Of Vice and Men

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

-Benjamin Disraeli

    About two weeks into the school year, I got a call from an unknown number.  I make it a policy not to answer unfamiliar numbers so I let it go to voicemail and promptly forgot about it.  

    That evening, I was working on an English paper when my phone beeped in reminder.  Eager for the distraction, I clicked on the voicemail.  

    “Hey, Sherrie, it’s Taylor.  You know, Connor’s friend.  Well, I mean we don’t really speak anymore but that’s where you’d know me from...” He trailed off and I smiled.  “Anyway, I got your number from Facebook.  I hope that’s not weird.  I’ve been getting settled in to school and I thought about you so I thought I’d give you a call.  So yeah.  God, you probably think I’m really stupid.  Call me back?  If you want... Beep.”

    I hit redial.  “Hey Taylor?  It’s Sherrie.  What’re you doing on Friday?”    

    We met at a small pizza place on Friday afternoon.  Taylor was in a Rutgers sweatshirt and jeans.  I wore a black scoop neck t-shirt under a jean jacket paired with dark skinny jeans.  My hair was clipped out of my face and black earrings hung from my ears.  Makeup was minimal but pretty.  

    “Wow, you look...” Taylor did a careful, but not uncomfortable, skim up and down.  “Wow.”  He cleared his throat then looked around.  “We could go somewhere else.  I know this bar in Princeton.  I turned twenty-one last week so I could buy drinks.”

    “This is perfect.”  I said.  “Besides, I’m off the booze for a while.”

    Taylor looked relieved.  Clearly, this was more up his alley.  I couldn’t complain; it was more up my alley too.  

    We laughed and chatted over pizza and soda.  The conversation shifted easily from school to music to politics.

    “So you consider yourself Green Party?”

    “Someone has to!” I exclaimed.  “They just make the most sense.  These aren’t political people, they’re just people who have a vision for the future.  They actually look at solving the problems instead of creating new ones!”

    Taylor looked thoughtful.  “So what about you?  Are you going to save the world someday?”

    I stirred my coke with a straw, contemplating this.  “I don’t know.  I have a lot of ideas but I don’t really know what I want to do with them.  That’s what college is for, I guess.”

    “Take it from someone in college, it’s not always that simple.”

    I smiled and held up my glass.  “To not knowing.”

    Taylor just looked at me a moment before following suit.  “To not knowing.”

    Homecoming week was a big deal at my school.  It was a battle of the classes to see who could best decorate the halls.  The day before the big dance, bright colors filled the walls and it was like walking in to a carnival.

    Getting to that carnival was a whole ‘nother story.  Brisa, as class president, headed the whole endeavor and as a senior, felt the extra pressure to pull through a victory.  As her best friend, all of that pressure was put on me.

    “Sherrie, I ordered twenty rolls of streamers!” she exclaimed, two days before decorations were supposed to be up.  “Where the fuck are my streamers!”