Ditching School

Liza began driving, and asked us, “Would you like me to come along, so I can give you a ride home whenever you’re ready?”

Arthur replied, “No, that’s okay. You don’t have to stay with us. I’ll call you to come pick us up whenever we’re ready.”

“Okay, not a problem, cuz.” She grinned at us through her sunglasses. NSYNC was blasting on the radio. This girl sure had amazing taste in music.

She decided to drop us off at the mall where Arthur and I could hang out for a few hours, probably until school was over. Her plan was to return to Arthur’s place and stay there for a while to wait for the hospital to call her for an update on his father Douglas Franken’s condition and surgery. She had keys to their place, so it wasn’t an issue for her. Arthur and I could spend time together at the mall, not necessarily buying clothes or anything. Maybe some food and snacks for a movie, but that was pretty much it. We needed a mental break from school and being constantly monitored by the Ryder cops, and from Kari-Ann and her endless, mundane drama. We needed a break from all of that.

That whole morning flew by so fast, it was pretty hard to notice with the fun that Arthur and I had been having at the mall, watching other people come and go, buying clothes and stuff. It was now quarter to 12, and it was almost four hours that we’d now been at the mall. We should expect to hear back from the hospital about Doug’s condition any minute soon. Liza should be the one to inform us because technically, she was an adult; she was 24.

Arthur and I were at one of the food courts, and it suddenly reminded me of the fun time Kari-Ann and I had when we were shopping for clothes for the first day of school. With her trying to impress Eric Walker. It was all but a distant memory now. Knowing what she now knew about Eric, I couldn’t help but wonder how far she had to go to impress him. Coloring her hair, getting all these new fancy clothes… You couldn’t help but ask Kari-Ann if it was all worth it. Doing all this stuff for one guy that ended up cheating on you, and you hit him with your car in anger, killing him as a result. Was it all worth it? I didn’t think so.

Arthur saw the pensive expression on my face. “What are you thinking about?” he asked with a smile.

“Oh…” I didn’t realize that I’d been so lost in thought. I chuckled. “My gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…”

“It’s okay.” He chuckled. It was the first genuine smile I’d seen out of him all morning, since we’d left the hospital.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about the time that Kari-Ann and I came here, having fun before the first day of school. Buying clothes, getting our hair done, nails done, everything. Talking… Well, more like gossiping about guys. At school…” I grinned. “Namely you, for one.”

“And Eric.” He added with a smile. “Eric, too, right?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Eric, too. She bleached her hair to try to get him to notice her.”

“That we all know.” He nodded. “Well, what a waste of time, right? Considering that he turned out to be exactly what we all expected him to be, huh? Was it all worth it, though? For her, I mean.”

“That’s exactly what I was just thinking about. And look at what she does to him. Hits him with her car.” I shook my head. “I don’t understand how you can just let your emotions go way out of control to do that to someone you claimed to love and care about. I’ll never understand Kari-Ann.”

“Truthfully, I don’t think any of us will ever understand her.” Arthur shook his head in agreement. “At least not in this lifetime. She’s a complicated human being.”

Complicated was an understatement. I didn’t even know who Kari-Ann was anymore. She was now a total stranger to me. “Word.” I nodded in agreement as I took a small sip of my strawberry milkshake topped with whipped cream.

We continued eating in silence for a few minutes before he and I both awkwardly tried to break the silence at the same time. We owed each other a huge apology. Lots of them, actually. “Sorry,” I said with a chuckle.

“No, you first. Ladies first.”

“Okay.” I sighed. “I’m sorry if you felt that I was defending Kari-Ann or that I didn’t care about the Walkers by not going down to the station right away to report Kari-Ann’s confession. I wasn’t trying to ‘defend’ her; I was just giving my two cents that Eric shouldn’t have been standing so close to her car. I know now how that sounds, saying it out loud… You know, that I’m blaming him for putting himself in that situation. I guess as an objective third party, I shouldn’t have said anything because I wasn’t even there. You and I were lucky enough to still be at the party, so we both have alibis, and that’s a good thing.”

Arthur held my hand. “I know you weren’t defending her, no matter what you said or how it came out when you said it out loud. I guess in a way, I kind of overreacted because like you just said… We were both at the party. We weren’t even there with Kari-Ann and Eric. She was the only person with him that night, so she definitely knew what happened. Of course, she had to frame the narrative in order to paint herself as some sort of victim, so it’s natural that you took her at face value based on what she told you.

“But one thing is right for sure: they were both at each other’s throats that night, so they were both equally responsible for aggravating the hell out of each other. Understanding Eric’s frame of mind, I guess in a way, I can’t say I blame him for wanting to find his own way back home in the dark at night. Who’d want to get a car ride from Kari-Ann, after all? She’s a volatile type of person, and she’s clearly shown that she’s unable to control her feelings, especially when around Eric… Her ex, so I guess his appearance at the party must’ve triggered her somehow. Is that an excuse? No, what she did was wrong. But still, it doesn’t justify anything she did, even after the fact.”

“Right, the fact that she got her brother Damian involved really says a lot about her guilt. I can’t even imagine putting my own sibling through something like that.”

“Exactly. Anyway, Erika, I’d like to apologize, too, for everything I’ve said. I never meant to yell or lash out at you like that. I guess…” He sighed. “I guess in a way, I considered Eric to be like my brother. Since this whole thing happened and the news came out about his death, I… I have been living in guilt, too. I don’t know why. I mean, I guess it’s because of all the things I said to him at the party. I mean, we were all there, and you were clearly there, too. Based on what you told Detective Marshall, you were right when I told Eric that he was dead to me. Everyone else heard me too, including Daphne.

“So, I’m not completely innocent here, either, based on what I said to him. It feels like I killed him. Not physically, of course, but verbally. I killed him with my words. Words can hurt, and I know that my words hurt him that night. I hate that it’s the last thing I ever said to him, as someone I’ve known like a brother all my life.” He was getting a little bit emotional. I knew exactly how he felt.

“It’s okay.” I held his hand. “Arthur, you didn’t kill him, okay? No matter what you think. We all said a lot of regrettable things to him at the party, and when you and I fought, we both said a bunch of pretty regrettable things to each other. The only difference is, we’re both here right now admitting to our mistakes. We’re still here, and that’s important. Eric is no longer here, and that’s such an unfortunate shame for his parents. You’re not responsible for hurting Eric. In the end, it was all Kari-Ann. This is all her fault. She’s responsible for everything bad that happened to him that night. She’s the one who has everything to lose, not us. We made it through this okay, and we’ll continue to get through more things like this together. I just don’t like being apart from you.”

“I know, Erika.” He smiled. “I hated being apart from you. I know that’s why you’d been dodging my calls yesterday about my dad. I wasn’t sure if you heard me, or if you’d been too busy doing homework and I was disturbing you, so I had to get Liza to…”

“Hey, it’s okay.” I assured him. “I totally get it. And it was all my fault; I blocked you for a while after your message yesterday. Your shitty message, I might add.” I gave a playful smile. “But I guess that was as close to an apology as you could get. I’ve since unblocked you now, so don’t worry. Thanks for getting Liza to reach out to me. If I hadn’t blocked you then, I would’ve gotten your calls and messages, and I would’ve been on my way to see you and be there for you right away.”

“That’s really nice, Erika. You’re here for me now, and that’s important.” He smiled again. “You’re not one to ditch school now, are you?”

“Neither are you.” I grinned.

“What, with your little perfect attendance record. I guess Szasky’s got a little thing up her sleeve, then.” We both chuckled.

Arthur sighed, becoming serious again. “But seriously, though… I really did consider Eric to be a brother to me, being that he and I were both only children. You’re lucky that you’re not an only child, Erika. You don’t even know how an only child sometimes feels about not having any siblings to play or hang around with. Thankfully, my cousins were around for me. Yes, even Liza,” he smiled. “She was also there for me, and we always spent time together. I look up to her like a sister, and she’s the only girl out of all of us, so when my dad had his… Incident–for lack of a better term–last night and I wasn’t able to get a hold of you, she naturally became the next person in mind for me to get in touch with. And I got her to reach out to you, in case you were still mad at me and didn’t want to answer me… Which I kind of assumed correctly, being that you blocked me ‘for a while’, or so you say.” He put air quotes around “for a while.” I understood his pain, though.

“Yeah, again, I’m very sorry, Arthur. If it makes you feel any better…” I took out my phone and showed it to him, proving that he was now unblocked. “See? I’ve since unblocked you. I didn’t mean to ignore you or make you feel like I wasn’t available to talk to you. After our little text exchange, Sabrina called back to tell me about her plan to get Kari-Ann for lunch at her place on Saturday, and I told her that you and I needed some more space. Which I know probably isn’t true–unless you really do want space–but I just said anything to keep her from being worried about me. And also, I apologize for telling her about us.”

“No, no, it’s good that you vented to her.” He chuckled. “I don’t need space from you, Erika Slatten. I love you. Okay? That’ll never change. I want to get back together with you; I think we’ve been apart long enough. If Sabrina and I hadn’t talked, then I wouldn’t have reconsidered my choice in ending things between us. She made me open up my eyes to realize what I’d be missing out on if I really ended things between us for good. But thank God that’s not happening.” He affectionately played with my fingers. “Thank God we’re still together again… Right?”

“Right.” I smiled. “I hated fighting with you. I already lost my best friend; I don’t want to lose my boyfriend, too.” The look in his eye when I said “boyfriend”, now that really melted my heart.

We were silent for a while, just enjoying each other’s company… And the food. Then he broke the silence. “I just want to share a quick, little funny memory about Eric, if that’s okay.”

“No, that’s totally fine. I want to hear something funny for once. Anything that can cheer me up from all… This.”

“Right.” He chuckled, then cleared his throat to start telling his story. “So, one time, when we were eight, we went camping with our dads one summer at the Windsor Meadows Park. It was a thing we did with some of our classmates at the time, as a father-son bonding activity. It was also one of the times where Eric’s dad was actually present in his life… Even if it was just temporary.”

Arthur went on to share the fun that he and Eric had had while camping by the river in Windsor, and some of the funny, silly stuff that he and Eric did together when it came to searching for food, fishing and all that. Typical guy stuff. But it was a pretty cute story, one that made me feel amused and touched at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to hear this crazy, silly side of Eric. I knew there was definitely much more to him than the “player” he claimed to be at school.

After Arthur finished telling the story, I asked, “You still miss him, don’t you?”

“I never thought I’d miss him this much… Considering what I said to him at the party.” Arthur gave a small smile to fight back the tears. He wasn’t expecting to get so emotional in telling the story. “I guess that’s why I was so pushy on you about reporting Kari-Ann’s confession right away. That, and the fact that this Saturday will mark 12 years since my mom’s death, and… I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I feel like an odd duck, having lost two people in my life already. Two people who were that close to me, so, yeah.”

I completely understood everything now. Also the fact that his father was sometimes nostalgic of his wife and missed her so much that he coped with it in a not-so-healthy way… Smoking. Which led to a heart attack. Speaking of which… Hopefully, we get some good news from the doctors and nurses about how the surgery went.

“I get it,” I said. “I understand how you feel. I knew there was something weird about the way you lashed out at me. You never do that, Arthur. So, I figured that there had to be something wrong. I apologize again if you initially felt that I didn’t care enough about what the Walkers are going through, but I just want you to know that my mom and I had gone to the police station yesterday. We met up with Detective Marshall, and…”

“I know, Erika.” He held my hand. “I know you only said that you weren’t going because I kept getting in your face about it. I don’t blame you for that.” He chuckled. “I would’ve done the same thing myself. And I know that you care about Sabrina, so I was a jerk for saying that you didn’t care about what she’s going through. I trust that Sabrina is in control of her Saturday lunch plans with Kari-Ann, and she’ll dig her answers out of Kari-Ann. She needs justice for Eric. He was her son, after all.”

“Exactly,” I said in agreement. “We just have to be patient and see how it goes. Hopefully, Kari-Ann tells her every single thing that she told me. The whole truth. It’s all going to be on record, so she better not lie or make anything up that’ll make her look even worse.”

Just then, Arthur received a message notification, which was from Liza. Liza told him that the hospital had contacted her, updating her about Doug’s condition post-surgery: he was now in stable condition, and they were planning to keep him overnight until tomorrow morning. In other words, he would be discharged tomorrow morning. That was good news. Arthur showed me the messages from Liza. “My dad made it through surgery.” He had a genuinely large smile on his face, one of relief.

“Oh, my God… Arthur, that’s great news.” I gave him a hug and squeezed him tightly. He squeezed me back, equally tightly. It was a playful type of hug. “So, is she coming to get us now, or what?”

“I’ll tell her to come pick us up in another hour,” he said. “I don’t want us to leave just yet. Do you plan to go back to school? Because I don’t.” He had a mischievous grin on his face. I never took him to be the playing-hooky type. Neither was I, but look at where we were now: ditching school for a day of fun. A risk worth taking.

“I don’t want to leave, either,” I said with an equally mischievous smile. “We’re just starting to have some real fun.” And then we shared a passionate kiss that seemed to last for an eternity.