After a decade long of no contact following their high school graduation, what a peculiar reunion the self-labelled, antisocial Jacqueline Davis, and the popular Crestville High's star, Ramsey Coker.
I had no intention of attending my first high school reunion (or any of them for that reason), but somehow I allowed my Mom and Yvonne talk me into it. If someone were to ask me to think back on my favorite moment in high school, I would have to reply that mine had been Graduation Day. After 6 years I was thrilled to finally break away from the confines of those crowded and noisy walls of Crestville High, not that I harboured any ill feelings towards my classmates (okay, only a select few of them. So, I had a sh*t list). I just wasn't sad about saying goodbye to the class of '11.
From Junior school to Senior, I had four close friends--actually they were my only friends. And I preferred it that way. Yvonne, Lucy, Anita, MJ and I had our own little clique. Except for Yvonne who would be attending the same university as me, I would miss my friends. Over the years, Yvonne and I did keep in contact with Lucy, Anita and MJ but we haven't been as close as we were in high school.
So, there I was, seated in a chair that I pulled to a corner of the hotel's large banquet room which had been rented for this event. Yvonne who turned out to be a social butterfly after high school was working the room greeting people most of whom she hadn't seen in a decade. If it hasn't been guessed by now, I have a tendency towards antisocialism. I like to keep it simple. Have a few people around that I enjoy spending time with, and leave it at that. I'm not timid--I just don't care to be around a lot of people. That was my main reason for not wanting to attend this shindig.
I wanted to go up to the suite that we rented, but I promised Yvonne that I would mingle (yeah, right) for at least an hour and half. One glance at my watch informed me that I had 36 minutes to go. Crap! I was certain that this was the longest hour and the half in history. Every minute was taking three times longer than it should have to end, patiently waiting as I run down the clock taking another sip of the weakest punch to ever touch my tongue. Eventually, time did run out. Catching Yvonne's eyes, I waved and hurried towards the double doors leading into the hotel's lobby.
When the elevator arrived, instead of pushing the button that would take me to my floor, I pressed the one leading to the top floor. For some unexplainable reason I felt like going to the roof. After subjecting my lungs to that congested banquet room for an hour and the half, I wanted fresh air, and the roof sounded like the perfect place to get it
Arriving on the top floor, I found the door that led to the roof. Walking up the short staircase, I pushed open another door already feeling the soft warm night's breeze. Closing the door behind me, I took two steps and then stopped, startled eyes falling on the figure dressed in all black balancing on the ledge of the roof. Since, they were facing away from me, I didn't know what they looked like but the long body was so sturdy that they had to be a man.
Okay, try as I might, I could only think of one reason why a person would be standing on the ledge of a roof. Eyes squinting, I noticed the half-filled glass bottle in his hand. My guess, the amber liquid inside was alcohol. He was drinking alcohol while one step away from falling almost twenty stories. This is not good. I started to leave quietly as I had come to go get help, but I was afraid that when I returned he would be missing because he had decided to take a leap of faith literally and figuratively.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?"...
To be continued.
