watched the bags spilling out one by one on the carousel.

"Yes!" Corinne said. "I had forgotten how much I hate airline food."

"Snob!" Riley teased, nudging her in the ribs.

"Fuck you!" Corinne retorted.

Mr. Howard cleared his throat, the sound heavy with disapproval.

"Sorry," Riley and Corinne apologized sheepishly.

Mrs. Howard ducked her head to hide a smile. The girls soon spotted their suitcases and dragged them from the conveyor belt. Mr. Howard immediately seized two of the heavier cases. His stern expression told them more clearly than words that it would be useless to argue. Picking up the smaller bags that they had taken on the plane, Corinne and Riley fell into stop with Mrs. Howard, following her husband toward the exits.

"Where would y'all like to go for lunch?" Mrs. Howard queried.

"Mellow Mushroom!" Corinne replied.

Riley wrinkled her nose. "Pizza? Jeez, Cori."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"Buffalo Wild Wings."

Corinne's face lit up. "Oooh, yeah. There."

"Some things never change," Mrs. Howard commented. "I swear, you two survived on hot wings and Chinese food during high school."

"And cotton candy," Mr. Howard added, digging his keys out of his pocket. "And Riley was about one kernel away from turning into a piece of popcorn."

Riley giggled. "This is true."

"I don't know how y'all didn't weight about three hundred pounds apiece," Mrs. Howard said, shaking her head.

"High metabolism," Corinne guessed.

"It sure as shit wasn't physical exercise," Mr. Howard muttered.

"Dad!" Corinne scolded. "You said the shit word!"

Riley and Mrs. Howard laughed.

Mr. Howard grimaced. "Oops. I meant it surely wasn't a result of physical exercise."

"We exercised!" Corinne protested, feigning insult.

"Walking from the fridge to the sofa is not exercise, young lady," Mr. Howard shot back.

"He's got you there, Cori," Mrs. Howard said.

"Every Friday night I came home to find you two sprawled in my living room and some cheesy horror movie on the television," Mr. Howard recalled, holding one of the heavy glass doors open for the three women. "And my refrigerator stocked with ice cream, soda, and Chinese takeout."

"Those were the days," Riley said.

"What are you talking about?" Corinne shoved her playfully. "We still do that about once a week."

"Yeah, but now we have to baby-sit anywhere from two to five idiots while we do it."

Mr. and Mrs. Howard both chuckled.

"Are y'all excited about the reunion?" Mrs. Howard questioned as the four of them headed to the short-term parking area.

"I am," Corinne said. "I get to boast about my awesome job and my sexy boyfriend."

"What about you, Riley?"

Riley shrugged. "Not really. I only came because Cori talked me into it."

"Did you learn nothing in high school?" Mr. Howard cut in. "Everything Cori ever talked you into got you in trouble."

"Hey!" Corinne attempted to look indignant. "That is a slanderous statement."

"Not entirely," Riley said fairly. "The only time I've ever spent a night in jail was your fault."

"One time! That hardly counts as everything I ever talked you into! Besides, that night was totally fun."

"Totally," Mr. Howard mocked. "I love being woken up at one a.m. by a phone call from a police officer telling me my daughter is in the drunk tank."

"I got grounded for two months," Riley said.

Corinne crossed her arms over her chest, sulking. They reached Mr. Howard's vehicle: a brand new silver Hyundai Sonata. The girls' luggage was shoved into the trunk.

"Where are we going for lunch?" Mr. Howard inquired once everyone was settled and they had joined the line of traffic winding its way to the interstate.

"Buffalo Wild Wings," Riley and Corinne answered in unison.

"Just hearing the name of that place gives me heartburn and indigestion."

"Daddy!" Corinne said sweetly. "You have to take us to Buffalo Wild Wings. We're your kids and you love us and..."

"And you haven't seen us in ages," Riley supplied helpfully.

Mr. Howard glanced at the two girls in his rearview mirror. "Are y'all seriously attempting to guilt-trip me into giving you your way?"

"No," Riley said. "We're simply using well-thought-out logic to appeal to your own well-developed sense of logic."

Mr. Howard's lips twitched with the beginnings of a smile. "Touché. Buffalo Wild Wings it is."

Grinning, Corinne raised her hand and Riley slapped her a high-five. Mr. and Mrs. Howard exchanged a glance, both smiling and happy to have the girls home.

**********

"Cori! Riley!" Mrs. Howard's voice preceded her into the living room. "Look what I found!"

The two girls turned to see Mrs. Howard holding up an old yearbook. They shifted to let Mrs. Howard sit between them on the sofa. She immediately flipped to the pages that featured the photos of Riley, Corinne, and their classmates.

"Blaine Byrne." Corinne made a face. "I hated her. She was such a bi--"

Mrs. Howard cleared her throat.

"--horrible person," Corinne amended hastily.

Riley pointed out a pretty blond girl. "Kimberly Fritz. She was sweet. I'd like to see her."

"Frank Killen." Corinne angled the yearbook more towards herself so that she could better study the tiny black and white photo. "Wasn't he a stoner?"

"Yep," Riley confirmed. "He got suspended for coming to school high and, I think, senior year he was expelled for smoking in the boys' bathroom."

"Eric Lawson," Corinne read. "Damn, he's cute." She pushed the yearbook over to show Riley the photo.

"I remember him!" Riley exclaimed. "He was friends with David Lynam."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think they were in a band together at one time."

At the mention of him, Mrs. Howard's attention strayed to David Lynam. "Didn't one of y'all have a crush on David?"

Corinne raised her hand. "That would have been me."

"That's understandable. He's an attractive boy."

"I wonder if he got better with age, or if he ended up fat and bald," Riley mused, smirking.

"We'll know tomorrow night," Corinne said.

"I wish the guys could have come with us," Riley remarked.

Corinne sighed. "Me, too."

"Y'all just like it when everyone stares at you and talks about you behind your backs," Mrs. Howard said, eyes lighting up with amusement. "Need I remind y'all of prom?"

Corinne and Riley both smiled widely. Senior year, the two of them had shown up at the country club where the prom was being held with dates who would never have been permitted in the country club during any normal event. Their dates had not been students at Hewitt-Trussville, but guys who worked at a tattoo shop in Birmingham with Corinne's cousin, and they had definitely looked the part of tattoo artists, complete with bodies covered in colorful art and multiple piercings.

"Christian and Andy are the perfect match for the two of you," Mrs. Howard stated. "I can't imagine either of you with someone that isn't vibrant and doesn't love the limelight."

"CC certainly loves the limelight," Riley mumbled.

"Andy does, too!"

"Yeah, but CC is the reason we went to jail the last time."

Mrs. Howard grimaced. "Can y'all please leave me at least some of my sanity and not tell me these things? Moms worry, you know."

"Oops!" Riley mimed zipping her lips shut.

"Good going, Rile," Corinne said playfully, rolling her eyes. "You always were the one that got us caught."

"That's because Riley couldn't lie," Mrs. Howard said. "She felt guilty. I don't know where you got your lack of a conscience. Must have been from your father."

"HEY!" Mr. Howard protested, having just entered the room and overheard his wife's words.

Riley and Corinne giggled. Mr. Howard leaned over the back of the sofa and planted a sweet little kiss on Mrs. Howard's temple.

"What are we doing?" he asked.

"Trying to remember who all these people are so we don't make asses of ourselves tomorrow night," Corinne replied.

"You get your mouth from your father, too," Mrs. Howard muttered.

"Jeez, Mom, why don't you just admit you'd rather have Riley as a daughter?"

Mrs. Howard perked up. "Can I?" She looked at Riley. "Do you think your parents would let me adopt you? I'd let them see you whenever they wanted. Do you think they'd take Cori?"

"Ha ha!" Corinne swatted at her mom. "So hilarious!"

Mrs. Howard smoothed Corinne's hair back from her face and kissed her on the forehead. "You know I love you."

"I love you, too."

Riley attempted to stifle a yawn. However, she failed and her yawn was soon followed by Corinne's.

"Y'all need to go to bed," Mrs. Howard said immediately, snapping the yearbook closed. "It's been a long day."

Riley and Corinne agreed and after hugging both Mr. and Mrs. Howard and murmuring "good night," the girls trudged up the stairs. Corinne went to the room that had been hers for her entire life and Riley continued past the familiar room to the guest room.

Riley checked her cell before lying down. She had a text from Andy. It said "Sweet dreams, baby. I love you."

Smiling, Riley hooked her cell to the charger and left it on the bedside table. She snuggled beneath the blankets, nervous and excited about the next day.