May Kill Me

Eighteen

We take the train from New Glasgow to Wellesley. 

Andrea pays for the tickets and gets us sandwiches and coffee we take on board with us.  

The train ride will take about an hour and thirty minutes, which gives Andrea plenty of time to fill me in on everything that has been going on between Abigail and her ex-boyfriend: Dean Oakley. 

I didn't get a good look at Dean during the Halloween party: everything happened so fast and was such a blur... Andrea found his Instagram profile and showed me a photo of him. 

If he chose to go that route, I'm sure Dean could have been a model or an actor. He had a James Dean meets Alain Delon thing going. 

In the photo he is in a field, smiling at the camera, as two girls prop him up on both sides. There's a rainbow in the background. 

"He's very pretty." I had the phone back to Andrea. 

She snorts in response. 

I'm not sure if it's a snort of agreement, or if she thought it was a ridiculous thing to say about a guy. 

"I can't really blame her for falling for the guy either," Andrea shrugs, sliding her phone into her jacket pocket.  

We sit in silence for what feels like forever. 

It's only when the train finally departs that Andrea starts talking again. 

"You can't tell Abigail I told you any of this. Can you promise that?" Andrea prompted all serious and grim. 

"Sure," I replied, half expecting her to make me a pinky promise. 

"Okay, so Abigail always was doing this thing where she was a camp counselor-in-training. She always went to summer camp, and thought that doing the counselor thing was a good way to make her college application stand out." Andrea shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee. 

I help myself to the sandwich, even though I'm not hungry: the bread is dry, and the cheese and veggies are tasteless. I have to wash everything down with a big gulp of coffee. 

 "That summer a spot opened up at a camp in Connecticut. The girl who was supposed to be there broke her leg water-skiing or something. Abigail was offered her position, which was how she met Dean. They hooked up, and she took it way more seriously than he did. For him, it was a summer fling, but for her, it was much more than that. She kinda fell in love with him. Dean was perfect, too good to be true. His family is wealthy, he's good-looking, nice, smart, ambitious." Andrea made a face as she was describing him like she just tasted something foul.  

I couldn't blame her, not really. I understood what it was like to be 'chosen' by someone like Dean, someone who seemed larger than life. Sure, Jonathan wasn't as attractive, but I understood perfectly well the kind of person Andrea was describing. When that kind of person gives you the time of day, it feels like nothing short of winning the lottery. 

"When the camp was over, Abigail had to go back home and Dean stayed in Connecticut. He went back to college in the fall. She was trying really hard to make it more than what it really was. And, frankly, Dean was pretty upfront about his feelings. He told her she was a great person and that he had fun, but that was all it was. Abigail couldn't believe it. She told me that he was so nice to her, always helping out, and guiding her whenever she needed guidance with the camp staff and the kids. But that's the problem with guys like Dean. They are always nice and polite. They care about appearances, and how people perceive them. So of course, it's always important to make a good impression. It's that Old Money kind of upbringing." 

"I don't know. I feel like there must have been something more to him just being nice if he slept with Abigail. Some kind of attraction." 

"Yeah; she's cute. Of course, he'd want to sleep with her." Andrea rolled her eyes at me.