Page 8 of Valentine Dare

He shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road.

“We heard that he was talking shit about our dad, about our family. At one time it used to bug me, but now I don’t care. I just turn a blind eye to it.”

I’d heard that Trent was nice; I knew he was back in first grade when we both went to the same school, then afterward in middle school where he switched schools after one year, and the reasons why, I have no idea. I had no contact with him during that period, he disappeared until we ended up at the same high school. Then, it was as if he didn’t even know who I was, then again he’d been through so much I didn’t expect him to remember the girl that used to live next door to him. Even if it was for only a little while.

“We used to be neighbors.”

He shrieked. “What? Get out of here! When? How come I don’t remember?”

We were at the stop lights. “It was only for a few weeks. Your mom used to come over and we would play in the sand pit. The one you had out front. Then when dad got his big promotion we moved. This is when we moved neighborhoods and all of a sudden we were no longer average - we were rich.”

“Oh my God, why didn’t it ever click. Jenny Hampton. Of course! Only a few weeks right?”

I nodded. I was wondering if it was the only part of the story that he remembered. “Yeah, I remember that sand pit.”

The one where I kissed you on the cheek and promised to love you forever.

“I think mom donated it to charity or something. I can’t remember. I wonder if my brothers remember too?”

I shook my head, “No. They never wanted to play. They were never interested. It was just the two of us.”

He pointed his finger at me, and for a split second I wondered if he really did remember or he was just making it up.

“Right!”

Then came back the awkward silence again, and with it the confirmation in which he really didn’t remember our time together. It was silly, with everything going on in my life right now; it should have been the least of my worries.

“If your mom can help me get some things, I would be grateful. So far I have no money in my account because they were joint accounts with dad. He liked to keep tabs on my spending. I also have no phone line.”

“In his name?”

I took a deep breath thinking about how pathetic my life was right now.

“Yep, and the house is locked up. I saw it on Instagram, one of the neighbor’s kindly posted it.”

“Oh, that was nice of them,” he said.

We both looked at each other and laughed.

“Don’t worry, mom’s office is not far from JC Penny, so, I’ll let you shop and…”

“Help me choose of course?”

He hesitated as he pulled up into the parking lot.

“I’m not the fashion guru. That’s more Prent’s territory.”

I remembered Prent didn’t go to our school. I didn’t know why, but I felt as if I was interviewing Trent today. Now I was acting as if he was my best friend and trying to get to know him better. Too fast, too soon.

As he parked and stopped the engine, he unlocked the car. I took off my belt and opened the door. I didn’t want to go inside. I spotted my reflection as I got out of the car, and I looked exactly as I imagined myself to look. My hair resembled a bird’s nest, and lipstick and make up in none of the right places on my face. I looked a mess. Not a mess, but a disaster which was exactly how I felt at the moment. He locked the car and then headed to where I was standing, bending over, looking in the side mirror, trying to make myself look normal.

“You can go into the bathroom and wash your face if you like. I may have a spare brush…”

“I have one in my purse, don’t worry.”

“Cool.”

He smiled at me for a second, and I wondered if he’d really remembered me. As if he was going to say, yeah we were supposed to get married have kids and all that. The typical kid fantasy someone would have about someone like him.

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