Bri & Alfie

It'll sound arrogant to say that I am the smartest person you've ever met, but I am the smartest person you have ever met. Or at least, I probably am. I'm a genius. Literally. I could read at the college level when I was only eight, and when I was fourteen, I took the SATs just for fun. I scored a 2390. I would have skipped a couple of grades, but my mom didn't want kids to make fun of me and my dad wanted me to be well adjusted. While both of their plans failed, that's really not the point. The point is that I am a damn smart kid. There is no one smarter, at least in my school, but even the smartest kid can turn into a blithering idiot when confronted with a member of the opposite sex. Such was the case with Bri and me.

"I can't wait to get out of here!" she exclaimed for what must have been the hundredth time, pulling on her bright orange hair, which she had colored herself a few days earlier. "Seriously, the day after graduation, I'm leaving and never coming back. Everything in this town is just stupid. And boring. There's nothing to fucking do and all the people suck."

We were sitting on the curb outside of a diner a few streets over from our school, wasting away the time, if for no other reason than to not be at home.

I had heard this speech several times before, and wasn't about to pretend that I understood her animosity towards our hometown. For all her weird quirks, Bri had hardly ever been bullied, and she had tons of friends and a nice family. Of course, I can't speak for her, but those were the only things that I really wanted. Well, that and to go to a good college, but Bri didn't really care about that. The whole education thing? Totally beneath her.

"Well," I began, shaking a few pretzel M&Ms out of the ever present bag at my side, "there's still a month left until graduation. Something might make you change your mind by then," I had a very deliberate, monotone way of speaking which made whatever I said sound very smart and important, if not a bit condescending.

"Really, Alfie? Really? Have you ever once known me to change my mind? Have you? Ever? Even once?" Bri glared at me with these teary, oversized brown eyes. She was all intense, getting way too close to me. With her messy hair and pale I've-never-seen-the-sun-before skin, she looked like a Tim Burton character. But like, a hot one.

The truth was, I hadn't, so I shrugged my broad shoulders, readjusted my glasses, and stared at my sneakers, beat up from years of running track and cross-country.

“This town is just waiting to wither and die,” Bri hissed, wringing her hands dramatically. “Wither and die.”

She was abrasive, sure, and I'd bet that she annoyed a lot of people, but I thought her antics were funny. Like a spastic cartoon character.

"Do you know what my mom wants me to do?" Bri asked suddenly.

"What?" I asked, humoring her.

"She wants to ship me off to college!" Bri said, sounding terrified and disgusted.

"That bitch."

"I know!" She ignored my sarcasm.

"The horror!" This time, I earned a punch in the arm. It hurt (a lot), but I would never admit that.

"It is horrible. It is. It's like my mom wants me to grow up and be exactly like her. I'd kill myself before I ever let that happen. Ever," Bri said with conviction. Bri's blatant attempts at nonconformity, I thought, were in and of itself the saddest and most unaware form of conformity.

"Why?" I asked.

“Because,” Bri began, sitting up straighter and bracing herself to tell a story. She was sitting Indian style, with her short, neon hair in pig tails. Her old Boston sweat shirt was tied around her waist, and she was wearing several rings and bracelets. I thought about how strange she must look to anyone driving by. “She never listens to me. Seriously, never. She totally tunes me out, because in her sick world, children are to be seen and not heard. She doesn’t even know me, really. No one knows me because nobody listens. They all hear what they want to hear. I don’t want to go to college, but my mom doesn’t care because she doesn’t listen. Everyone is just too wrapped up in themselves to have a clue. They all think that everyone wants the same things they do, but they don't. People are just too dumb to see past the ends of their own noses,” Bri ranted angrily. I didn't think that was entirely true though. I'd like to think that I knew her pretty well. Bri was like an open book, pouring out her heart to the world. It would be hard for anyone not to know her. However, I was sure that Bri would like to think of herself as quite the enigma, so I didn't say anything.

We didn't say anything for a few minutes, and the people walking in and out of the diner began to eye us wearily. Bri and I ignored them though, like we always did, eating the melting M&Ms and enjoying each other's company.

"So you don't want to go to college?" I asked after a long time. Anything to fill the silence, which wasn't an altogether uncomfortable one, but still, silence is silence and I was sure that Bri would soon get bored with the silence and leave if it persisted.

"Naw," she said, scrunching up her nose as if the idea of higher education disgusted her.

"What are you going to do instead?"

Bri shrugged and thought about it for a moment. "You know what, Alfie... I don't really know. There's plenty of stuff that I want to do, but that's not really important, is it? It's all about what I can do and what I'm gonna do. Sometimes, I think I'll hitch-hike out to Cali and learn how to surf. That seems like something I'd do, right? Or maybe I'll join the circus, I don't know. That's probably stupid."

“And what would you do at the circus?” I asked, looking at Bri’s eyes, which were bright with the excitement of not knowing.

“Hmm… maybe I’d tell people riddles, or I’d do magic tricks,” she said, smiling at the prospect. "Or maybe I could learn how to walk the tightrope and become an acrobat."

I didn't know what to say next, which happened to me quite often, so I didn't say anything at all. I really wanted to tell her how much I would have loved to run away with her to California or to the circus or to anywhere really, just as long as I was with her. But I couldn't, so I didn't. I just looked down at my stupid sneakers and readjusted my stupid glasses and wished that for just this once I could get the words to travel from my brain to my mouth and not sound like a complete idiot, because I was no idiot.

"You know," began Bri, oblivious to my discomfort, "I've never been to New York City before. Have you? It seems like a wonderful place. I've seen pictures of Time Square and all the lights and the different kinds of people... it's just beautiful."

"I've been to the Bronx Zoo," I offered lamely.

"So have I. Remember? We went on that field trip in second grade, but that doesn't count," Bri said, sounding exasperated, like I was purposely being stupid. I have to admit that I was though, just a little bit. Just to keep her talking. Like I said, I'm a smart guy.

I shook out a few more M&Ms into my hand and offered Bri some. She took a hand full.

"I think you'd like New York. It just kind of fits, you know?" I said, looking at Bri, waiting for her to reply.

"Really?" Bri said, a mischievous grin spreading across her pretty face. "Tell me, Alfie. Tell me why it fits."

As Bri said this, she rested her chin in her palm, and her elbow on her knee, looking at me expectantly, an amused grin stretching across her pale lips.

I took a deep breath and stared at the traffic passing in front of us, wishing that I hadn't said anything, wishing that I could sink beneath the ground. "Well," I began steadily, feeling like I was on a sinking ship, searching for something, anything, that would keep me afloat. "It just seems like you get bored here, you know? You're so much more than this, this plain, picket-fenced suburbia. You'd never get bored somewhere like New York. You're always looking for adventures. Here, you have to create them for yourself, but in New York you wouldn't have to."

As my face grew redder, Bri's smile got wider, and as I finished my thought, I knew instantly that Bri was not going to let it go.

"You know Alfie, you're actually a pretty cool guy when you say what's on your mind. You're like, the smartest person I know, you got into frigging Yale for God's sake, and you have lots of interesting things to say. You should say them," Bri said matter-of-factly, leaning in closer towards me and smiling giddily. She loved making people feel uncomfortable, and I was one of her main targets.

I nodded once, biting my lip, and awkwardly messing with my hair because I didn't know what else to do.

Bri laughed and turned away, gathering up a handful of gravel and throwing it at the hubcaps of cars as they drove by.

"I uh... have to go. English thesis to work on," I said, standing up and grabbing the mostly empty bag of M&Ms. "See you tomorrow," I turned around to wave to Bri.

"Oh, maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure," she said alluringly, looking amused and shielding her eyes against the sun.

I bit back a smile as I walked away, clutching the bag of M&Ms in my hand and kicking at the gravel under my feet.