An End To The Distance Page 7

  “Play with me.”

  Tegan put her kids meal in the middle of the table so Jasmine could access the tic-tac-toe board.

  “I’ll be the X and you can be the O. Older people first.”

  Jasmine grinned and marked her O in the middle of the board. Tegan smiled and wiggled her eyebrows knowing she was caught.

  “Smooth move.”

  “I know.”

  Jasmine boasted. Tegan placed her diagonal from her professor’s O. It went on and on and Jasmine ended up winning…five times in a row.

  “You cheated.”

  Jasmine giggled.

  “Teegs, how in the world could I have cheated at tic-tac-toe?”

  “I don’t know, you tell me.”

  “Okay, I definitely didn’t cheat. You’re just a terrible tic-tac-toer."

  Tegan was about to say something about Jasmine’s improper English when their food arrived.

  “Smells delicious.”

  Tegan dug into her burger and Jasmine purposely waited to see her reaction.

  “Oh my god! This is like the best burger in the world!”

  “I told you.”

  Tegan munched on her hamburger, table manners be dammed while simultaneously stuffing fries in her mouth

  “Slow down, we have time.”

  Jasmine took her time eating her salad, and then ate her burger. She watched as Tegan got ketchup and mustard on both corners of her mouth. She was like a three year old at her own birthday party.

  “Need a napkin?”

  “Thanks.”

  Tegan said with a mouth full of food. She took the napkin and wiped her mouth delicately. After washing down her burger with a coke, Tegan opened her menu again.

  “So, what’s dessert?”

  Jasmine chuckled.

  “How do you eat like this and still manage to keep a nice body?”

  Shit. What the hell was in that hamburger?

  Jasmine would never be so forth coming about her thoughts. Jasmine didn’t mean to say it like that. Like Jasmine checked out her body any time she wore something that could be categorized as inappropriate to school. Maybe Tegan didn’t catch it.

  Tegan grinned smugly and raised a brow.

  “You think I have a nice body?”

  She caught it.

  “Well I mean you are on the nation’s best handball team. I don’t think you could be have anything but a nice body.”

  Jasmine blushed and pretended that a car driving by suddenly had caught her attention.

  “Very true. But yes, I do have a very nice body. I don't mind you looking.”

  Tegan narrowed her eyes at her professor as she put emphasis on her last sentence.

  “O-Okay.”

  Jasmine bit her lip trying to rid her brain from displaying several vivid images of Tegan. When Tegan and Jasmine were done, Jasmine paid for their meal without batting an eye and her and Tegan walked around to sight see stores and window shop while they let their food digest. After an hour, Jasmine drove Tegan back to the campus. Jasmine parked in her teacher parking spot and turned off her engine but the two women remained in the car, sitting in silence.

  “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Why do you see my father?”

  Tegan swallowed a huge gulp before speaking.

  “He’s nice.”

  “Nice?”

  “Yeah. He understands my sarcastic wit and doesn’t mind it like most people. I don’t really have anyone to talk to lately because my friends are just---complicated right now so he's there and I like him. And he likes me.”

  Jasmine grimaced and looked down at her fingers and played with the coat of nail paint. She knew she was hard on Tegan. But that was only for certain personal reasons. She didn’t mean to treat her like an outsider or make her feel small. That was just her way of protecting Tegan and herself.

  “Well Tegan I had a great time tonight.”

  Tegan’s mood lightened back up and she smiled at her professor

  “This was fun.”

  “Be safe getting back to you dorm okay? I don’t want to hear about you on the news tomorrow.”

  “Professor Dennings you act like we live in New York. This is Cali, babe.”

  “Don’t call me---”

  Jasmine sighed.

  “Goodnight Tegan."

  Tegan smiled at Jasmine. She could make out enough of Jasmine’s features from the moonlight to tell that Jasmine was grinning.

  “Night Professor!”

  Tegan ran off inside of her dormitory and Jasmine chuckled as she put her Porsche in reverse.

  NINE

  WHEN’S the last time that I’ve been happy?

  Peyton’s thoughts ran wild as she searched for the correct answer. She stared at her family all gathered around the dinner table, laughing and sharing fond memories while Peyton was just…there. Peyton stared down at her plate of food that had been untouched for the last thirty minutes.

  “Peyton, honey, I made your favorite pie. What’s the matter?”

  Peyton smiled thinly at her mother and reluctantly stuck her fork into the pie.

  “I was just thinking. It looks delicious.”

  Peyton made herself swallow her plate of food and her family went back to carry on their laughter. Peyton could be around the entire human race and she would still feel alone. She couldn’t share the physical pain she was tolerating with anyone.

  So you got your heart broken, every teenager has. Move on.

  Peyton tried to tell herself that but it was more to it. Much more. Peyton didn’t know how happy she could be, how hard she could laugh, how wide she could smile until she met Kat. There was just this special bond that the two of them shared. Kat made Peyton feel like she was living in a utopia. Like she was the only person on Earth and like she was truly loved. Then all of that was taken away from Peyton and she just felt alone now. Peyton’s eyes rolled up to the chandelier.

  Come on, not at the dinner table.

  Peyton tried to hold back the flood of tears that was soon to escape from her eyes. Her lower lip trembled and she looked up to the ceiling, hoping to send the tears back.

  “May I be excused?”

  Peyton’s voice came out low and wobbly. She was doing everything in her power not to burst into sobs in front of her family. The Kennedy family stopped talking and stared at Peyton.

  “Sure, honey.”

  Peyton’s mother told her in a questioning tone. Peyton pushed her chair back and made her way to her room upstairs. She shut the door softly and plopped down face first into her bed. The tears escaped her eyes and this time she didn’t try to stop them. Peyton grabbed her blue pillow and yelled into it. Her fan muffled her yell but she didn’t care if she was heard anyways. Her nose was dripping, her eyes were swollen and there was a big wet stain on her pillow now. This was good, Peyton thought. She needed this release. She needed to react to her heart being broken. She hadn’t reacted for almost three years so she needed this good cry. Peyton cried for twenty minutes, replaying the scene over and over again in her head of coming home to an empty house. Calling Kat’s name several times before finding the letter sitting on top of the coffee table. Peyton’s sobs had calmed down but she now had an excruciating migraine. She went to the bathroom connected to her room and ran the bath water. She splashed the sink water on her face and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were puffy and a bloodshot red. Her lashes were long and wet and still dropped salty tears. When the bath water was full, Peyton removed her clothes and dipped her body into the warm water. She laid back and put her entire body and head under water. She closed her eyes letting the water wash over her, escaping her world for a moment. She could take her life right here. She thought about it. She would hold her breath, listen to her heart slow, and wait for the burning sensation to course through her veins until it reached her head and she exhaled deeply, letting the water over flow in her lungs. But that would be the easy way out an
d God forgave for taking someone's life, but not if you took your own. Peyton closed her eyes and felt the blood rush to her head. She lifted her head above water and sat up straight, gasping for air. After moments of catching her breath and looking around the bathroom realizing what she almost had done, she mindlessly scrubbed her body and tried hard not to think about anything for a while.

  _________________________________________________

  Kat sat in the lukewarm bath water and cupped the water with her hands to dump on her head. She shivered as few droplets ran down her spine. The door to her bathroom was locked, as she didn’t want to be interrupted. After her outburst at the dinner table she was sure sooner or later someone was going to come knocking.

  “Katrina it’s me, open up.”

  Kat heard her mother’s faint call from the other side of the door and rolled her eyes. She just wanted be alone.

  “Mom, I’m naked and I’m taking a bath. I’ll be out later.”

  Kat stated calmly hoping her mother would just drop it.

  “No Kat, I want to talk now.”

  She could hear the frustration in her mother’s tone and reluctantly stepped out of the bathtub, wrapped herself in a towel and twisted the doorknob.

  “What was that?”

  Kat rolled her eyes at her mother’s disrespectful invasion of privacy. She used one hand to keep her towel up from falling and the other to rest on the bathroom sink.

  “Nothing mom. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry is not what I’m looking for. I want to know why you decide to blow up on your family when we evidently did not do anything to you.”

  “I’m just a little stressed mom. You know...we didn't do too well in the League and I was hoping I could take a bath to ease the stress which I'm hoping I can get back to before it gets cold."

  "Do you honestly think I believe that? Honey, this is more than just the League. You've been acting like this for I don't know how long. It's like you have all this anger inside of you and don't know how to distribute it properly and it just comes out at the worse times.

  Kat couldn't help the tears. she broke down into her mother’s arms and Patricia placed her hands on her cold back, rubbing soothing circles on her skin. She whispered soothing words into her daughter’s ear and slowly backed her into her bedroom, sitting her on the bed. It took at least fifteen minutes for Kat to stop crying and talk but Patricia was patient and she left her daughter talk, her voice trembling the entire time. She explained what happen with Peyton and everything else that lead to it. Patricia was glad that her daughter could finally get out all the pain that she had been bottling up inside of her. It was going destroy her if she didn't and she was just glad it was out in the open. After Kat's crying spell, she drifted off to sleep on her mother's shoulder and Patricia wrapped her in her covers and set out some underwear and a t-shirt when she woke up.

  “Hey, I got you some dinner and some pills. Crying gives me an excruciating headache too.”

  Kat winced and placed her pillow on her face.

  "Ugh, Ginny! Mom told you?"

  "Yes, it's okay though. It's better we all know. Now you have a reason to be a bitch."

  “Thanks Ginny.”

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  She kissed the top of her little sister’s forehead before exiting her room and closing the door behind her. Kat smiled slightly, grateful that someone had brought her food. She was starving. She continued watching the Spongebob marathon until sleep took over her and she fell asleep with the television running and the TV remote resting on her stomach.

  WHEN everyone had fallen asleep, Peyton crept downstairs to the kitchen. She was hungry. She had been hungry for the past two hours but she was waiting for her family to leave the kitchen. Hopefully the motion detector alarm wasn’t on tonight. Peyton cut on the light to the kitchen and grabbed all of the Thanksgiving dinner that her mother so nicely placed in foil out of the refrigerator. She stacked the macaroni, stuffing, turkey, greens and cornbread on her plate. Each portion of food was enough for three players. Peyton grabbed two bottles of water, a fork out of the drawer and headed back upstairs, balancing everything on her arms, careful not to drop anything. She turned on the lamp sitting on the nightstand beside her bed and placed her plate of food down on it. Peyton grabbed the remote and flicked on the television, turning the volume down on low before plopping down on her bed. She grabbed her plate and placed it on her lap, said her grace and dug in. She had never felt so famished before. She flipped through several channels trying to find something that sparked her interest. She came across a Spongebob Squarepants marathon and was about to settle on that but instead found a documentary of the Titanoboa: The Largest Snake to Ever Live and ended up watching that. Peyton loved snakes. Spongebob could wait.

  “I thought I heard someone up. Thought it was a murderer.”

  Peyton’s older sister, Andrea stuck her head through Peyton’s door with a grin on her face.

  “What was up with you? You barely ate anything for dinner…of course, I see you made up for it now."

  Andrea eyed the completely clean plate sitting on Peyton’s nightstand.

  “Pears, I don’t really want to talk right now. Besides there’s a good documentary on and you are ruining it by talking.”

  Andrea stretched her neck a little further to see the television screen.

  “Ew Peyt that’s disgusting how are you eating and watching this?”

  “Get out.”

  Peyton threw a pillow at her sister’s head. Andrea ducked and giggled as she shut the door to Peyton’s room.

  TEN

  SPENDING time with her family was great, really it was. But Tegan had never been so eager to go back to school in her life. She hadn’t seen Jasmine for two weeks now and Tegan couldn’t stand that.

  “I thought you said you were going to stay an extra day.”

  Tegan rested on her hip hoping that she didn’t have to go through this with her mother again. She looked up at a sign to see that her plane was boarding.

  “I can’t mom.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she has to see her hot lover professor.”

  Tegan’s sister chipped in.

  “Fiona! Mom that’s not true.”

  Tegan defended.

  “Tegan! Please don’t tell me this is about your English Professor.”

  “It’s not. Fiona is a liar, but I really need to leave because I can’t afford to miss my classes.”

  “Miss your classes or a class in particular?”

  “Both. Look, mom, I promise I will stay as long as you want for Christmas, but I should really leave out. I mean it’s not like I can change my flight or something. It’s about to take off.”

  Tegan’s mother sighed.

  “Excuses, excuses. Teegs is just trying to get back to school early because she has a date with her teacher.”

  Fiona once again decided to butt into the conversation that Tegan clearly didn’t think she belonged in.

  Tegan’s mother raised her eyebrows.

  “Tegan you’re not dat-“

  “No mom I’m not. I told you Fiona is a liar. I don’t even like Jasmine like that.”

  “Oh so we’re on first name terms with her now?”

  Fiona fist pumped her mother.

  “Ooh, good one mom.”

  Tegan dragged her teeth across her lips and a crimson color of red flushed around the freckles on her cheeks.

  “Well that’s my cue to go. I will see your asshole self later, Fiona. Bye mom.”

  Tegan’s mother and sister snickered at Tegan as she left them alone standing in the airport to hop on her flight. Finally she didn’t have to be bombarded with questions about Jasmine anymore. It was nerve wracking. Tegan sat in her seat that was closes to the window and whipped out her phone to send a quick text to Kat before her flight took off.

  Tegan: How’s the fam treating ya?

  Kat: Wouldn’t know. I’ve prob s
aid like four words to them all two weeks.

  Tegan: Why?

  Kat: I just haven’t really been feeling the whole family thing. Everyone is pressuring me to speak my mind. I am not in the mood for an interrogation.

  Tegan: Speaking your mind is good Kat. If you keep everything bottled up inside of you you’re going to explode.

  Kat: Too late.

  Tegan: :O What happened?

  Kat: I sort of kind of took all of my anger out on my fam at the dinner table.

  Tegan: Kat, no!

  Kat: Yeah…

  Tegan: See, that’s what happens when you bottle stuff up. When I get back to Californication, we will go work out and go grocery shopping.

  Kat: haha, grocery shopping?

  Tegan: Yes it’s a brain stimulator.

  Kat: Sure it is…wait when are you coming back?

  Tegan: Omw now. Prob be there around four in the afternoon.

  Kat: Kay. I’ll pick you up from the airport.

  Tegan: Thanks gtg.

  Tegan didn’t get to see Kat’s reply because she had to shut off her phone. Thank god, she didn’t have a seating partner on the plane. The flight was only four hours long and Tegan had plenty of stuff to bore herself with. She opened up her book to the last page that she was on and continued reading it. When the plane began to take off, Tegan searched the plane and found that there were surprisingly very few people on the plane with her. Maybe four that Tegan could see. Guess a lot of people from Georgia don’t go to California for the holidays.

  “OH yes! It’s warm here. I’ve missed this.”

  “It’s been twelve days.”

  Kat laughed as she took Tegan’s suitcase and rolled it to her car. Tegan followed behind her and hopped into shotgun.

  “So. It feels more like a month. I wonder what Jasmine did over break.”