Checked Again by Jennifer Jamelli

old Stratus next week, and the guy who is
buying it wants both original sets of keys. Thanks, Angel.
     
    Close
message. Roll eyes. There it is. His reason for wanting to meet. Sounds about
right. He could’ve just asked me to mail the keys…OR he could’ve told the car
buyer guy that he lost the other set…OR he could’ve gotten another set made or
something. But those options would’ve been reasonable…unselfish…not like Tony
at all.
    I
begin to wonder what he would’ve done if I hadn’t opened Facebook this week and
accepted his friend request, if I hadn’t agreed to play Words with Friends with
him.
    Then
my phone buzzes. Tony again.
     
    So…Sunday?
     
    Reply.
     
    Can’t
I just mail you the keys?
     
    Can’t
you just go away?
    Buzz.
     
    Well, I already told
the guy I’d be getting the other set this weekend. I arranged to meet him on
Monday when I get back home from my weekend trip to Pittsburgh.
     
    Of
course you did.
    Buzz
again.
     
    So how about we meet
before your dinner. 4:00 p.m., maybe? Dawson’s Grille?
        
    Wow.  What
an ass.
    Buzz
again.
     
    I’d really like to
see you. It’s been so long, and it ended so bad…
     
    UGH. I don’t know if
I’m more irritated by his message itself or the fact that he wrote “bad”
instead of “badly.” I’m also starting to get irritated at another person. At
Father Patrick, whose last sermon was all about forgiving even when you don’t
want to…all about how giving forgiveness is soul cleansing or whatever.
    And
I do like things to be clean…
    Count.
Reply.
     
    Fine.
I’ll be there.
     
    Send.
    Buzz.
Open.
     
    Thanks,
Angel.
     
    {Denis
Leary begins to sing “Asshole” loudly—he focuses on the part where he spells the title of the song over and
over.}
    Okay.
No time to think about this right now. Almost time for Girls’ Night.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter
9
    weekend
     
     
    TONIGHT
SEEMS TO BE ALL about bottles and diapers and showers. Melanie has babies on
her mind…but she’s not pregnant yet. 
    This
baby infatuation is actually proving to be quite beneficial for me—academically
speaking. Tonight, we are watching various episodes of Teen Mom (it’s
Melanie’s night to pick what we watch). We have already watched two episodes
and, so far, there has really been no talk of blood or diseases. It’s
wonderful. I’m totally using the episodes as research for my teen pregnancy
paper. I’m going to watch them again on a non-Girls’ Night when I can focus
totally on the show (tonight, we have talked through a lot of the potentially
important dialogue). I’ll probably even buy some of the earlier seasons of the
show and watch them too.  Hopefully Dr. Harper will see all of this as
authentic research for my paper. I don’t see why he wouldn’t…
    Right
now, Melanie is taking a shower, and Mandy is talking to Josh. And I…I am
sitting on the couch and regretting my decision to see Tony, panicking over my
upcoming trip with Dr. Gabriel, and staring at my latest text from Unknown
Number, the one that came about an hour ago.
     
    Are
you really going to go?
     
    I
haven’t responded. I’d like to write back with “I’m working on getting out of
it.”
    And
I am working on getting out of going to the conference…and also other upcoming
events…I just don’t know how I’m going to accomplish it (any of it) yet.
    If
I could just come up with a solid series of lies—to get out of seeing Tony…to
get out of going to the conference…to get out of any upcoming appointments with
doctors—that would be awesome.  Hmm…perhaps what I need is one big mother of a
lie to get out of all of this at once. That would be pretty amazing.
    Still
staring at my phone, at his text, I spend about ten minutes trying to come up
with one big lie that will fix all of my problems. Then, having no luck, I
spend ten more minutes attempting to create three separate lies. After that
(and still with no progress), I spend around ten minutes feeling