Turn To You

Turn To You: Chapter Two

Betsy

I was awake early the next morning, ready to dodge my mom as I stole a muffin from the stove and a piece of fruit on my way out the door. It turned out I didn't really have to - mom's car was already gone by the time I left the house. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. I hadn't seen her in a few days.

The first stop of the morning was to pick up Mickey, a kid I tutored some days and gave rides to school on others. I'd met his mom when I'd worked as a candy striper at the hospital. She was a nurse and a single mother, trying to raise Mickey alone. It wasn't an easy task. He was a sweet, smart kid but he'd been diagnosed with a learning disability and had a great deal of trouble in his classes. Plus, other kids picked on him because of his problems and because he was a little overweight. I liked his mom and liked Mickey and tried to do whatever I could to help them out.

I got to his house at 8:00am on the dot and he was waiting at the curb with his A-Team lunch box in hand and book bag on his back. I leaned across to unlock the passenger seat for him and he climbed in.

"Hey Betsy, guess what?" Mickey said excitedly as he slid into the passenger seat, tossed his things in the backseat and buckled his seat belt.

"What?" I said, turning down the radio to hear him better and so I didn't break the poor kid's eardrums.

"I got an A on my science project." He was nearly breathless as he said it.

"The magnets? Wow, Mickey, that's so great! We should go to the park this weekend and celebrate - maybe play a little baseball. Would you like that?"

He just grinned and pulled out his library books. Mickey had trouble reading at his level. He was in the fourth grade but he still read a lot of books with more pictures than words. I was working on helping him with that.

I dropped him off at his elementary school and then drove around the corner to the high school. Pulling into the parking lot, I noticed that Glenn was already there. His car was parked at the end of the first row of cars and he was leaning against it. I stepped out and walked over to where he was, placing my sunglasses on my face. He grimaced when he saw me.

"You still mad at me?" I said. He turned his back to me. "Seriously?"

"I'm not totally mad," he said. He turned back to face me and tilted his head. "I should actually be apologizing."

"What? Glenn! No, you didn't do anything," I protested.

"I did, actually. I dragged you out, made you be around people -- and you'd just had your heart broken. You shouldn't even have to think about other people existing. You probably saw all those...couples or whatever."

"Well," I said, "the vodka you brought me sure didn't help."

"Oh no! I'm such a bad friend!" he cried, putting his face in his hands.

"No!" I laughed. "Glenn, I was kidding. And anyway, Erica gave me extra. It wasn't all you. But really - how could you know I was gonna act like a psycho."

"Well," he said, "I've only known you about 16 years!"

I shoved him and he laughed.

"Ok, ok," he said. "Guess we're even."

"Yeah. We're both psycho jerks and bad friends."

"I like to call us kindreds," he said, half-smile twisting his lips. I was shaking my head. "Let's just go to class, dweeb," I said.

When the bell rang at 3pm, Glenn had to head out. I was staying overtime to run around the track a little, blow off some steam. I was still trying to avoid my mother at home, wondering how much she knew about my "episode" in Mrs. Kimball's room. And of course, I was wondering how the kids at school had figured it out. I mean, Callie and I had been to Byron a few times together. But we'd never held hands or anything there and we didn't dance slow songs together. Maybe it was just obvious and the only reason why my mom hadn't figured it out herself was that she was in denial. That sort of thing happened.