“You don’t understand half of the words that come out of my mouth--" Her words came out muffled by tears but so clear they still rang in his ears. An immediate response followed, not one filled with thought, but words at the very least. “Wait. Laura…I of all people don’t understand? What’s to understand all you do is babble! We would never be here if it wasn’t for you butting in!” She was hurt, she fell to her bed, almost as if wounded and in slow motion. He felt horrible for what he said and rushed to her side. Just at his moment of vulnerability she struck, “nothing I have said to you has had any meaning has it. You don’t know it now and I can only hope you understand it someday because you can look back and say, ‘holy shit, she was right’ because Scott, I am right. I have thought about you ever since the day this happened ever since you freaked out. I try to reach my hand out and what happens? Huh? What happens Scott? You rip it off because your ignorance gets in the way of understanding.” Laura grabbed her jean jacket and headed for the door, turning around just in time to catch him following, “I don’t want to talk to you.” She stormed off leaving Scott in her bedroom holding his coat. Simply angry he left.
It had been approximately 2 hours and 37 minutes since that moment she left. Perhaps it’s more exact than approximate. He was still upset but now it was due to the fact that he would have to eventually apologize to her or worse admit to himself that she was right. He sat by the frozen pond, watching the god damned geese peck at the ice. Suddenly he banged the hood on which he was sitting. “Damn it, why is she so insightful? And why am I upset because she is…” his thoughts trailed off as he twirled a dead leaf in his fingers. The whole thing started a week ago essentially. He fell back on his hood into a flashback.
There was a she, a she other than Laura, he remembered misinterpreted signals, or rather ones he thought were definite, anger, and eventually Laura came into the picture. Not a gossip queen, in fact rather the opposite, just insightful she could feel tension between Scott and this other she. Somehow Laura got to him, somehow she pulled at his very emotions and the first time they talked (not ever but about anything like this) he almost cried. No true revelations came until later. And he knew that. Like old movie reel it ran through his head but became extremely vivid as Laura pushed Scott to the edge, she dared him to spill his heart. And in the middle or this rather large social occasion he managed to quietly but with so much meaning it almost made him cry thinking about it. But that wasn’t the hard part, what was even more difficult was that everything she said was packed with meaning and some of it made sense and even more upon further thought. There was no tension between Laura and Scott though until later. The night before today, the night of that party, the one where they had shared their bond, they left at separate times. Him a tad before twelve and her, staying to talk to the other she, at about twelve forty five. Laura couldn’t sleep though. Scott only knew this because of her call; he found it ironic that his ‘full story’ was missing parts. After a few hours of tossing and turning he figured she called his house, in a meek voice almost with some sadness she asked him to come over. Glancing at the clock Scott saw 3 AM. Yet without a single hesitation he came. In her Belagio hotel oversized shirt she met him at the door, quietly, but not secretly, they headed to her room. At this point Scott remembered being confused to no end knowing only that he was being led to the room of a half-dressed woman. Laura sat on her bed, one leg underneath and one hanging over. He looked over at her but she refused to make eye contact and simply stared at her fidgeting hands and chewed on her bottom lip. Her head shot up and his looked away, “Scott?” He managed to look back at her; almost afraid of the continuous eye contact she had been making all night, “yeah?” She replied with the simple thank you for coming and told him that she wasn’t sure what to say. She pulled the leg that hung over up to her chin and rested in there, “Scott, you said earlier how you missed someone to talk with so much. How you missed someone who genuinely cared about your well being and life. I know it’s awkward and sound like some stupid parent chat but Scott you can call me anytime, I really mean it, anytime. But that’s not why I called you.”
Scott shot up from his hood as he heard a gunshot and saw a duck fall from the air. Breathing heavily he attempted to regain his composure but could only stare at the duck. “I’m missing parts of the story, I can’t remember what she said exactly,” Scott whispered to himself as his eyes searched the sky.
Laura gently tossed her golden hair with one hand and looked Scott back in the eye; he made eye contact to find that there was a tear running down her cheek. Completely unaware of any logic in his mind he pulled his hand from his sleeve and wiped her cheek. She smiled, “Scott, do you know how extremely lucky you are?” She started playing with her pink-sparkled toes but kept talking, “Scott, I’ve never had a real friend like that who cared for me like that. Even for a short period of time…” she began listing names of friends even since the first grade who never really like her that much but simply used her. The list almost astonished him. The more he thought of it the list the more her realized that the list did more than almost astonished him, it enraged him. How could so many people be so horrible to this perfect creature? His thoughts turned back to Laura. Her hair had fallen in front of her eyes and moved as she swayed, she peaked up to interrupt his thoughts, “I wish I had, but I don’t think I can.” Her comment almost hurt him; she put the blame of so many people back on herself. In an act of almost pity he moved from sitting by her feet to over by her side. Her reaction surprised him as she leaned her head on his chest, “do you think it’s my fault?” It was a comment he would normally smile at, but this wasn’t a normal situation. He was sitting in the room consoling a girl who had been little more than well-known acquaintance 48 hours ago. “It’s not your fault,” he began, “it can’t be. I’ve watched you, Laura. You give and give and give but at the end of the day you look drained, every time you turn a corner and have you all to yourself you take off that happy face, almost like relieving achy feet and try to console yourself.” About three seconds into his mini soliloquy she cried, not anything loud, but silent tears down her cheeks. Once again an urge made him wipe them off. She pushed away from his chest, long shirt arms balled up over her hands, “thank you…” He paused and replied, “no. I didn’t do anything, you’re the one teaching me. To tell you the truth Laura you had me fooled too. I knew you were different but I didn’t think in this way, I thought Heather was your best friend, or Jessica or,” he laughed as he said it, “Chaps even. But you didn’t have anyone and while we’re both not so good off you’re obviously worse seeing as not only are you in lack but you’ve laid that blame on yourself.” This time it looked like she was astonished, he saw something in her, and it actually was there, it almost seemed like it was the first time anyone but herself had understood her. Scott wasn’t that impressed with himself though, all he did was repeat what she had told him and maybe make a few inferences. Either way he felt special in the midst of all his thinking she had laid her head back on his chest and begun fiddling with the ends of her shirt. Her head shot up immediately, “oh my god. I’m so sorry.” She got up from the bed and went into her bathroom; puzzled he followed and heard her slide down the back of the door. Trying to find the link between the two paradoxical moods he began to ask her questions, “Laura, are you ok? Hun, what’s wrong did I do something?” Scott could almost see her burying her face in embarrassment, but that in and of itself was an inference. “Scott, don’t you see what I’ve done?” There was a pause in the air, he was royally confused, “no, what did you do? If anything,” he added. She sighed and he could see her shadow get up from the back lit door, she opened it, gently frowning. “I’m sorry. I just did the exact same thing she did to you, you know the other night.” His brain went into warp speed as he made the connections. Suddenly he was transported back to the week before almost fast-forwarding through the whole scene. He laughed and she retorted, “don’t laugh at me you oaf!” He laughed more and finally stopped enough to get her attention, “Laura, it’s not the same thing, one I haven’t had a crush on you for years,” her head peeked back out from the door, “two, I acted on her actions, I didn’t even notice yours.” That was a lie and he knew it the first time he had noticed, sure the second time seemed more commonplace but the first time he almost went nuts. She came out from the door and bypassed him as she jumped into her fluffy bed. He climbed next to her like he had before and she just looked at him. He settled his back in against a pillow and tried to justify the angst he knew she felt as she glanced a the clock, “my parents didn’t even know I came home, I told them I might be at Seth’s anyway.” Laura looked relieved Scott patted his chest and commented, “come on, I like the feeling of being needed.” Laura had laid her head down on his chest and they both fell asleep rather rapidly.
Scott sat back up on his car. It bothered him that something that nice had turned so crappy so quickly. He slid off the hood as he noticed the shooter of the duck was crouching in some bushes a few hundred yards away. It seemed almost hopeless of Scott to move because he really had no where to go. It was then he noticed that he had no idea what stemmed the anger of this morning.
The alarm clock slowly turned on at 8 and played her CD selection of the moment. It was calming and nice until Scott realized he was lying with a half naked woman resting on him again. This time things went bad. The same signals Scott had read incorrectly that first night he had read incorrectly now. Things from the night before ran through his head he didn’t process them at all just replay them. He came to the decision that all of her actions just hours previous proved he liked her. In one fail swoop he rubbed her shoulder, moved her hair aside and kissed her passionately. While she was barely awake as he touched her shoulder she was now fully awake as he kissed her for the second time. Her reaction was not one of un-enjoyment but of raw surprise. She backed off of the bed, completely coherent now. “I said I wanted a friend, not a lover!” she shouted so loud he was afraid she would wake her mother only to remember she had left about an hour previous. “What did I do?” he began with. She laughed, “what did you do? You did everything! Get out now! Oh my god, what have I done?” Then that line ran through his mind again, the one he had tossed over about three million times since she had said it, ‘you don’t understand half of the words that come out of my mouth.’ He had realized that what she said was true, but Laura didn’t know he saw it that way now. He jumped off the hood and into the driver’s seat with a look of ambition in his eyes.
He knocked anxiously at the door after he checked the garage for her mother’s car. She answered the door, all dressed for the day and he was about to utter what the last two hours of thinking had produced. She opened the large wood door farther looked straight into his eyes and leaned forward, he was about to speak as she kissed him back. All be it a reaction two hours delayed, it was a reaction. Her right hand let go of the door handle and she wrapped her arms tight around him as she continued to kiss him. After his moment of shock wore off he grabbed her by the side of the face gently and caressed the back of her neck as they kissed. She pulled away, “Scott, I’m so sorry. I should have done this earlier. But we have a problem now, and my timing ruined the chance.” She walked inside as he followed; she handed him a note from the other girl, which had just been delivered to Laura’s house, so that she could give it to him. He read as he followed her to the door and out onto the porch. He finished reading and she was opportunely placed in the door frame and him facing her from the outside, “Scott, go get her.” The large wooden door closed in his face, as he stood dumbfounded. He knew she was on the other side of the door slumped at its base. He leaned up to the door and whispered through the jam, “I love you.”