Chapter Seven: Face to face, vis a vis
George and I sat in the dining hall of the cafeteria. The Kaf, as we called, was known for its cuisine among the state’s colleges. The main course was chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and green beans smothered in butter. My drink of choice was Mr. Pibb and George slugged down sweet tea with chipped ice from the ice swan sculpture done by one of the professors. We didn’t talk and gorged ourselves like half-starved junkyard dogs with lips snarling and teeth glaring.
As I was about to take an oversized piece of the steak and shove it into my mouth, I glimpsed across the expanse lined with rows of long tables and saw two girls take their place at the end of the line. They looked hot from the back but I couldn’t really tell from my seat. George had a better view.
“Man! Who are those two betties in line?” I asked and nodded my head in their direction.
With a mouthful of food, he swung around in his chair as crumbs jumped out from the corners of his mouth and he said, “Ah, I don’t know man, but one is a blondie in white and the other Betty has brownish hair wearing yellow.” He rotated back and raked food into his mouth.
“Man, that is no help,” I said.
Without a glance, his right hand lifted and flexed all fingers but one.
Still curious, I decided to freshen up my drink, so with my head down I peered around the doorway into the serving line and standing there as conspicuous as a red rose in a field of violets was Elyssa. Panic threw right hooks at my heart but I walked by and Erin from the Sigma party was next to her in a lemon sundress.
I spun my guitar string ring so fast it burned.
Erin’s was brighter, more defined. Her hair was tinted crimson and she was wearing thin rimmed glasses; the lenses were thin so I could tell she was doing it for effect. I went back to the table without Mr. Pibb.
“It is her,” I said.
George kept up his hand-over-fist dining and didn’t look up. The scent of peach cobbler hung in the air.
“What the fuck you talking about, what her?” he asked, leaned back in his chair as one hand fettered with silver rings went below the table.
He scratched his nuts.
The hand came up and clasped with the other in front of his face and he stared at me. I leaned forward to mimic him.
“That girl Elyssa. I know how I can meet her,” I said.
He sighed, cracked his neck, and asked, “How?”
“Not how, who. Erin, the girl from the party, is sitting with her. The one you know,” I said. George snorted through his nose and said, “Oh, I get it. I haven’t really hung out with her because of all the new meat but what the fuck.”
“So, go ask Erin to hang,” I said. He nodded.
I turned my head and saw Erin and Elyssa walking toward us. They sat at the next table behind me. I felt my stomach tie in knots a sailor would have problems with and their giggles rested on my shoulder. A smile grew on George’s face as big as a crescent moon. He tapped the table with a turquoise ring on his left index finger. It got their attention. He winked at me.
“Well, I guess we should go since everyone here is boring,” he said.
He leaned around my shoulder and said, “Oh Erin, I didn’t see you come in. I was just saying how boring everyone is but then you appear and make liar out of me. Please, sit with us.”
“All right,” she said.
I prepared myself.
Erin sat next to me and pointed for Elyssa to sit next to George. Erin’s lips curled in a beaming smile and she said, “Guys, this is Elyssa and Elyssa this is George, and I hope I don’t mispronounce this, Joaquin.”
I nodded and reservoirs of sweat gathered under my skin waiting to pouring out all at once. I didn’t know what to say or do so I did nothing. Erin and George talked about a girl who dropped out because she was pregnant. Erin twirled her hair into loops the whole time.
I was ignored so I put my head down over the stoneware plate, ate and snuck peeks at Elyssa out of the corner of my eye as she pulled out a lip balm, ran it across her plump lips with a continuous glide three times. She popped a pucker and my heart stopped. My pants grew tighter. I could feel her presence from across the table. A few minutes later, she caught me glimpsing at her as Erin asked, “Joaquin where are you from?”
“Connecticut,” I answered, cleared my throat and sipped my lemonade when Elyssa said, “I’m from Connecticut too.”
Hur-fucking-rah, I found an in.
“Where in Connecticut?” I asked. She put down her glass, touched her hand to her heart and said, “Westport, you know it?”
“I live in Fairfield. I go to downtown Westport to shop all the time,” I said.
Elyssa twisted her head and responded, “It’s all right but the downtown doesn’t have enough. Nothing a quick trip to the city can’t fix.”
She turned her attention to the Palladian window casting a prismatic rainbow on the west wall of the cafeteria and stared at it for a few seconds. She rubbed small circles with her fingertips on her tapered neck that was tinted with hints of caramel and cream. I wanted to kiss it. I couldn’t turn away.
“Joaquin, I find myself missing home and it’s only the beginning of the semester,” she said.
She paused for a moment and asked, “Do you miss home?”
“Sure, I get these little pangs of home-sickness here and there,” I said.
She smiled, oh my god she smiled, and elation filled me. I found my Persephone.
Erin and George interjected with, “Every one goes through homesickness” and “You’ll get over it soon” with an always popular, “Once you get settled here you’ll never want to go home.”
George got up to get another dessert and as he proceeded to strut away Erin locked her eyes on me.
“Where do you and George live this year?” Erin asked.
“We both live on the same hall in Taylor. He lives at the end near the soccer field and I live in the middle towards the second entrance,” I said.
“Do you like your roommate?” Elyssa asked.
“I have a single. My roommate never showed up,” I said.
“Can I come over and see your room?” Elyssa said. I gulped air and replied, “Yeah, come over whenever you want.”
“How about after lunch?” Elyssa asked.
As I was about to reply, George fell into his seat. I looked at George, gathered what calm I had and said, “Cool, you can follow me over.”
George, with a confused look on his face, voiced a loud, “Follow me over who?”
“Elyssa is coming to see our dorm, okay,” I said.
“Oh, cool. Erin why don’t you come over too?” he asked.
“Sure,” she responded and then said, “Tim lives with you guys too right?”
“Yeah, he’ll be there,” George said as his shoulders rolled forward.
“Cool we can all go over together,” Erin said.
A jazz band started playing in my head. Elyssa showed interest in me. Not wanting to look like an ogre, I stopped eating and put my paper napkin on my tray. They finished after nibbling and we began a slow stroll across the hilly campus over to the playing field with Erin and George leading. Elyssa and I trailed close behind. Thank god I was wearing jeans and hoped she didn’t see the bulge that kept springing out in my pants.