Any Given Thursday

“So you really plan on going through with it, after everything that has happened between the two of you? Do you honestly think that your project will be a success? The two of you are like volatile gasses, just waiting to explode. How can you expect to get along with one another?”



Jake had neither the time nor the patience to listen to his older brother Brian’s misgivings about working with Celina. While the older man may have had a point, he needed the grade curve; he needed to pass all of his classes, even if it meant dealing with Celina on a regular basis. Besides, the assignment was temporary and once everything was completed, they could once again return to their separate lives. He cradled the corded phone between his neck and shoulder, cramming his folders and school things into a near bursting backpack.



“I’m just amazed that you’re willing to even do that assignment with her. I mean after the way things ended between you two, I’d just as soon expect her to confess her undying lo—”



“You know that’s the way we operate Brian. We’re like two extremes, I’m the fire and she’s the ice. There has never been any middle ground between us. She’s not the same as she once was, bro. She’s different, like I don’t know… She’s more jaded than before. Listen, I have to go meet her so we can leave. Wish me luck okay?”



He groused, gathering his jacket and car keys. He loved his brother very much, but now was not the time to remind him of what once was. He could hear Brian sighing on the phone, knowing that he had struck his little brother’s nerve. What Brian had said made perfect sense, but he hadn’t known everything Jake had been willing to do to get Celina to forgive him. He had tried to rectify his mistakes, and he had failed. He was still paying for his mistakes, and he wondered if he would ever be finished. Perhaps this extended trip with just the two of them would actually do them both some good.



“Alright, I can take a hint Jay. Anyway, I’ll be going now, but as a word of warning be careful. Call me soon.”



They hung up their phones, and Jake headed out the door, ready to face the one person with whom everything was difficult. He knocked on her door bright and early, met with a fresh face. Celina gave him the once over, and then reached for her suitcases behind the door. He offered to take her luggage, and before she could protest, he was already out the doors of the dormitory. Not so much as a “good morning” was uttered between the two, but they would have plenty of time to talk later.



The drive out of Athens was quiet, and definitely uncomfortable. They had agreed to drive Jake’s car because it was bigger and could house more of their luggage. The stipend they had been given covered some of their gas costs, and their entire hotel stay. They both knew that in order to effectively and quickly finish the assignment; they would both need to be quick. Both wanted to win the grade curve desperately, and were willing to temporarily call a truce. As Jake drove through light traffic, Celina scanned the portfolios she had created.



“We should start on the outer rim, and work our way back towards the school. We wouldn’t want to go to the closest first and then have to double back when we finally reach people that live on the edge of the state.”



Jake nodded in agreement, his eyes firmly planted on the road. He wanted to avoid talking to her completely, but in such confined quarters for an extended period of time would eventually require him to talk with her. He drove in silence and doing that unnerved, so he finally broke down and turned on the radio. The song that was playing had been one of their favorites. The smooth, soft vocals of Monica trickled out of his late model speakers, as her haunting voice sung of inescapable love. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Celina paused in her reading. Through peripheral vision he could see her eyes begin to tear as the melody of Misty Blue played.



He focused on his driving, wanting to change the station to stop her tears—tears that he had caused, but he was mesmerized by the softness of her face. She looked vulnerable, more so than he had ever seen her. The last time she had appeared so delicate before him had been so long ago that he forgot what a saddened Celina looked like. Sure, she put up a tough façade, but the song had brought painful memories. Those memories, which he had buried in the deep recesses of his mind, in turn made him feel weak and vulnerable. While ultimately his behavior had caused the irreparable rift between him, she had done her share of lashing out as well. Her words had been just as harsh, they had been just as biting as his.



Why were they listening to this song at all?! He reached to change turn off the radio, but Celina’s hand caught his wrist. Her eyes were still glued to the portfolios, but he could see the tear drops that had fallen on the manila folders. She drew his hand from the radio, and returned it to his lap.



“T-this song…it was the first that we had danced to after everything that happened. Don’t turn it off, because to do that would be to deny ever having felt the way did in the first place.”



In the background, the lyrics painfully expressed the tumultuous times in both of their lives. Oh honey, just the mention of your name, turns a flicker to a flame… Listen to me good baby, I think of the things we used to do… and my whole world turns misty blue… He did remember the night that they had danced to this song, he wanted to reconcile, he wanted to go back in time and erase all the bad things that had happened between them. In the beginning, he wanted to take the happiness that had once shined so brightly in her eyes, and take it with him to the future. To show her how things had once been, to force her to remember. However, during his first two years at UGA, he had learned that you can’t take it with you.



The autumnal weather had turned that love into hate; he had willed himself to have no good feelings for her. It had been hard, but he refused to love someone who so adamantly did not love him. She hadn’t openly gone out of her way to hurt him, to make him feel any of the pain that he had caused her, but she did do things that had broken his heart. He was not blind, and he could see the way some of the other guys would gaze at her hungrily, and she wouldn’t bat an eye, because she was oblivious to those stares. She honestly believed that she didn’t deserve to be admired longingly. It was then, when he would see her act so coldly, and standoffish, that he knew it was because of him. He hated her for being so insecure, and unwilling to forgive, and he hated himself for being the catalyst for all of her pain.



“Why would you want to hear this Celina? This song brings nothing but sadness, and I don’t want to hear it!”



He snapped, turning off the radio completely. He hadn’t meant to yell, but he was not in the mood to even think about the two of them together. Those days were gone and he resigned himself to this fact.



“It makes me remember the past alright… the good times. It makes me remember when we first met.”



She admitted, perusing through their itinerary again. She couldn’t wait until they reached the hotel. She needed to get as far away from Jake as possible. How could some sappy song cause her to admit something she herself denied in her mind?! She ruffled through her book bag, emerging with a portable CD player. She should have known talking to Jake was impossible, although she had dropped the ball by letting that little slip of the tongue out. Dave Matthews soothed her with song after the first, (and most likely) of numerous arguments to come. She didn’t need any of this crap right now, and she certainly couldn’t afford to rehash anything with that jerk.



Jake couldn’t believe that Celina had just admitted she thought about their past. He was certain that she remembered of course, but he figured she would want to repress those memories and never hear or see anything to do with them again. He wanted to discuss this more, but she reached for her CD player, and was nodding to the music, completely ignoring him. He sighed, knowing that he deserved her scorn. Hearing Celina say those words made him think of the very first time they had met.



July, 1996



Bainbridge always sweltered in the summertime and its townspeople suffered through the weather patiently. Young Jacob Collier and his older brother Brian were busy fishing in old man Emerson’s pond when they first heard the rumbling sound of an old Cadillac coming up from behind Canton hill. He figured that it was just one of the Bixby brothers, or maybe it was Jonathan and his older sister Rhonda coming for a visit to the pond. During the summertime, Emerson pond was always a fun place to fish and play. No one had lived in the large Victorian house for the past six years. The backyard was large enough for a small football field and there were many acres of wood to explore. Old Elijah Emerson and his wife, the late Dorothy Lee had lived there for years, but when she died he decided to sell his house and moved to a more geriatric friendly community.



Then Jake remembered that a new family of five was moving to Bainbridge. This was practically a 7.0 on the Richter scale, if said scale measured gossip. There hadn’t been a move into the town in fourteen years. In fact, the town was small enough that everyone knew everyone else. Bainbridge was a modern day Mayberry, without the folksy appeal of an older, happier era. So when a U-Haul truck pulled into the Emerson driveway, many people were curious about the new inhabitants in their small town. Bainbridge natives were close knit as many small towns usually are. There was a Wal-Mart, a theatre, the elementary and of course the conjoined middle and high school. There wasn’t much of anything exciting that happened in the town, so when someone new moved in, everyone was curious. All had known that the Emerson place had sold, but no one knew what the new tenants looked like.



“Hey Brian, do you think that is the new family moving in?”



Jake asked his older brother, ignoring the face Brian made as he pulled in a large catfish. They sat in a rickety canoe, with a can of worms and a few raggedy fishing poles. Jake wiped the sweat from his eyes, and squinted in the sun. He couldn’t see a car, but they had certainly heard one not a moment ago. Then again, the Emerson house was on a hill, and the pond was much further down. In the distance a person could barely make out the large home. His striped shirt was sticking with his sweat to his skin, while his khaki shorts did little to cool him. Brian had already placed the fish he caught into his cooler, and had begun to row the boat back to the murky shore.



Jake silently watched the slightly older boy, with a twinge of admiration in his heart. His brother had always been the equivalent of cool, and he wished that he could be more like him. He was the fastest runner, and he always caught the biggest fish. Plus the girls at school all had crushes on him. Brian’s tan skin and muscular body made him a strongly admired athlete at Bainbridge middle school. The honey speckled green eyes made the girl’s swoon and his ability to remain calm in virtually any situation made Brian appear nearly Godlike in Jake’s eyes.



“It probably is. Let’s get out of this pond. We should ask the new family moving in if we have permission to be fishing’ here. C’mon little brother, let’s go see if we can get Mom to fry this catfish.”



The boys threw their fishing poles on the shore of the murky pond, and scrambled up the hill, headed towards their own split level ranch house. When they reached the top, they were greeted by the face of a boy a few years older than themselves. He looked to be about fourteen, and he was dark in complexion. His eyes were a dark shade of oak, and his skin resembled that of tree bark after a long rain. He had a close shaved head, and muscles that definitely were not just for show. He held a basketball in his hand, and gave the two brothers a curious look.



“Who are ya’ll, and what are you doing here? This is private property!”



He demanded sharply, staring down at the shorter boys angrily. A girl stepped out of the house, and walked around the wraparound porch to hear the noise. She was shorter than the other boy, and was obviously his brother. She looked very much like him, except she was older and she wore her hair straight. She had smoothed dark skin, and a nice smile. She was probably sixteen or seventeen years old. In her hand was a Nintendo game boy and a glass lemonade.



David, what are you doing out here? Daddy told you to help him with the boxes in the attic. Leave those kids alone, or I’ll tell Mama on you.”



She said, giving the two boys a brief glance before her eyes rested on her younger brother’s. He frowned, but turned to head back into the house. It was obvious that he didn’t like being bossed around by his older sister, but dutifully went back inside. Once he was gone, the girl smirked at the two, obviously pleased with her handiwork.



“My little brother David can be a bit combative at times. Ignore him; he’s just adjusting to a new town. I would like to know why you are on private property, and who you two are. I’m LaKeesha, by the way.”



Jake had been too scared to speak. Her younger brother looked ready to pounce and although she saved their asses from him, who was going to save them from her? Brian stepped up to her, and offered his hand. Jake was rooted in place, too afraid to do much of anything else. For all he knew this family could be serial killers! They weren’t supposed to speak to strangers.



“I’m Brian, and the one with shaking knees is my little brother Brian. I apologize if we were trespassing. We hadn’t known that there was a family moving in today. During the summertime, we come out to old Emerson pond behind your house to fish.”



“Well that is a tradition that has to be stopped today. This is our house now, and the only people that are going to be fishing here are me and my family! You’re going to have to leave, and you can forget about fishing here again!”



A new voice intervened, and with that voice, the body of a tall chubby girl emerged. She had braided hair, and was frowning at the two. Jake didn’t like the look of her, so he frowned back. She was giving him the once over, and her eyes lingered on him more than his brother. She placed her hands on her hips and glowered at them both. Brian looked amused, but Jake could tell that this girl thought that she was so much better than him! From what he could tell she was about their age, give or take a year. In her hand, she held a small bag of candy



“Celina! You know better than to talk to people like that! You had better apologize right now!”



Her sister demanded, glaring at the younger girl.



“What for Keesha? I was just stating the facts. They aren’t going to be coming over here fishing, and that’s the end of it!”



LaKeesha shook her head in disappointment at her sister’s rude behavior. Normally, Lina was way better behaved than this. Already she was picking fights with the local kids. When was she going to learn to grow up, and stop being a big bully?



“Listen Chubbs, we didn’t know you were moving in! Otherwise, wouldn’t have been fishin’ here alright! Come on, Brian let’s get out of here.”



“What did you call me? No one calls me Chubbs and gets away with it!”



Celina’s dark eyes narrowed. She marched up to him and punched him in the eye. Just as quickly, she turned around and raced into the house. Keesha rushed to the injured boy’s side. Her sister was going to be in trouble later on.



His mind was jarred from that memory quickly, as Celina grabbed the steering wheel. Jake had nearly run them into the median. She yanked off her headphones staring at him incredulously.



“What’s wrong with you Collier? Pay attention to the road! You could have killed us both! Pull over right now. I’m driving the rest of the way. It’s obvious that you’re lost in a daydream.”



He handed her the keys without a fight, and they quickly traded seats in the McDonald’s parking lot. Oh, if only she knew.