Childhood Crushes

Chapter Forty-Seven: Be That Twenty-Seven Percent

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After searching the room from top to bottom for my phone, finding it, and putting it on the charger for five minutes, I made one more desperate attempt to call Bale. When he didn’t answer yet again, I called Billy B. It rang a few times before the other line finally picked up. When the person spoke, though, it was female. “Hello?” She asked.

“Hazel?” I squealed, happy that she had picked up, and feeling awfully stupid for not talking to her in the first place. “How are you? I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever!”

I could practically hear her raise her perfectly plucked eyebrows at me. “I know – now, whose fault is that?”

“Not mine, you have a cell phone, too, you know.” I pouted.

She giggled before sighing, “I know. Anyway, what’s up? Did you need to talk to Billy?”

I shook my head quickly, “No, actually I could use some girl talk.”

It took a while, but I finally went through the whole story of how I had decided to keep the engagement to myself, saying how I didn’t want people to start having stereotypical views on me, thinking ‘why is this little hick girl here’. I told her about Craig, and how good of a friend he is. I told her about last night, how I was out ‘til two on the morning with him, and how I had missed many called from Bale. The story finished with me telling her how mad Bale was right now, and how he wouldn’t pick up his phone.

“And so,” I concluded, “I was hoping Billy could run over and smack some sense into him.”

It was amazing how talking to Hazel made me feel better; a trait my friend has had for as long as I can remember. She listened intently, but didn’t press about anything. Occasional questions, and the usual ‘mmm’ or ‘ah’ quietly came from her when needed, but other than that she listened quietly and waited for me to finish. When I finally did, and I told her my plan, she giggled.

“Well, I can ask him to do that, or you could ask me to just go get him and talk some sense into him, instead of hurting him. It sounds like he’s already hurt.”

“Gee, thanks, Hazel; I feel so much better now.” I said dully.

She laughed sadly, “I’m sorry, honey, but it’s the truth. I’ll tell him everything you told me, and I know he’ll understand. Everything will be fine…trust me.”

Bale

The cold can of beer that sat in my hand on the table wasn’t helping much; it only gave me a headache. After deciding just how useless it was, I poured it into the grass beside me and threw the empty can across the park. It landed gracefully in the waste basket sitting near a tree, and that was the last sound. I sat quietly, listening to the sound of nothing. Eventually, the sound of nature just became the background sound to every day; I barely heard the water running down the road a bit, or the birds chirping. There wasn’t much of a breeze today, so the leaves stayed silent, too.

Why didn’t she want to tell anyone she was engaged to me? Is she ashamed of me? Is she a city girl now; embarrassed that she was engaged to a cowboy who couldn’t afford to go to college himself? I’m not proud of myself either; I work in a tackle shop, I drive an old, beat up truck that could really use a paint job, and my teeth aren’t perfect. The best thing about me was who I managed to engage – she was my most prized feature. I wondered if she felt the same way about me.

Suddenly I wished I had just gone fishing instead of coming here. I didn’t want to go fishing, though; it only reminded me of the day I took her fishing with me. I missed her. And every time I went to that spot, I missed her more.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t tell her to leave, I wish I would have let her go to the college here. Billy gets to see Hazel often – I get to see Annabelle in a picture on a cold, lifeless computer screen.

A twig snapped behind me, followed by the sound of feet through the tall unkempt grass. Within moments, someone sat beside me on the picnic table. My eyes flickered out the corner of my eyes to see the wild brown hair, the cocoa skin, and bright pink nails. I looked back out ahead of me. “Hi, Hazel,” I sighed.

“Hey, Bale, how are you?” She replied sweetly.

“Annabelle talked to you?” I guessed.

“Yeah,”

I gave a nod. The silence stretched out around us, neither feeling the need to talk right then. After a while, she finally leaned forward and looked up at me, leaning on her folded arms on the table. I didn’t dare look at her.

“Bale, what’s going on? You two love each other – you’re happy, right?” She asked.

I nodded. Then, I frowned before replying, “I don’t know…I’m happy, I don’t know if she’s happy.”

“Why do you think she called me, crying, then?” She asked.

I turned to her, “She’s crying?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“You won’t answer your phone and she thinks you’re mad at her. She said she’s scared of what’s going to happen to you two.”

I ignored the sick feeling in my stomach as I looked back to the trees in front of me. It was a nice day, but I ignored that, too. I couldn’t have felt more like a jerk in that moment.

Hazel continued, “You know all those books, all those movies, all those paper articles about long distance relationships? They always say they never last. Well, she’s scared of that. She keeps saying how she’s been staring at something on Google all day. It said only twenty-seven percent of long distance relationships work.”

I grimaced.

“Bale,” She said.

“Yes?”

“Be the twenty-seven percent that get married and live happily ever after.”