Claudia
I answered the phone with a smile on my face. Kristy and I spoke on the phone fairly regularly, so it hadn't been a shock when I had seen her name flash up, but it was still a pleasure to hear from my oldest friend. However, when she had told me that Mary Anne had been in contact and had confirmed that she was coming back to Stoneybrook for Watson's birthday party, I almost fell off my chair.
"No way? She's actually coming?" I said to Kristy.
"Yep, all the way from California. And not only that, Dawn is coming along too. Can you believe it?" I could hear the joy in Kristy's voice as she told me the news. I knew how hard she had taken the falling out with Mary Anne all those years ago.
"I can't believe we are finally going to have a BSC reunion. You, me, Stacey, Mary Anne, Dawn. Did you hear back from Abby, Jessi and Mal yet?" I really wanted the whole gang back together again; it had been far too long.
"Yeah. Mal and Jessi are almost definitely coming, but Abby is away. You know how it is with her job, she never knows from one week to the next where in the world she is going to be." I was disappointed, but I was still in fairly good contact with Abby; it hadn't been over fifteen years since I had last seen her, as it had been with Mary Anne and Dawn. Plus Mary Anne had been a founder member of the club, we had grown up in the same street, and I had known her since we were babies. There was a special connection there.
"Well, it's going to be a special day whatever happens. Watson and your mom will be glad to have the whole family in one place for once won't they? And how about you? Are we finally going to meet the mysterious Alex?" Kristy had recently met Alex, but apparently none of her family had yet had the pleasure. "Your mom is always telling mine that she's waiting for you to settle down and concentrate on something other than your work. Taking Alex home with you would be the perfect opportunity to show her you are doing just that." I knew that Kristy had always been reluctant to take anyone home. She was just shy about making her feelings public.
"Well, we'll see. It's work again you see. Alex is another one that is always on the go, never in one place long enough to make permanent plans. I'll try my best, and I'll let you know." It had taken a while, but I had finally got Kristy to see that talking to her friends about her love life was a good thing, and not something to be scared of. And now that she had told me all about her fledgling relationship, I wanted to meet Alex.
"Make sure you do! Oh, I have to go, I have another call coming through. I'll speak to you soon. Bye." I ended the call with Kristy and looked to see who the incoming call was from.
"Hi Janine, how's it going?" My sister tried to call me once a week, she was currently in Japan researching some sort of anthropological project. As expected, Janine had become a scholar, studying at the University of Chicago and then working there as a professor. She was really interested in our heritage as Japanese-Americans, and so most of her research was based in that area.
We spoke for a while, I told her all about Mary Anne and Dawn attending Watson's birthday party. She wouldn't be there herself, as she still had another six months left in Japan. However, she was delighted to hear my news.
Janine and I had grown incredibly close as we got older. We were brought together by the sudden death of our father, when I was 24 he had died in a car accident; my mother was understandably devastated, and Janine and I both had trouble coming to terms with it. It had brought us much closer together than we had ever been before, and we supported each other through our grief, as well as trying to ensure that Mom was OK. It was a long time ago now, and Mom was doing fine now. She has always said that she won't marry again, but sometimes I worry that she is just saying it because she worries what Janine and I will say. As weird as it would be to see her married to someone who wasn't Dad, enough time had passed that I knew we would both be OK with it.
I pulled out my diary and flipped to the 22nd July. I had it written in there , 'Watson's 70th Birthday – Stoneybrook.' Between now and then I had meeting after meeting to get through. I loved my life, but sometimes I just wish I had more time for the things that I loved doing. I had always thought that I would be an artist, and I guess in some ways I had fulfilled that ambition. But now I ran an art gallery, in Providence, Rhode Island, and frankly it wasn't all I had hoped it would be. The sad, cold truth was that being an artist just didn't earn me enough money. I always ended up doing other jobs, like waitressing or bar work, just to survive. This was not the life I had wanted, I wanted to make art my career. Then I met my boyfriend, Grayson. It had started off fairly casually, we met while I was working in a bar, and ended up sleeping together fairly quickly. I had really liked him, but for whatever reason he wasn't really ready to commit, so we were just sort of friends with benefits for quite a while. When I got fed up with just being a booty call for him, I gave him an ultimatum. To my surprise, he chose to quit messing me around, and we became an official couple. We've been together for five years, and we've been living together for three. I knew that it was time to grow up, and quit being a struggling artist. So I started running this small art gallery for a friend, and the truth of the matter is that I have hated it since the day I began. It was stifling, I had no time to paint, or sculpt, or draw. It's not me at all, and I keep thinking about how I should quit and start doing something I really enjoy. But then the bills show up, or the rent has to be paid, and I know that Grayson can't afford to support me while I find myself. So right now I was just trying to get on with it and be a grown-up.
I flipped back to 22nd July and began to doodle stars and hearts around the entry for Watson's birthday. The next three weeks would be boring as hell, but I knew that I could get through them by thinking about this party, and the BSC being together again!
