Drifting into Darkness (2 page)

After we graduated high school, Jason talked about joining the military instead of going to college. I didn’t agree with it. I hated the idea of him being gone for long periods. We had never been apart for more than a week. We had fought about it a lot, but he ultimately changed his mind and got a full time job instead. He proposed to me a couple of months after graduation and we even looked for a place to live together. Everything seemed great.

A little over a year later, he took me out to dinner to tell me that he had decided to enlist with the Navy. I was devastated and hurt that he would make that decision without discussing it with me first. We were engaged for crying out loud. He was ultimately changing my life along with his and it hurt that he wasn’t thinking about my feelings at all.

He told me that everything would be okay. He was doing it so we could have a better life together. He wanted to be able to provide for me and give me things that I was used to getting from my parents. He always thought he wasn’t good enough for me, but I always told him he was wrong. I loved him with everything I had. Nothing would change that. But it was no use. He had already signed all the documents and was scheduled to go to boot camp that following week.

Over the three months he was at boot camp, things began to change. I could tell by the way he talked to me. I asked him about it, but he simply said that he had a lot on his mind and that boot camp was wearing him out. I understood what he was saying, but I had that knowing feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t right.

When boot camp was over and he came back home, I tried to make things the way they were before he left. He wasn’t making it easy for me though. One day he called me up first thing in the morning and told me he needed to talk. I knew then things were going to go downhill. He told me he felt like he hadn’t really lived his life because he’d always been in a relationship. He felt like he needed his freedom, some time on his own to figure out what he wanted in life.

I was completely bewildered, especially since I recalled him saying he wanted to join the military so he could provide a better life for
us
. It was as if six years meant nothing to him. I was heartbroken. There were times I felt like I couldn’t go on with my life. Erin even stayed with me for a few days on my mother’s request because I wouldn’t come out of my room. I was missing classes and my grades were beginning to drop. My mom thought I needed my friend and she was right. Erin didn’t do much, but I didn’t need her too. She was just there for support. I didn’t want to deal with it all on my own or with my mother because I knew she didn’t really like him anyway. I didn’t need to hear her tell me ‘I told you so’, or ‘you should have seen this coming’.

I found out from Erin a few days later that he was being stationed in Louisiana. Turns out, she found out from some girls, who had apparently been keeping his bed warm since he threw me out of it. I was hurt beyond belief. The only thing I could think about was that he wanted to break things off with me so he could have freedom to sleep with other girls. So I did the one thing I thought was right at the time and only because I was hurt and pissed off to the point that I didn’t even recognize myself anymore; I slept with all his friends.

Did it make me feel better? No. Did people start calling me a slut? Of course, but at the time, I really didn’t care.

Then, all that shit with my dad happened. When I was told we would be moving, I was completely on board. Moving seemed like the best option for me because everywhere I turned, something reminded me of Jason. I couldn’t handle it.

“Lisa Presby.”

I lifted my head, snapping out of the past, to see a woman standing outside the door leading to the back for registration. Lisa stood from her seat and turned to me.

“I’m going to the family diner after I register. Would you like to come? I figure you’re new and all, and we could chat about what there is to do around here. Plus, Derek won’t be meeting me until after four and I’m starvin’,” she said, rubbing her stomach.

I really needed to start looking for a job, but I was hungry too. It wouldn’t hurt to get an idea what there was to do here either. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. “Sure.”

“Okay, great,” she smiled. “I’ll be done before you, so I’ll wait for you in the lobby downstairs by the front doors. See ya in a few,” she said as she turned and headed toward the registration door.

Looking down at my forms, I continued to fill out all the information, doing my best to get Jason off my mind. I hated when he consumed my thoughts. It was a hard habit to break, especially since we were together for so long, but I was determined that this move would bring a new Sadie. I wouldn’t let the past dictate my future.

Two

Registration took longer than I thought it would. The counselor was trying to push me towards making a decision on a degree. I wouldn’t relent on my decision to stay with my general studies. After a disapproving look, the same look I always got from my mother, she turned in her desk chair and started sifting through all my transferred classes on her computer to see what would transfer, and what I’d have to take again. Thankfully, everything transferred except for my math. I wasn’t happy about it since math wasn’t my favorite subject, but if there was nothing I could do about it, then there was no point in bitching about it.

I walked down the stairs leading to the lobby where Lisa said she’d be waiting for me. She sat at one of the benches, with her back up against the wall, and her head bowed down typing away on her phone. She seemed like someone I would enjoy hanging out with. Nobody would ever replace Erin, but I was glad to have befriended someone so soon. It made the thought of summer not seem so bad.

Sensing my approach, Lisa lifted her head from her phone and looked up at me with a smile. “Hey, did ya get all the classes ya wanted?” She stood up and we walked toward the exit.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m only taking general right now, so a class is a class to me.” We walked a few feet and then stopped under the pavilion that was attached to the building. “What about you? What are you majoring in?”

“Oh, I’m majorin’ in physical therapy. I only signed up for two of the hard classes, like Anatomy Two and The Lab. I’m trying to spread it out so I don’t fry my brain.”

I smiled at her and nodded my head in agreement.

“I’m just parked over there,” she said, pointing to the left side of the parking lot. “Where’re you?”

“I’m over there too.”

We both walked out from under the pavilion, and I again wished I had dressed differently. I should have stopped off in the bathroom before walking outside to check my hair and makeup. I was sure I looked like a sweaty mess.

We stopped in a sea of cars as she pointed over to a cute red two-door. “That’s me right there,” she pointed. “Where’re you?”

“Right there,” I replied. I pointed over to my ’08 Honda Accord and walked in the direction of my car.

“I’ll drive out to the exit and wait for ya so ya can follow me,” Lisa shouted behind me.

“Sounds good,” I shouted back.

I slid into my car, starting the ignition right away so I could open up the windows. The heat that had built up inside was unbearable. Sweat was already dripping down my face again.
I won’t be able to handle this for very long
, I thought as I turned my A/C on full blast. I might have to take my dad up on his offer to fix it.

Leaning over to the passenger’s side, I opened my glove box to pull out some restaurant napkins I had stashed. I wiped all the sweat off my forehead and tossed them on to the floor with the rest of the trash I needed to clean up. Then I backed out of my parking spot to head to the exit so I could follow Lisa.

~*~

I pulled into a parking spot next to Lisa at the Family Diner. I thought she was just referring to it as a family diner, but the name of the place was actually Family Diner.

Turning my car off, I opened up my door, opting this time to leave my windows open. I stepped out of the car and into the heat, eyeing Lisa. “Is it always this hot?” I asked as I wiped at my forehead.

She let out a short laugh. “In the summer? Hell, yes!” She looked down at my jeans with a raised eyebrow. “I would suggest puttin’
all
of your jeans away during the summer, unless you are going to cut them into shorts.”

“If you had a pair of scissors on you, I’d go to the bathroom and cut these right now,” I gestured to my jeans as we made our way into the diner.

As soon as we walked in, a cool blast of air consumed my body and I sighed out in relief. Taking a look around, I noticed the diner had a fifties feel to it. There were red vinyl booths all along the windows, with tables that were scratched up and worn down, and a bar lined up with black vinyl stools. In the middle of the bar, was a baked goods display case filled with pies, cakes, puddings, and cookies; everything that made my sweet tooth happy.

The sign by the door said for us to seat ourselves so I followed Lisa to a booth. I slid into the seat and continued to look around. There were quite a few people in the diner for a Tuesday afternoon.

“This place looks very retro,” I stated, looking at her.

“Yeah,” Lisa smiled. “This place has been here for a long time. The same family has owned it since they opened. They actually just remodeled.”

I looked around again and then looked back at her confused. It didn’t look newly remodeled.

She laughed at me. “I know, it doesn’t look like it, but they closed for a week and had the floors redone along with the booths and stools. They said they’d never touch the tables though,” she said eyeing the table in front of us. I looked down and noticed all the signatures and notes on the table. “These tables have been here a long time. They didn’t want to toss the memories, so every decade or so, they have the legs replaced, but they keep the tops,” she pointed to the signatures.

I read a bunch of ‘I love you’ notes and ‘Betty hearts Joe’. “That’s really cool.”

Lisa smiled. “This is the place you’ll find most people our age. We’ve all been comin’ here for so long, that there’re designated age days,” she laughed when I gave her my ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ look. “I know, it seems silly, but there are days for the old people, days for families, and days for the teens and wanna-be teens; then there are days for the college kids and the car buffs.”

“Car buffs?”

“Yeah, you know, guys who spend way too much time and money on their cars, and with girls who hang around in slutty clothes. It’s kind of like
The Fast and Furious
around here, minus hottie Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, but we’ve got some hot southern guys instead.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me with a smirk.

“Nice,” I replied. I really wasn’t into the whole car scene. I never understood how someone could spend so much money on their car. What was the point? Like the cars that drove down the interstate trying to show off with their exhausts, sounded like high-pitched farts to me. Sometimes, I wanted to ask them how they felt about spending so much money on something that made their car sound like it was passing gas constantly. “So do you hang out with the college kids or the car buffs?”

Lisa was cut off from her reply as our waitress approached our table. “Hey, Lisa.” The waitress smiled as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She was short like me, probably around five-six, with a blonde bob and flawless makeup. She was really pretty and seemed way too peppy for me.

“Hey, Sarah,” Lisa smiled back. “This is Sadie,” she said pointing to me. “She’s just moved here.”

Sarah looked over at me with a smile. “Hi, I’m Sarah.”

“Sadie,” I replied with a short wave.

“So what can I git y’all to drink?” she asked in a deep southern drawl. She stood poised with her pencil and pad up, waiting for us to reply.

I realized I hadn’t even looked at the menu yet. Looking to the side, I noticed them stuffed behind the napkin dispenser, so I reached over and pulled one out to look at.

“I’ll take a coke, please,” I answered without looking up from the menu.

“I’ll have a sweet tea and put in an order for the burger special,” Lisa told Sarah. “Do you eat meat, Sadie? You aren’t a vegetarian or anything?”

I looked up at her to see her nose crinkled up as if she was disgusted by the idea. I smiled at her and shook my head. “No, I eat meat.”

She smiled. “Then you definitely need to try the burger special. You can’t go wrong with it. It’s what the diner is famous for. If you don’t like it, I’ll pay for your meal.”

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded my head up at Sarah.

“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Sarah said as she walked off to the next table of occupants.

Folding the menu I no longer needed, I put it back behind the napkin dispenser, and then rifled through my purse for my phone. I needed to text my mom.

“What are your plans for the summer?” Lisa asked as I set my phone down on the table.

Sarah arrived with our drinks, set them on the table, and sauntered off to take care of her other customers. “I actually need to look for a job,” I said as I picked up the straw Sarah had placed on the table, tore the paper away and stuck it into my glass.

“Oh, what’d ya have in mind?”

I had no idea what I was looking for. I just knew I needed to make money. I didn’t have any friends here to keep me occupied all summer long, so I needed to work. I’d never be able to just sit around all summer and do nothing, especially by myself. “I honestly don’t know what I’m looking for. I know there is a mall nearby, so I’ll probably see if there are any openings.”

She started shaking her head at me and pursed her lips. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are in a college town. Summer jobs go fast. If ya wanted to get a job at the mall, you’d have to apply in the spring. Most fast food joints don’t even have any openings.”