Page 28 of Thigh Highs
Truth or Dare
I’m headingto the Subway on the edge of campus to grab dinner after a day packed with classes when my mom’s number appears on the screen of myphone.
“Hey, Ma,” Ianswer.
“Aaron! How’s my favouriteson?”
“Favourite by default,” I answer. “I’m your only son. If you actually wanted to boost my confidence, you could call me your favouritechild.”
“I love you and Meghan equally,” she says with a laugh. “Now answer the question. How areyou?”
“I’m...good?” I respond. “Is this just a call to see how Iam?”
“Well, yes.” She sounds hesitant. “Is thatalright?”
“Of course. It’s just a littleweird.”
She sighs into the phone. “I wanted to check up on you. I know it’s been just over a year. The anniversary must havebeen—”
“I’m fine.” I grit my teeth as I continue up the sidewalk, my whole body tensing. “I don’t want to talk aboutit.”
“I know it’s...hard, Aaron, but we’venevertalked about it, and Idon’t—”
“I’m fine,” I repeat. “I’m getting dinner now. I have togo.”
“Alright, alright.” I can picture her rubbing little circles into her temples, the way she does when she’s tired or stressed. “I loveyou.”
“Love you too,Ma.”
Sliding my phone into my pocket, I notice that my other hand has gathered into a fist at my side. I remind myself that my mom’s just trying to be helpful, but the urge to push her out, to cut every tie with anything that reminds me of what happened, just won’t goaway.
I thought I’d managed to get through the anniversary without anyone bringing it up. It’s been more than a year now; I’m tired of wearing the Guy With a Dead Girlfriendlabel.
I open the door of Subway, trying to wipe the scowl off my face before I subject any innocent sandwich makers to an unwarranted death glare. The bell overhead rings and I step into the near-empty dining area. Two girls are eating subs in a corner of the room. The one facing me is wearing a Subway shirt and visor. Her eyes widen at the sight of me and she taps her friend on theshoulder.
“Yo!” I hear her say. “It’s AaronPenn.”
The second girl turns around, and I don’t know how I didn’t recognize Christina from the back. Her mass of hair is a deadgiveaway.
“So it is,” she replies, looking me up and down. “We were just talking about you. Us, rather. Theproject.”
I cross the room to stand next to them. “What aboutit?”
I watch as the smile I’m getting way too addicted to spreads across her face. “Gary just put the results up on the class portal. We’rein.”
“For theshowcase?”
“Duh, for the showcase.” She reaches over me and punches me in the arm, hard enough that I have to stop myself from reaching up to rub it. “We did it, Penn! We get to present in front of all those firms. I’m going to get to talk to Epsilon Mediareps...”
She lapses off into silence, her eyes shining with some golden vision of thefuture.
“Right. I’ll leave you to your Epsilon-induced lady boner now. Congratulations, Dominguez. I always knew there was no way we weren’t getting aspot.”
She grimaces at the term ‘lady boner’ and I make my way over to thecounter.
“I’ll help you!” offers her friend, getting up from the table and dumping her sandwich wrapper in the trash. “I’ve been on a very extendedbreak.”
I order a meatball sub and she gets to work on makingit.
