Brent

18

The sun rose and everything fell. A May New Jersey morning is a beautiful thing: chilly but sunny. This optimal weather percolated through the slightly opened window of Alex’s bedroom window. Alex was at her desk, laptop in front of her and face on the keyboard. She’d been asleep for the past two hours, but the cold draft drifted to her and sent her fluttering awake. Alex jerked her head up and looked straight at the screen. It was 10:11 A.M. The last line read “Over the past seven years, two-thirds of the Swiss population agreed that universal healthcarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”. Alex deleted the excessive r’s. She evaluated her work.
After getting an extension, Alex had until noon today to email this paper to her AP Government and Politics teacher. Even though she didn’t have much longer, Alex was almost done and would be able to finish her paper swiftly and go back to sleep. She typed until she saw fit. The paper was exactly two pages long after a few tweaks. She went and typed in her teacher’s email and--what? The screen went black. Alex frantically skimmed her fingers across the mousepad to revive her laptop. Not working. Moving down her mental troubleshooting, Alex pushed down on the power button. Nothing. The laptop was dead.
Alex rushed the details through her head. Because the paper was being written on an online software, it saves automatically; all of the paper was there. However, her mom’s desktop was still not hooked up to the internet. She had no access. Alex looked at the clock in her room. 10:37. Not that bad.
“Should I go to the library and print it out there?” she asked the mirror.
“Yeah, sure,” the mirror said. “You need to drop off a few CDs too.”
That’s right! Alex had The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul”, The War on Drugs’ “Lost in the Dream” and Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” that she had to return. Alex got dressed, got the CDs, and got in her car. For one last listen, Alex put in “Rubber Soul”. As “Drive My Car” played, she thought about all of the memories of her and Ben. All of the memories that would not be something to add on too. That was all she would have of him. They loved this album. Listening to the vivid imagery of the track, she fabricated a resemblance to their experiences, romanticizing the past as more than just two irrational teenagers regurgitating their best view of a relationship through their preferred Hollywood romance films.
Alex got to the library almost not remembering why she was going. She checked her phone: 10:51. Okay. She walked inside. To the right as one first walks in is the check-out counter. To the left is the kids’ room. As one walks down the library, more of the library unfold itself. The left side is split between computers and the CD and DVD racks farther down. To the right is where all of the magazines and fiction and nonfiction books are. In the middle is all of the reading chairs. Alex dropped off the CDs at the check-out counter to a middle-aged woman that must have been stunning in her earlier years. Alex walked over to the computers and signed on to her account. Yes, there’s the paper. She started to review it before she caught something out of the corner of her eye: a teenage kid that could easily be twenty-three, with a mature face and lean build, at the CD section.
Alex’s heart started beating quicker. Since when did Ben go to the library? Alex saw him walking over to the checkout counter. He was going to see her. Before he crossed paths with her, Alex quickly dashed across to where the fiction books were. She hid behind the first row of books. Luckily there wasn’t anyone else in the aisle to see how much of an idiot she looked like. Ben went to check out a few CDs with the middle-aged woman. He made her laugh at something. Then he backtracked and put up his pointer finger, most likely saying he’ll be back in one minute. Did he forget something? Alex didn’t freak out because if he was going to go back to get more CDs, she would be out of his crosshairs. However, Alex did freak out because Ben was going straight for the fiction books. Even then, Ben didn’t seem like he saw Alex before. Ben didn’t seem like he was aware of Alex’s existence. It was only two weeks after they broke up and he didn’t have a care in the world.
A man, mid-twenties, fitting all qualifications of a hipster, walked into her row. Alex looked back at Ben who was close. Alex needed to be camouflage. She thought about the movies she’s seen and thought of a fantastic idea.
She walked over to the hipster guy. “Hey,” she said. “I need a favor. Make out with me for like ten seconds.”
“What?” he said.
“Come on, just do it. Just make out with me.”
“I’m gonna go now.” He wasn’t bluffing either. He left. Alex couldn’t do anything else. She just stared right at one book: The Fairy-Tale Detectives. The only significance that book had to her was that it was the only thing she could look at as to not pay attention to Ben possibly entering her aisle.
But he didn’t. Ben walked right past her. Close. Alex was too on edge to think. She instinctively checked her phone: 11:00 AM. Not too bad. She knew that Ben was just checking out so she just decided to play it safe. Alex walked briskly to the check-out counter. She passed the computer to see the screen still on her project. No one was going to touch it. What bad people go to the library? Alex passed the check-out counter and the unchecked book detector. Straight down the hall was the exit; that wouldn’t work for her. To the right was a hallway with a few doors and the bathroom; that would work for her. Alex went into the bathroom.
It was just her in there. Through the help of “Angry Birds”, Alex got past ten minutes of loitering. At 11:11, she was confident enough that Ben was gone. She walked out of the bathroom to find the back of Ben talking to a middle-aged man. Alex did not want to go back into that bathroom. She knew that she had to go outside to her car, watch him leave, and then go back inside when she was sure she was safe. Alex turned around and there was a glass door right there; she was literally looking at the parking lot. There was only one dilemma: the door said in gray lettering “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY/ALARM WILL SOUND IF OPENED”. She quickly brushed that aside, though. She always left her basketball team’s locker room through the emergency exit door and it never sounded. She walked out of that door with the same confidence.
The fire alarm ringed and actually made Alex jump with surprise. She started to blame the door but then she realized that she should be the one with the blame; she obviously couldn’t read. Alex knew she had to go all in, though. She walked even more briskly to her car.
“Hey!” a man said. Didn’t sound like Ben. She turned around to see a policeman twenty feet away from her, running up to her. How did a police officer get there so quickly? Then Alex realized that the local police have their headquarters here, making this place the absolute worst to pull a fire alarm. Well, when there isn’t a fire, obviously. “What are you doing?”
She had to play dumb. “I heard the fire alarm, so I had to run out.”
“Well,” he said. “Can you just stay here? If there isn’t a confirmed fire, we need to interview everyone to see who pulled it.” She’s a felon.
“Okay. Can I just wait in my car?”
“No, I’m sorry. You have to wait outside with everyone else.” She repeated that in her head: everyone else.
“How long will that take?’
“Well, the fire department would have to get here and if no fire we’d have to interview everyone so maybe forty-five minutes if there isn’t a fire.” This was bad. Not only would Alex not get her paper in on time, but she would have to see Ben who would be walking out any second, and she might get a fine for setting off the fire alarm. Or she could make a dash for her car. But that wouldn’t solve anything. She would still not be able to print out her project. Then Alex remembered two words: school library.
Alex ran to her car. She got in, cranked the ignition, and quickly pulled out. She drove by the police officer trying to wave her down, then ran to his squad car. Alex pulled out of the library onto Route 206.
The school was ten minutes away. She checked her dash: 11:15. There was no chance she was going to be able to e-mail that project in the library so Alex felt at least a little better for fleeing a potential crime scene. Alex drove down the road with a steady fifteen miles above the speed limit. She knew the police car was going to eventually chase her down but something was just pulling her back from really going fast.
The police car got on 206 as well. The police car sped up but didn’t put on its sirens yet. He actually believed that she would pull over without a fight. Alex immediately felt regret for her passiveness before. If Ben saw her, he would have no problem but to go up to her and say hi despite the awkwardness of the situation. Hell, it wouldn’t be awkward for him. Ben always said “It’s not awkward unless you make it awkward.” But Alex will do anything to make herself non-existent. Now she had to prove that, yes, she did exist. Alex went to seventy.
Sensing the urgency, the policeman knew that this wouldn’t be easy. He mirrored her speeding up and put on his sirens. Alex just remembered that at the halfway point they would cross by train tracks. Maybe there could be a train crossing by that could block off the policeman like in Little Giants.
Alex flew by green light after green light with the policeman right behind her. She wasn’t going to even fathom the idea of a red light. Ahead Alex saw train tracks. She looked around. Nothing. How could she even think of that as a possibility? Alex arbitrarily crossed the tracks.
With only a couple of minutes to go to the school, Alex got a little bored. She turned on the radio. Maybe she was on it! No, not yet. Alex saw the high school to the left of her. She crossed it, intending to go to the parking lot past the high school which was closer to the library, when something caught her eye. The digital billboard in front of the school read in big red letters “School Closed for Public Safety Issues”.
Alex looked behind her; the police car was close behind. She put her foot on the accelerator and started again. Alex turned back around to being on the way to the library even before she knew what she was going to do. It was 11:34. The only chance she had left was going to the library. But how would she shake this cop car?
The way back seemed like routine. Alex had already been chased down by a cop car. He didn’t call for backup but that made sense. Alex approached the train tracks. She looked to her left for a train. Nothing. To her right. A train. Really? The lever wasn’t brought down yet so she actually could pull this off. She was almost there when the lever started to lower. It went down really fast and really slow at the same time. Alex didn’t know if she could make it but she was already going eighty so she didn’t have much of a choice. Alex even was apprehensive of her speeding before she realized that a cop was chasing her down already. Alex drove up and instinctively swerved a little out of reach of the lever. The next thing Alex knew was that she was safely on the other side of the road. She at her rear view to see the cop car stopped on the other side of the street shortly followed by the train passing by. Alex gave a huge laugh like Ben in The Graduate minus the pang of regret following. It was 11:40.
At 11:47, Alex pulled up to the library. No one was outside and there were cars--no police cars--in the parking lot. Perfection. So much for forty-five minutes, officer.
Alex ran inside and went straight for the same computer. It was still up on the same page. She hasted over it all and finally pressed send. Alex sat back in her seat and gave the biggest breath of relief she could give. Right after, Alex felt a tap on her left shoulder. She looked over to see Ben towering over her.
“Hey, Alex,” he said.
“Hey, Ben.” He walked away like he saw a random friend in the hallway. Alex looked over at the CD he was holding. It was green and with an orange top left corner. Rubber Soul.
She waited for Ben to leave and walked over to the exit. Alex stared at the door handle and slowly turned the knob.