Novel Treatments / Untitled

Let this be a lesson to myself, Kate thought, as she watched yet another possible roommate walk down the stairs.  She laughed at the thought.  “A possible roommate for Barnum and Bailey perhaps,” Kate muttered as the man walked his invisible dog, away from her apartment.   Granted, she had taken out an ad in the daily that called for “A quirky and adaptable roommate” but she hadn’t known that it would be translated into “calling all freaks.”  She closed her eyes, massaging her temples, willing the headache to go away.  It’d seemed like a good idea at the time.  Her second roommate in a month had moved out two weeks ago, telling her that he just couldn’t live with her.  “Perhaps you should find someone as quirky as you are,” he told her as he left.  That was Freddy, the law student who hated among other things that she kept a jar of pencils in the fridge because they write better cold. Before him Alex, the accountant, lasted only two days, before he left following her annual Halloween dinner.  He said he couldn’t stand all the freaks she called friends.  She’d tried to tell him that she hardly ever had people over, but the sight of two men making out on the couch he had to sit on the next day proved to be too much.  
        Kate didn’t really want a roommate, but the truth was she couldn’t afford the place by herself.  She’d moved in three months ago with her then boyfriend, Rusty, and even on both their salaries, this place had been a stretch. Rusty had insisted on moving here because his boss lived in one of the other units and he figured it would give him prime opportunities to network and Kate hadn’t objected, because she loved the small creek that ran outside the apartment and the big wrap around porch.  The apartment was okay, your standard two bedroom apartment, with a white walled living area, kitchen, and bathroom.  Everything was new and shiny from a recent renovation.  Not home, but practical, that is until Rusty decided that he wasn’t ready to live together. Having not signed the lease due to a poor renter’s history, Rusty was free to back out, but Kate was stuck.
        She was about to give up hope, a week into the search, after the man with the invisible dog, after the drag queen that had asked her if they could share clothes, and after the lesbian that had wanted to send pictures of herself nude, when the phone rang again.
“Hello?”  Kate’s voice was annoyed as she answered the phone.  She was terrified that it was lesbian glamour shot girl, calling for the fifth time to ask for the address.  
        “Can I talk to Kate Johns, please?”  The voice on the other line was definitely not the lesbian glamour shot girl, Kate thought, much too bright and cheery.
        “This is her.”
        “OH, Hi, I don’t know if you remember me.  This is Alison Bower.”  The girls’ voice was rushed as she spoke.
        Alison Bower.   The name still caused Kate to roll her eyes.  They’d gone to the same high school.  Alison was the homecoming queen, the head cheerleader, a head full of blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile that never wavered.
        “Yeah, from Leighton High, right?”
        Alison laughed a bit relieved, “Oh good!  I wasn’t sure you’d remember me.  I mean I know we never really talked or anything.”  
        The line went silent for a moment, before Kate told her, “Look, if this is about a reunion, I’m not going.”
        “No. No reunions this year.”  Alison paused before admitting, “Actually I heard you’re looking for a roommate and I’m sort of looking for a place.”
        “What?  How’d you hear I was looking for a roommate?”  Kate asked.  True, she only lived an hour away from the small town, and her folks still lived there, but she’d never thought someone like Alison would call.
        
“Oh, your mom mentioned it to me when she found out I was moving.”

“Oh, well, yes.  I am looking for a roommate.”  Kate could imagine how that conversation went.  Her mother had loved Rusty from the moment she met him and had applauded him when he decided to move out.  She said it was the Christian thing to do.  After all, they shouldn’t live together until they were married.  Kate never had the heart to tell her mother that indeed Rusty wasn’t ready to move in with her, because he’d moved in with some leggy blonde girl from his office.  “I, guess, well when do you want to come see the place.”

“Actually, I can’t.”  Alison told her, “I sort of need a place by tomorrow, so I’ll just take it if you don’t mind.”

Kate was grateful for the beep that came in, talk about perfect timing.  “Hold on just a minute, I have to take this.”

As she switched over, she thought about what to say.  Having Alison come check the place out was one thing, but living with her was not a good idea.  They hadn’t hated each other back then, but that was because they never actually talked, in fact the phone conversation, was the longest one they’d ever had.

Kate’s worries went out the window though when she heard the lesbian glamour shot girl on the other line.  There’s nothing like a quick dose of reality to make the decision easier.  Rent was due and if it wasn’t Alison moving in, chances were it’d be the lesbian glamour shot girl.  Quickly, switching back over Kate told her, “Sure, it’s yours.”

“Really?”  Alison sounded as doubtful as Kate.  “I mean great.”

“Yeah.”  Kate tried to sound cheery, but the statement was flat.  “So how much did my mom tell you about the place?”

“Well, she actually showed me pictures.”  Alison paused when Kate said nothing. “Its $400 a month right?”

After talking details with Alison and agreeing to meet her tomorrow a coffeehouse a few blocks away, Kate went straight for the aspirin bottle.  Her small headache, was now a full fledge drum circle.  Drinking a glass of water down, she couldn’t help but wonder how she got this way.  Here she was 27 years old and about to share her apartment with an old high school acquaintance.  Grumbling, she realized that she was more upset that she couldn’t pay for this place herself, than she was about Rusty.  Truth was she’d stayed with Rusty out of convenience.  Her mom liked him.  Her dad didn’t hate him.  Sex was decent and she didn’t have to worry about a date.  No, what upset her was that she’d never finished her degree, and while she loved her freelancing jobs, they wouldn’t be enough for the rest of her life.  She’d slowly taken a credit here and there toward her degree, but perhaps it was time to step up the frequency.

With a sudden start, she realized that she’d never asked Alison why she was moving from Leighton.  After high school she got engaged to Tom Dalton the local quarter back hero.  Two days before the wedding, there had been quiet a scandal in the small town when he was found buck ass naked in the square with a girl known to be a bit free.  Shortly after Tom left to play a minor role in some semi-pro football league, but Alison had stayed.  At first, everyone had expected Alison to leave, but now she was pretty much considered a lifer.

Kate called her mom to get answers, but no one answered.  Giving up, she figured that she had the next seven months to figure it out, assuming of course that Alison managed to last that long.
_____________
Kate sat at the coffeehouse, writing randomly in the journal in front of her and checking her watch.  Alison was already twenty minutes late.  She wasn’t surprised though, it was sometimes rather difficult to find all the turns that led to the coffeehouse and even more difficult to find the damn apartments.  

Every time the bell on the door rang, Kate’s head shot up, curious to see if Alison had changed at all.  She still couldn’t believe that for the next seven months at least she would be living with Alison Bower, definitely not what she had imagined for her ten year plan.  Sighing she pushed her notebook to the side; it was useless to write when she was this distracted.  She settled instead for watching a couple two tables over.  People watching, it was indeed her favorite sport.

A few moments later, Alison walked through the door, pausing as she glanced around the dimly light room.  She looked right at Kate, smiled, and glanced around.  Kate wasn’t surprised that she didn’t recognize her.  Back then Kate had long brown hair, that was normally braided, and her style of clothing had pretty much included plain blue jeans and whatever band shirt she could find.  Looking down she smiled, so she still wore the band shirts, but gone was the long hair, now it was short and spiky in the back, chin length in the front, plus it was dyed a deep black, with auburn and white highlights.  The jeans were still there, but now days they were pretty distinguished with patches or artwork draw on in boredom.

Alison was pretty much the same as Kate remembered her.  She woke up and went to bed with the same smile, a perma-grin minus the pot smoking reference, and friendly without being friendly.  Hell, the girl still wore Leighton High sweaters and pulled her hair back in a ponytail reminiscent of her cheerleading days.

Kate almost didn’t stand up and wave.  Part of her wanted to stay sitting and pretend that she didn’t know the cheery girl looking around for her.  Then she saw that smile waver and when she looked at Alison again, she could see more than fear in her blue eyes, no it was an ocean of doubt.  Standing up, Kate gestured Alison over to her table.  Alison paused for a moment, and then boom there was that plastered smile again.  
“Kate.  Wow!”   I really didn’t recognize you” Kate loved the way Alison stated the obviously and just shrugged.

The girl didn’t wait to be seated before she started rambling on, “I just had a heck of a time finding this place.  You weren’t joking about it being a lot of turns and confusion.  I think I may have to leave a bread trail or something tomorrow when I leave for work.”

Kate laughed politely, “Yeah, it’s interesting.”

They sat there for a moment just watching each other.  It was one of those uncomfortable moments, where both girls wanted to speak, and both had a lot of questions, but neither knew where to start.  

Finally Kate asked the obvious, “So, why’d you end up leaving Leighton?”

Alison looked away, biting her lip a bit, before answering, “I got offered a job, here in the city, and I didn’t want to commute.”

Kate quickly picked up on the fact that there were a lot of gaps in the story.  The way she spoke was guarded, but figuring she had plenty of time to figure it out she asked, “What’s the job?”

“Oh, nothing fancy I’m afraid; they just gave me a manager slot over at Helen-Ashley.”  Alison paused, “It’s a”

Kate cut her off, “Yeah the little boutique, down-town.”

Alison brightened with excitement, “You’ve heard of it.”

Kate nodded and answered in a bored tone, “I think every woman in the city has.”

Alison asked, “So, what do you do?  Your mom mentioned something about bands and writing?”

With a laugh Kate told her, “Please forget everything my mom has told you. She likes to fib a bit here and there and make me sound much better off than I am.  Alison flashed a sympathetic smile as Kate continued, “I’m a free-lance writer.  I do all sorts of things.  From boring shit like brochures and press-releases, to the fun stuff like stories for indie-band magazines, entertainment magazines, basically anything that falls my way.”

Alison went to ask something, but the waitress came by to take their orders, and after the interruption there was another lull in the conversation so Alison excused herself to use the bathroom.  As she closed the bathroom door behind her, she let the smile fall from her face.  She hadn’t expected it to be this hard.  The conversation had been like pulling teeth.  Then again she told herself, you clammed up the moment she asked you why you left Leighton.  It wasn’t a secret, really, but she just didn’t want to admit it out loud.  It sounded so immature and childish.  Kate, well she hadn’t changed at all.  Strike that, Alison thought, her looks had changed, but personality wise she was still Kate.  

Alison took a moment to straighten up in the bathroom.  Looking in the mirror she stuck her tongue out at the Leighton sweater she was wearing.  It brought back so many memories.  Funny how these days even the greatest memories were tainted, Alison thought on the verge of bitterness.  Not so tainted that they were bad, but tainted so that it at least made her uncomfortable to think about them.  She’d been surprised it fit her after all these years, but she’d wanted to wear something so Kate would have been sure to recognize her.  Not that she had changed all that much, she just hated awkward moments, such as standing at the door looking for Kate.
Straightening her hair in the mirror, she positioned her smile onto her face and started to find Kate.  She stopped half way to the table, watching Kate.

Kate’s back was to her so she didn’t see Alison standing there.  She was too focused on the man sitting in the back of the coffeehouse.   Kate was surprised she hadn’t seen him come in, but there he was a few tables down.  He sat there, head bent down unaware of anyone around him, his black hair disheveled as he wrote furiously on the notebook in front of him.  Turning her thumb and index finger into a miniature pincher, Kate squinted her eyes, moving her fingers around his head, pretending to squash his head.  

Kate jumped as Alison approached the table.  Feeling foolish, her face turned a bit pink as Alison slid into the chair next to her.  She let her arm drop to her side and laughed.  Alison nodded to the guy, “A friend of yours?”

Kate nearly chocked on the sip of coffee that she’d taken.  Guess there was no mistaking that Alison had seen her little display of childishness.  She felt bad, but she couldn’t help it, that man drove her nuts. “Um, no.  Actually I pretty much can’t stand him.”

Alison’s eyebrows rose as she joked, “Yeah, I never would have guessed.  I mean I always pretend to squash the heads of the people I love.”  Kate laughed as Alison raised her fingers and joined in on the head squashing.

“I can’t believe you just saw me doing that.”  

Alison shrugged, “its quiet catching really. “  With that said, she squashed Kate’s head, and then dropped her hand as the waitress brought her drink over.  As she left Alison asked Kate, “So, what’s the story with him.”

Kate glanced back at the guy and then toward Alison.  Normally she wouldn’t be sharing this information with anyone, but something in the way Alison had squashed heads with her made her open up.  “He was my TA my second year at WMU.”

Alison nodded, “An English major, right?”

Kate was surprised that Alison knew that, but continued, “Yeah.  He pretty much crushed my soul.”

“How so?”  As the story got juicer Alison leaned in toward Kate, her eyes darting back to the guy in the back of the shop.  He was handsome, a bigger guy, broad shoulders, jet black hair, a little too long for corporate America, but sexy in the way it hung over his eyes.  He hadn’t glanced up, but even from the angle he was sitting you could see his face was made up of strong lines.

“I thought he was great.  I mean, just out of Leighton, and here was this guy who could quote all the literary greats, and sometimes his own quotes were just as great.  Plus he‘s cute.”

Alison asked, “You dated him?”

Kate shook her head no quickly, “It wasn’t that.  I was more interested in his words.  They captured me.”  Glancing back at him she wrinkled her nose in disgust, “I definitely put him on a pedestal.  That was my first year.  I didn’t get to know him or anything, just read everything he wrote.”

“Then he became your TA?”

Kate nodded, “For two of my writing classes.  It went ok at first, and then he told me.”  She paused for a moment to recall his exact words, “he told me my writing was elementary and that I should just give it up.”

Alison gasped, “He did not!”

Kate smiled and shrugged as if time had healed the wound, “And on the next piece he wrote the word garbage, all capital letters in read ink.”

Alison shot him a glaring look, “What a pompous ass. What did you do?”

“I dropped out.”  Kate looked away guilty as Alison gave her one of those, you did what looks, “I mean, I was asked to go on tour with a friends band, so I went. “

Alison stared at Kate in astonishment.  She’d known that Kate hadn’t finished school, her mother had been devastated by the decision, but she never would have guessed that it was a guy.  “You dropped out, because of him.”

Kate shook her head no and glanced back at him.  He happened to look up at that moment, and her eyes locked with his.  She shuttered and looked back quickly toward Alison, “No.  It ‘s just easier to blame something.”
“What do you mean?”

Kate sighed she hadn’t planned on telling Alison any of this.  In fact, she’d planned on having little to do with Alison, but yet she continued, “It was a lot of everything.  I was already insecure.  I mean just coming from Leighton.  Everything was so overwhelming.  I wanted to take WMU by storm, but I was no longer the best writer.  I was at the bottom and I hadn’t been there before.”

Alison nodded “But you must have been good.  I mean otherwise you wouldn’t have made it this far writing.”

Kate smiled, “Yeah, I had talent.  I don’t know why he hated me so much, but I let it get to me.  On top of everything else, I just felt like I was gasping for air.”

“So, you just left.”  Alison’s voice was a mixture of disapproval and awe as she asked the obvious question.

Kate laughed, “I guess I did.  Do you remember Kevin King?”

Alison paused for a moment.  The name sounded familiar…Kevin King.  And then suddenly she could see him.  He’d been in there class, a skinny thing, short spiky hair, always watched the ground as he walked.  “Yeah, he was in a band right.”

“The Road-show.”  Kate confirmed, “Anyways, he was leaving on a two month tour.  Their band needed someone to sale merch, send out press releases, and write reviews.”

“The perfect escape.” Alison looked almost wishful as she whispered the words.  Her fingers rose to her lips tracing them silently as if she were surprised that she whispered them.

The two fell into a silence and then Alison asked, “Was it worth it?”

Kate didn’t even hesitate as she answered, “Definitely.”  She didn’t say anything thinking about that path in her life.  The first year and half out of high school had rocked her off the solid foundation she’d always had.  Even as a child, Kate had been stubborn and sure of herself.  Her mother use to say that deep inside she was more powerful than any body builder.  That the strength shone through her eyes.  Kate smiled at the memory.  She was like that now, but it’d been rocky that first year and a half.  She’d lost not herself, but her confidence.  

“Any regrets?”

Kate eyes squinted as she thought about the question. “Regrets…I don’t know.  I mean what is regret?”

Alison thought it was obvious, a regret is a regret.  “Are you sorry for going?”

“No.  I mean yeah I wish I had that degree.  Yeah, I’m sorry that I let my family down.  Yet, I’d do it over again.”

“Because it was good for you?”  

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