The Last One(20)

“Meghan Hawthorne, tell me. Or I’ll come up there and smack it out of you.”

I lifted my head and stared down at her. “You’re not going to believe it even when I tell you. Or maybe you will.” I swallowed hard and let my head drop to the sofa cushion. “ArtCorps has assigned me to Burton. Burton, Georgia.”

Laura didn’t move. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding, right? You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way ...”

Without another word, I handed her the tablet and watched her read the email. When she finished, she laid the tablet on the coffee table and gazed at me. “No fucking way. Well ...” She sat back on her heels. “At least you know the town has a decent bar, a place to dance and a trustworthy mechanic.”

I flipped her the bird.

“Nice. Can you ask them to change it? Switch you? Maybe they made a mistake.”

I shook my head. “I can ask, but it won’t happen. When I signed up, I agreed that I’d work wherever they assigned me.”

“You have to admit, this is weird. I mean, you’ve never been to Burton the whole time we’ve been in school here. Then we just happen to go to a bar, your car just happens to break down there ... and lo and behold, your assignment for the summer is that same town.”

“What’re you trying to say? The universe is conspiring to screw up my life?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, I think the universe is moving you to the place you need to go. Now it’s up to you: are you going to roll with it or fight the tide?”

“No ocean analogies, please.” I closed my eyes, trying to settle my mind and think clearly. “I don’t know what I should do.”

“Look, Megs. You really want to do this program, right? You were so excited about it.”

“That’s when I thought I was going to be a hippie artist in New Mexico.”

“Yeah, I get that. But was it really the setting or what you were going to be doing there?”

I pursed my lips. “Will I sound terribly shallow if I say a little of both?”

“Nope. But remember why you wanted to sign up in the first place. It was to teach kids, to find out if that’s what you want to do long-term. Right?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “You’re right. I just thought I’d go a little further from home to figure it out.” I stared down at my hands. “I need to be away from everything. And from everyone. I’m tired of being Meghan Hawthorne from the Rip Tide when I’m at home. Or Meghan Hawthorne who sleeps with lots of boys but can’t keep a boyfriend when I’m in Savannah.”

“It’s not that you can’t.” Laura rubbed my knee. “You choose not to have a boyfriend. Love ‘em and Leave ‘em Hawthorne, right? Isn’t that what you wanted, never to be tied down to one guy?”

“Sure.” I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “I guess. But Lo, it’s exhausting. I need a break from being me. I thought that was what this summer would be.”

“It still can be that. No one knows you in Burton, except that Boomer dude.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “And of course Sam.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. I’ll be walking into a situation where at least one person has already decided I’m a drunken slut.”

Laura rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You might be exaggerating a tiny bit. But it’s your decision. What’re you going to do?”

I ran my finger along the seam of the sofa cushion. “I think I’ll call tomorrow and find out if there’s any way to change it. But if not, I guess Burton it is.”

At nine o’clock sharp the next morning, I was on the phone, listening to the recorded voice prompting me to press one for help with an application or two for a list of locations where ArtCorps would be sending volunteers this year. I hit zero and waited for a live person.

“Good morning, this is Tina. How can I help you?”

I mustered up my best professional voice, the one I’d perfected over years of waiting tables at the Rip Tide, dealing with rude tourists and testy locals. “Good morning, Tina. I’m Meghan Hawthorne, and I—”

“Oh, Meghan! Hi. I remember your application. Actually, I processed it myself.”

“Wow. What are the odds?” I bit the corner of my lip.

She laughed. “Better than you might think. We’re pretty small here, since we’re just starting out. Everyone pitches in. And I remember you because I was so excited about the location we matched you with. It was a last-minute add, and when I read their needs, I thought about you right away.”