Prompt Week Ten: It was only a dream.....

                I looked at the clock on the wall. Only two minutes had gone by since I last looked. My english teacher was still rambling about the précis we were supposed to write, clicking her mouse periodically to change the slide. “Any questions?” she asked.The room was silent and she smiled brightly. “Great! Remember, they’re due on Friday. No exceptions this near the end of the semester.”

                I threw my notebook into my bag and rushed out the door. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. It was the beginning of May and the sun was high in the cloudless sky, the breeze blew slightly and it smelled like spring. The City Forest had opened back up and Meaghan, Shane, and I had plans to walk the trails. It had been a long winter.

                The previous semester we went there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between my psychology and english classes. It was our ritual, my favorite time of day. Some days we walked a couple miles, other days we sat on “our” bench and talked. Either way, it was always fun and none of us ever missed it.

                The custodian had just cleaned the floor in the corridor and the bright green and beige tiles sparkled. The floor was slick and I lost my balance as I turned the corner, grabbing on to the wall to steady myself. Looking down at my feet I saw I was wearing impractical, open-toed heels with a leather strap that hooked on the right side of my foot.  It didn’t seem like it was going to be a day where we did a lot of walking.

                Meaghan and Shane were waiting for me in her silver Honda outside my building. I smiled. They never kept me waiting. I never knew if it was because they were as excited as I was or if they were truly that bored. I liked to think it was the former. Shane opened his door and got out of the car to get in the backseat. He was wearing his uniform of khaki cargo shorts and a short-sleeved striped polo shirt, his Red Sox hat atop his head. He shoved a pile of clothes out of his way and sat down in the back. “Pull the seat up, Sam. I pulled it back earlier to stretch out.”

                We drove in silence down Husson Ave. Nobody said anything until Meaghan almost hit a white-haired man driving a SUV when she ran the red light. “Maybe I should drive,” Shane joked from the backseat.

                “Sorry, I wasn’t really paying attention….” Meaghan murmured and she adjusted the mirror to apply her mascara.

                Typical.

                The silence returned. There was nothing new to talk about; we’d just seen each other last night so we just watched the businesses disappear in the distance as we traveled down Stillwater Avenue. Meaghan blasted the volume when Guns n’ Roses Paradise City came on, one of our favorite songs. Shane knew every word and he sang it, yelled it, from the back, his deep, raspy voice overpowering both of ours.

                When we got to the forest, cars were everywhere. It seemed everybody with a dog had the same idea we did. The ground was muddy and we only walked about twenty feet before we sat down on our bench.

                One day last fall Shane had carved his initials into the top of it, they way schoolchildren do. S.P.S. It was still there, right next to MARK LOVES LISA and Val was here!!! We sat there in the shade and watched dedicated joggers run by with their dogs. Retired couples walked cautiously along the muddy path. The birds chirped, everyone was happy and we were so comfortable together we barely spoke.