Page 92 of Freshmeet
“Did you meet anyone while you were in Germany?”
“There was one guy, but he got deployed and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“That sucks.”
He shook his head. “Nah. It wasn’t anything serious, just something to pass the time. After Anna, I’m not interested inanything that even looks like commitment. I’m only twenty-three, ya know?”
Anna was the girl he dated our senior year, and when they had a pregnancy scare, his response was to enlist. She wasn’t pregnant, but at that point, it didn’t matter. He said he had always planned to join, but the timing was pretty shitty.
“For sure.” I grabbed two more beers for us and leaned against the rail. “Believe me, I didn’t expect to meet someone so soon, but man.” I took a big gulp, trying to find the right words. “There’s something about her that?—”
“Reminds you of your mom?” He burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help but join him. As gross as it was to admit, now that he said it, I saw the similarities.
“Shut up.”
“What? Your mom’s hot.”
“Don’t talk about our mom, Grant!” Jamie hollered from the other side of the bridge, and Tom started laughing as he walked over to us.
“Grant’s right.”
“It’s time to give up the dream, guys. Mom’s dating some doctor from the hospital.”
“No shit. You met him yet?”
I flicked the tab on the can. “Not yet. She wants to be sure before she introduces us. You know we’ve only ever met one of her boyfriends.”
“And we promptly got rid of that fucker.” Jamie said proudly as he knelt to straighten the firework wicks.
“Yougot rid of him. I didn’t think he was so bad.”
Jamie blinked up from his work. “He didn’t shower and lived at that hippie commune.”
“Yeah, he was smelly, but nice.”
Shaking his head, he dismissed me and stood with finality. “They’re ready!”
Grant, Tom, and I passed a bottle of Old Crow, ready for the show.
Jamie walked over to us in a straight line, grinning. “If I did this right…” He set the fuse on the ground and lit it. The fire ate it up until it reached the point where the wicks were connected, then splintered in a dozen different directions. When the first pop sounded, we all cheered.
The dark summer sky lit up in blues, reds, and whites. Star bursts, sparkling shapes, and shimmering rainfalls of light crackled above us—our very own Fourth of July light show two weeks early. The smell of burning was more comforting than burning sulfur should ever be. My eyes watered from the smoke, but I didn’t dare blink. It was like being a kid again, not wanting to miss a moment.
Jamie came and stood next to me, throwing an arm around my shoulder.
I kept my attention on the sky. “This is fucking awesome.”
“Yeah.”
The four of us stood spellbound and pretty tipsy as the colors lit our faces in bright bursts of color. Every explosion was more amazing than the last until the sky went dark, leaving behind curls of white smoke. As if on cue, a train rumbled up behind us, its whistle blowing before swirling the smoke and firework debris around us as it sped by.
I looked at the guys, all of us smiling with wide, excited eyes.
Jamie picked up the cooler and said, “We should—” but gravel crunching and a siren accompanied by red and blue lights cut him off. “Run!”
Off we went, down the road where we’d parked, conveniently in the opposite direction from the cop car. He’d have to drive down a bit to turn around to catch up with us.
Tom’s drunk ass tripped on something and fell. “Go on without me!” he panted, lying flat out on his stomach. Leave it to Tom to prefer an arrest to just getting the fuck up.
