The Entirely Fabricated Story of Lizzie Nickerson

Chapter 39

By 3:00 PM, Frederick Gibbs' apartment had been cleaned out. Lizzie watched from her window as Caleb's friends came by to help carry the old, worn purple corduroy couch, the mattress, and box springs to the curb for the trash collectors. And that was the end of that.

Lizzie heard Sonya answering the door and then Scooter's voice. "My mom said thanks for the blankets."

Lizzie wandered into the kitchen as Sonya took the blankets from the boy.

"You're very welcome," she said.

"It got cold in that apartment last night."

"This building is drafty." With the folded blankets in her arms, she stepped out of the kitchen briefly to afford them some privacy.

"Hey, Lizzie," he said with a teenage grin.

"Hi." She smiled. Something happened to her brain when she was with Scooter like her electricity wasn't moving as fast and erratically as usual.

"So, I don't know when I'll see you again." He held up his phone. "But I'll stay in touch. You know, text, FaceTime, and all that."

She heard the words but couldn't force an acknowledgment. 

Scooter drew closer, gave Lizzie a quick kiss, and then held her in a tender embrace.

"How long are we supposed to hold on?" she asked, unsure of where her arms should go.

"I guess that's long enough." He took a small step back. 

"I'm dealing with sensory sensitivities," she said, fidgeting. "I'm working on it."

"That's good. So, anyway." He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. "You know, I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you, too."

They heard an auto horn honking outside.

"That's my mom," said Scooter. "I gotta get going." He thought about leaning in for another quick kiss but Sonya's entrance changed his mind. "Bye, Lizzie," he said with a little wave of his hand.

"Bye," she said.

Before Sonya could finish saying, "He seems like a very nice boy," Lizzie rambled down the hallway to her bedroom and raced to the window. With her hands flat against the windowsill, she watched Scooter get into his mom's SUV and she waved, not sure if he saw her in the window.  Despite being separated by a pane of glass two stories apart, she felt connected. She watched the Patterson family drive away into the fading afternoon sunlight.

The weekend had been exciting and notable for firsts, a first kiss, a first taste of pizza, and a first boyfriend. So much had changed in a span of two days but now the apartment building had gone quiet and Lizzie felt a spreading numbness. She ran her tongue along her bottom lip to savor the faint taste of Scooter.

She had a lonely feeling in her chest like she'd been captured in a jar. She didn't know that this was the way millions of young girls have felt, adrift in the wonders and possibilities of their first crushes.

Lizzie plopped down into her reading chair and grabbed her phone. Reading had always been her analgesic but for some reason, she couldn't think of a single thing to search for on the internet. So she sat there, looking at the floor, a smile slowly finding its path across her face.

It was fun to have a boyfriend but it made life more complicated especially since Scooter lived in Atlanta, Georgia. She searched for information about the city. Atlanta was three states and about 470 miles away, If Lizzie were to leave the apartment building and walk due south, eventually, she'd reach Scooter's home. She calculated that she could probably do it in ten days, weather permitting.

She leaned back in her chair, letting that thought swirl around in her brain.

Scooter said she was pretty. Lizzie wished she could see herself the way Scooter saw her. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a familiar pale, gangly girl who had ears that had recently been unveiled for everyone to see. Nothing special and certainly not pretty. When Lizzie thought of the word pretty, she thought of her mother, Indigo, a blonde, natural beauty with a silken complexion and bright hazel eyes. Maybe she would turn into some version of Indigo eventually, but right now, she looked like she just emerged from a cocoon, like a female version of E.T. with a smaller head. But that's not what Scooter saw and that made her happy.

She got out of the chair and walked across her room to the fishbowl. She picked up the fish food and sprinkled a dash onto the surface of the water for Buddy. Sonya stood in the doorway.

"You're lucky, Lizzie," she said. "Most girls your age are hoping some cute guy in their class will notice them. They get all dressed up to go to the mall or hang out at a football game or anywhere they might meet some guys. They worry about that - a lot - that they'll never get a boyfriend. Most do. But you have a cute guy who walked right into your life unexpectedly and he seems really taken with you."

"Taken where?"

"I mean he seems to really like you. He gets you."

Lizzie shrugged. "He's nice." With Scooter gone, she wondered where her fun would come from.

Just before dinner, Lizzie received a text from Scooter.

"Hey, Lizzie. We just stopped for food."

She replied, "Where are you?"

"Knoxville, Tennessee. Sonic."

"I don't know what that is?"

"Sonic is awesome!"

Lizzie was a slow texter but she actually liked texting more than talking. It gave her a little more time to figure out what she wanted to say.

She didn't respond, so he added, "I got a double cheeseburger, tater tots and cherry limeade! It's soooo good!" The text was littered with emojis, which were confusing, and slowed down Lizzie's processing. Some of the little pictures were baffling.

"What's tater tots?"

"You never had tater tots? Oh, man!"

"That doesn't tell me what they are."

He sent a picture.

"Oh."

He texted. "You and me will have to go to Sonic sometime."

She didn't know how that was going to happen since they lived almost 500 miles apart and neither drove. She tried to think of something nice to write and settled on, "I liked that pizza."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye."