Authors: Laura Gibson
Agoura Hills, California
June 2nd, 2010
Rachel
Rachel sat in her baby blue 1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 SLR, a white scarf wrapped around her head and throat to shield her porcelain skin from the hot summer sun, her eyes covered with large black rimmed sunglasses. She twisted the gold ring on her index finger around anxiously and tried not to think about what time it was.
Rachel again smoothed her white pleated skirt and checked to make sure that her light pink blouse was in perfect order; wasted movements, spent to quicken the time waiting.
Rachel turned her wrist over and checked the time on her thin, yellow gold watch. Half past two. She wanted to sigh. She felt it press up her throat and get trapped there, hanging in the balance.
They were late.
Rachel seemed to remember being told that most artists ran on their own time, but she couldn’t wrap her head around that concept. Time was not something someone else created. It was a concrete fact; you couldn’t do anything about that.
Rachel felt the sigh stifle and sink down into her gut where it twisted into a familiar knot. Lacking punctuality was a character flaw that Rachel couldn’t or wouldn’t accept.
Rachel, was a woman of impeccable timing, whether it be planned or otherwise. She always arrived at precisely the time she needed to be there and now these hooligans were making everyone late. She caught the sigh in her throat again before she had a chance to expel it and shifted in her seat, waiting. Always waiting.
Rachel Gunn had just turned eighteen, it was the summer before her college experience got underway and she had been charged with the very interesting task of babysitting her brother and his friends.
She finally sighed heavily and tried to think of a way not to be angry with them. It wouldn’t be a very good first impression if she was disgruntled right from the start.
Rachel hadn’t even seen her brother in the past three years, maybe they had gotten the wrong time. Maybe she had remembered the wrong time. Her brain really only wanted to believe the best in people. Even still, Rachel pulled out her smartphone and scrolled through her emails from the past month.
Quickly her thumb ticked up past the unopened emails from different universities, urging her to respond. She opened the little bit of communication she’d had with Ethan and again felt her body try to sigh. She wanted to believe the best, she really did, but that’s not how things turned out.
She was right; it had been two o’clock on the dot.
Rachel’s body tensed up with agitation but she tried to relax or pretend to relax. There was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation. Ethan probably didn’t even think twice to double check the time. It probably hadn’t even been an afterthought. It was Ethan after all.
Rachel stretched out her back and rolled her stiff neck as she repositioned herself in the car. Ethan may still be a Gunn, but he was from the side of “free-spirits and artistic creativity.” He hadn’t grown up with Peter Gunn.
Rachel considered calling her absent brother but just as her fingers began typing in the necessary numbers, a white rusty bus pulled into the parking lot. She could smell the fumes from the exhaust and she wondered if part of the derelict was on fire.
It parked rather haphazardly and sat there for a few moments in silence before the back door swung open wide and a man that Rachel didn’t recognize hopped out. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and he adjusted his pants while making sure the white button up shirt he was wearing was still tucked in.
He was wearing black sunglasses and looked into the van like he was waiting for someone else to tell him what to do. Rachel heard him laugh at something that was said and again she checked her watch. Ten to three now, if this wasn’t them she was going to be extremely perturbed.
Finally, Ethan spilled out of the driver seat. He stretched leisurely and cracked his neck, yawning as he examined his face in the window on the door.
Rachel’s fingers drummed impatiently on the steering wheel. Really, how long did it take for people to get out of a van? This was getting absurd.
Maybe all the fumes had gotten to them. She raised an eyebrow and again found herself watching the man that first exited the van, looking for any sign of exhaust poisoning.
His hand was on his hip while he looked off into the distance as if he was waiting for something, Rachel felt herself squint. She knew that man. Rachel leaned forward, trying not to look like she was staring. Her heart dropped into her stomach and she felt her fingers grew colder. What was he doing here?
Rachel swallowed and regained her composure. She unlatched the door to her fully restored classic and got of the car. Her long legs unfolded underneath her and she could hear the tiny clicks that her gold heels made on the pavement as she walked over to them, praying that he wouldn’t recognize her.
Ethan noticed her first.
He jogged over with long loping limbs, his face sporting a new, poorly grown beard.
“Hey!” Ethan had the knack of being able to smile with his whole face and now it beamed with excitement. “Didn’t see you there!”
Rachel hugged her brother and decided not to bring up the fact that they were almost an hour late. “How was the drive?”
“Long.” A third man came walking up. He had sun bleached blond hair and perfectly clear blue eyes.
“
I’m Logan. You must be the Miss Rachel we’ve all be hearing about.” He had a charming smile and perfect teeth that seemed to be freshly whitened.
Rachel smiled politely and shook the hand that was offered, “Only good things, I hope.”
“Of course!” Ethan defended himself. “Although, I didn’t mention the roadster. When did you get that thing?”
Ethan started walking over to Rachel’s car and she followed suit, pulling her hand away from Logan’s, even though it looked like he had wanted to say something more. As she walked away, following Ethan, she could feel Logan’s eyes on her back but she pushed forward and introduced her brother to her baby.
“Dad bought it for me for graduating early,” Rachel said, feeling proud of her scholarly accomplishments. For some reason it had never come up in any of their emails, so she had planned to interject it as soon as she could.
Ethan gave her a sideways look, “Graduating early?”
“Yeah, I finished high school when I was sixteen.” Rachel took a sharp breath in, “I mean, I would have been done sooner, but when I transferred from Phillips some of my credits got lost in translation.”
Dad had been surprisingly forgiving when everything came out and let her quietly finish up her schooling at a public school in the area, while also rewarding her behavior with the roadster that she fondly referred to as Jamie.
She knew that Ethan and mom had been kept from a lot of what had happened at Phillips Academy and she was going to keep it that way. Or at least, she was going to try.
“
Phillips? Like the prep school?” Another voice came from behind her and Rachel turned around to see that the one that first exited the van was now standing there, staring at her.
He had removed his sunglasses a little while ago and she could see his deep green eyes, bright in the afternoon sun. He was taller than she remembered he ought to be. And his hair was darker, it was still kept neat and trim, but it was different. But doesn’t that happen when two people spend time apart? Don’t they change?
“Yes, the very same.” Rachel smiled at him, wondering why he hadn’t said anything yet. Unless he was pretending just as much as she was. Her eyes glanced down and away from him, noticing his antique leather oxfords. She couldn’t help smiling, not everything had changed.
“
I didn’t know you were a prep school girl.” Logan was back now, trying to take Rachel’s attention away from the third friend.
“
Yeah, Dad wanted us to get a decent education,” Ethan said with an eye roll. “So they let us pick where we wanted to go. Rachel here decided that only a top notch school would do.”
“
The curriculum was very extensive,” Rachel defended her choice, once again getting roped into the old argument they seemed to always have.
Ethan didn’t really care for schooling whereas Rachel thought it was the determining factor for the rest of her life. She wanted to be able to do whatever she desired in her life and she thought the best way to get that done was through an excellent education.
Ethan disagreed.
“
Didn’t they have a scandal there a few years ago?” The third man pushed, his lips almost smirking. Almost.
Rachel forced a smile while she changed the subject. “I’m sorry; I didn’t think I caught your name.”
“Kelly Hill.” He smiled at her, sticking out a hand, “At your service.”
Rachel went to shake his hand and felt the same feelings and guilt come back fresh, invading her senses, making her weak.
“Yeah yeah, we all know you’re the big shot.” Ethan focused the group back on him. “How come dad never got me a car for graduating?”
“
Maybe because you didn’t graduate.” Rachel pointed out, wanting to defend her dad, but at the same time making sure that Ethan didn't feel left out.
“
Graduation is a relative term.” Ethan waved away her logical reason.
Rachel swallowed and chuckled nervously, “It’s not relative. It’s a fact. You dropped out the moment mom said you could.”
Ethan shrugged, “I was busy; getting schooled in the facts of life.”
Rachel blinked. Her brother had turned into a walking cliché. She didn’t know what to say next because she didn’t want to argue with him in front of his friends so again she tried to change the subject.
“Are you guys hungry?” She was hopeful that they were so that they could get moving. Already, this whole thing seemed like a bad idea.
“
I mean, Kelly here is the smartest guy I know and he dropped out.” Ethan kept going on the topic that Rachel wanted to leave behind.
“
No. He was kicked out.” Logan laughed, “Isn’t that right, Kell?”
Rachel saw a different sort of smile spread across Kelly’s face, one that was laced with mischief and charm, “That’s right.”
“And Logan is the only one outta us that graduated and he’s dumb as hell.” Ethan continued.
Rachel looked to Logan to see if he was going to either confirm or deny his level of intelligence.
“It’s true.” Logan said with a shrug and a nod.
“
So you see, Rach, school’s not everything.” Ethan drove his point home with an air of satisfaction, as if he had won something.
“
I guess I stand corrected.” Rachel kept smiling, hoping that the subject was done now. She had let Ethan win; he had to let it go.
Ethan was four years older than her, but was lacking in the maturity department. Something she and her parents knew very well.
Rachel looked back at Kelly and could see something on his face that she understood. He was pretending, but only because he knew she was. For some reason this made Rachel feel excited as well as ashamed. He hadn’t forgotten about her.
Before Rachel could dissect the feeling and expose it for what it really meant Ethan was talking again, moving on and away from her roadster, from their parents and from his lack of a formal education.
“So you said something about lunch?” He was smiling, his large, lopsided grin showing off his dimples.
“
I did, didn’t I?” Rachel returned the sibling affection and motioned at the diner that they were parked in front of it. “Its easy food, good for after a road trip.”
“
As long as they serve bacon I’m sold.” Logan swung a large arm around Rachel's shoulders and started leading her towards the diner. “I’m starved; they haven’t fed me in days.”
“
That’s not true.” Kelly’s voice spoke up from behind them, “You just ran out of money before the halfway point.”
“
Yeah man, we had to give you half of every meal we bought.” Ethan added, chuckling.
Although Kelly sounded relatively annoyed Ethan was laughing good naturedly. Rachel wanted to glance back at Kelly, to get a real look at him again, just to see what all had changed, but Logan was steering her towards the door now. For the third time Rachel caught the sigh that was permanently trapped in her chest and swallowed. This was her task this summer.
It was supposed to be a distraction, but now, knowing that Kelly Hill was one of her charges she couldn’t help but feel more stress press upon her.
Having these three boys around was supposed to mean that she wouldn’t have to think of the other man in her life that she thought she had buried far behind her at Phillips Academy two years ago. One that she never thought she’d have to think about again, let alone speak to.
But the letter that had arrived one day before Kelly Hill had walked back into her life was still sitting on her nightstand, unopened, waiting for her to come home and discover its secrets. The letter that held her name scrawled out in a strong pointed penmanship that she would have recognized anywhere.