“Hey,” she says back.
Most people, I’ve noticed, are instinctively unkind to strangers. They expect every approach to be an attack, every question to be an interruption. But not Rhiannon. She doesn’t have any idea who I am, but she’s not going to hold that against me. She is not going to assume the worst.
“Don’t worry – you don’t know me,” I quickly say. “It’s just – it’s my first day here. I’m checking the school out. And I really like your skirt and your bag. So I thought, you know, I’d say hello. Because, to be honest, I am completely alone right now.”
Again, some people would be scared by this. But not Rhiannon. She offers her hand, introduces herself as we shake, and asks me why there isn’t someone showing me around.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“Well, why don’t I take you to the office? I’m sure they can figure something out.”
I panic. “No!” I blurt out. Then I try to cover for myself, and prolong my time with her. “It’s just . . . I’m not here officially. Actually, my parents don’t even know I’m doing this. They just told me we’re moving here, and I . . . I wanted to see it and decide whether I should be freaking out or not.”
Rhiannon nods. “That makes sense. So you’re cutting school in order to check school out?”
“Exactly.”
“What year are you?”
“A junior.”
“So am I. Let’s see if we can pull this off. Do you want to come around with me today?”
“I’d love that.”
I know she’s just being nice. Irrationally, I also want there to be some kind of recognition. I want her to be able to see behind this body, to see me inside here, to know that it’s the same person she spent an afternoon with on the beach.
I follow her. Along the way, she introduces me to a few of her friends, and I am relieved to meet each one, relieved to know that she has more people in her life than Justin. The way she includes me, the way she takes this total stranger and makes her feel a part of this world, makes me care about her even more. It’s one thing to be love-worthy when you are interacting with your boyfriend; it’s quite another when you act the same way with a girl you don’t know. I no longer think she’s just being nice. She’s being kind. Which is much more a sign of character than mere niceness. Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.
Justin makes his first appearance between second and third period. We pass him in the hall; he barely acknowledges Rhiannon and completely ignores me. He doesn’t stop walking, just nods at her. She’s hurt – I can tell – but she doesn’t say anything about it to me.
By the time we get to math class, fourth period, the day has turned into an exquisite form of torture. I am right there next to her, but I can’t do a thing. As the teacher reduces us to theorems, I must remain silent. I write her a note, just as an excuse to touch her shoulder, to pass her some words. But they are inconsequential. They are the words of a guest.
I want to know if I changed her. I want to know if that day changed her, if only for a day.
I want her to see me, even though I know she can’t.
He joins us at lunch.
As strange as it is to see Rhiannon again, and to have her measure so well against my memory, it is even stranger to be sitting across from the jerk whose body I inhabited just three days ago. Mirror images do no justice to this sensation. He is more attractive than I thought, but also uglier. His features are attractive, but what he does with them is not. He wears the superior scowl of someone who can barely hide his feelings of inferiority. His eyes are full of scattershot anger, his posture one of defensive bravado.
I must have rendered him unrecognizable.
Rhiannon explains to him who I am, and where I come from. He makes it clear that he couldn’t care less. He tells her he left his wallet at home, so she goes and buys him food. When she gets back to the table with it, he says thanks, and I’m almost disappointed that he does. Because I’m sure that a single thank you will go a long way in her mind.
I want to know about three days ago, about what he remembers.
“How far is it to the ocean?” I ask Rhiannon.
“It’s so funny you should say that,” she tells me. “We were just there the other day. It took about an hour or so.”
I am looking at him, looking for some recognition. But he just keeps eating.
“Did you have a good time?” I ask him.
She answers. “It was amazing.”
Still no response from him.
I try again. “Did you drive?”
He looks at me like I’m asking really stupid questions, which I suppose I am.
“Yes, I drove” is all he’ll give me.
“We had such a great time,” Rhiannon goes on. And it’s making her happy – the memory is making her happy. Which only makes me sadder.
I should not have come here. I should not have tried this. I should just go.
But I can’t. I am with her. I try to pretend that this is what matters.
I play along.
I don’t want to love her. I don’t want to be in love.
People take love’s continuity for granted, just as they take their body’s continuity for granted. They don’t realize that the best thing about love it its regular presence. Once you can establish that, it’s an added foundation to your life. But if you cannot have that regular presence, you only have the one foundation to support you, always.
She is sitting right next to me. I want to run my finger along her arm. I want to kiss her neck. I want to whisper the truth in her ear.
But instead I watch as she conjugates verbs. I listen as the air is filled with a foreign language, spoken in haphazard bursts. I try to sketch her in my notebook, but I am not an artist, and all that comes out are the wrong shapes, the wrong lines. I cannot hold on to anything that’s her.
The final bell rings. She asks me where I’ve parked, and I know that this is it, this is the end. She is writing her email address on a piece of paper for me. This is goodbye. For all I know, Amy Tran’s parents have called the police. For all I know, there’s a manhunt going on, an hour away. It is cruel of me, but I don’t care. I want Rhiannon to ask me to go to a movie, to invite me over to her house, to suggest we drive to the beach. But then Justin appears. Impatient. I don’t know what they are going to do, but I have a bad feeling. He wouldn’t be so insistent if sex weren’t involved.
“Walk me to my car?” I ask.
She looks at Justin for permission.
“I’ll get my car,” he says.
We have a parking lot’s length of time left with each other. I know I need something from her, but I’m not sure what.
“Tell me something nobody else knows about you,” I say.
She looks at me strangely. “What?”
“It’s something I always ask people – tell me something about you that nobody else knows. It doesn’t have to be major. Just something.”
Now that she gets it, I can tell she likes the challenge of the question, and I like her even more for liking it.
“Okay,” she says. “When I was ten, I tried to pierce my own ear with a sewing needle. I got it halfway through, and then I passed out. Nobody was home, so nobody found me. I just woke up, with this needle