Away From Everywhere by Chad Pelley Page A

lay beneath was worth pursuing. She was warm: a close talker without invading personal space, the kind of girl you can befriend in one sitting and have forever as a friend. Three tattooed swallows flew up the soft vanilla skin of her right forearm. Green and red birds, the first tattoo he knew a person would never regret. They meant something to her, defined her, spoke for her. She had that esoteric, unconventional beauty that made monsters of supermodels.
    She turned from the window to greet him. “Hi!” She said it so jovially, like someone everyone’s always falling in love with, so he didn’t have to feel pathetic. “Your mother always talks about you guys. Are you Owen the intellectual or Alex the genius?”
    Her voice shattered him. That one look at Abbie, through his adolescent, hormone-soaked eyes, had him sitting by the phone every day and waiting for his mother to call, hoping Abbie would be working that day. It had him filling tissues at night, and filling the shower drains in the mornings.
    When he confessed his crush to Alex, stating that they didn’t need to flip that coin anymore,Alex mocked him.“You’re pathetic, and she’s like five years older than you. That doesn’t matter later in life, but we’re still in high school. The last thing you need–”
    â€œAh, whatever. High school is over in a few weeks. And you haven’t seen the girl, man, I’m stunned stupid when I’m around her. It’s not the kind of feeling I can ignore. I was sitting in Mom’s chair the other day, leafing through a Hemingway novel she’d just finished and offered me a loan of. She was standing up, sort of beside me but behind me, with one hand resting on the back of my chair, sort of around me. I could just feel her there, you know what I mean? Like, if I was blind I’d still know how beautiful she was, you know? It was all I could do not to lay my head onto her belly and pray she wouldn’t mind … and … I dunno, that she’d comb my hair with her hand. And ask me to marry her.”
    He shot his speechless brother a look that said, Yeah, I know, right? And laughed at himself. “I think I’ll head over there now, pretend I was over to a friend’s house and driving past, and didn’t see the point of going home and coming back again.”
    â€œIt’s a two-minute drive, Owen, and Mom isn’t off for another forty minutes. It’ll be a little obvious, don’t you think? I mean …”
    His brother was still talking as Owen pulled the front door closed.
    Every day Owen had an excuse to be early, in order to linger in her presence. One day she handed him a bottle of water, and when her fingers slid across his hand he felt something he hadn’t felt since he lost his father.
    The time he spent away from Abbie was agony, there was far too much of it. So he had to ask his mother over supper one night.“ I like it there too,Mom, it’s a great place, doing a great thing for the community, and I think you might need a few male employees there, for when those abusive men come by, screaming at the door, like last week. Abbie told me about Jim Croaker kicking another dent in the door. I’d like to volunteer there too.”
    She was stirring a pot of pasta, not even looking at him.
    â€œSorry, sweetie, but it’s against policy to have men working there. Besides, no offense, but you’d do little to scare off the violent men we get beating on that door. Jim Croaker isn’t even scared of the police,Owen.”
    She laughed as her son’s true intentions came to her. As she laid a plate of garlic bread on the table she shot him a knowing smile. “She’s a charmer,Owen, sweetie, I’ll give you that.”
    His brother and mother laughing at him like that. The awkwardness of love exposed. He could only smile and play stupid, and maybe stop showing up so early for a few days.
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