With
my luck, I figured Tonia had already arrived, moved in, and run off to the
picnic. I ran through my list of options as I staggered up the stairs to my
dorm room. Maybe now was the time to hit the grocery store. I could stock our
refrigerator and reward myself for working on a day I had planned to be lazy. I
quickly discovered Tonia had arrived and left a note on the bed, commanding me
to join her for dinner at the Grease Pit.
Funny
how fast I could run when I was weak with hunger.
I
found Tonia at a table where she could see the door, snarfing a rack of ribs
and a double helping of coleslaw. She could get away with that kind of eating
since she had been born skinny as a rake and stayed that way no matter what she
ate. If I didn't love her so much, I would have hated her. She gave me a big
barbecue sauce grin when I waved and ran for the counter to order.
Tonia
was the coolest girl I'd ever met. She had a talent for making odds and ends
from the Salvation Army store look like the latest fashions. She saw no need to
crush her internal organs to wear something currently "in" or make
herself look three sizes smaller. She had the gift of looking equally as
elegant in an oversized camouflage jacket as she did in the red silk
Mandarin-style dress she wore to church. She had a coffee-and-cream complexion,
and didn't wear a speck of makeup.
Today
she had her hair in a dozen braids, all wound with ribbons in graduating
shades, so it went from red on her left ear, through purple and blue, to orange
on her right ear. A walking rainbow. She wore enough bracelets to sound like a
junk truck when she moved.
Knowing
Tonia's eating habits, I ordered a peanut butter malt ice cream swirler along
with my dinner. I got it in front of her just as she turned to look for me. All
she got out was "Hey, E--" then looked down and saw that jumbo-sized
cup. She snorted and gave me a cocked eyebrow look Spock would have envied as I
slid into the seat opposite her.
"So, you learned to read minds over the
summer?" she asked in a fake, nasal Bronx accent.
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