Second Chance (26 page)

Travis looks at me
with exasperation
.
“
What the hell is she talking about?
”

I raise one of my shoulders
.
T
heir conversation reminds me of the way I first reacted when I met
Dylan
, the way you react to something you’ve never come across before
.
You question and poke and pry to try and understand it
.
Or you run from it
.

“Water down the crazy talk
,
Dylan,” I say to her
.
“You’re scaring my friends.”

“
I’m not
going to
college
,” she says to Travis
.
“
I think as long as you have goals and you’re striving for them, that’s
all that matters
.
It’s not what you learn
in school
, it’s what you do
in life
that teaches you the most.
”

There’s a few seconds of silence as the table tries to
grasp what she’s saying
.

“
Okay, so what are your
goals
?
”
Bubba asks.

“
Well, first and foremost I want to travel the world
.
I also
want to learn how to play
an instrument, like the
harmonica
o
r maybe the mouth harp
.
I’d like to job shadow
a
volc
a
n
o
logist, or maybe train to be a hot air balloon pilot.”

I watch the table studying her with expressions
ranging
between confused and
amused
.

“
Is she serious?
” Travis
asks me
and I just shrug my shoulder
s
.

“Then I have daily goals,” she continues. “
I try and accomplish one new thing a day.
”

“Like
?
”
Miles asks
.

“
Today I roasted a marshmallow over
a candle
.”

“That was your goal for
to
day?” Travis ask
s
her.

Dylan nod
s
like it’s a perfectly
respectable
goal
.
“It takes
a lot of
patience and just the right flame proximity to avoid burning the marshmallow
.
It’s a
practiced
skill.
”

“This is true,” Lenny said
.
“I witnessed it.”

I
watch
Lenny and she’s smiling
.
I
can tell
she
has
fallen for
Dylan, which
annoys
me
.
Lenny doesn’t like me half the time and I’m one of her best friends
.
Come to think of it, I’m one of her only friends
.
This confirms my theory
.
Give Dylan time and she can win over anybody
.

E
xcept for me
.
I know better than to fall
under her spell
.
I know the end result
.

Bubba asks Dylan what she plans to do while she’s out here
.
I sit back in my chair
and study her
.
I’ve been wondering
the same thing
.

“I can hire you part time
at the cafe
,” Lenny offers and I
shoot her a warning glare
.

“I’m a terrible waitress,” Dylan admits
.
She taps the side of her head with her finger
.
“No short term memory.”
Todd mentions his girlfriend works at a
clothes
boutique and he can ask her if they’re hiring
.
I almost laugh out loud at this
.
The thought of Dylan selling clothes is as absurd as someone in a wheelchair selling running shoes
.
She’s fashion handicapped
.

“
It must be k
ind of slim pickings without a college degree,” Travis
comments
. H
is voice is condescending
,
but Dylan just grins back
.
The more I get
to know Travis, the
more I see
he
lives
for pushing people until they fire back at him
.
He likes to fight.

“
College isn’t for me,” she says
.
She
gets this
pensive
look on her face
and I
bite my lips together to hide a smile
.
Here comes her deep thought for the day
.
“I’m
impressed with people who can w
hittle
down what they want to do to one single thing
.
Don’t you think it’s st
range that our whole lives we’re taug
ht how to act and what to think
?
Then we graduate from high school and
all of a sudden
, bam,
we’re supposed to know
exactly who
we are
and what
we want to
do
, e
ven though we were never given a chance to
figure
it
out
.
It doesn’t make sense to me.
”
 

“What hippie colony
were you raised in?
”
Bubba
asks
.
Everybody else is just
staring at her
.

“
So, who do you know here?”
Travis asks
.

Dylan points at me with her fork
.

“We met in
Phoenix
last summer,” I say
.
“She’s
just
a friend
.”

I feel the table regarding me
.
Friends
.
That’s one way to put it
.

DYLAN

After dinner
Lenny
and Travis
take off
,
but I
stay to
help clean up
.
I
’m determined to talk to Gray tonight
,
even though he’s
equally determined
to
avoid me, like he’s afraid of
being alone with me
.
He
and Bubba
recap the games while they do dishes and I busy myself with clearing the table and putting away folding chairs
.
Miles sits down with me and we discuss the differences between cricket and baseball
. H
e’s shy
,
but in this endearing way
.
I wonder if Cat would like him because he sweet and cute and doesn’t seem cocky at all
, like she describes athletes
.

When the guys are done washing dishes they all head to the living room except for Gray, who disappears. I
walk
outside
to
find him sitting
in
a chair
on the porch
,
staring
out
at the
yard
.
He stands up when he sees me and regards me wit
h eyes that are careful
.
Too careful
.
Like there are walls behind them
.
We
both stand there
and wait
for the
other
person
to
make the first move.