* * *
Becca waited at the door of our English classroom when the bell rang for lunch. She threw her arms around Patrick, “Paddy! I missed you so much!”
“Hey, Becks.” He smiled and hugged her. She popped up on her toes and kissed him.
“Hi, Becca.” I spoke while she was still sucking on Patrick’s face. It didn’t stop her though. She took her time kissing Patrick. I guess she really did miss him.
We started walking to our usual table in the quad. She grabbed his hand and started swinging it. She began to pout. “Why’d you have to go to San Francisco?”
Crap. What the hell? I didn’t know that she knew. I knew he wasn’t one to lie. And I knew he wasn’t going to tell her about what happened to me, but what was he going to say? My eyes bugged out of my head and I nervously stared at him. Of course, Becca didn’t notice my reaction at all, which was good, ‘cause it was obvious something was going through my mind.
Patrick didn’t miss a beat. He nonchalantly replied, “I told you. I went to visit Lindsey.”
I relaxed. He managed to tell the truth and keep me out of it. Wow.
However, Becca didn’t like his answer and whined. “But why? I missed you. Did you have to go visit her?”
He pulled her close to him and wrapped his arm around her. “Come on, don’t be that way. She’s my sister and I’ll visit her whenever I want.”
Her brilliant response? “Hmph.”
The three of us met up with the rest of the crew. I sat down at the table next to Emily. “How you doing, Liz? I missed you yesterday. Feeling better?”
“Yeah, better than when I woke up, that’s for sure.” That was no lie. It was a nice thought, that I was missed.
“Hey, Patrick!” Emily called out across the table, interrupting the guys talking. “How’s your sister doing?”
He smiled. “Good. I was just telling the guys it was great seeing her. She’s loving Stanford, but misses it down here. I wish I could have hung out with her longer. But she’ll be down for Thanksgiving next week. Oh! That reminds me. We’re doing our Thanksgiving Leftover Party next Friday. Everyone can make it, right?”
I looked around the table and the crew nodded in agreement. Becca bubbled over with excitement. I turned to Emily and softly asked, “Thanksgiving Leftover Party? What’s that?”
She smiled and explained it to me. “It’s pretty cool. The Connors have a big family Thanksgiving dinner. But the day after, they invite friends and some family for a party with the leftovers from the day before. His mom and Lindsey get pretty creative reinventing the leftover turkey and veggies. It’s always a lot of fun and a lot of food. You’re coming, right?”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t sure about my family’s plan was for Thanksgiving. Some years we went out of town, to visit family or vacation. Otherwise, we did something at home or at one of my cousin’s houses that lived in town. If I got to stay in town, I definitely wanted to go. I couldn’t predict what we’d do for Thanksgiving or Christmas and I wasn’t about to start trying now. I’d just have to ask.
Emily and Bobby took turns describing last year’s leftover party. I think they were hoping to convince me to change my ‘maybe’ to a ‘yes’, not understanding that it wasn’t up to me. I appreciated that they really wanted me to go, though. It felt good to be accepted by them. Really good.