Page 39 of Reluctant Chemistry
The wind picked up as CeCe turned into Old Cemetery Road. Tears welled in her eyes as she neared the main gate, but she wanted them to fall, knowing she’d feel better later if she set them free and got on with it. Mr. O’Leary, with his holier-than-thou attitude and unrelenting stare, was pissing her off. He was mad, and she understood why, but he didn’t have to be such a jerk about it. She’d known too many jerks in her time and didn’t care to meet any more.
CeCe hung a right onto the main cemetery drive and parked in the shade of a pin oak. She’d raided her mother’s garden that morning, wrapping the blooms in wet newspaper before placing them in a small cooler on the back seat of the car.
The posies were always dainty—budding roses and delicate annuals cupped in bright green foliage. Being dainty herself, Anna had loved both the word and the design. CeCe’s mum called these compact floral creations tussie-mussies, and when she’d Googled it, to her surprise, the term was an actual thing.
Hoe in hand, Bob the gardener greeted her as she passed. He worked most days spring through autumn, tending the graves with no expectation of monetary recognition. Bob had started with his wife’s grave, then one day, he’d stayed a little longer to tidy up the row, and the next a little longer still. By the time he’d turned eighty, he’d found a new life purpose—tending flower beds and the graves of forgotten or unforgiven souls who’d been laid to rest in the company of his wife of fifty-one years.
She sat next to Anna’s headstone. The grass felt slightly damp underneath her school skirt, but CeCe didn’t care. She’d told her best friend about Luka the week after the rabbit-hole incident. How he’d lifted her over the fence and dropped her off at the hospital. About the touch and smell of him—the cadence of his voice. Anna would have loved that story. Some nights, she’d read romance novels until the early hours. Now she wanted Anna to know that the ‘happy ever after’ was, in this case, a crock of shit. Love may conquer all, but lust certainly did not.
“I have a story,” she began as she arranged the flowers in a vase at the base of the headstone.“You remember I told you about Luka, the meet-cute guy who flies a chopper? The first official fling of my life? Well, it’s all turned to crap.”
CeCe stayed for a while, talking in whispers about school and Luka and how emotionally close to the edge she felt at times. In the days leading up to Anna’s death, they hadn’t been in contact, and that was always her first apology.
Her last regret.
When she returned to the car and glanced through the back window as she reversed, the sight of Bob, all alone next to his wife’s grave, tore at her heart.
* * *
Levi lounged against the wall, waiting for CeCe as she left her classroom the following afternoon. “Can I bum a ride home?” He fell into step beside her, loping along in his usual ungainly fashion.
“Course you can.” She stopped at her locker and opened it. “But I thought you had cricket practice.”
Levi leaned on everything, as if he struggled to hold himself up without support, and the lockers were no exception. “Coach stood me down this week.”
After stuffing her bag with what she needed, CeCe shut the door and locked it. “How come?”
He shrugged. “I might have mouthed off without thinking. Guess Coach didn’t see the funny side.”
As they walked across the quad in silence, CeCe suppressed a smile. It wasn’t until they were in the car and she’d pulled away from the curb that he spoke again. “The word’s out, you know that, don’t you?”
CeCe had no idea what he was talking about. She turned to look at him. “What word?”
Levi hesitated. “You and O’Leary. Everyone’s gossiping about you guys.”
Her stomach tightened. “Are they? What are they saying?”
“That you’re bumping uglies. Is it true?”
As she waited to turn right at an intersection, CeCe kept her eye on the traffic while processing his words. She’d wondered how long it would take for Travis and his friend Brandon to shoot their mouths off. “Don’t believe everything you hear on campus, especially from guys like Travis Bostock.”
“I don’t. But I just thought you should know what people are saying. Travis reckons you’ve been sleeping with O’Leary since before Christmas. But then, he’s a stupid prick. Thinks every girl in school’s in love with him.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sleeping with Mr. O’Leary. And I don’t want to talk about it anymore. But thanks for the heads-up.”
They traveled in silence for a while, listening to Point Rock FM until CeCe veered left into Levi’s driveway and pulled to a stop beside their mailbox.
“Do you want me to put everyone straight, you know, just subtly?” he asked, one hand on the door lever.
CeCe turned to him and smiled. The kid didn’t have a subtle bone in his body. “Nah, let them think what they like. I don’t care.”
“Okay. If you say so.” He raised an eyebrow to make his point. “Thanks for the ride.”
But as Levi shut the door and shuffled toward his house, CeCe knew that wasn’t true. She cared. No girl wanted to be singled out at school for sleeping with a teacher. She’d heard it said more than once that a lie travels faster than the truth. But the gossip about her and Luka wasn’t a lie. Itwasthe truth. She had slept with Luka, and as much as she told herself she didn’t want to repeat the experience, that was also a lie.
CeCe showered and changed, and just on five, she left to drive back into town for a movie night at Molly’s place. As she parked at the supermarket to pick up some ice cream, the streets hummed with people on their way home from work and skateboarders weaving in and out of cars.
When she returned to the Kombi, CeCe sat in the driver’s seat and glanced in the rearview mirror. “Shit!”
