A Lifetime

Chapter Two

Day one of the waiting game had begun, and I was at a complete loss for how to handle myself. Did I go back over to the Hamilton's, or did I respect their space and keep to myself? Furthermore, I kept debating a trip back to Los Angeles. I would be much more useful there, at least.

My phone rang, for the millionth time that morning, but once again, I reached over and silenced it. I knew that it was probably Savannah, but I just didn't feel like talking.

A loud knock on the door to my room had me sitting straight up in half a second. What kind of a place would send the cleaning crew in so goddamn early?

"No, thank you!" I called, hoping that they would just go away without me having to get up and speak to them in person.

Two more knocks. "I can hear your phone ringing! Time to get up, Fagin!"

"Haley?"

I shuffled over to the door and peaked through the hole. It was her. I was more surprised than anything. After our small altercation, I didn't think I'd be seeing any more of her than would be absolutely necessary. Not that I was complaining. Although, I did suddenly become aware of the fact that I wasn't wearing anything besides my boxer shorts.

"I've seen what you look like in the morning," she reminded me. "Open the damn door."

I did. "It's six AM."

She pushed past me. "The city taught you to tell time, I'm impressed." I rolled my eyes. "The sun's been up for hours, now it's your turn."
It was far too early for me to have to think. I had always been more of a late-morning kind of guy. I usually hit my peak at around 10:30 or 11:00. Obviously, there were some things about me that she had forgotten. "It's six AM."

"And apparently you took some parrot lessons on the side. Seriously, get dressed," she insisted as she sat down on the edge of my bed, crossing her legs and leaning back on her hands.

I shook my head, ignoring her as I made my way back across the room and flopped down onto the, slightly lumpy, mattress. "No, thank you," I muttered into my pillow. "Fagin?" I added when the name finally registered in my mind.

"What would our group be without a fearless leader?" She smiled down at me sweetly.

"He was a villain."

"No comment." Then, "I suppose maybe you're more like the Stuart Sutcliffe."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Look it up," she smiled. "Come on."

"I'm not getting up." I shut both of my eyes tightly.

"Don't make me make you," she warned.

I peaked through one of my eyes. "I'd like to see you try." I was definitely flirting, which was not at all a good thing. I just couldn't seem to help myself where Haley was involved. It was almost as though I still had something to prove to her.

"I'm not leaving here until you get up."

That wasn't exactly a threat.

"Why?" I groaned. "What on earth could you possibly have planned that can't wait a couple more hours?" And then another thought occurred to me. "Don't you have work?"

"It's summer, genius," she answered quickly. "Teachers get those off, too. Now get your ass up." She struggled to add a, "Please."

"Can it really not wait?"

She smiled thoughtfully. "Lately, I feel like living in the moment."

I couldn't argue with that.

XxXxXxXx

We drove for a couple of minutes in silence before I decided to try asking her again. "Where are we going?" She threw me a sidelong glance but just smiled. "Are you kidnapping me?"

She laughed out loud at that one. "No. While I have not yet been in one, I suspect that jail is bad." I rolled my eyes.

No one here would ask questions about my disappearance. I told her so.

"Fair point," she agreed. "But I think it's still a sin to kidnap a quarterback in this town, if I'm not mistaken. Even a former one."
"Don't remind me," I insisted.

"What, don't like recalling the best days of your life?" She challenged with a sly smile.

I barked out a dramatic laugh. "Please," I scoffed. "Those weren't even close to being the best days of my life."

I had expected her to shoot back a witty remark or make a snide comment, but she didn't. She was just quiet. The guilt hit me almost instantly.

"Hales, I didn't mean-"

"Yeah," she cut me off, "you did." A second later she informed me that we had arrived.

As I stepped out of her vehicle, I noticed that we were not alone. An all-too-familiar old red pickup was parked a few yards away. I turned on Haley.

"You didn't tell me he was going to be here."

"No," she said simply. "I didn't."

I had no choice but to follow her over to where Ben and Conner were sitting on the tailgate of Conner's truck. Ben hopped up when he saw us.

"Nice work, Hales," he told her with an approving nod. And then to Conner, he said, "Told you she'd get him here. Pay up."

Conner looked me over before reaching into his back pocket and removing his wallet. He pulled out a five and slapped it into Ben's waiting hand before saying, "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, well, Miss America over here spent about twenty minutes brushing his teeth," Haley replied.

I frowned over at her. "Hey, there is nothing wrong with taking time for personal hygiene."

She rolled her eyes. "You've always been far too obsessed with your teeth."

I really couldn't argue with that. She was right.

"Are we doing this or what?" Conner suddenly snapped.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Well, I know that we said that we would wait until one of us got married to dig it up, but since none of us seem to be on the wedding train, or even at the station at the moment, I thought we should do it now," Haley explained. "Since we're all together."

Ironically enough, that statement held more meaning than she even realized.

It only took me a second or two to figure out what she was talking about. "Holy shit, I didn't even recognize this place," I muttered as I took a look around.

Before graduation, Lucy had suggested that we all put together a time-capsule. It was a cheesy and overused way of saying 'see you later' and not 'goodbye', but none of us had had the balls to tell her that at the time. We'd buried it out by the old bridge, but for the life of me, I couldn't have told you exactly where that was. Hell, I couldn't have even told you what was in the damn thing.

Haley grabbed a shovel from the back of Conner's truck and leaned up against it. "You brought one shovel?" She said in disbelief. "One?" Con just shrugged. "Well then it's a good thing we're getting an early start," she added before she marched off.

"I think following her would be in our best interest," Ben announced a second later.

XxXxXxXx

We all took turns digging, but Conner and I were fastest, so we dug longer than the other two. Haley was almost unbearably slow, but she'd insisted on 'doing her part'. None of us argued with her.

"How far down was it?" Ben asked as he passed the shovel over to Conner.

"Don't you remember? You all demanded that the hole be at least as deep as you were tall. And, well, Ben's the tallest at...what are you?" She asked him. "Six four?" He nodded. "Keep going, Zero," she added to Conner encouragingly.

"What the fuck are you talking about now?"

"Holes," I answered before she could. He stared up at me blankly. "You've seriously never read Holes? I think it's even a movie now."

"No," he said shortly.

"Loser," Haley chimed in. "You're missing out."

"What's it about?" He asked dryly as he jumped on the shovel to press it even deeper into the ground.

"Uhm... digging holes."

"Sounds thrilling," his voice was drenched in sarcasm. "I can't believe you're making us do this," he added in a much lower tone.

Haley's eyebrows shot up. "You can leave."

Con shot her a sly smile. "Don't you worry, darlin'. I'm not going anywhere."

Though I was almost certain that had been another underhand comment directed at me, I ignored it.

"We've got to be getting close," Haley said, and there was an excited note hidden in her voice.

"Want me to take over?" I asked, more eager than I should have been to help get Haley what she wanted.

Conner looked up at me with a deep frown as he said, "Am I not fast enough for you, city boy?"

I opened my mouth to shoot back my best, 'fuck you', but Haley nudged me in the ribs, and I remained silent.

"Hey, guys," she said, probably attempting to cut the tension that had suddenly built up around us, "I was thinking, we should send flowers for Lucy's service."

"Definitely," Ben answered her immediately. "I think that would be nice."

"Me, too," I agreed.

"Okay, what should I order?"

Ben, Conner, and I all exchanged confused looks. Then Conner finally said, "Uhm, something that smells good?"

"Pot roast smells good," Haley sighed. "Can you be more specific?"

After another ten seconds of staring blankly at each other, we all just shook our heads.

"Sunflowers were her favorite. I'll get some of those."

"Either Benny Boy has grown since we did this, or we all got sick of digging back then, too," Conner broke the silence again a second later. "Got it." Then he added, "Wait! We did put this in a trash bag, right? Like, I'm not about to pull out someone's pet or something, am I?"

We all laughed, but Haley reassuringly told him, "It's in a box. We just wrapped it for extra protection."

"I feel like a condom joke should be inserted here, but I haven't got anything," Ben said, sounding disappointed in himself. Then he smiled. "Inserted," he chuckled lightly. "That'll do."

"You are so mature sometimes that it blows my mind," Haley told him with a smile.

"There are lots of things I could do that would blow your mind," Ben responded suggestively.

I felt a pang of jealousy strike me in the chest as I watched him wiggle his eyebrows at her, but I pushed it down and tried my best to ignore it. It wasn't my place to get jealous anymore. Not where Haley was concerned.

Conner pulled the bag and the box from the ground and tossed it up to us before taking Ben's hand to hoist himself up out of the hole we'd dug. "Well go ahead," he said once he'd brushed himself off. "Open it."

Haley pulled the box from the bag and then flipped the lid. "What the hell?" She exclaimed as soon as she'd opened it. "You guys, there's a bag of weed in here!"

"No shit?" Conner peaked around her shoulder and snatched it up. "'Atta girl, Luce!" He said as he tossed it back and forth between his hands.

"There's a note," Haley added. "'Figured we're all too old and boring for many adventures now. One more for old time's sake!'" We all laughed and Haley shook her head in amazement. "Lucy was the last one to put her stuff in.."

"Better not waste it," Con insisted as he opened it up. "Our genius fifth member even stashed some paper in here. What a sweetheart."

"Who would have guessed that Lucy would wind up being the Judy Garland of our group," Ben mused.

"That chick from Oz?"

"Yeah, didn't she have like a secret life involving drugs or something?" No one said anything. "Guys, I'm like ninety percent positive that she died of an overdose."

We all kind of looked around at each other until Haley said, "I'm honestly not sure. You should have gone for someone more obvious."

"Courtney Love," I threw out.

"Mmm, I'd personally save Love for an 'I want to kill my husband' joke," Haley countered.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Haley, we do not joke about the murder of a great musician." I felt the need to add.

"Still keeping that theory alive, are we, Jack?"

Before I could respond, Conner distracted us all by lighting the joint he'd rolled. He took a long drag and a peaceful smile spread across his face. "That's my girl. Wanna hit?" He passed it to Ben.

"Damn," Ben said when he'd pulled his lips from the paper. "Who in the hell did she buy this from anyway?" He asked as he passed it over to me.

It was hard to think of sweet little Lucy buying drugs, but I wished desperately that I could have been present to witness it. I took the joint. I was no saint, but I hadn't done something as stupid as smoking pot in a long time.

"What's the matter? Too good to smoke with us now, too?"

I took a hit without hesitation and kept my eyes on Conner as I did. "Nope," I answered him a second later. I passed it on to Haley.

She passed it back to Conner. "Enough with that," she insisted, "I wanna see what else is in here."

I watched as she set aside an old yearbook and a couple of photographs, but my breath hitched when I saw her pull out a thick yellow envelope.

"Are those our lists?" Ben asked, the excitement evident in his voice.

"You bet your ass they are," she told him as she handed over the envelope. "Find the good ones and read them."

"This one is titled, 'THE List'," he paused. "Is this what I think it is?"

"The sex list," Conner confirmed behind a screen of smoke. "Read that shit."

Ben cleared his throat and then began, "Benjamin Carter," he smiled and then added, "that's me."

"Read the damn list, Ben."

"Benjamin Carter- (1) Cassandra Hale. (2) Cassidy Michelson."

"No way!" I couldn't help but cut in. "You hooked up with Cassidy Michelson and never told us?" She wasn't exactly a beauty queen, and she wasn't the homeliest girl I'd ever seen, but she had had braces all through high school and had been in a neck brace all of senior year as the result of a diving accident of some kind. "Please tell me she had the neck brace when this occurred!"

Ben slapped the palm of his hand against his forehead as he nodded slowly to confirm. "That she did. And let me tell you, it made certain, uhm... activities, a bit tricky."

Conner and I burst out laughing, but Haley just rolled her eyes. "Great. Thanks so much for that image, Ben."

"I can't believe you didn't tell us," Conner said to him.

Ben's eyes scanned the paper, and his mouth fell open. "Speaking of hiding things... Conner Mead- (1) McKenzie Reiner. (2) Brittany Fredrickson. (3) Sarah Gilbert. (4)...Lucy Hamilton!"

We all whirled around to gape at him.

A slow smile spread across his face. "Yep," he said, letting the 'p' pop loudly.

"Are you shitting me?" Ben demanded.

"I shit you not, my friend," Conner told him sincerely. When no one said anything, he went on, "She wanted her first time to be with someone she knew, so when she asked, I just kind of went with it."

"How come she didn't ask me?" Ben sounded sincerely disappointed.

Conner slapped a hand against his back. "Don't take it too hard, man."

"Keep going, now I wanna hear Lucy's!" Haley insisted. "I can't believe she never told me."

Ben sighed, but he picked up where he'd left off. "All right, all right. Lucy Hamilton- (1) Conner Mead. That's it."

"The one and only." Conner sounded pleased with himself. "Obviously that thing's not up-to-date, but I kinda like being Luce's only name. So what about these two?" He asked Ben as he gestured between Haley and I.

Ben looked over the list and then sighed. "Ahh, well, no surprise here. Haley Wilson- (1) Jack McClellan. And as for our boy Jack- (1) Haley Wilson, and..."

I saw Haley's eyes widen just slightly, but I rolled mine. "Cut the shit, Ben. There's no other name on my list."

Ben smirked up at me arrogantly. "I know. Loser. You were so whipped."

Haley smacked him on the shoulder. "Shut up. What other lists are in there?" I could tell that she was trying hard not to smile.

"Uhm," he sighed as he started to rifle back through them. "There's a Career Wish List. We've got, Conner- superhero, me- professional bank robber, Lucy- Ninja Turtle, Hales-teacher," he paused to add a "lame" and then he finished the list with, "and Jack- rock star."

"You got kinda close, man," Conner told me. "I mean, you live in the city, and you're a complete dick. All you're missing is the instrument."

I ignored him and took the envelope from Ben. I wanted desperately to take out the notes we had all written to our future selves, but I couldn't do it without being obvious. All I could do was hope that no one else remembered them.

"Hey, how come you guys aren't in this one?" Ben asked as he held up the class prom photo from senior year and showed it to Haley.

"We didn't go," she answered him. "Remember? My dad had his heart attack that night."

"We spent the whole night at the hospital."

"In our prom attire," Haley added. "It was pretty classy."

"Very," I agreed.

I laughed at the memory, but at the time, I'd been scared to death. Haley's father had taken on a parental role in my life, and I'd been terrified of losing him. I think I'd been almost as scared as Haley had been.

"We got a dance in, though," Haley said, breaking my train of thought.

"Yeah," I nodded slowly as I met her gaze and held it. She was speaking only to me now. "We did."
"Dude, please tell me you didn't slow dance in his hospital room?" Ben scoffed. "And if you did, please tell me you at least got laid for it?"

Haley took his comment lightly and laughed it off. "Nah, we danced in the chapel."

Ben wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Did anything else happen in said chapel?"

"No."

"Not for his lack of trying." Haley winked over at me, and I smiled.

"You're so full of shit."

"Speaking of being full of shit..." Conner started to say, but Haley cut him off.

"Where are our prediction letters?"

I swallowed. Evidently this bullet was un-dodgeable. I had no choice but to pull out each of the letters and distribute them. I held on to Lucy's.

Conner started laughing the second he opened his. "Mine just says, 'Fuck this. This is stupid. I'll probably be rich.'" He shook his head sadly and murmured, "Not even close, high school me, not even close."

Ben went next. "If the bank robbing thing doesn't work out, I'll move back and marry Lucy. At least she'll have her life figured out. If that doesn't work, I'll deal hard-core drugs. Good money in that."

"Wow, you guys were both sarcastic jackasses," Haley said in a thoughtful voice, and then added, "Oh wait. You still are."

"Read yours," Ben insisted.

"Unless it's all about living happily ever after with our favorite author over here, 'cause I could do without hearing that," Conner chimed in.

I clenched my fists at my sides.

Haley cleared her throat, "I'll still be here, hopefully teaching at the very school we'll all be leaving behind soon." She paused for a moment."I'll probably have kicked Jack to the curb by now and let some rich, handsome bachelor sweep me off my feet. Jack," she looked over at me, "if you're around to hear me read this, I want you to know that it was nothing personal." Haley cleared her throat again. "Then there's just a winking face."

It was nothing personal. I wondered if she still meant that.

"Okay, Jack! You're up!"

I didn't want to go. I knew exactly what was in my letter, and I didn't want to read it myself, let alone out loud to everyone else. But they were all not-so-patiently waiting, watching me, so I really didn't have a choice.

"Dear future me, if you haven't gotten your shit together by now, you probably never will. Hope the whole writing thing worked out, but I'm guessing it didn't. At least..." I stopped, I didn't want to read the rest.

"Finish it," Conner insisted.

"At least you've got a group of kickass friends who probably have a couch you can crash on." I stopped there. That was enough. They didn't need to know that there was more. "That's it."

"Funny how wrong we all were, isn't it?" Con muttered, and I glared over at him.

"Hey!" Haley interjected. "I wasn't completely wrong. I am a teacher."

Conner smiled over at her, and that pissed me off even more than any of his snide comments. "Good point, Hales. All right, now who's got Lucy's?"

"I do," I murmured as I held it up.

"Go ahead, Jack," Haley insisted. "Read it."

I didn't wait for approval from the other two. I cleared my throat and began reading, "Dear future Lucy, I'm sure you've been through hell and back by now, but past you wants you to know that," I had to take a minute, "everything is going to be okay. Take risks, take chances, and live life to the fullest." I didn't want to read the rest, it was too freakishly relevant to the present that it was giving me chills, but the others were waiting to hear, and I knew I had to finish it. "You only get one life-live it well. XOXO, Past You."

XxXxXxXx

We'd all gone our separate ways after about an hour of sorting through photographs and the rest of what was in the box. Haley hadn't said much since we'd left the other two, so after a few moments of driving in silence, I spoke up.

"Well, that was a total blast from the past."

"Definitely."

"It was kind of nice, though." She nodded in response. "So, I know all about past you, I was there for all the good parts." I saw her eyebrows pull together as she waited to see where the conversation was headed. "What about current you, Hales? How are you? How's teaching? How's... life?"

She sucked her bottom lip under her teeth as she stared out the windshield. Suddenly she was slamming on the breaks and hanging a sharp left. "I can show you better than I can tell you."

We came to a stop in front of the school, and she flung her door open. "Come on, loser. I'll show you my life." I followed.

She scanned a key card of some kind and then lead me down a long hallway. "Welcome," she told me as she unlocked the farthest door down. "Go ahead."

I stepped inside. The entire room looked like a puzzle of articles and quotes, the walls were plastered with inspirational sayings and bright colors. One of the posters read, "I'm lost. I've gone to look for myself. If I should return before I get back, please ask me to wait here." It was, quite possibly, the most accurate description of what I'd been feeling since I'd been back.

"What grade do you teach?" I felt like an idiot for not knowing even the slightest details about her life.

"First," she said with a smile.

"Cute," I commented as I looked over her bulletin board. It was covered with pictures of her kids. They all looked so small. It blew my mind that I had ever been that size, that I had ever been able to fit my butt into one of those baby-sized chairs.

"Thanks."

"So you just do arts and crafts all day? Read stories and color?"

I was joking, but she seemed to take offense to my comment. "I like to think that I'm teaching them something in the process."

I frowned. "I didn't mean anything by that, I was just messing-"
"It's okay. You're kind of right, actually. I've got mad coloring skills now." She winked. Her rebound rate was just as quick, if not quicker, than I remembered. She'd always been pretty good about taking shit from people. Especially from me.

My eyes scanned the room. "Is that your super official teachers' desk?" I asked in my most serious voice. She laughed and gave me a nod. "May I look at it, Miss Wilson?"

She laughed even harder at that. "Don't touch anything."

I walked over, pulled out her chair, and plopped down into it dramatically. "Comfy," I commented as I did a couple of spins back and forth. I pulled open her drawer, and my eyes landed on the single photograph she had tucked inside. "Can I touch just one thing?" I asked as I picked it up to get a closer look.

All five of us were holding plastic red cups, so I knew that this picture had captured the beginning of a long night. Of a great night, probably. My arm was slung around Haley's shoulders, and her face was scrunched up into the most adorable smile. Her tongue peaked through her teeth.

Conner was standing, like a rock, off to the side. He wasn't posed or even smiling, but I knew that that was just his personality showing through. He never had been one to show much emotion.

Ben was squatted down in the very center, and he had both arms extended wide as though he were welcoming whoever the photographer had been. He had a drink in each hand, and I couldn't help but laugh at how droopy his face looked. He'd gotten an earlier start than the rest of us, evidently.

Next to Haley, on the side that I wasn't occupying, stood Lucy Hamilton. Her smile was dazzling, and thick, dark curls were perfect spirals rolling off of her shoulders. She wore a light yellow dress, and she looked unbelievably tiny in it. Her dark, suntanned skin was practically glowing. She was stunning.

"I love that picture," Haley said over my shoulder.

I turned to look at her, and I realized just how close she was standing. Her right hand was resting on my shoulder, and she had a thoughtful look about her. Her hair hung loosely around her face, and she smiled gently at me as she tucked it securely behind her ear.

A dozen or so highly inappropriate scenarios played out in my mind before she cleared her throat and took a step back. I realized that I must have been staring because when I looked back to her eyes, her gaze was locked with mine.

"I like it, too. It's pretty much captured our personalities, hasn't it?"

She nodded slowly in agreement. "The stone-faced rock of a man, the wild one, the two stupidly-in-love calm and collected ones, and the quiet beautiful one, frozen in time forever." A second later she added, "It's funny, isn't it? I've got these two completely different versions of Lucy in my head. It's like one of them is this," she said, pointing to where Lucy stood in the photograph. "Quiet and stunning. But the other Lucy is wild and unpredictable. She was so many things."

"Yeah, she was."

"There will never be another Lucy Hamilton."

"Never."

XxXxXxXx

Later that night, just as sleep was finally considering making an appearance, a loud pounding on the door to my room shattered any chance of that happening. It didn't stop until I answered it.

"Get dressed."

"Ben, it's like two in the morning."

"Yeah, and none of us can sleep," he told me. He stepped aside so that I could see around him to where Conner and Haley were waiting in the truck. "So you coming or what?"

"Let me just, uhm, put some pants on."

"And a shirt," he added.

"Right."

Two minutes later, we were flying down a deserted back road heading out into the middle of nowhere. No one was saying anything, but it didn't seem to matter much. We were all enjoying the silence. At least, I was.

"You don't get this in that big city of yours, do you?"

"What?"

Ben tipped his head back to look out the window. "The stars. The open."

"No, I really don't."

"That's a damn shame if you ask me."

"It kind of is," I had to agree.

"Where are we?" Haley asked when Conner suddenly hit the breaks and threw the truck into park.

"My uncle used to rent this land," he said over his shoulder as he hopped out and walked around to the back of the truck. "The lady that owns it lives out in Arizona."

"And what exactly are we doing here?" I asked as I shut the door behind me.

Conner narrowed his eyes. "I have no idea what you're doing here, it wasn't my idea to invite you."

"Dude, shut up," Ben said before I could even think up an appropriate response. "I told you, either we're all in, or you can count me out, too." When no one said anything, Ben grabbed the case of beer from the tail bed and then casually said, "Good. Where to?"

Without a single word, Conner turned and stalked off toward some hay bales sitting in the middle of the field.

"Shall we?" Ben insisted.

Haley gave me a sympathetic look, but I ignored it. I didn't want her sympathy.

Conner climbed up onto one of the bales and Ben passed him the beer before climbing up himself. He then extended a hand down for Haley.

I hoisted myself up and sat down next to her. Ben passed me a beer. "Thanks," I told him a little sourly.

We all sat in silence for what felt like ages, but I wasn't exactly feeling chatty, so I had no intentions of breaking it.

Surprisingly enough, Conner wasn't the one to start things off this time around. Ben cleared his throat and said, "Things are kind of ugly between us, huh?"

Haley shrugged. "Maybe a little, but at least we're here."

"If the Eagles can put aside their differences for a reunion tour, then I say that we should at least be able to sit and talk to each other like human beings. So... let's talk." None of us said anything.

"Why don't we play truth or dare?" Haley suggested. We grumbled in protest, but she went on anyway, "We're not going to get anywhere just sitting around staring at each other, so if one of you has a better suggestion, now would be the ideal time to bring it up."

"Conner," I said, and they all turned to look at me.

"What?"

"Truth or dare?" I wasn't about to let him beat me to the punch. Not this time.

"This is stupid," he said as he took a swig from his bottle. I waited. He narrowed his eyes at me for an impressive amount of time without blinking before saying, "Fine. Dare, I guess."

"Okay. I dare you to-"

"Wait!" Haley interjected. "Maybe we should just stick to truths."

"Where's the fun in that?" I objected.

"Haley's right," Ben threw in. "I feel like truth is probably... safer," under his breath I heard him murmur, "all things considered."

"Fine. Conner, truth or... truth?"

His lips twitched like he was going to smile, but his face quickly twisted back into the scowl that I'd grown so used to seeing him wear recently. "Just ask the damn question."

"On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want to hit me right now?"

"I need more numbers."

"Okay! Conner, your turn," Haley said just before I counter-offered him with a larger scale. Although I knew that no matter what ungodly high number I threw at him, he was just going to say he wanted it more than the numbers implied, so I didn't object to Haley's interruption.

"Haley," he said.

"Yes?"

"What did you ever see in that asshole?"

"You guys, come on, can't we just-" Ben started saying, but Haley ignored him and answered the question.

"He was really good in bed." She turned and winked at me. I couldn't help but smile back. "My turn. Ben, would you rather have no arms, or no legs?"

He frowned over at her. "That is a horrifying question."

"And another game entirely," Conner added.

"I'm sorry," Haley snapped, "I didn't know there were rules about the types of questions being asked."

We all exchanged a quick glance, and then Ben sighed and said, "I guess I'd say... no arms?" He didn't sound certain. "Jack."

"Hmm?"

"Do you miss this town at all?"

I thought about his question for a moment before I answered. "No, I don't miss the town." Conner scoffed loudly, and I added, "I do miss the people in it." Then, "As cheesy and played out as that may sound."

Ben nodded once. "Good."

"Hales." She turned to look at me. "Anyone special in your life these days?" I tried to ask as causally as I could, but I was fairly certain the defensive note in my voice was evident. I shouldn't have asked, and I definitely shouldn't have cared, but I was dying to know.

She smiled softly and shook her head. "Not at the moment."
"What happened to tall, dark, and average?" Conner asked her, and it irritated me to a point of no return that he knew more about her life than I did. Not that that was anyone's fault but mine. "Andrew, right?"

"Too clingy," she said. "Plus he had like four cats."

"What's wrong with cats?" Ben asked.

"I'm more of a dog person," she explained.

"Fair enough."

Then, Conner came in with a curve ball, and said, "Ben, man, I'm dying to know, how was Cassandra?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said Neck Brace was challenging, but I always wondered about little miss cheerleader Hale. She had killer legs."

Ben smiled to himself, and then he started laughing. "Yeah, yeah she did... But honestly, if I had to compare the two experiences, I would say that Cassidy was actually less awkward. Neck brace included."

"Are you kidding?" I had to ask.

He shook his head. "Nah, man. Cassandra was my first time, and, well, I must have been hers, too because neither of us had a goddamn clue what we were doing, and... Let's just say that nothing with the words 'gone wild' in it should ever, under any circumstances, be used for instructional purposes." We all had a good laugh at that.

"Ben?"

"Yes, Hales?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"That's kind of the point of this whole game, isn't it?"

Haley shook her head. "Screw the game. Just talking."

"All right. Shoot."

She hesitated a little before finally asking, "When was the last time you talked to her?"

Ben smiled sadly and then said, "Way too long ago," his voice was quiet. "But that never seemed to matter. Lucy was always there anyway, you know? She always acted like she'd been waiting all day just for your call. Like there was no one else in the world she'd rather be talking to. Even if it had been months."

I suddenly wished desperately that I had given in just once and called her up. Just once since that last conversation. To smooth things over. To fix it.

"Yeah," Haley agreed. "She was like that."

"Lucy Hamilton was one of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing," Conner added in a quiet voice.

"Lucy was just," Ben paused, "young." We all waited. "And I don't mean like she was only twenty-three, I mean she was the type of person who didn't outgrow things. She never let anything get her down. She just...didn't care. If there was a problem, she fixed it. If there was an issue, she confronted it. She didn't hide from real-world things, but it was almost like she lived in another one entirely."

"That might just be the best description of Lucy I've ever heard," Conner said, giving Ben an approving nod.

The way Conner talked about Lucy, the way his eyes kind of glossed over and twinkled whenever someone so much as mentioned her name, had me wondering if maybe, just maybe, Lucy had meant a little more to him than he'd ever let on.

I wanted to ask him, but I also wanted to let him have that for himself. If he'd had a thing for her or if he'd been madly in love with her, nothing I could say or do now would make a difference.

"She kept things light," Haley was saying. "She just had that way about her. Conner," he turned to look at her, "last night when you said that Lucy would have done it, it got me thinking. Not only would she have done it, she would have initiated it."

He smiled wistfully. "Yeah, she would have."

Haley's voice was tight as she added, "Don't ever let me stop doing crazy things, okay?"

"Never," he promised.

I wondered if he meant it. If he would really stand by that. But then, who was I to judge him if he didn't?

"This is a little too Peter Pan for me," Ben said lightly as he took a swig from his bottle.

"I always had a thing for Pan," Haley told him.

"Seriously?" She nodded. "He was a total dick."

"You've got a type," Conner tossed in, but no one addressed his comment.

"Yeah, but not where people he cared about were concerned." Haley countered, and Ben raised his eyebrows as though challenging her statement."He told Tink that she meant more to him than anything in the whole world. Tell me that scene didn't tug at your heart strings a little?"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't leave Neverland for Wendy. Didn't that piss you off? I mean, hell, even as a kid, that whole thing seemed kinda jacked up."

Haley stole a quick look at me, but just as our eyes locked, she looked away again. Her voice was quieter this time as she said, "No matter how much Peter loved her, Neverland was where he belonged."

"If he really loved her, he would have left Neverland and grown up with her," Ben argued.

"Once you grow up, you can't go back."

"So then she clearly wasn't very important to him at all. If he wasn't willing to make any type of sacrifice for her."

"Maybe he just needed more time," Haley said. "Maybe he did change his mind. Maybe he realized that Neverland wasn't anything special anymore without Wendy in it, but by the time he did, Wendy had already grown up, and he was too far behind."

About an hour or so later, we were all climbing back into Conner's truck when suddenly, he said, "Hey, Hales, I've got something for you."

"What's that?"

Conner reached across the seat and opened up the glove compartment. He pulled out a cassette tape and tossed it onto her lap.

She laughed out loud. "Where did you find this?"

"It was in the time capsule."

"I forgot we put this in there."

"What is it?" Ben and I asked simultaneously.

She turned around eagerly. "Luce and I made this senior year. It's just a bunch of stupid one-hit-wonder songs and stuff. I don't even remember what's all on it."

"Well there's only one way to find out," Ben told her as he gestured to the slot under the radio dial. "Con?"

He sighed, but said, "Go ahead."

Haley fumbled with the case for a second but then popped the tape right out and gently guided it into the slot. We waited.

And then, much to my dismay, and apparently Ben and Conner's as well, the first couple of familiar notes of the first song hummed from the speakers.

"We were out of school before they started pop, locking, and dropping it, and before they leaned and rocked with whatever 'it' is," Ben sighed, "but we weren't fast enough to escape this."

"Don't act like you don't know all the words!" Haley insisted.

No one said anything as Conner started the truck and headed back down toward town, but before we reached the highway, we were all singing right along.

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Story has been given an Mrating due mostly to language. The rating is simply to protect myself as the author, and it may change over time.

Text copyright 2014 © P.S. Warner.

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