Page 3 of Melt With You

What was the real reason she didn’t want to go to the reunion? Dori reflected as she paced uselessly through her living room waiting for Violet to arrive. Her best friend was going to spend the night – a slumber party of two, like the hundreds they’d shared when they were teens. Violet would make her feel better. She always did. But until Violet showed up, Dori’s thoughts ran away with her.

Why wouldn’t she want to attend her reunion? Because her life sucked, that’s why. She didn’t want to go in this state, with all of her dreams in rubble. She’d split from the man she’d thought she was destined to marry, and she still wasn’t exactly sure what had gone wrong. They’d had a fight. A monster one. He hadn’t wanted to move with her to California, to her new job, hadn’t even been willing to consider the concept. ‘I like it here,’ was all Bryce said at first, as if that statement was enough to end all thoughts of argument.

‘But –’ Dori had started. ‘This would mean –’

‘I like it,’ he’d repeated.

‘What if I commute?’ she’d tried next. ‘You know, LA during the week, NY on the weekends?’ It sounded like a lot of traveling even as she proposed the idea, but she wouldn’t have minded. ‘We could take turns. You fly out sometimes. I’ll fly back others.’ She knew plenty of couples who were bi-coastal.

But Bryce had shaken his head. ‘You know how whipped I am by Friday night.’

He had not given her anything to work with. Not even been remotely flexible in his world. As if she only fitted in to a certain degree, as if he needed to keep her in a box.

Dori put her hand to her head. Jesus. She wanted to be with someone who would be willing to travel through time for her. Not someone who would balk at a change that would have meant so much to her career.

Even though she knew she’d made the right decision in canceling the wedding, Dori still felt an ache inside. Although not so much at missing her ex. More about missing what she thought her life should be like by the time her twentieth high school reunion had rolled around. She’d believed that she would be married with a family. Thought she’d be able to look back at her achievements over the past two decades with pride.

Maybe she still could do that. She’d set out to be a make-up artist, and she’d gone beyond her initial dreams, working for some of the top magazines and with some of the most famous faces in the world. But what did all that equal if she didn’t have –

The tears were starting again, the way they’d started during drinks with the girls. Thank God she had her friends. The girls she’d known since grade school had been planning to come to town for her wedding and when they’d learned the marriage was off, they’d come anyway. That was the sign of true friendship, wasn’t it?

But even though she felt better when she was with them, being alone hadn’t gotten any easier. She turned on her stereo, and then immediately realized that her music choice might not have been the best. All she needed to do was hear The Police and she was back there. Back in time twenty years to the high school gymnasium and Rowan with his arms tight around her. She might be anywhere – working on a set, riding the subway, standing in line at a coffee shop – and the music would roll over her and take her away.

The tears finally did come now. She sat on her sofa, with salty tears streaking her cheeks, as The Police sang ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger.’

Ah, for fuck’s sake. She’d go. She’d go to the damn reunion.

After all, what did she have to lose?

Violet arrived in her standard whirlwind of activity and kindly pretended not to see Dori wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. It was easy to pretend. Violet was busy showing off the contents of a gift basket filled with 80s candy and a purse-full of movies, all of them at least two decades old. As Dori had known, simply being in Violet’s presence made her feel better.

‘Totally awesome,’ Dori said, trying her best to slip into her teen persona, and blinking away the last of the tears.

Violet raised her eyebrows. ‘Tubular.’

‘I forgot tubular!’ Dori reached into the basket and pulled out a string of Zotz. ‘Inside it’s like gunpowder, right? You suck hard on the outside, until you hit the fizz.’

‘That’s what he said.’ Violet grinned at her, and then continued rummaging around in the box. ‘Do you remember these?’ she asked, pulling out the 30th anniversary packs of Pop Rocks. She read the packet to Dori: ‘Real Popping Action.’

‘You were supposed to be able to explode your stomach if you drank a Coke through a mouthful of Pop Rocks,’ Dori said, recalling the urban myth as she ripped open the little packet and poured a handful of tiny strawberry-colored pebbles into her palm.

‘I wonder what happens if you eat them with tequila,’ Violet said, pulling out the secret ingredient, the one missing from their slumber parties back in high school.

Dori slid the first movie into the DVD player while Violet got the shot glasses. Violet had brought over all the classics: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Outsiders, Fast Times, Porky’s, and Valley Girl. She remembered how she’d felt when she’d seen each movie for the first time.

‘I had such a crush on him,’ Dori sighed as Matthew Broderick appeared on the screen. ‘Who would have guessed that the boy from War Games would grow up to marry the girl from Square Pegs?’ It was the kind of statement that would have sent Bryce into a fit. He didn’t have time for pop culture, couldn’t understand how Dori could spend an entire evening watching VH-1’s I Love the 80s, or Behind the Scenes: Poison.

Violet understood.

They stared at the TV together, oohing in mock jealousy at Sloane’s fringed white leather jacket, marveling at Jennifer Grey before her nose job. Just watching the high school scene made them shudder, recalling their own home room teachers.

‘Remember when the principal banned Dolphin shorts and OP tops? They had no idea, did they? What was next? Low rider jeans so you could see a thong.’

‘There was no such thing as a thong,’ Dori told her, reaching for the candy.

‘I saved the best for last,’ Violet told her, bringing out a new DVD from the depths of her huge bag: Rocky Horror. The 25th anniversary edition.

‘We went every weekend, didn’t we?’

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