Date with a Stranger

12:00 pm Saturday

12:00 pm

"What time is it?" I ask Marcel.

He looks at the watch on his wrist, "Just turned 12."

"What? It's noon? We need to go back to the house now. Veronica should be up by now." I say as I stand up from our spot in the sand.

Marcel and I walked the shore talking about random, and sometimes meaningful things. As the sun began to peak out from behind the clouds, we decided to sit on the sand dunes, just far enough so we could still see the water.

12:30 pm

We enter the house and find a small number of people tidying up the house. I'm sure Veronica is awake now. She's not in the living room, so I check the kitchen. She's not there either so I step out into the backyard. I should have guessed she would be laying around. She is laying on one of the pool chairs while people around her are carrying large plastic bags picking up the remnants of last nights party, but Veronica obviously doesn't care at all.

As I approach her, she looks up at me squinting. She sits up as soon as she realizes it's me.

"There you are," she nearly shouts. "I thought you left without me. I would have called you, but my phone died. Where have you been?"

"I was hanging out with--" I look around, looking for Marcel, but he is no where to be seen. "One of Michael's friends, Marcel. Do you know him?" I say slightly embarrassed. Veronica knows I'm not the type of girl who usually hangs around guys.

She doesn't try to hide her amusement one bit. She is grinning from ear to ear. "No. Who is this Marcel? Is he cute? Where is he?" She sits up and takes her sunglasses off, looking around the backyard.

"Oh my gosh," I quietly laugh. "Stop. I don't know where he went."

"Let's go inside then, so I can look for food. And look for your new boyfriend," she teases poking at my stomach as we walk back into the house.

We enter the kitchen and Veronica heads straight for the refrigerator as if this is her house.

"There's nothing in here, but beef jerky," she groans with her head in the refrigirator. She then moves up to the freezer.

At this time, Marcel walks into the kitchen, walking towards the backyard, with his arm around a girl's shoulder. He doesn't even notice that I am standing behind the kitchen counter.

"I missed you so much, Marcel." The girl says hugging him from his side with both of her arms.

"I know. Me too." Marcel rests his head on hers.

They disappear into the backyard, but I stay frozen where I stand. He has a girlfriend, I think to myself. Why would he just lead me on if he has a girlfriend. This whole day meant nothing to him. I feel so stupid. I can't believe I thought there was something between us. I should have known. What would a guy like him want anything to do with me?

Veronica breaks me from my thoughts, "Heather. Did you hear me?"

"What?" I say as I turn to Veronica who is now searching the cupboards above the microwave.

"I said, Can we just go home? I'm starving and I need to take a shower."

Before we leave, Veronica says goodbye to Michael. I don't even bother going to find Marcel to tell him that I'm leaving. I don't want to make more of a fool of myself.

I'm glad Veronica doesn't mention Marcel once the whole ride home.