Thirty Seconds

A Short Story by Jessica Leckrone

The first week after classes resumed, Macy and her friends were determined to go out and have a great time. She was nervous, though. She knew her ex would be out with his friends, as well. She had seen him twice around campus and neither one acknowledged the other. They hadn’t had the easiest relationship. Macy and her girlfriends got ready at her house that night, drinking and dancing while doing each other’s hair. She had finally forgotten all of her worries by the time they were ready to leave.

The club they went to was a hole in the wall type place, but in this college town, it was the only place to be on a Wednesday night. Macy liked to get there early, around nine o’clock, to make sure she didn’t have to wait in line and to ensure she had easy access to the bar before it got packed. To all of their surprise, there was a line a mile long just to get in. “This place isn’t good enough to wait in a line like this,” she told the rest of the girls. They decided that if they didn’t know anybody up front to cut in line, they would leave.

Luckily they did. One of her friends snuck them in front before any of the bouncers could send them back to the end. As they were giggling and high fiving about their success, she got a strong tap on her shoulder. Macy glanced quickly over her left shoulder to see a girl standing there with her hand on her hip glaring at her. “Sorry, we’re just saying hi, we’ll move in–.”

The girl held up her hand and stopped Macy short before she could say anything else. “Yeah okay, just hurry up. We were here first.” She said it with as much venom as she could muster and rolled her eyes. Macy was taken aback by the audacity of this girl, but turned around and shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t going to be Miss Nice Girl anymore. Macy gave the rest of the girls a look that made sure they knew her alcohol-induced brashness wasn’t going to be kept under wraps any longer. Macy’s roommate, Abby, was standing next to her throughout the entire encounter. She was the one person that would speak her mind if they even looked at her wrong. This girl had stepped on the wrong group of girl’s toes.

They had gotten closer to the front and Macy heard the girl behind her say, “Why the hell haven’t they moved yet?” She glanced back and her stomach dropped. It was her, Arin, Tim’s new girlfriend who couldn’t stand Macy at all. Oh, shit. She glanced at Abby and mouthed, “It’s. Her.” She gave her a look and shrugged her shoulders with an attitude they had all come to be wary of. That shrug told all of them, “I hope she does say something to any of us just so I can lay into her.”

Just then a second door opened right where they were standing. Yes! Now I’ll be in before the evil one. Abby darted to the opening in front of the girls and Macy quickly followed. All of a sudden, she felt something hit her gut with so much pressure she was propelled backwards. When Macy looked up, it was the bouncer’s arm.
“This is the cutoff.”

“But we’re together! I’m with her!” Macy sputtered out.

“Sorry, have to stop the line somewhere.”

Asshole. Arin looked at Macy with pure amusement at her recent rejection and ran inside as Abby stepped back out, but not before muttering, “Maybe next time, bitch,” Just loud enough for Macy to hear. Her cheeks flared. Abby sauntered back and waited in line with her once again. They both were reeling from the sudden high and then low of what had just happened.

It only took them ten more minutes to get inside and they ran straight to the bar to get their drinks. They both downed the first and grabbed a second before they scurried to the dance floor. Macy was determined to have a great night and see all of her friends she hadn’t seen in three long months. They were all dancing at the edge of the VIP area that was raised slightly higher than the rest of the dance floor. The floor was sticky with spilled drinks and everyone was packed in so tightly there wasn’t much room to dance. Everyone knew the only way to enjoy themselves here was to get drunk so that they didn’t realize how bad it actually was. Macy had been there sober before. It wasn’t fun. Abby leaned over and whispered, “Sam’s here.” Great…Sam was Tim’s old roommate and best friend. Macy knew then she wouldn’t be able to avoid him.

She stood there frozen in concern over what would happen if she saw him, and then realized it didn’t matter. Who cares what he thinks?

I’m over him. There is a reason we ended it last year. She looked at Abby, shrugged her shoulders and said, “Who cares? Let’s get another drink.”

Macy and Tim had been on the rocks for a few weeks. They’d fight and make up like a TV sitcom. One minute they were laughing and talking with friends, the next he’d yell at her to get in his car to go home. She couldn’t keep up with his mood swings and was done dealing with them. The night things ended, they had made eye contact with each other across the commons. He mouthed “Hey” like they hadn’t talked all week. Who does he think he is? He can’t just not talk to me and then act like everything is normal in front of everyone else. She looked down and noticed her hands shaking.

She decided to text him: Can we talk? This was weird.

Yeah. Come up after you’re done.

She looked at her friends and said, “Here goes nothing.”

When she entered his room, he was cleaning and packing to go home for the summer.
“What did you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know what we’re doing, I guess,” she responded warily.

“Well, Mace, I just feel like you’re trying to tie me down.”

She looked up quickly, shocked by this statement. “What? How? I don’t ask you what you’re doing. I don’t text you all day. I don’t care who you’re with or where you’re going. Explain to me how I am tying you down.”

“I’m just not ready for all of this. I mean, I’m a freshman in college, and if I want to see the girl I met last night, I want to be able to do that.”

“Okay. This isn’t what I signed up for,” and with that, she walked out of his room and didn’t look back.

Abby and Macy were dancing and singing the words to each other when she looked up and everything seemed to stop. There he was, she thought. He stopped just a few feet in front of her. Their eyes locked and they both froze. Macy’s heart immediately started to pound. A million things ran through her head: Why is he here? What do I do? Do I ignore him? Do I say hi? Should I smile? Should I look away? She saw the same questions running through his mind. His face looked just as concerned as Macy’s felt. His lips twitched between a smile and a frown and back again. He was unsure of what to do as well. He finally chose a nervous smile that only traveled up the left side of his face. She decided to give him a tentative smile in return. He must have taken that as an invite to come over and say hi. The first thing he did was lean in for a hug. Surprising even herself, she hugged him back. It had been so long. She had forgotten the sweet and smoky smell that was Tim. She was dizzy with emotion. He had on that old Polo t-shirt he loved so much, which was no shock to her. While they stood there in that awkward embrace with so many old emotions running from him to her and back again, Macy looked up and saw Arin glaring from across the dance floor. He was going to be in trouble for sure.

He leaned back and smiled again at her, much more confidently this time, and said, “We’ll talk soon.”

It took only those thirty seconds to make Macy crumble and her heart to ache. She was back to square one again and she knew that she would never get rid of the feelings she once had for him. She watched him as he walked away and sighed. Abby looked at her with a knowing glance that said she read everything that had just happened. Macy shrugged it off and acted as if it was no big deal. We can be friends, can’t we? I can handle that, right?