It Happened on Maple Street

“I don’t have a car.” He had to tell her. She’d find out soon enough, anyway. “I’m getting one, but I don’t have it yet.”

“How do you get to and from school?”

“A friend of mine. We graduated together.”

“He lives in Eaton, too?” They were walking down the steps of the lecture hall, Tara in front of him, and she turned to look at him.

“Yeah.”

“So what’s your friend going to do if we hang out after class?”

“He works on Thursdays. I usually just wait around here for him.”

“That’s no fun. You want to come to my house? You can meet my mom and we can hang out there.”

Hell yes, he wanted that. But . . . “I have to be here to meet my friend when he gets off work.”

“What time is that?”

“Five.”

“I can have you back by then.”

She was offering him a piece of heaven. And hell, too. What guy wanted a girl driving him back and forth places? Especially on a first date?

Still, his mom hadn’t raised a stupid son. “You sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay then.”

“Okay.” They were outside class, and Ann was a few steps away, waiting for Tara.

“See

you Thursday.”

“Okay.”

He watched her walk away, noticing how hot her butt looked in her jeans. And then he realized he was grinning.

He’d only been in college for a month and he had a date.

Three

THE TWO DAYS UNTIL THURSDAY WERE INTERMINABLE. Everyone I knew—my family, Ann, and Rebecca, my closest friend from high school—knew I had a date. In my world, this was almost as big as graduation.

And yet I wanted everyone to act, I wanted me to act, as though the occasion was no big deal.

A boy was coming over. It happened to girls all the time.

I was a nervous wreck all through class, and excited, too, and didn’t hear a single word of the lecture. Tim looked fabulous in his jeans and sweater.

And on a completely different wavelength, I couldn’t wait for my mom to meet him.

By the time we were in my car, I was shaking. Didn’t know what to do with my hands. Or any other part of me. I was a foreigner in my own land. Sitting in my own car. Alone with a boy. A man.

I was outside myself, watching me. I had a man in my car. And I was driving.