Eric
I was seventeen when I first saw Audrey Rose Reiner. She had
this way of looking at you that made you seem all there, even when you never
felt like it. I always thought she was the only one who could see me. But I
guess a lot of people felt that way. Audrey has this way of affecting people.
It must have been sometime in September that we met. Well,
not met really. She wouldn’t remember me til February and I have no reason to
blame her. I’m quiet, and she isn’t. We had a class together; she was proud that
she was the only freshman in the bunch. It was just chorus, but that girl has a
heck of a voice. The only reason I got in was seniority. I never did sing much.
Audrey Rose tripped down the stairs the first time I ever
laid eyes on her. She was walking with a few people like she always seemed to
be when she must have hit the next step the wrong way or something because she
almost went to her knees before grabbing the railing. I was just about to
laugh, but she beat me to it. That’s what I noticed first. She laughed at her
misstep and her friends joined in and called her a klutz and then it was over.
High school is a funny place. You don’t always get to see
people who can just laugh at the little mess ups. Most everyone tries hard to
hide their hurts and go on without people noticing. But Aud never hid all that.
She just threw out there what everybody else was trying so hard to sweep under
the rug. That’s just the kind of thing that makes you go ‘huh’, and wonder why
you don’t do the same.
