Fused

Chapter 9: Butterflies

Of which those butterflies

Of Earth, who seek the skies,

And so come down again(Never-contented things!)

Have brought a specimen Upon their quivering wings.

-Edgar Allen Poe, Fairy Land

***

Courtney pulled into one of the last spaces in the rear of the senior parking lot facing the street. The bell was going to ring in ten minutes meaning most students had already arrived and the lot was almost full. Just down the row a couple cars were the twins, standing next to the hand-me-down from their grandfather.  An old dodge, complete with bumper stickers and a license plate frame that had golfer jokes on it.   A Driving My Titlist bumper sticker peeling off at the edges was adhered to the right rear bumper.  I had no idea what that meant just assumed it had to do with golf since there was a golf club and ball next to the phrase.

"Oh look there's Janelle and Joel," said Courtney as she checked herself in the side mirror and then straightened out her already straightened clothes.  She tapped her hair in place, not that there was one out of place, and pressed her lips together to revive her lipstick.

"You look beautiful." I said reassuringly.

The very first time I met Courtney was when she walked her flouncy and twangy self into my ninth-grade Algebra class.  She and her family just moved from South Carolina to San Diego.  The teacher seated her right in between Joel and me.  Joel, being his typical thoughtful and compassionate self, was the first person to say hello and welcome her to East Valley High. From that moment on, she only had eyes for him.  And she had sent him every signal in the book to let him no she was interested, but he was oblivious to it.

Once Courtney figured out how close I was to the twins, that we were practically family, she repeatedly begged me to help a girl out.  I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't think Joel would ever be interested.  Not that Courtney wasn't great, she was.  She was outgoing and friendly and funny and cared about people, especially her friends, but she was also a high maintenance girl...of the highest kind.  I had to give her credit though, because she knew she was high maintenance and made no excuses for it.  And she never looked down on anyone for not sharing her standards.  She understood that everyone had their way and she accepted it.  All she wanted was the same in return and maybe a compliment on how nice her handbag was. Despite his superstar jock status, and the looks to go with it, Joel preferred girls that were much lower maintenance.

Janelle saw Courtney and me grabbing our backpacks out of the trunk.  She wacked Joel in the shoulder; he was deep in conversation with Dylan and a couple other guys on the baseball team.  He looked up in surprise not understanding why his sister had just assaulted him and then saw Courtney and me, and Courtney's new car.  He smiled and headed over to greet us with Janelle.  I waved at Dylan who stayed with the other boys.

"Court-ney," he stretched out the last syllable of her name and then released a whistle of appreciation in honor of her new car. "Very nice Courtney," he said as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"Thanks Joel," she said in reply and then released an over enthusiastic flirty laugh.  Her eyes flicked in my direction and she gave me the tiniest smile.  She wanted to make sure I saw that Joel had just put his arm around her.  I mean, of course I saw it, I also saw Janelle roll her eyes.  It didn't mean as much as Courtney had hoped.  He's a touchy kind of guy. He always had his arm around someone or was giving someone a hug, even his bros.  That's just the kind of guy he was. Courtney knew that, but in that moment it didn't matter, because he had his arm around her.