Page 39 of Friendshipped
“I told him he needed a haircut and could do well to start wearing something besides those beat up dungarees. How’s he supposed to find a girl if he looks so shaggy and unkept?”
“Memaw,” I say, half scolding. “You can’t say everything that crosses your mind out loud.”
“Well, I don’t know why not. If you ask me, people ought to speak their minds more often. A lot of time gets wasted dancing around the truth in life, pretending to like things we don’t, or agreeing with nonsense. If that boy wants a wife—and I know he does—he ought to take better care of himself. I was helping him out. Anyone not telling him the truth is hurting him when you think of it.”
I shake my head. The fact that her logic almost makes sense to me is frightening.
“Well,” Trevor says. “I can come mow your yard. I mow ours every weekend. It’s easy enough to throw the mower in the back of my car and cut yours too. I’ll be by midday tomorrow.”
Memaw smiles her full smile. All the wrinkles in her face move in unison. Her eyes almost close as she looks over at Trevor like a schoolgirl with a crush.
“Get yourself a man like this one, Lexi,” she says. “He’s a keeper.”
13
Trevor
The next morning, I’m getting ready for my run before I do yard work when I get a call from my mom.
My mom has been the president of every school committee, coordinator of most church potlucks, and organizer of the majority of the block parties or charitable outreaches in the neighborhood. She makes stay-at-home mom life look like an Olympic sport.
She usually had freshly baked cookies out when we came home from school, did our homework with us, made our costumes from scratch, and oversaw each of us taking music lessons and participating in a sport.
Mom’s a bit on the controlling side when it comes to knowing what’s good for us and trying to make sure we fall in line with her vision, but apart from her micromanagement, she’s amazing.
“Hey, honey,” Mom says.
“Good morning,” I say. “What has you calling me so early on a Saturday?”
“Well,” she says, pausing briefly—during which my antennae go on high alert. “Do you remember Meg? Meg Abrams?”
“Yeah. I do. Why?”
Meg was my first kiss. Long story. I wanted Lexi to be my first kiss—my only kiss. But when things went haywire with Lexi, Meg moved in and kissed me a few weeks later.
Nothing more came of me and Meg until Junior Prom and then I decided I wanted to have a normal high school experience. Our friends were all going to the dance together as friends. I wanted an actual date. Since I knew Lexi wouldn’t say yes to me, I asked Meg. From then on, Meg and I dated until the end of high school.
“Meg’s moving back into town,” Mom informs me. “And I was talking to her mom when I was at Bean There Done That ordering my weekly latte. You know her mom, Margaret?”
“I do,” I say.
I’m silently trying to put together the pieces of this puzzle. Why does my mom need to call me at seven in the morning about Meg Abrams moving back into town?
You know that feeling when you start to cross the street and you already looked both ways, but then a car zips toward you from out of nowhere? Yeah. That’s the feeling I’m having as my mom says her next sentence.
“Well, I figured since you and Meg were old friends, and she’ll be coming back into town not being connected to anyone after the five years she’s been gone, you might want to take her out to help her get reconnected. So, Margaret and I agreed you’d take Meg out this coming Friday.”
I freeze. My face doesn’t move, my body stiffens. I stand stock still in my living room, holding my phone and processing what my mom just said. I could be moved into the Columbus Museum of Art and left there as a statue entitledYoung Man on Phone Call with Meddling Mother.
“Mom,” I say, taking slow breaths as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “How do you know I don’t have anything planned Friday?”
“I know what you do, Trevor. I live six doors down. And I know your friends, and the local event schedule.”
Frightening.
For the first time in my adult life I consider relocating away from my hometown. It’s not that Meg is horrible. I was pretty into her in high school. By the time we were leaving for college, we decided against the whole long-distance romance thing, so we went our separate ways.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Meg, especially since Lexi’s dating other guys now. Still, it’s the principle of the thing. My mom isn’t merely asking me to take Meg out to get her reconnected to Bordeaux. My mom wants me and Meg to be reconnected, as inwhy don’t I have any grandbabies yet?reconnected.
