born there, grew up there, and attended the same schools together. Lifelong buddies, it seemed, knowing the town like the backs of their hands.
Dari looked to his right, and his eyes lit up. Hot damn! His luck was on that night for sure. The blue Merc had left the line of cruisers and pulled into the Big Boy Drive-in. And Darian pushed his luck and pulled in directly beside it. Two girls in the car were yelling their orders to the curb girl and Darian was trying to look past Butch to get a gander at the blonde that was driving. She wasn’t in the car. Where the hell did she go? Then he realized that one of the pony tails was missing, too. Must have gone to the bathroom. Girls never went to the bathroom alone. He swore that girls were born with the tendency to pee in pairs.
A bored looking curb girl came up to his side of the car, pad and pencil poised, and Butch was pulling out all the stops trying to get something going with the teased up hair girl. She was kinda pretty. The best looking one in the car besides the driver. Darian told the curb girl they’d just have a couple of Cokes and she didn’t write down anything, but stuck her pencil back in her pony tail, made a ‘harrumph’ sound, and went back inside. Not a good tip from two Cokes.
Tapping his fingers on the wheel to “Peggy Sue” he saw her. The blonde and the pony tail were walking out the door of the place and Darian thought he’d died and gone to heaven. She had to be an angel because no girl could be that pretty. Besides the hair, she had a face that looked tanned, and was talking to the pony tail girl with a mouth that was perfect. Her teeth were perfect. Straight and pearly white. Her eyes were perfect, slightly tilted upward and almond shaped. And her body was something to behold in brown slacks and a tan sweater. Darian sat up straighter as she looked straight at him, then lowered her head and went to the Merc, climbing into the driver’s seat. She didn’t look at him again, but turned and was talking to the girls in the car. What was with her? He wasn’t ugly or nothin’. Damn! She had to know he was interested by the way he was lookin’ at her!
Butch was still tryin’ to get the teased up girl to go out with him, and with a giggle she gave him her phone number. Darian could see that Butch was pretty pleased with himself that he’d gotten that far. The curb girl brought their Cokes and Darian was attempting to see past Butch out the window at the blonde. Darian exclaimed “Shit!” handed one to Butch, set his up on the dash, and got out of the car.
“Where ya goin’, Dari?”
“Be right back. Hang loose.” He’d never get anywhere with the girl if he just sat in the car, staring.
Darian had never been so nervous when meeting a girl, but this one was special. Different—-and he didn’t know why. She must go over to North High because he’d never seen her before. The others he had classes with, or had seen around, but not this girl. He walked up and spoke to the back of her head.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. I’m Darian Wilks. You go over at North, or are you new here?” He stood with his four fingers stuck in the pockets of his jeans, staring at the blonde hair.
She didn’t turn around and look at him, but did turn toward the windshield and answered. “I moved here last week. Why do you want to know?”
Because you’re the end of my dream, a vision come to life, everything I ever wanted. Instead he said, “Just curious. Hadn’t seen you before and thought I might at least introduce myself.”
Finally she turned to him and his breath caught. “That’s very nice of you, Darian. Like I said, I just moved here and I don’t know anyone yet. I’ll be enrolling in South High on Monday.”
“Good,” he stated, letting go of his breath. “That’s where I go, too. Would you like to go for a walk with me?” Darian asked her, without thinking of the consequences if he left his dad’s new car with Butch. But he’d really like to talk with this girl. Get to know her.
“Uhmm. I don’t think so, Darian. I have to be getting home as soon as we finish eating. Have to have the car back.”
“Uh, yeah. Me too. It is late.” He turned his head from side to side, looking at nothing in particular. “I guess I’ll see you Monday at school, then.” He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stand there and talk to her all night just so he could look at her.
“Okay, see ya.” And she turned back around as if he weren’t standing there.
Darian felt he had gotten nowhere. She was nice, wasn’t rude, but dismissed him as if he’d been nobody and would forget in ten minutes that he even spoke to her. Come to think of it, she hadn’t smiled one time. What was with her?
He walked back around and got into his dad’s pride and joy, started it up and backed out of the drive-in with Butch hanging out the window yelling to the girl that he’d call her.
“Hey man! What’s your hurry? Didn’t get anywhere with Miss Sweetheart, huh?” And he lit a cigarette and took a drink of his Coke.
“Watch the cig, man. My dad finds out I’ve been smokin’ in his car, I’m dead meat. And no, she wouldn’t give me the time of day. She must have a boyfriend or something. She acted about as crazy about me as I would a June bug. Maybe she thinks she’s hot shit and won’t have anything to do with lowly scum like us. That ain’t no piece of shit she’s driving.”
“Yeah. But Jenny’s goin’ out with me. Maybe I can get her to bring a friend and we can go see a movie or somethin’. I got her number, man. I wonder how she got with that girl in the first place if she’s new here. I was listenin’. I heard her say she was new.”
“Yeah. Want me to drop you off at home? I gotta go right by there,” he said to Butch, still disappointed that the blonde didn’t even seem to want to flirt with him. And come to think of it, she hadn’t even told him who she was.
“Would you believe she didn’t even tell me her name, Butch? Now why wouldn’t she do that? You walk up to somebody, you say ‘Hi, my name’s Darian’, and you’d think they’d at least tell you their name. She didn’t.”
“She’s stuck up, Dari. I’m tellin’ you, man. A girl looks like that’s gotta be stuck up. Forget about her. I’ll have Jenny bring another girl when we go out and you can go with us. At least you’ll be goin’ somewhere instead of bein’ in your dad’s shop. I’ll see if I can set it up for tomorrow afternoon. The shop’s closed and at least you won’t be in there working on that car of yours. Talk about a piece of shit! And you’ll have to work every night next week.”
“Don’t call my car a POS, man! I’m puttin’ in the rings and pistons now. A little body work,” and with that Butch snickered and Dari hit him on the arm. “I’ll get it, man. It’s just gonna take some time. At least I’ve got a car.” Everybody knew that Dari had been working on that wrecked ’56 Crown Victoria for over a year.
It took some doing on Butch’s part, but Dari finally agreed to go to the movies the next day if Jenny could find him a date. He sure wasn’t going to go with them if he had to go stag and since seeing the girl in the Merc he couldn’t think of a single girl he’d want to take out. Darian dropped Butch off at his house and went home, still thinking about the girl and her long blonde hair. He couldn’t get her off his mind even if she hadn’t been very friendly to him and didn’t give him any hope at all. But the girl was a total knockout. What would she be doing out on a Saturday night without a date? Then he remembered that she’d said she’d only moved there in the last week. She hadn’t had a chance to meet anybody. But somehow she’d managed to meet the girls who’d been riding around with her. His younger sister, Jocelyn, had told him once that girls didn’t
