Short stories

Foundation of Fritos

The goodbyes were harder than I had anticipated. And soon I was off to college. Sitting in the passenger seat with my soon-to-be-fiancé driving. The windows were down and my tears were traveling my cheeks. I hated crying. I wiped my tears away before they got to far. Pull it together, Jackie! It's not like you'll never see them again. I draped my hand out the window and used my free hand to wipe away tears. I glanced over and Evan was looking at me, his eyes soft and caring.

Evan reached over and gently placed his hand on my thigh. "Shhh," he whispered reassuringly. "It's just for a few months then when break comes, we'll drive down to see them." He smiled at me, "I love you." I looked back at him and smiled through my tears, "I love you, too." He took my hand and pressed it to his warm lips, trying to do anything he can to get me to stop crying. He brought my hand down to his thigh and there it laid the rest of the ride. And I eventually fell asleep to the radio and the steady driving.

When I awoke again an hour later, we were in the parking lot of a convenient store. I shook my head out of both grogginess and confusion. "Why are we here, Evan? We still have..." I checked the GPS, "2 and a half hours to go." He smirked, "That 2 and a half hours is exactly why we're here. I'm starving." I chuckled and got out of the car. We walked in and went our separate ways. We always did it this way: he would get the candy, I would get the chips, and we would met back at the drinks. It was actually a very good system, it saved us a lot of unneeded wondering.

I grabbed Fritos and Gibble's Cheese Puffy's. I then emerged from the isle and headed to the drinks where Evan was waiting for me. I looked at his bundle: Kit Kat Bites, Cookie Dough Bites, and Sour Patch Kids. He looked up from examining my selection of chips. "What do you want to drink?" He asked knowing the answer before he asked it. I just stared at him, my face unreadable. He laughed while grabbing a 1.5 liter of Mountain Dew and 1.5 liter of Pepsi. We headed to check-out and paid the $10.20 and went back out to the car. "Can you hand me the Fritos, Jackie?" I smiled brightly at him, "Nope." He stared at me, unable to grasp what I had just told him. "What do you mean no?" He asked slightly annoyed. I pretended to think, "No meaning- I'm not going to share them with the love of my life because I'm selfish when it comes to Fritos. Does that make more sense? Or do I need to say it slower?" He glared at me, but it was anything but intimidating. At this point in our relationship his glare was cute and adorable.

He started the car and turned the radio up. I looked over at him, and couldn't help but smile. He was so cute when he was mad. I leaned across the console and planted and light kiss on his cheek. "I hope you know that this does not make up for you not sharing the Fritos." I smiled on his cheek. I started to move my kisses further back. "It won't work, Jackie." He stated. I finally made it to my destination and fulfilled my purpose to nibble on his ear. As I was doing this I reached my right hand over to play with his beautiful jet black hair. When he spoke it came out in stutters.

"I-i-it's still n-n-not working, Jackie." My name coming out as more of a moan. After kissing his neck gently, I pulled away to look at him. His face was flushed. "Baby, I'm pretty sure it worked." He just chuckled and put the car in gear and continued to drive to Geneva College.

I sat there drinking my Dew and eating a few Fritos. Evan looking longingly at them in my hands. After i ate a small handful of Fritos, I unbuckled my seat belt and stretched to put them in an open box in the backseat. I sat back in my seat, buckled my seatbelt, took Evan's hand in my own, then leaned my head against the window and fell asleep once again.

What felt like minutes later, Evan was shaking me awake. "We're here, Jack." He smiled and gestured at the campus that was laid out before us. I drew in a breath and exited the car. Closing the car door, I heard the excitement of the new Freshmen on campus much like myself. I saw the tears and the hugs goodbye, and couldn't help but think 3 and a half hours back when I, myself, was saying those hard yet ever so needed goodbyes. Standing there, I started to shake. I was scared beyond belief. This is the start of my life. This is it. If I screw this up, I have nowhere to go. I was snapped from my thoughts by a strong set of arms around my waist. Evan's breath tousled my hair as he whispered in my ear, "It's okay, Jaclyn." He called me by my birth name, knowing it would help me grasp the calm reality that everything was going to be okay. I nodded my head and kissed his hand.