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Her brother was happy to have the company, apparently no one else wanted to run with him. Lara was not the type, but that was a long time ago. I realized while we were out for dinner and she ordered meat, that she had changed a lot. I needed to know more about what had changed, though I didn’t know who to get it from. I would ask Ashton of course, but his sister had been gone for so long, I doubted that he knew much more than me. Like myself, Lara didn’t really call and catch up. She had just taken off and now I had no idea what to think of her new likes and dislikes.
Ashton got ready quickly and we went off toward the neighborhood surrounding his place. Ashton was in a good mood and to keep my life out of the conversation for a while, I asked him why he was so happy. I was not expecting the response he gave me.
“I think I’m in love.”
I did not think that he would say something like that, so I was likely looking about as shocked as I felt. I didn’t have time to fix my face. “Love?” Was he just playing me because that’s what I felt about Lara?
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t think I would ever say that either, but it’s true. I have been dating a girl for almost a year now and I have been in love with her for a while, but now since you’ve been back, I realize that I have to make my mind up and try to get this to work. She is awesome and I don’t want to lose her, like…” His words trailed off and I knew what he was going to say. He was going to talk about how me and Lara had done well and then that was it for a decade. Could he see that we were still perfect for each other? It was obvious to me. Did he see it too?
“What were you going to say?”
Ashton slowed down so that he wasn’t breathing as hard. “You know, how it went down with you and Lara. You had something, loved her and when you didn’t make it work, she took off and so did you. Then, you had ten years to be away from each other, but look at you. Neither one of you got married. It’s like you have just been waiting for her.”
He was a bit more on the nose than I would have liked. That was about the gist of it. I had been waiting for Lara, not physically, of course. I’d had many women in the last ten years, many I used so that I could forget about Lara. It never worked, but I didn’t stop trying. I can’t imagine that Lara waited much longer than that. She was beautiful and men would flock to her. I hated the idea of it, but I knew that she wasn’t untouched like she had been before. It was one of many things that I had messed up.
“It wasn’t like that…” I started. Ashton waited for me to tell him how it was, but there was not much that was coming out. He waited expectantly and I just shrugged. I wasn’t explaining it to him. Ever since I saw her again, I had been asking myself the same question. What happened? It was so long ago, and I knew that we’d hurt each other and all that, but what actually happened wasn’t something I was aware of. I was still trying to figure it out. “I am not really sure what happened, but it was a long time ago.”
“You two act like you haven’t been apart for a decade,” Ashton observed. I didn’t want to hear it, so I walked a bit faster, and he chuckled next to me, like he knew how bothered by it all I was.
“Well, we have. A lot has changed. I don’t have the same outlook of the future anymore. I used to think that anything was possible, but now I know better than that.”
Ashton didn’t feel that way. He was one of the most positive people I’d ever met. He and his sister were two rays of sunshine and it could get annoying, well, it used to.
“After meeting Erin, I think that anything is possible now.”
I scoffed, “Sorry, I didn’t even ask. Where did you meet her?”
I wasn’t being a very good friend, but now I knew my fault, so I was going to make sure that I was now. I asked him about her, and I would have known that he was in love just by the way his whole face lit up when he was talking of her. He was in head over heels. Why did that make me feel less guilty? I liked the idea that I wasn’t the only one losing my shit because of a woman.
Erin was a customer that came into the gym where he worked as a personal trainer. His whole job was encouraging people to be their best self. It really was the perfect job for him. Erin was a client for a few sessions, and then the rest was history. She was a nurse at a local hospital, and my best friend was in love. I wanted to meet who made him look that way.
“You should bring her over and we will all sit down together. I think it would be a great way to introduce her to your family.”
Ashton looked off and had a frown on his face. Obviously, something was on his mind and when I asked him what was going on, he started in on what was bugging him. “Ashley is not going to take it well.”
I was confused. They were too close sometimes, but I’d always been told it was a twin thing. “What do you mean?”
He sighed. “I am going to ask Erin to marry me, and we are going to move into our own place. You know that Ashley is not going to take that well.”
It was then I saw that it was an obligation for Ashton, but he had always just done it. Did he want the situation the way it was? How could I help him, because right now there was nothing I could do to help myself.
“She wants what is best for you and for you to be happy. There is no way that she would be jealous or selfish about it. She would be fine. You owe her the truth. What else are you going to do, go run off and not even tell her? She is going to come home and find you moved out?”
Ashton smiled and I didn’t know why. I was bitching at him. “What?”
“See, I told you that you still cared. You’ve been thinking about Bogalusa this whole time, haven’t you?”
I groaned out loud. When did he become so annoying and right? Bogalusa and the people who lived here were never far from my mind.
6
Lara
Ashley wanted to go out the next morning. She said that I was going to help her pick out some clothes. Ashley had never liked the style that I preferred. It felt like she was just trying to get close but didn’t know how. I just decided that it wasn't the worst idea and the only problem I had with the day was how there wasn't too much to be done for what could be bought in town. Like my sister, small-town Louisiana was not up on the fashion. Ironically, she had no idea what I was supposed to do.
“Why don't we go to New Orleans? There will be a lot more selection there,” I suggested. It was the only place even remotely close that would have some real items there to choose from. If Ashley wanted to change it up, she needed to get away from where she’d been buying her clothes.
Ashley didn't want to go. She said something about not wanting to leave the guys for that long, but she was acting strange, and I wanted to know why she was acting that way.
