Capturing Savannah (9 page)

“Here you go Thea.” Remy says
bumping my shoulder, which Dax still has his hands on and it knocks me out of my stare. He drops a new cup into my hand. I look at Remy and the red plastic cup for an instant and then back to the spot where I saw David.

That spot on the lawn is empty now.
I quickly glance around looking for him in the crowd. But see nothing but people drinking. The guy that was doing the keg stand has stopped. Everyone outside yells or cheers for him and raises their cup. Dax puts his arm around me trying to pull me into the cheering once again. I shake it off and jog with my cup off the porch to the spot I saw him, David standing in. I anxiously look around for him. But he is gone.

“Thea. What’s wrong eh?” says Micah in a comforting tone.

“I thought I saw someone.” I say.

But I don’t see
David anywhere now.

“Who?” says Micah.

“No one.” I say thinking I must have been seeing things after having chugged my beer from before. “It’s fine. Let’s go back to the guys.”

W
e wade our way through the crowd and back to our group’s spot on the porch. The guys are all chugging so Micah and I join in too. As each of the guys finish they stack their cups on the railing bottoms up. This time one on top of the other. So the line of cups represents a line of chugged beers. I finish mine last.

“Ught. Thea. You were last. You gotta get us the next round.
” Says Dean.

“Alright.” I say
walking down the porch steps.

“I’ll help.” Says
Dax catching up behind me. He puts his hands on my shoulders again and I don’t mind too much because it steadies me and will keep the drunks in our path from bothering me too much. We get to the keg and there are a few girls in line in front of us. I notice the girls checking out Dax but he doesn’t seem to notice. Which seems pretty weird for him.

“I think you’re getting some attention there.” I say pointing to the girls with my eyes.

“Well there is only one person’s attention I care about right now.” He says.

I hear what he says but I think the beer chugging has made
my reaction time slow.

“
Dax…” I start to say and stop. In the crowd past Dax I see him again. I see David. He is just standing there looking at me. “David? Is he really here right now?” I gasp in a low breath. I am still starring past Dax at him so I guess I don’t notice when Dax moves. My eyes close and I feel warmth wrapped around my sides. Warmth against my lips. My thoughts are only of David. I realize that David is not the person kissing and embracing me. But someone touching me right now does feel nice. I want to pull away but it’s hard to. I step backwards breaking the embrace that must have lasted a minute or two.

I look to the spot I saw
David. It’s empty. No one is standing in that spot. I think all this drinking is making me see things. Why would David be at this party anyways? That makes no sense.

“Thea.” Says
Dax gently and softly. “Thea I am crazy about you.”

He touches my shoulder and brings his hand up to my face turning it so my eyes meet his.

“Dax. You are a good friend.” I say. “ I am sorry but I don’t want to be anything more than friends.”

“Well
, I don’t want to be your friend Thea.” He says. I can tell he is hurt. But I want to be honest with him.

“He’s not coming back. Thea. You need to move on.
You said his name a minute ago. And that is why I kissed you. Trying to knock some sense into you. It’s been over a month.” Dax says with a hint of anger.

“I know Dax. I know he’s not coming back. But I just need a friend right now.” I say.

He stays silent while we fill up the red plastic cups from the keg and weave our way through the crowd and back to the porch where the gang is.
I chug this next round of beer. And the next. And I think the next as well.

Before I know it
Dax is kissing me again or maybe I am kissing him. And Remy and Micah are pulling him off of me.

I slap
Dax across the face. Not too hard because I am pretty drunk, but hard enough that he stops and realizes I am not into it.

“Heyes guys. Whatcha doing?
” I say to Remy and Micah.

“Thea. I think it’s time to call it a night.” Remy says.

“Come on. Eh. We will take you back to the dorms.” Says Micah.

The
two of them each have an arm and are holding me steady.

“Oh my god. What happened to her?” Emily says to them.

“She keeps saying that she saw
David at the party. And Dax kissed her or she kissed him not really sure. But she slapped him afterwards.” Remy says.

“Well. Shit. I doubt she kissed
Dax. That doesn’t sound like her at all.” Emily says.

Max stops us all on the way in. And gives a very disapproving look to me. I may be drunk but I can still read people pretty well. And this is bad.
Pretty bad. The guys deliver me into my room and Emily says she has got it from here. She gives me a large glass of water and forces me to drink it all before she will let me lay down. She helps me take off my corduroy jacket and my flats and jeans. And then she lets me lay down.

I get up a few times during the middle of the night to upchuck.
I have never really been this drunk before. And I don’t ever want to be this way again either. I don’t recall how many refills in the red plastic cups it took to get me to that point but I think I stopped counting at six. So I am gonna say three is my future limit.

I sleep on and off most of the day Saturday. Emily keeps making sure I have water and brings me some French fries and tomato juice saying both are hangover cures. The French fries because something greasy always does the trick and the tomato juice because of the whole Bloody Mary drink thing.

“Hey Thea. How you feeling?” she says.

I open my eyes and look at the
clock that says it’s three p.m.

“I’m ok. Wow, I can’t believe it’s three o
’clock already. Is it really three o’clock already?” I say.

“Ya. In a few hours you should get up and go down to dinner.
But take your time. Take a shower and start waking yourself up.” She says.

“So you have had a hangover before. I take it?” I ask.

“Oh yeah. Yours isn’t so bad. But I have to ask you.” She says.

“What do you remember about last night Thea?”

I blink for a few moments thinking hard about what did happen last night. I remember some flashes of things, of people.

“Let’s see. I remember you were there. Remy
, Dean and Micah were there. And wait…Dax. Dax kissed me a few times. Oh god. And…and…I kept thinking I saw David there. I saw him at the party just standing there staring at me, Emily. It had to be the alcohol right?” I say to her.

“A
lcohol can do that. It happens. It’s probably because you talked to him right before we went to the party.” She says.

“Oh and what about you and black haired pony tail guy?” I say remembering Darren was there. “I hope I didn’t ruin anything there for you guys.”

“Naw. It was good. We are going out again tonight.” Emily says and I can tell she is giddy and beaming.

“Oh that is great, Emily.” I say.

I lie there in bed. Starring up at the drawing I have hanging by my grandmother’s pictures. The drawing of the Spanish Moss tree that David left folded under my door. I admire the detail and move along the texture of the trees with my eyes. There is still faint hints of where the water damaged the pencil texture. Which just reminds me that things ended with us. After awhile I drag myself out of bed and start the shower water. Not sure yet if I want the temperature on the hot side or the cold side with this queasy stomach feeling and headache from hell. After a few minutes I decide to put it more on the cold side.

I stumble into the shower and start to feel sick so I sit down in it and just let the water fall on me.
I just sit motionless with my arms encircling my knees until Emily knocks on the door.

“You doing ok in there Thea?” she says.

“I’m ok.” I say back starting to move a little. “Can I use your shampoo in here?”

“Yes. Use the
lavender one.” She says.

I squeeze a large amount into my hand
and massage it into my hair. I tilt my head back and let the foamy soap suds steam out and down the drain. The lavender smell energizes me enough that I stand and finish my shower. I get out and gulp another tall glass of water. My body feels slightly rejuvenated.

“So did you live up to your favor last night? Did you have any fun at all?” Emily asks.

“It was fun Emily. Thanks for getting me out.” I say sitting on the edge of my bed wrapped in a towel and brushing my wet hair out.

“So where are you and
black haired pony tail guy going to tonight?” I ask.

“He is taking me to some
Japanese place down the street. It looks really nice.” She says ignoring my nickname for him.

“Sounds fun. Emily.” I say back.

We both get dressed. Me in sweats and an old faded t-shirt. Emily in a short, tight purple dress and heels. She looks stunning. I can’t help but think about how I wish David was here and I was getting dressed up to go on a date with him. We walk downstairs together and say our goodbyes for the evening. She waits in the lobby. I head into the cafeteria. I am standing in line for maybe ten minutes when Remy and the guys holler at me and get in line at the end. I give up my spot and go to the back with them.

Dean, Micah, and Remy all greet me with hugs and hellos.
Dax doesn’t say anything and acts like he doesn’t even notice I am here.

“Hey
Dax.” I say not getting a reply or anything back.

When it’s my turn at the food I get the steak fingers with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Once again going for the comfort food. We all sit down and spread our trays out across multiple tables.

“So Thea. Wanna go with us to another party tonight?” says Dean.

“I don’t think so guys.” I say. “Think I might be a little partied out now.”

“That’s a s
hame.” Says Dax. “Might have gotten a chance to make out with someone else.” He says with loads of sarcasm.

Not knowing what to say in front of the rest of the guys. I stay quiet. I notice
Dax picking at his food.

“Can we go talk somewhere
Dax?” I ask him.

“I guess.” He says.

We both get up and walk out into the lobby area. There are several students in there hanging out so I lead him to the stairwell. He follows behind me.

“
Dax. About last night.” I say.

“It’s ok Thea.” He says back.

“Dax. I had fun last night at the party. But I hope we can still be friends.” I say.

“Thea. It’s fine. But I told you I don’t want to be your friend.
So if you want more than that you let me know.” He says walking out of the stairwell and leaving me in there.

I take a minute to gather my thoughts.
Trying not to think about how people I care about are always leaving me. Ok snap out of it. No more feeling sorry for myself. What a downer I am being.

I take a deep breath and go back to the cafeteria and sit back down at the table with the guys.
Dax is finally eating his food so that makes me feel better even if he doesn’t want to be my friend. The guys are all hooting and hollering and getting more and more amped up before the next party tonight. We all finish our food and pick up our trays.

“You guys have a fun night.” I say.

“We will.” Says Micah.

“
We will drink one for you Thea.” Says Remy.

They head o
ut the doors and I head the opposite way back up to my room. It’s only seven but I lay in bed and do some reading in my art history book. I finish the chapters assigned and decide to keep on reading, getting ahead of the next few assignments. I am caught up on everything else except I do need to determine what I am going to do next week for my new photography assignment. This time the project is our choice. We can capture whatever subject matter we want to. I think about it for awhile starring at David’s drawing of the Spanish moss draped oak tree.

The next
few mornings when I open my eyes the first thing I see is David’s drawing. The beautiful Spanish moss draped oak tree. I adore this image. Ok, that is it. That will be my next photography project’s subject matter. So good I have a decision made for when I walk into my Photography class today. Before class I go down to breakfast and load up on eggs, potatoes and bacon. Of course coffee too. When I am done I wait for the shuttle bus. They pack us in there so all the seats are full and all the standing room is full too.

When we get into class the teacher says she has a twist to throw
into our photo assignment, the one that she said before could be on anything we want.