Call Me Maybe
"You're going to fall in that thing if you don't stop leaning over it like that."
Reba looked up from the fountain she was gazing into.
"Shut up, Lori Anne." She peered back in, staring at the coins people had tossed in. The big ornate fountain on campus was a place the kids gathered at during lunch time to hang out and talk but at night, no one was to be found there. Which was one of the reasons why Reba and Lori Anne had sneaked out of their dorm room after hours.
"What are you even doing?" The twenty-year-old blonde asked her friend. "It's getting late. Are we going to go to that party or not?"
Reba looked up at her in her skin tight, black leather pants and sparkly white top. The way the moonlight reflected off her shirt made her look like a movie star, Reba thought, and she vaguely wished she could pull off an outfit like that.
Jumping off the bench she was standing on, Reba walked over to her best friend, pushing a few curls the wind blew around out of her eyes. "I don't know," She admitted, answering her friend's question. "Why don't we just hang out here? All the parties you drag me to are dumb anyway."
"You want to hang out here in the courtyard by the fountain all night?"
Reba shrugged. "I'd rather do that than stand up against a wall at a party while you make out with random strangers."
Lori Anne rolled her eyes. "You seriously need to learn to live a little, girl. There are a lot of guys that are interested in you. More than you think." She turned on her heel. "I'm going. You can come or not, but I'll be home later." She disappeared into the bushes, taking a shortcut to the dorm parking lot to where her car was parked.
Reba sighed. Lori Anne was always pushing her to do stupid stuff that didn't have a turning back point and it was getting a little old. She didn't think college had everything to do with partying. In fact, Reba was there for going to school, as crazy as that sounded to Lori Anne.
Would be nice for a subtle change, though, She thought to herself. Mix things up a bit. Not too much, though...
She dug in her pocket and pulled out a penny, popping it in the fountain from where she stood, not knowing what she was wishing for, but knowing there was a wish somewhere in her, trying to get out.
"You know it's against the rules to be out in the courtyard after eleven o'clock."
Reba whirled around, gasping with her hand over her chest. Before her stood a guy with blonde hair wearing one of the school's shirts.
"I know..." She said quietly, wondering who this guy was and where he came from. "I would like to point out that you're out here after eleven, too."
"Touche."
Reba raised her eyebrows. "Well, I better get back to my room." She started to walk past him, breathing in the wonderful smell of his cologne as she walked by.
I threw a wish in the well
Don't ask me, I'll never tell
I looked to you as it fell
And now you're in my way
I trade my soul for a wish
Pennies and dimes for a kiss
I wasn't looking for this
But now you're in my way
"What would you do that for?" She turned around to see him facing her. She couldn't help but smile as she noticed he had bought into the ripped jeans craze. He was definitely not the typical guy that would make her head turn. He looked preppy and popular, a crowd she was unfamiliar with.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"You were out here for something, weren't you?"
"But you're so adamant about the rules, mister...?"
"My name's Brock," He said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "And you are?"
"Reba McKinney."
He looked down at the ground before going up to her, lifting his eyes as he did so. "Well, Reba McKinney, I happen to be on the security team here."
"Are you not a student?" She found his blue eyes piercing and his soft gaze made it somewhat uncomfortable to look at dead on. It was as if his eyes were too kind.
"I didn't say that."
"Are you?"
"Yes."
The way he was flirting with her made her want to keep it going. This is where she wished she would have listened to Lori Anne's lectures on the topic.
"Well, isn't this a bit hypocritical of you, then?"
He shrugged. "All in how you look at it."
"I guess."
"So, what are you doing out here, Reba McKinney?"
She held back a grin. How she could like the way a person said her name so much, she'd never know.
"I was out here with my best friend," She explained. "But she left to go to a party and I was just about to go back to my dorm when you showed up."
"Well, I'm glad I caught you."
She tilted her head. "Oh? And why is that?"
"Because I wouldn't have had this lovely midnight conversation with such a pretty girl, would I?"
Your stare was holdin', ripped jeans, skin was showin'
Hot night, wind was blowin'
Where you think you're goin', baby?
"I guess not." She smiled, remembering a bit of Lori Anne's advice. "Well, I should probably get going. I have class in the morning."
"Aw." He put on a fake pouty face. "Alright."
"And," She said, pulling out a gum wrapper from her pocket. "Do you have a pen?"
"What?"
"An ink pen?"
"Oh." He patted his pockets. "Will a pencil work?" He handed her a sharpened to the nothings pencil and she took it.
"It'll work."
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I know I just met you and I usually don't do this. It's kind of crazy for me, actually. Here's my number." She handed the gum wrapper to him. "Call me? Maybe?"
Hey, I just met you
And this is crazy
But here's my number
So call me, maybe
It's hard to look right
At you, baby
But here's my number
So call me, maybe
Hey, I just met you
And this is crazy
But here's my number
So call me, maybe
And all the other boys
Try and chase me
But here's my number
So call me, maybe
He took the wrapper and looked at it before smiling. "Maybe." He winked and shared a smile and a wave before they both walked away, going to their dorms on opposite ends of the campus
It had been a week since her encounter with Brock, the student slash security team member. She was doing her homework for a class that wasn't her favorite when Lori Anne walked in the room, leaning against the door frame, looking down on Reba at her desk.
"You busy?" The blonde asked.
Reba looked up, a bit startled, but shook her head. "No. Why?"
Lori Anne pulled something out from behind her back. "You have a phone-call."
Reba didn't think anything of it. "If it's Mama, tell her I'll call her back later." She looked back at her paper and flipped a few pages in her textbook.
"It's not your mom," Lori Anne said, her hand over the mouthpiece. "Unless your mom is a guy."
Reba raised her head with a baffled look on her face. "Do what?"
"It's a guy on the phone!"
Reba's eyes widened. "Really?" She stood from her desk. "Let me have it!"
Lori Anne held the phone away from her. "Not until I get an explanation. Why is there suddenly a man calling the dorm, asking for you?"
Reba shrugged. "I may or may not have met someone while you were at your lame party the other night." She snatched the phone away from Lori Anne. "Now get out so I can have some privacy." She shoved her friend out of the room and shut and locked the door, sitting on her bed.
"Hello?"
"Well, Reba McKinney."
She smiled. "I see you decided to put that gum wrapper to good use."
His laugh was intoxicating as she heard it on the other line. "I guess I did. Sorry it took so long to call. I've been busy this past week."
"I know how it is. I'm glad you remembered me."
"How could I not?"
"I'm not the most memorable person."
"Aw, you don't give yourself enough credit."
They settled into conversation easily, as if they'd known each other for years.
"Yeah, life in Oklahoma is pretty different than it is here in Texas," She told him as they were nearing their full second hour of chatting.
"I bet. It sounds so interesting, though. I've heard about life on ranches and rodeo being a way of life in songs and on TV, but I've never met someone who's actually lived it. It's interesting."
She nodded as if he could see her. Then she wished he could.
"I wouldn't trade my experiences on the ranch for anything," She told him.
"Maybe I could visit there sometime."
"Oh?" She sat up from where she had been laying down, rubbing her cheek to get rid of the unflattering mattress face. "Do you plan on seeing me again?"
"I was hoping you'd let me."
"I wouldn't have anything against it." She could hear the smile in her own voice and wondered if he heard it, too. She didn't know how this stranger could make her feel so happy just talking to him. He seemed very special and she couldn't help but hope he thought the same of her.
"Crazy how this whole thing happened, huh?" He asked suddenly. "Us not even knowing we were on the same planet, much less the same college campus and here we are talking like we've known each other for years."
"It does seem that way, doesn't it?"
You took your time with the call
I took no time with the fall
You gave me nothing at all
But still, you're in my way
I beg, borrow and steal
At first sight and I know it's real
I didn't know I would feel it
But it's in my way
She recalled the way the night was hot and she remembered the way the wind was blowing when she saw him for the first time. She was sure it wasn't a memory she would soon forget.
"Is it crazy enough to work?" He asked.
"Oh, I think we're crazy enough to make it."
Your stare was holdin', ripped jeans, skin was showin'
Hot night, wind was blowin'
Where you think you're goin' baby?
Reba sat up from her couch where she had been laying down. Remembering that very first phone-call her and Brock had was a memory she went back to every now and then when she was down. She had just gotten home from a date with a guy that seemed to like her more than he liked himself and she just wasn't sure about him. He was a bit younger than she and now she was beginning to wonder what Cheyenne saw in him when she introduced them a few weeks before.
Standing to stretch, she yawned and walked to the front door, remembering to water her flowers before she went to bed. She was usually a good gardener, but lately her mind had been elsewhere and her flowers, among other things, were suffering for it. She was often playing therapist to Barbra Jean who was wondering if her divorce from Brock had been the right move, playing teacher to Jake who was failing most of his high school classes, playing babysitter to Cheyenne whose kids she had to watch every Friday night, and playing vocal coach to Kyra who was staying with her and insisting on practicing her singing day and night until she moved into her dorm at the arts college downtown.
One role she thought she wanted to play was girlfriend but that had been shot down earlier in the evening when she decided she wasn't going to call the guy back again.
She stepped outside as the porch light flicked on, illuminating the dark space long enough to pick up the blue watering can she had set out in the yard to catch the rain water and water the flowers in pots.
"Bit late to be out here, don't you think?"
Reba looked up from her task to see Brock walking up to her yard from the sidewalk.
"What are you up to?" She asked, going back to watering.
"Can't sleep," He admitted.
She scoffed. "I've lost track of the time these past few days. I'd love to be able to sleep."
"It's after eleven," He told her.
She shook her head as she finished up. "I believe it. It's crazy what stress will do to you. I hardly know what day it is, either."
"It's Monday." He looked at his watch. "For another twenty-seven minutes, anyway."
"That was more of a rhetorical statement."
He shrugged. "What have you been up to lately?"
She sighed, going to sit on the front steps. "Nothing exciting."
He joined her. "Cheyenne said you had a date tonight."
"I'm sure she did."
"Did you?"
She nodded, not offering any more information, but knowing he would ask.
"Who was he?"
"You wouldn't know him. I think he was a friend of a friend of Cheyenne's. He was young."
"Let me guess. Didn't end well?"
"We just don't fit together."
"Well..." Brock made a face and she elbowed him.
"Not like that, you pervert. We don't click. Hardly anything in common."
"We didn't have anything in common."
"And did we work? No."
The chuckle at the end of her statement showed that she was joking, but Brock took it to heart.
"I thought we did. For awhile."
She turned to him. "Brock, I was kidding."
He shrugged. "Hard to tell lately. Sometimes I think that you like to throw away everything we had because you're still bitter."
"Well, tell me how you really feel." She was shocked he spoke to her so bluntly.
He sighed. "I'm sorry. I guess I just feel bad about Barbra Jean and I that I'm taking it out on other people. That's what my therapist says, anyway."
"You're in therapy again?"
He nodded. "I figured it might be good. You know, in case I'm ever in another relationship again. Which I probably never will be."
She looked to the concrete steps beneath them both. He had never been so vulnerable to her. She wasn't sure where it was coming from.
"You never know, Brock. There's somebody for everyone."
He just kind of nodded with a small laugh. "What happens when... Never mind." He stood. "I should get going."
She looked up at him. "No. What were you going to say?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Then why did you start to say it? It's just me, Brock. You can tell me."
"What happens when you screwed it up so bad with the person that was made for you? You're destined to be alone, that's what. You can't make it work with anyone else because you're only meant to be with one person. But you can't be."
It was then she realized it was the first time in seven years that they were both single and looking for someone to spend the rest of their life with. Were they blind, she wondered.
"You don't give yourself enough credit," She said, remembering his words to her from years ago.
He scoffed. "Maybe I don't, but I know when I mess it up too bad to fix it."
She rolled her eyes. "If there's anyone here who thinks, excuse me, knows they've messed up too bad to fix anything, it's me."
He looked at her. "What?"
She stood to meet his eyes that were so easy to look at after so many years. "I never communicated with you. I always shut you out because I wanted to be a bitch and get back at you for hurting me. I didn't realize you never meant to hurt me, you just didn't know how to be the perfect husband I expected you to be. That's why I get so disappointed in people. I expect too much. A lot of the reason we ended up divorcing was me, Brock. And you don't have to lie and say I wasn't because I know I was."
"But you're not..."
"See! I told you not to say that!"
"We were both equally at fault. You're not worse than me, Reba. We were one, we were equal, you hear me? Have you been beating yourself up over this all these years?"
She shrugged. "I thought about it from time to time." She looked at him. "Have you?"
"Every day."
She bit her lip, thinking. "Brock?"
"Yeah?"
"What have we been doing?"
He shrugged. "Fighting it tooth and nail. We're both stubborn, Reba. I'm surprised it didn't take longer to figure out that we just needed some time apart and out in the real world to figure things out. We lived in this fantasy that everything would stay perfect for so long that we crumbled when it fell down around us."
"Did you know that before we even met, I missed you? I know that sounds weird, but it's true."
He smiled. "I thought the same thing. I knew something was missing, but I didn't know what it was. I think I was subconsciously searching for it when I found you."
"Are we crazy?"
"Crazy enough to make it work." He leaned forward and grabbed her, bringing her into a hug.
Before you came into my life
I missed you so bad
I missed you so bad
I missed you so, so bad
Before you came into my life
I missed you so bad
And you should know that
"Hey," He said, pulling back a bit to look at her, caressing her face with his hand. "I know I didn't just meet you and we're still crazy. But you have my number, so call me, maybe?"
She leaned forward and kissed him gently and smiled when he responded and held her tighter against him.
Whispering her answer into their kiss, she knew it would eventually work out somehow.
"Definitely."
So call me, maybe?
-The End-