Reunion Connection

I'm not a professional writer, this is just for fun. Enjoy the story with all its flaws. The characters are 18+.

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A card arrived in the mail, inviting me to the 25th Anniversary Reunion of my graduating class at Clarkson High. Huh. I wondered how they found my address. I hadn't seen or heard from anyone from high school since first year university. Not even my former 'friends'. I guess someone did some detective work. Then again, so much of our lives have been put out there on social media for so long that there isn't really any privacy anymore. Yeah, they probably just took an old yearbook and googled the hell out of everyone. I stuffed the card back into the envelope and tossed it into the waste basket. Why the fuck would I have anything to do with those people?

Three days later it was garbage day, so I was emptying bins. When I went to tip the front hall wastebasket into the bag, the reunion invite flipped out onto the floor. I recalled it now, having tossed away the memory along with the invitation. I picked it up and stood there, staring at the envelope again, wondering. Wondering how things might have turned out differently. If I'd done things differently, said something instead of just sitting there, afraid to be noticed. Fuck. I must be getting old if this invite is making me maudlin about might-have-beens.

Not that my life wasn't good, hell no, it was great. I had my hobbies, I traveled all over the world, and I hadn't had to actually work in the conventional sense for 15 years. Yeah, being financially set by 30 was great. But the lack of someone to share all that with sometimes galled. Sure, I'd had a few lady friends, and we'd shared some time in bed, but I never really connected with any of them. I'd never fallen in love. Not since high school, anyways.

I pulled the invitation out of the envelope and decided 'fuck it, I'm going'. I'm going to see where all those people got to, how bad or how good their lives were. I figured I was probably as successful as any of us from my class. A lot of them are probably still working their asses off paying mortgages and saving for their kids' college tuition. Actually, after 25 years, they're probably just finished paying off their kids' tuition.

There was a QR code to RSVP, so I used it. The website also provided links to accommodation at the hotel the event was at. That chain had a frequent-stay program I was in, so I booked a room with a free upgrade to a suite. Well. That's it then. In two months I would be back 'home'. My folks had moved away from there a long time ago, so I had no one else to visit out that way. I was just going back for the reunion.

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I arrived at the hotel after a 6 hour drive and checked in. The room was just like any other hotel room, so I made myself comfortable and had a nap. It had been a tedious drive, especially going through Toronto, and I needed some downtime. I set my alarm for 3 PM and dozed off.

The pinging of my phone woke me. I shut it off, stretched, then went to take a shower. I dressed in a black dress shirt, a tie, and black trousers. I figured most of the guys would be in suits, but I generally hated suits, except for proper formal events where you needed a tux. When I traveled I usually dragged along a plain black suit jacket in case I ended up in a venue that demanded jacket & tie. My tie was sky blue with yellow stripes. I had very few ties, but this one was coincidentally in our old school colours. The reception started at 4, with dinner at 6, and I got there just after 4. I walked into the foyer outside the event room, and there was the checkin desk.

Jesus fucking christ.

My heart flipped in my chest, because there was my crush from high school sitting there smiling at me as I approached. Kerry. She looked exactly like she did 25 years ago! Like, I mean *exactly*. I felt hot and cold and excited and afraid all at once. I looked at her in amazement.

"Kerry?"

She laughed briefly, and I swear a rush went up my spine at that sound. Then I saw the name tag. 'Samantha Weldon'. Not Kerry Smith. But god, she was the absolute spitting image of Kerry. Long brown hair, deep brown eyes, that slightly crooked nose, strong jawline, and the lopsided grin. She wasn't pretty by many peoples' standards but to me, she just made my heart surge.

She gestured at her name tag. "It's Sam. You're thinking of my Mom. You're like the tenth person to call me Kerry!"

"Oh, sorry Samantha. Sam. Uh, I'm Wade Jackson."

"Okay. Jackson, Jackson, ah! There we are! Here's your name tag, you're at table twelve. Say Hi to my Mom!"

Smiling, she handed me the tag. It had my name on it and the picture from our yearbook. I looked different now, but also the same in some ways. Must be the eyes. I said thanks and hung the lanyard around my neck, all the while glancing sideways at Sam. Seriously, she looked exactly like her Mom at 18. The girl I crushed over for four years, all through high school. I wondered what Kerry looked like now. I thanked Sam again and went through the door to the ballroom.

I wandered in and took in the crowd, the layout, the decor. The school colours were prominent, and my tie matched perfectly. There was a bar at one end of the room with tables nearby, I'd have to find #12. There was a dance floor and a raised stage at the other end for the band. Right now the sound system was putting out classic tunes from our era at school, but not so loud as to overpower conversation. People would want to talk and reminisce for hours, I was sure, so the volume would stay at a tolerably low level for now.

There were quite a few people congregating around the bar and a few of the tables, so I headed for the bar. I was looking at faces and name tags, searching for someone I knew, or knew well enough to talk to. No one yet. We had a big class, and it seemed like almost everyone had brought a plus-one. Quite a crowd. I checked with the bartender, and they had a decent single malt, so I ordered that.

Turning from the bar, I saw one of my old friends hanging around with a group of people. Nick had put on a lot of weight and lost a lot of hair, but he still had the same face. I walked up and checked out the other people. I knew some of the names, but the faces were off. No match at all to their name tags. And mostly for the worse.

"Nick."

His eyes went wide. "Wade! Dude, you made it. I thought you'd disappeared from the face of the earth, man!"

"No, no, still here. How've you been?" I recalled the last time I spoke to Nick. It was during Christmas break in first year University. When we made arrangements to meet with a group of friends at a house party. Everyone was going, and I should come too, he'd told me. I remember knocking on the door and some old guy asking me what the hell I wanted. Turns out there was no party there. And I went home red in the face, pissed at my so-called friends.

We chatted, exchanged lies about how great high school was, and how successful he was. Nick introduced me to his wife, Patricia, and they asked me if I was married or had kids. I told them no, never married, no kids, and downplayed my success a bit. I didn't bring up that xmas party, and neither did he. Dim fucker probably didn't even remember the prank. I moved along to chat with other people, and each interaction brought up memories. Some good, some bad, some funny, some sad. Reunions are like that I guess.

I spotted Kerry, who had put on some weight, and some lines around her eyes. She'd changed a lot but my memory filled in what was missing. Plus the sight of Sam out at the reception desk helped with that image. We chatted a bit, she was divorced, and her daughter, yes I met her out front, just graduated from Clarkson High. She didn't know who I was at all. And that was depressing as hell. Her conversation was shallow and disinterested, and she was ready to move on to talk to someone else in no time at all. Kerry was no longer the girl I had fallen hopelessly in love with all those years ago. I felt a strong urge to go back to the check-in desk and see Samantha.

More people came and went, lots of names I barely recalled, most of the faces quite changed from their old photos. Many of them looked worse, a few looked better. I'd like to think I was in the latter crowd. My nerdy, ugly picture was way worse than my actual look now. Seemed like anyone who had a horrible yearbook photo looked better now, and those who had nice photos back then looked worse in person. Weird how that works, eh?

I had a lot of people asking what I did for work, and initially I just told them I was in real estate. They assumed I was an agent, which was reasonable, and of course wrong. I asked a few people about their careers, and most of them were moderately successful. Middle management mostly. A few were Chief Alphabet Officers of companies I'd never heard of. Might be niche markets, or might just be small incorporated businesses, or maybe I'm just out of touch with the business world.

I stepped away just before dinner to get some air. I'd missed my workout today, what with the long drive and my afternoon nap, so my body was dying for exercise. I was twitchy and my legs ached. Sam was still at the front desk. I said Hi in passing. Dammit, just seeing her twisted my heart up into knots. I got flashbacks to high school seeing her there.

"Hi Wade. So, having a good time? Did you find my Mom?" I guess she remembered that I'd mistaken her for her mother earlier.

"Good. Good. Yeah, I ran into Kerry. She's, uh, she's changed a bit, but she still looks good. You can at least look forward to looking as good as she does, 'cause you're kinda like her clone."

"Yeah, it was freaky, so many people thought I was her tonight!"

"Well, you really are a perfect copy of Kerry when she was at Clarkson."

"You knew her back then?"

"Sort of. I knew her, but I was kind of invisible in high school. Most of the people here don't remember me. She certainly didn't"

"Oh, that must be kind of a let-down, no one remembering who you are."

All I could think of was how much she looked like Kerry back then. I think I managed to do the entire shy embarrassed guy thing in front of Samantha. I probably looked like a caricature of the lovelorn nerd. Because, in all honesty, that was me back then. And meeting all these people, reliving all these memories, it brought me back to where I was 25 years ago. The fact that Sam was the spitting image of Kerry didn't help.

"Yeah, well, that's the past. You're the future, you and your classmates." I said.

"Come on, I'm just a kid, I can't compete with all these real, mature women. They're so sophisticated. Not like me, I'm like nothing compared to them."

In some ways she was right. Most of the ladies here tonight had gone to some pains to look their best, and many of them were absolutely rocking the MILF look. Sam looked plain by comparison, but it was a plainness that I remembered and recognized. It was Kerry. That down to earth, ordinary young woman that first turned my heart over in my chest. The first. And really, now that I think about it, the only. I had to get out of here to clear my head.

"I'm going to stretch my legs before dinner." I told her. "I'll see you later."

"Okay Wade, see you later." she said with a smile. Funny how she kept using my name. Then again, we were all wearing name tags.

I went out into the warm August afternoon, and walked around the block. It was a big block, and I had to move along for the last part to get back in time for the dinner. Sam wasn't on the desk when I got back, it was some other girl. That was fine, it saved me from further embarrassing myself. I found my table and sat with a group that included Nick and Pat.

We talked some more over dinner, and they asked more about my work. I told them how I'd gone into the real estate market almost straight from school, while I worked at an accounting firm. I had inherited my grandmother's big old house near the university campus and turned it into apartments. I bought another big old rundown house on that street and the rent from the first one paid the mortgage. With more rent coming in, I invested in yet another property, then another and another, until I quit my job and started doing property management full time. I hit the exact right time to do this, as real estate hadn't had that price surge yet and a lot of elderly people were selling off and downsizing. A few years of careful dealing led me to buying an entire apartment complex on top of all the houses I owned. At that point, I incorporated my business and hired staff to do the work.

"Wow, so you're like some kind of university slumlord then?"

"Yeah, kind of. I keep my properties in good shape, and students these days are mostly serious about their education, so they pay consistently and don't party too much. I don't overcharge, and that means I have 100% occupancy. Summer is slow, most of the kids are on 8-month leases, but that's when we clean, paint, and renovate the places. We get a lot of co-op students in the summer too."

It turned out that three of the people at our table had had kids living in my buildings at one time or another. Pat mentioned that with so much property, I must work 24/7.

"No, no way, not for a long time. My company takes care of everything, I mostly travel and work on my hobbies now." They were kind of quiet after that, probably wondering how they got stuck on the corporate treadmill, working 9 to 5, taking a week's vacation to the beach every year, and looking forward to finally paying off the mortgage in another ten years. But everyone else at the table had at least been married at one time, or like Nick and Pat, together for 20 years. They'd been in love, had shared their life with someone. And here I was, successful yes, but not as happy as I had hoped to be. There are many ways to measure success and happiness.

When dinner was over, everyone hit up the bar again and we had another round of meet and greets. Then the band came out and said it was time to 'get the party rockin'. They were a decent group, and covered a lot of the music of our era. People started to dance, and now we got to see just how good or goofy we were. A few of the ladies asked me to dance, and a couple of them were even flirting with me. I knew them a bit from back in the day, and they were nice, but I wasn't having it tonight.

I left the dance floor after a few dances, looking for a bottle of water, and ran across Samantha at the bar. "You're not out on the desk now? You weren't there when I got back from my walk."

"No, I took a break to get something to eat. We're just sitting around out there, and Kath can handle it. I thought I would just hang out a bit and watch you old guys get funky on the dance floor."

I laughed, and said "I hope you weren't watching when I was out there, you'd probably barf."

"No way, I'm sure you can dance just fine."

"Ha ha. Wanna bet?"

"You're on. Let's go." she said, putting her water down and taking mine away too. She took my hand and led me out onto the dance floor. I could not resist her, not when she looked so much like a younger Kerry. We danced, and she was awesome. I was inspired, watching her, it was like a dream from 25 years ago coming true. I wasn't dancing with Sam, I was dancing with Kerry, and I was 18 again. But this time I was 18 without all the baggage you have when you're a shy nerdy kid in high school.

We danced a couple of songs, with her laughing and smiling and looking splendidly, unassumingly perfect. Then the music changed to a slow set, and we both stopped and looked at each other. My heart rolled over in my chest. I really felt like I was 18 again all of a sudden, with all the angst and nervousness and fear that came with being this close to your crush. And then she bit her lower lip, tilted her head that tiny, perfect little bit, as if to say 'are you gonna ask me to dance?'

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry, the rest of me suddenly wet, sweating like mad. Then I reached out to her in that universal gesture. Her hand went into mine, she was cool and soft and delicate, and we closed the gap between us. No, we didn't mash ourselves together, we stayed half an arm's length apart, just comfortably close. And we danced. I led her through a nice slow waltz. That was one skill I picked up a few years back. Ballroom dancing. I'd been to lots of places in Europe that had magnificent ballrooms and dancing to orchestras. It was so spectacular that I went and took dance lessons so I could be part of it. I even had a tux & tails to wear to those things. It was the only nice suit I owned.

A second, and then a third slow song went by, and we stayed together for them, sliding and twirling our way around the dance floor. She wasn't dressed for a Ball, neither was I, but I felt like the rest of the crowd faded away as we danced. In my head I knew I danced with a pretty young stranger, but my heart was dancing with Kerry. I was back in high school, making it work out differently this time. Like some kind of time machine was letting me go back and change things. No longer the guy in the shadows, but the guy with the moves.

When the set ended and the band took a break I escorted Samantha back to the bar where we lined up with the rest of the people to get some water, and in my case another scotch as well.

"Thank you for the dance, Wade, that was wonderful!"

"You're welcome uh, Samantha. It was my pleasure." Fuck. I almost called her Kerry again. "I guess you have to get back to the front desk?"

She looked a little sad. "Yeah. Thank you again, and stop and say goodnight on your way out, okay?" With that she was off. And my heart was breaking. What the fuck was I doing, mooning over some 18 year old girl? I was an idiot. She was not Kerry, she was not part of my life, she was nothing to me. That's what I told myself. And my heart just brushed away the words and sang an aria as I watched that pretty, plain girl walk through those doors.

During the break there were some speeches. Several of my old classmates got up on the stage to tell stories and reminisce about our senior year. I laughed at some of the stories, because hell, they were funny, and we did do a lot of stupid shit back then. Then there were the toasts. A few to those who were not here because they had passed. I knew a couple of the names they read, but the others were strangers to me, either through forgetfulness or through simple circumstance of never getting to know them. Still, either way, it was sad, and it kind of made you more aware of where you were and where you'd been.

Then they toasted the successes and the joys and the wins we all had. Whether it was finding love, or a career, or having a family, we all had things to celebrate. I toasted along with the others. Then they offered a toast to the current senior class from Clarkson High, who were destined for even greater things than us. And they also thanked those of the current class who had volunteered to help organize and run the event. Samantha and a dozen or so other kids came out to take a bow. I swear she looked straight at me and smiled.

And once again, my heart rolled over in my chest, making me wish I really did have a time machine to go back and try to be with Kerry. I'd go back, and instead of standing apart and watching her, I'd step right up and talk to her, ask her out, hold her hand... Why the fuck was I here? This was just a torture session for my emotions. Might have beens and regrets were all I had here. I'd had enough. Tossing back the last of my drink, I set my glass down and walked out the door.

Just in time to run straight into Samantha. I almost bowled her over in my haste, but I caught her.

"Oh shit! Sorry, I- are you all right?"

"Yes, fine, just surprised me. I'm fine." she said.