Flat-Out Love

Julie could play weird, too.

Julie Seagle has a word in her status that doesn’t really flugh anything.

She checked her Gmail account. Finally there was a message from her father.

Dear, Julie:

 What do you think about a trip to California for your winter break? Three weeks up and down the coast. Send my secretary your vacation dates, and we’ll spend Christmas together. Your mother said this would be acceptable to her, so I hope that you’ll agree.

Dad

Julie reread the email. This would be more time than she’d spent with her dad since she’d been a little kid. But what about her mother? She would be upset not to have Julie home for the holidays, although she’d obviously already talked this over with Julie’s dad and agreed. Of course Kate had understood that this opportunity couldn’t be passed up. She was that kind of mother. Julie wrote her father back.

Hi, Daddy! So happy to hear from you! Yes! The trip sounds perfect. I’m so excited to see you! Call me and tell me more. I love you. Julie

She sent her father her cell number in case he’d misplaced it, as well as the Watkins’ home phone number.

Julie closed the computer and picked out her outfit for tomorrow. Orientation started with coffee and bagels at eight-thirty and ran until two-fifteen. She stuck a notebook, pen, a map of the school, and the directions Matt had given her into an oversized purse. As she fumbled to get everything into her bag, a paper slipped to the floor. Julie picked it up and laughed. Matt had slipped a map of the Boston T system into her things and had put gigantic skull and crossbones symbols next to T stations with escalators. Near the map’s key he had added an identifying description: Horrifying threat awaits. Be on high alert. Julie laughed. But see? She really had no business questioning Flat Fi

She turned off the overhead light and crawled into bed, pulled the cool sheet over her, and easily fell asleep. For a few hours.

The noise from the two-fifteen train in Ohio used to wake her up. Even from across town, Julie could hear the horn and the rhythmic clacking as the train drove its course. It took months after the train schedule changed for her to get used to the sound and be able to sleep through it. She remembered when the sleep issues had started, because it’d been around the same time that her father had moved out. Right now she missed that noise, and the silence woke her up.

 Julie turned on the small lamp by the bed and took her book from the nightstand. Usually she could read until it was impossible to keep her eyes open any longer and falling asleep became inevitable. But tonight she was wide awake and unable to focus. It had less to do with being nervous about starting school and more about feeling antsy to get going.  She dropped her book and picked up the picture by the lamp. She smiled at the image of Fi

Julie turned off the light and spent thirty minutes tossing and turning. She had to shut down her brain and get some sleep, but there was so much swirling through her head: college, where to live, strange and wonderful Celeste with her cardboard brother, Matt’s nerdy shirts, her pathetic near-collapse on the escalator, Roger’s shrimp, Erin’s strong opinions on nearly everything…

She pulled a pillow over her head and tried picturing serene scenes. Then she tried to bore herself to sleep by thinking about things like yogurt and the structure of a gas pedal. It wasn’t working. It must be those damn monsters under the bed. Julie rolled onto her back, wondering how to clear her head. She had one idea. It was stupid, but she was getting desperate.

She started quietly singing. God, this was moronic. At least Green Day was Fi

It only took one verse for Julie to lull the monsters under the bed into peace. As she drifted to sleep, she knew that she’d have to thank Fi

Chapter 7

Julie crossed her legs and tried to get comfortable in the hard auditorium seat. It just wasn’t going to happen. The seats had obviously been designed to maximize physical discomfort and prevent students from falling asleep during lectures. Effective, if not cruel. She’d survived a rather tedious breakfast reception during which students had quietly stood around awkwardly nodding and smiling at each other while they waited for orientation to begin. This welcome lecture had to be better. The tiered seats faced a lectern where a few people were struggling to get a Whitney orientation video to work.

“Sorry.” Julie apologized to the girl in the next seat, as she accidently elbowed her while attempting to get her notepad from her bag.

“No problem. We’re like goddamn anchovies in these chairs, huh?” The girl smiled at Julie. “I’m Dana. I don’t know anybody here, and I’m hoping you’re a normal person and will be nice to me. Unlike the man on the T this morning that humped my leg. Although he seemed to think he was being nice.”

“I’m Julie from Ohio, and I promise not to hump your leg.”

“Thank God!” Dana said, looking upward and clapping her hands. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

The guy on Julie’s left leaned in to Dana. “I, on the other hand, might hump your leg. Apologies in advance. I really can’t control it. So sorry.”

Julie laughed. “Since you’ve given fair warning, maybe she’ll excuse you.”

He held his hand out. “I’m Jamie. I grew up in Milford, west of Boston.”

Julie and Dana each shook his hand. Dana’s shiny jet-black hair was cut in a perfectly sharp bob, and her hair barely moved as she nodded to Jamie. “Milford boy, you’re much cuter than perverted T guy, so I just might let you hump my leg. For a small fee.”