Page 80 of Poems He Wrote

My primary stop is Ronan’s apartment. I park the car and send her a quick text, letting her know I’m waiting. Not long after, she runs out, holding a huge, fluffy bear tied with at least twenty balloons. I can barely see her from how huge the thing is.

“Open the door please!” she squeals as I round my car.

“That sure is something!” I say, stuffing the bear next to my box.

“He is a softie, even though he looks nothing like it.” She smiles and kisses my lips. “I always give him plushies for his birthdays!”

I open the door for her, holding her hand.

“Oh, such a gentleman.”

“I was raised right,” I chuckle as she bats her eyelashes at me. “You look stunning.”

I sit back in and start driving again, looking at her from time to time. She has a pair of white mom jeans on and a peachy mesh blouse. Fresh colors make her hair and the rosy color of her cheeks pop even more.

“You don’t look bad yourself,” she says softly, grabbing my hand on the shift stick.

I turn the music on, and drive through our town, the balloons trailing behind us through an open window.

“Why so many balloons?”

“Oh! There are thirty-three of those,” she laughs. “Corey is turning thirty-three.”

“Aaaaah! Okay, that makes sense. So, is there anything I shouldn’t ask him about? Does he have a partner, or something?”

“Hmmm, maybe don’t talk about addiction? And as far as I know, he is seeing someone, but it’s nothing serious yet. It was all Grindr hook-ups ‘till a few months ago.”

“He sounds like Jensen,” I say, and Ronan kind of pales in the face. “What was that?”

“Well…you remember when Jensen was talking about that blond dude from Grindr, with blue eyes?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s Corey.” She takes a deep breath. “I made his profile, I wrote that caption.”

“Are you serious?” My voice pierces the air. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to! But Jensen sent me a quick text to keep my mouth shut, until he knew how he felt about Corey. It wasn’t my place to talk.”

“I know, I know… I am not angry. I’m just…wow. What a small world.” I rub my forehead. “So, I guess they still don’t know how serious it is?”

“I guess. It’s been almost four months since it started.”

“How are they even making it work? Jensen is in boarding school…” And he is eighteen and a half, which is a bit young, but oh well, if they like each other and it’s consensual, it’s good enough for me.

“I don’t know the details. They don’t share much.” Ronan laughs, and it makes me smile. Her laugh is contagious.

The rest of the drive passes in us blasting the music, singing our hearts out to the radio. I had no idea how many Taylor Swift songs I actually knew.

Ronan points me through the streets, telling me where to go. We are headed to the outer border of the small town. She fills me in on all the details about the house, since she lived there for a long time with Corey. The ‘don’t get flustered by a million photos of me hanging around the house’ really got to me, because I have none yet.

Would he notice if I stole some?

We come to a halt a few houses down the street, finding a single empty parking spot. Grabbing our presents in one, we link our free hands and slowly head for the party. The music blasts through the neighborhood, but Ronan tells me that’s normal in this part of the town. Nobody minds it. They all love young people having fun, the police were never once called.

People are drinking and dancing with cups of alcohol in their hands. You can feel the energy in the air. It’s all young, wild and free. The house is big, with dark windows and a big door with two hinges, which are open, swearming people going in and out.

We step inside, and Ronan quickly pulls me up the stairs to her old room. Strangely, none of the party moved to the upper floor.

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