The Space In Between

Chapter Thirty-One

MY EYES WERE trying their best to stay open as a hot mess Michelle was sitting next to me. She stared into my eyes and for a while there appeared to be two of her…then three…okay, back to two. I apologized to her for not noticing she was engaged, and she informed me that she didn’t want to throw it into my face after the accident. I shrugged and told her I was happy for her and Eric. It was about time, actually. They had been dating since middle school like Derrick and me.
They were meant for each other—everyone knew it. So there wasn’t much of a different road they could have traveled down.
Or so I thought.
“How did you know, Andrea?” she whispered as she laid her head against the nasty, sticky bar countertop. She didn’t care. I didn’t try to stop her. Her eyes were looking at me with real concern and I smirked towards her.
“Know what?”
“That he was the one. That you were ready to spend the rest of your life with him? I mean heck. Am I really ready to settle down for the rest of my life?” She was looking at me, but she wasn’t talking to me anymore. It was as if she were looking through me. Her eyes were heavy with sadness and I couldn’t help but sober up a bit. Tears started falling from her eyes and she was quick to wipe them.
“Michelle…Are you okay?” I was concerned. I’d never seen her in such a state of un-perkiness. Something was seriously wrong.
She blinked and came back to me. She shook her head, put on her bright smile, and laughed loudly. Her typical Michelle laugh. Tossing her hands up in the air she looked towards Colin and yelled, “Two more shots!”
“No more shots. Time to go.” I turned in my chair and stared at Cooper standing over me. He tossed Michelle’s coat to her and held mine up to help me into it. I was still so embarrassed—drunk, but embarrassed nonetheless—by how he had rejected my soda pop offer. I snatched my coat from him and rolled my eyes.
“I can do it myself.”
I watched him frown as Eric stumbled over to us with his arm wrapped around a drunken Ladasha. It appeared he had sobered up quite a bit, but Cooper still said he should drive us all home.
Piling us three girls into the backseat of the car, Cooper and Eric sat in the front. I was lucky enough to ride bitch, also known as sitting in the most uncomfortable seat positioned between Michelle and Ladasha.
“Questions!” Michelle drunkenly screamed. I knew exactly what she was referring to when she said it. I remembered taking many drunken walks, drives, and runs with Michelle where we would always play the game of Questions on our way home. I explained to Cooper and Ladasha that Questions involved asking any question you would probably not ask if you were sober.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Cooper murmured from the driver’s seat. He was really determined to be a party pooper.
“It’s a great idea!” I yelled. “You go first, Michelle.”
“Okay. Question. Is it normal to smell your breath in the palm of your hand and then lick the air to taste it?”
I burst out laughing at the random, stupid question from Michelle. And, all of us except Cooper, cupped our hands, blew into them, and licked the air. Gross.
“My turn.” I smiled and shifted over as Michelle rearranged her body in the car. “Would you rather have a soda pop or a sour lemon?”
Eric smirked. “Who the hell calls it soda pop?”
I glanced at Cooper through the rearview mirror and knew he was looking towards me. He was giving me a stern look—warning me to not push the subject. My heart skipped a beat as I broke eye contact. “I don’t know. Some people.”
Michelle giggled, yawned into my shoulder, and closed her eyes. “That’s the stupidest question ever.” She was fading to sleep—probably the best idea.
“I think this is the stupidest game ever,” Cooper huffed. I’d never seen him in such a bad mood. I wondered what the hell was wrong with him.
“Okay, my turn.” Ladasha turned towards me, smiling as I kissed her nose.
“Could a stripper who was a bit wacky and a teacher who was handsome and smart and charming ever have a shot with one another?”
My heart sank into my stomach as I placed my hand on my chest. “Oh Dasha…” I felt so awful for her, and I looked as Eric turned to stare at her from his seat. Luckily Michelle had fallen asleep. Otherwise this had the possibility to be an extremely awkward situation.
Eric cleared his throat and turned back forward. Ladasha rolled her eyes and spoke softly. Tears formed in her eyes. “I’m so stupid…”
“You’re not,” I promised. Even Cooper’s look showed sadness. Ladasha had lived a tough enough life, and the last thing she needed was to set herself up for another heartbreak by going for an engaged man. My brother.
The silence filling the space was heavy, somewhat tainted. Eric cleared his throat again stared straight out into the darkness. “It depends,” he said. Ladasha sat up and looked at him, waiting for him to explain.
“On what?” she asked.
Eric turned as far back to face us as he could, ready to enlighten us. “It’s like a kite. There are millions of kites in the world. Different shapes. Different sizes. Some kites are made for the crazy winds. Some get torn a little. And some plop! Instantly hitting the ground right out of the package.” He locked eyes with Ladasha as he continued.
“And then there are the kites that are breathtakingly beautiful. The kites that have never even tried to fly because other bad kites told them they weren’t good enough to soar. So that breathtakingly beautiful kite believed them. It wasn’t her fault. She did what she was taught. She lived in self-doubt. She stayed grounded. That kite was stripped of a chance to ascend from the ground and rocket past the trees, into the blue sky.”
Oh crap. Ladasha wasn’t the only one who was tearing up now. Eric continued.
“So your question was, could a stripper who was a bit wacky—in the best possible way—and a teacher who was…” he said, smirking and winking towards Ladasha, “handsome, smart, charming, dapper, strong…”
“Yeah yeah, we get it.” Ladasha laughed.
“Right. Could they ever have a shot with one another? Well, for starters, I think the girl isn’t a stripper. She just stripped. There’s a big difference. But if the timing was different, and the teacher wasn’t already engulfed in a different lesson plan, there would be no way in hell he could let her beautiful kite pass his way without entangling their strings together forever. And ever.”
And that was the end of it. He turned back forward and everyone went silent. Cooper pulled up to the house and Ladasha quickly shot out of the car, running for the house. Cooper chuckled to himself as he helped Michelle out of the car. I followed after her. Cooper laid the passed out Michelle in Eric’s arms. He continued to chuckle as I turned away from him to get rid of the idea of how much I was falling for his laugh. Eric turned towards him. “What is it?”
“That was a good speech you gave.”
Eric laughed and shrugged as he opened his door. “I majored in English.”