Adele was bored. She lay on her stomach on top of her bed, swinging her feet above her head, desperately tried to find a new way to amuse herself. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do. She had already checked her email twice, written in her journal, and stared at the ceiling for too long than she cared to think about. She had entertained the thought of a morning run but seeing snow fluttering out the window, had given up that idea. She was in the final week of her politically-correct Winter Break: a month long return to home from the freedom of college. She had already watched all of her movies, read hours of books, taken enough baths to fill Lake Michigan, and run pointless errands simply to be out of the house. And to make matters worse, many her friends had found jobs over the break and were busy with work.
It is so infuriating, she thought as she flipped her brunette locks out of her face. It is so unfair. Why couldn't have found a job for the break? I have a whole boring week to look forward to with no one around. She sighed, one of many that day, and rolled off the bed to go find something to do.
Her bare feet echoed on the hardwood floors of her parents' large home. An empty echo. She wished that there was someone around to talk to. Yesterday the housekeeper had been at the house and Adele had followed her around as she cleaned. Her parents were always out and about—her mom with the horses, her father "consulting" local businesses—so she was used to being alone, and usually it didn't bother her. But today it did. In fact, it was driving her crazy.
She padded into the kitchen and poured herself a small bowl of cereal. After all, it was past noon and she hadn't bothered with breakfast yet. She carried her bowl over to the bar and sat down to watch some TV. Scanning through the TiVo-ed selections from the night before, she found an old episode of "Buffy" and settled in. She was half-way through her health-conscious Raisin Bran, when the doorbell rang. Without thinking, she went to the door, still dressed in her pajamas—a medium sized pink t-shirt advertising an old YMCA camp and a pair of pink boxer shorts.
Assuming that the late-morning visitor was either the UPS man or a neighbor, she was shocked to receive Travis, with whom she had shared an unfulfilling fling the summer before. She mumbled hello and opened the door to invite him in just as she realized her state of dress. Her skin flushed fuchsia and she stuttered "I'll be right back" before scampering upstairs to find appropriate clothing, leaving him in the entryway without allowing him to speak a word.
I thought he was gone, she mumbled to herself as she entered her room. He shouldn't be here. But I can pretend like it never happened. Sealed like an envelope. Sealed with a kiss. And kisses aren't given lightly.
Fortunately for Travis, Adele was a fast dresser and she was back downstairs in a matter of minutes. She had grabbed the first clothes at hand: her favorite hole-ridden jeans and her college sweatshirt, pulled on a pair of socks, and hurried back to her guest. In the meantime, Travis had wandered into the living room, and found a comfortable sofa upon which to seat himself. Apparently he was planning to stay, thought Adele, but I have no idea why. As she moved farther into the room, she realized that Buffy was still playing and she rushed to turn it off. Buffy was her secret obsession—no one else knew.
She stood in front of the silent television, wondering what Travis was doing in her living room. As far as she knew, he was supposed to be working this week. Her good friend Sebastian worked at the bike shop with Travis and he was working today, so... She tried to piece the puzzle together in her head but was too confused to think.
Besides, this was definitely a new development. Because they had broken up months ago, she was unsure about directly asking him about his visit, but he solved her conundrum by initiating conversation.
"So, you're probably wondering why I'm here, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess you could say that. I mean, we haven't talked since....you know. The last time...last summer." She was at a loss for words. Seeing him here, she couldn't get a handle on her emotions.
Travis seemed to sense her hesitation and began speaking rapidly, "Look, I'm really sorry about that. It felt really special, don't get me wrong. And we had such a blast last summer. But I'm here at State and you're off at your Ivy, miles and miles from here and I thought it would be hard and I didn't want to really have to tell you because I was afraid I'd make you cry and--" he broke off and looked up. She was silently crying. Large tears slowly snaked down her face.
"You never called. One minute it was 'Let's see Shrek II on Saturday,' and then you never called. And then when I called your house your mom said you had left for school early. She didn't even know about me. And now you show up here for—for what?"
"I wanted to apologize. I thought it would sound cheap over the phone."
"I was home at Thanksgiving, you know. You could've done it then. Then I wouldn't have been wondering for months what was so wrong with me—so wrong with us."
"Now hold on a minute. I know I was wrong not calling you, but I know for a fact that you weren't moping around missing me for four months. I have on good intelligence that you've been out at least once a week all last semester. If you really missed me that bad, you would have called. Besides, we both knew at the beginning of the summer that this was going to be a fling. It wasn't going to last. So what if it ended badly, we both knew it was going to end."
"I don't care. You broke my heart. I went out partying so much because I wanted to forget you. I wanted to move on. But I couldn't. I had no closure. At the beginning of the year I thought you might still call. I don't know. But I waited. I waited until Thanksgiving. And after that, when I knew how much time I had wasted on a bastard like you, I started to hate. And my hating was going on just fine until you show up here today. Besides, aren't you the one who's supposed to be apologizing?"
"I'm sorry, okay. Saying goodbye somehow felt like admitting that it never had a shot. But it did. And I gave it up anyway. I gave it up because you went somewhere better. And you were supposed to find someone better. You went somewhere far from here. You wanted to get away. Away from everything here. And me."
"You knew I was leaving even before we got together. The whole thing was East Coast or nothing. Of course I had to get away. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it here, at home. But I needed to get out and experience life on my own. Meet new people, see new places, do new things. And you didn't want to do that. You chose to stay here. I chose to leave. But when you went off to school without telling me, it made me feel left behind. It hurt. It said 'I don't care about you, Adele. I would rather move into my moldy dorm than spend another night with you.'"
"But that's not what I meant. I just thought it would be easier if I just broke things off cleanly. But I see I was wrong. I thought it would be a swift break up, but I was chicken and just didn't want any confrontation. Forgive me?"
Adele sniffed and looked dubiously at his outstretched hand. "I forgive you. But that doesn't mean we can just go back to being friends or anything."
"Well then why don't we become acquaintances? That could be nice. Here, let's start. Sit down and tell me about your day."
She sat on the leather sofa as far from Travis as possible and then curled her feet beneath her, looking pixie-esque. "Today I did nothing. In fact, you interrupted my breakfast when you knocked on the door."
"Well then, I apologize on two accounts today. Forgive me again?"
