Weathered Love

VALENTINE'S

After Thanksgiving, I noticed Ivan trying to spend more time with me. Maybe it was a bad idea to share my insecurities with him. After all, he already knew I was insecure about my weight. Did I really need to show him how insecure? But I didn't mind getting to spend more time with my best friend. We hadn't spent too much time together senior year, and it was already half over.

December came and went, as did January. As usual, my family and I drove to upstate New York, near Buffalo, to spend time with our relatives for Christmas and New Year's. We came back just in time for me to have a low-key 18th birthday party at my parents' house. I had insisted that we must have a snowball fight. It was good to let loose and feel like a little kid again.

All too soon, school started back up and we were in our final semester of high school. While walking into the hallway on that first day back, I started to get a little nostalgic. I knew I still had a whole semester left, but I was already missing the place. It was the last time I was going to go to my locker after being away for a vacation. It was the last time I'd have a locker. Ever. That was saddening.

"Have you gotten any letters back?" Mackenzie asked as she approached my locker.

"No, it's too early to hear back from colleges still," I responded. Which was mostly true. Some people got early acceptance letters. You know the types: the straight-A, all AP courses, Captain of six sports teams, Class President, Star of the School's Drama Presentation who also volunteers for 3 different organizations and has 2 jobs. Those people got their acceptance letters already.

I was good. I wasn't super-human. I knew I'd get in somewhere, I just wouldn't hear about it until everyone else did. "Don't freak out," I assured her. "We'll hear when we hear about it. Besides, you're a shoo-in. You've been working your whole life towards this opportunity. They'd be crazy not to accept you," I continued.

"NYU is a hard school to get into," she nervously argued.

I held her at arm's' length by her shoulders and stated, "YOU. WILL. GET. IN. Stop freaking out, because your anxiety is highly contagious," I ordered. I took a deep breath and went back to my locker. I noticed Caleb at his locker. I hadn't heard him walk by. "Hey Caleb," I casually said.

"Hey," he casually replied back, giving me a smile. He then closed his locker and walked away.

"Well that's weird," Mackenzie commented.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He usually comes over to talk to us. Correction: he usually comes over to talk to you and I usually happen to be here," she stated.

"Maybe he's busy," I shrugged. "Or maybe he believes he could never woo the love of his life and therefore he is distancing himself before his heart is completely shattered from rejection," I melodramatically acted out.

"You're a pain," Mackenzie replied with exhausted annoyance.

"You love me," I smugly responded. I finished up with my locker and we walked together to class.

* * *

"What are we doing for Valentine's Day?" Jenna asked as we were sitting at the lunch table. It was just her and I. The others that had lunch with us had yet to come, which were Ivan, Mackenzie and Ella. Ella finally had lunch at the same time as I did. She was only a year younger, but her lunches never overlapped with mine in the nearly three years she and I were in the same high school. Until now, during my final semester.

"What do you mean?" I asked, taking a forkful of zoodles I had made the night before. They were semi-decent.

"You know, maybe do a singles' thing," Jenna offered.