K. Randis - Spilled Milk

“No no, don’t sit down. I appreciate the apology but you still haven’t told the class exactly what it is you’re skipping my class for.”

“I have notes.”

“You have notes? So now as long as you have a note from mommy or daddy it’s okay to skip school?”

“It’s none of your business.”

Mumbled laughter and whooping noises rose from the crowd behind me. Exhaustion had a way of making me care less about what other people thought, and his persistence crawled under my skin in a way I normally wouldn’t have cared before.

“ Excuse me? This class is my business young lady, your grades are my business, so you can pick up your things and head to the principal’s office.” A finger jabbed in my face.

My book bag was over my shoulder before he finished his sentence. Judd started packing up his things too, in an act of solidarity and support.

“And you can add some more wax to that bald head of yours and go to hell, Mr. Heinz.”

Judd raced down the hallway after me and as we turned the corner we could still hear the chaotic laughter echoing from the classroom. “That was amazing ,” Judd said. “Did you see his face? You know you’re getting at least a week of in-school for that right? No one will be able to take that guy seriously for the rest of the year now. Ah man I wish I recorded that.”

“I won’t get any in-school, I am going to the principal’s office.”

After talking with the principal about what happened he had a sit down with Mr. Heinz. He apologized for outing me in class. “I uh, didn’t realize your situation. I’ll be a little more discreet next time.”

Heather called as I was leaving school, and I fumbled to pick up when I heard her ringtone go off in my bag. She got right to the point. “Hey Brooke, got a minute?”

“Yea, go ahead.”

“You okay? You sound…”

“Rough day at school. It’s okay.”

“I bet. Hang in there. Anyway, you know the defense has asked for a continuance for a fourth time with the preliminary hearing. They’re really trying to drag it out since they probably don’t have much to go off of as far as any kind of defense is concerned.”

“What do they keep continuing for? How long can they keep doing that?”

“Who knows? They say they need time to gather more evidence for the defense. And it can go on as long as the judge allows it. But we had a hearing this morning, you know you didn’t have to be there, and the judge decided that they won’t move ahead until you undergo a psychiatric evaluation and a physical. The defense requested it.”

“ I’m the one that needs a psychiatric evaluation?”

“I know. We have thirty days to complete it, so I have a few calls out. We’ll try and get this done as soon as possible okay?”

“What’s the physical for?”

“They want to check for STD’s.”

“What? What for? Heather, did he have STD’s? Did he give me something?”

“Calm down, sweetie. We don’t know. All we know is that they want to have you tested.”

An uncomfortable silence traveled through the lines before anyone spoke.

“Did you find out your ranking yet?” Heather changed the subject; she never liked to hang up until we talked about something other than the trial. I liked that she tried to distract me from the weight of our conversations.

“Yea, I did actually. I’m thirty two out of four hundred fifteen. Nowhere close to valedictorian anyway.”

“That’s great Brooke, Penn State would be crazy not to take you.” Her enthusiasm was genuine.

“They did.”

“They did? Oh honey congratulations. Did you tell your mom yet?”

“Not yet.”

I hung up with Heather realizing that I hadn’t told Jason I was accepted to Penn State either. College meant I would be leaving town, but he knew how much it meant to me. Now that I got my acceptance letter, it was something we would need to talk about.

Jason threw his uniform on the floor and flopped onto the bed staring at the ceiling. “I can’t believe the people who own this house are making us move out. It’s not our fault Jersey schools suck and they wanna move their kids to P.A instead.”

“How much time are they giving us?”

“Barely thirty days, which I don’t think is legal. We’ll have time to graduate and go on vacation with my mom to Canada, but we’ll only have about a week after we get back to move.”

“To where?”

“I don’t know, Brooke.” He covered his face with his hand. “I can’t work more than I already do. My brother is moving in with his girlfriend and my mom has a friend she can stay with but she won’t go unless she knows I have a place to stay too.”

“Do you?”

“I’m not going anywhere without you. Come here.”

My head was on his chest and I could feel the frustration building up inside of him. It seemed like an ideal time to bring up my acceptance letter. I had an idea.

“Well, maybe we can move. Together.”

“Where?”

“Two hours from here?”

Jason let out a long breath before replying.“What are you not telling me?”

I sighed and sat up. “I got accepted to Penn State.”

He moved his hand from his face and the pools of chocolate in his eyes softened. “Are you leaving me?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“Come with me.”

“I can’t live with you at college.”

“We’ll get an apartment. I don’t want to live in the dorms anyway.”

“We haven’t even slept together yet and you want to get an apartment two hours from here, not knowing anybody, so you can go to school?”

“Yes?”

He had moved from the bed to the wall length dresser and was staring at his reflection while he tapped his fingers. He had four inches on me, the perfect height to rest my head against his chest when I wanted to but still be able to kiss him without going up on tip toes. Leather hands brushed over his crew cut and rubbed the stubble that covered his neck.

The corner of his mouth turned up as he looked at me. “All right, baby. I’m in.”

“Yea?” I uncrossed my legs and wrapped my arms around his waist, bringing my face up to his.

“Yea, are you crazy? I’m not letting you go. So stop crying.”

Heather’s phone call about getting a physical to check for STD’s crept into my mind every waking second, so I made an appointment at Planned Parenthood for Jason and I to get tested. I told him it was the responsible thing to do if we were going to plan on being sexually active, which was true, but I had to know.

Both of us got a clean bill and a week before high school ended we made fun of each other over our inexperience since we both only had one other partner. We held hands under tangled sheets and whispered in excited voices about living together in an apartment all of our own.

Graduation was moved inside as the sky threatened to rain all morning. Paper fans littered the stands as we filed to the front of the gymnasium to claim our fake diplomas and return to our seats.

They mailed the real ones a few weeks later, just after I got a call from Heather telling me that my psych evaluation was flawless, and enough evidence was finally submitted to bind the case over to criminal court.

“They’ll have a formal arraignment now. David will have to enter his plea. He could plead guilty and there would be no trial, but I wouldn’t count on it. They pushed too hard during the preliminary hearing.”

Earl entered a not guilty plea, and a trial date was set for three months later. I realized I would be in the middle of my freshman year of college when it started, but I tried to focus on vacation, work and packing instead.