19
Getting to know Emma was interesting. Some days she didn’t have any trouble at all telling me things about herself, and then other days I could barely get out of her what kinds of foods she liked. The speed at which her defense mechanisms kicked in, and what triggered them, was something that I worked hard to understand in the beginning of our friendship.On one of her more open days I found her sitting by the indoor pool in our hotel d’jour. I hadn’t been looking for her, but rather had been raiding the gift shop for junk food and on my way back to the elevator noticed her through the wall of windows that separated the hall from the pool area.
I sat down with my junk food purchases and smiled at her, “Hey…”
“Hey yourself…” she said and closed the notebook that had been in her lap, the pencil that she’d been using held her spot in the book. “What’s up?”
“Nuthin’… I was just in the gift shop and saw you so I thought I’d drop by and be annoying.”
“Ah…” she chuckled and nodded. “It’s been almost twelve hours since I’ve been annoyed by you, I was beginning to think you didn’t care anymore.”
“Someone’s in a good mood…” I chuckled.
“I suppose…” she said and shrugged. “So what did you buy me in the gift shop?”
“What makes you think I bought YOU anything? Always teasing me and calling me annoying… Like I’d buy you a gift… Yeah right.” I had bought her something, I was completely lying through my teeth. The more I got to know her, the more often I’d be somewhere and think to myself that she’d like whatever was in front of me. Impulse shopping… another one of my issues that I was working on.
“You always get me something…”
“Do not…”
“Do too. The last time you went shopping without coming back with something for me was back in… well, I can’t remember what the hell city it was. But it was after we had dinner at Denny’s that one night when we were in whatever city came after Chicago. So, I’d say we’re going on two weeks or so that you’ve been blowing money on me. Can’t stop now, big spender. You’ve got me conditioned for receiving gifts.”
I thought about what she said and although I would have loved to say she was wrong, she wasn’t. “Okay whatever… but still, you don’t have to ruin the surprise by asking for gifts. The purpose of a gift is that it’s unexpected, ya know?”
She smiled, “Yes, sir…”
“Don’t call me sir.”
“Yes… dude.”
We both laughed and I dug through the bag that held way too much junk food and other crap that I can always manage to find in hotel gift shops. “I shouldn’t be allowed in gift shops anymore…” I laughed.
“They’re fun though…” she told me. “They hold a wealth of shit that you really don’t need but just want to buy because it’s cool. Do you know how many travel toothbrushes I’ve bought on this tour just because I keep finding new ones that are cool?”
I laughed outright, “I almost bought a new one in there today. They have the ones where instead of having a cap, it folds into itself and to open it, you push a button.”
“No way…” she said with the funniest look on her face. “I’m so going in there before I go upstairs. I’ve been looking for one of those since I saw one in Michigan and didn’t buy it.”
Toothbrushes. I never would have guessed that travel toothbrushes would easily amuse her, and yet when she said it to me, it was absolutely perfect. Yet another thing that intrigued me about her. “Sorry I didn’t get you one. But I thought these were pretty cool and I somehow thought that you’d get a kick out of them.”
I passed her a package of lighters and she grinned from ear to ear. Jackpot. “These rock…” They were disposable lighters that cost all of a couple bucks, but they were cool because they were tall and skinny shaped more like a cigarette than a traditional lighter. They were made to fit inside a pack of cigarettes. “Seriously, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while… Thank you.”
“You’re welcome…” I chuckled. “I saw them and they practically screamed your name at me.”
“They talk too?” she asked with a smirk and then laughed. She was really in a good mood. “Here, you can have the red one…” She handed the red lighter to me and before I could protest she gave me what I was quickly learning to be her don’t-even-try-to-fuck-with-me look.
“Thanks…” I chuckled and stuck the lighter in my pack of cigarettes. “Perfect fit.”
“Kick ass…” She looked at one of the other lighters and studied it. “You know, I might be able to refill these. I’ve got one of those refill can things that has all of the different sized doohickeys… That would be cool if we could re-use them.”
I smiled watching her. “Or I could just spend another two bucks and buy you another pack of them when these are used up.”
“Or you could save your two dollars and I could refill them…” she said and shot me a look that made me laugh. She was less than impressed by my money and the fact that I often spent it like it was going out of style and she never failed to tell me when she thought I was being stupid by spending too much of it. I loved that about her too.
I tossed a bag of Red Vines at her, “ Present number two…”
Another smile from her, I was on a roll. “You remembered.”
“Of course I remembered. You tackled me and held me down until I proclaimed that Red Vines were better than Twizzlers… A guy doesn’t forget something like that. I still don’t know how you have so much strength in that body.”
She laughed, “I’m just full of secrets…”
The understatement of the year. “No shit?”
“No shit…” she laughed and ripped open the Red Vines bag and gave us both a piece. “I needed something to chew on other than my pencil… What else did you get?”
I let my Red Vine hang out of my mouth as I spoke and pulled things out of the plastic bag from the gift shop. “A deck of cards, cheese doodles, a magazine, mints, gum, a post card, a pen, and batteries.”
“So you’ve got an exciting evening of solitaire, cheesy fingers, whacking off, fresh breath, and something kinky with batteries huh?”
I laughed and nodded, “Yeah, but don’t forget the postcard and the pen. After I get done whacking off I’m going to write about it in a post card and mail it to you…”
“Pervert…” she laughed and played with one of her lighters flicking it on and off with her thumb.
“Hey, you’re the one who said I’m going to whack off… where the hell did that come from anyway?”
“The magazine… it’s gotta be porn.”
I laughed, “For your information, it’s People.”
“Yeah, and I’m sure there’s some Victoria’s Secret ad in there that will work just fine for you. You’re a man, AJ. You could find something in an issue of a parenting magazine to turn you on.”
“I resent that…” I laughed and sat back in the lounge I was sitting on. “I’m not that bad…”
“No, you’re not… but I’m sure you have the potential. Most men do. You’re just on good behavior because you don’t want to offend me just yet.”
“Whatever, Emma…” I chuckled and looked up at the sky through the skylight that was over the pool. “Anyway… what were you doing when I so rudely interrupted you?”
“Not much…” she said and looked up at the skylight as well.
“You and your cryptic answers…” I laughed.
“That wasn’t cryptic, it was simplistic,” she said with a smile.
“What’s the notebook for?”
“Drawing, writing, whatever comes to mind…”
“That’s cool… kind of like a journal?”
“No. I don’t do journals. It’s simply something to use when my hands need something to do.”
I thought about making a sex joke, but held back. “Do you draw a lot?”
“I wouldn’t say a lot, but I used to.”
“But you don’t anymore…”
“Nope.”
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you… You mentioned once that you were in college when Millennium was out. What did you study?”
She paused for just a slight second, but answered. “Art Theory.”
“Did you finish school?”
“I’ve got a bachelors degree…”
“Art Theory. So is that like where you study art and shit? Or where you actually do the art and shit?”
She chuckled and looked at me, “Both, and shit.”
“So you’re an artist.”
“Nah…” she said, her gaze moving back to the skylight.
“You have a degree in Art Theory, I’d call you an artist. I haven’t seen any of your work of course, but I doubt you can get that far in art school without some talent.”
She shrugged, “Like I said, I don’t do it much anymore. You don’t exactly need my degree to sell tee shirts and AJ pens. I stick to doodling most of the time.”
“Can I look at your doodles?”
“That sounds awfully dirty, AJ.”
I laughed and she smiled, “Smart ass…”
“Asking to see my doodles in public… geesh… And I thought you were a gentleman…”
“You could just say no, you know?”
She looked at me, “I wasn’t going to say no. Just felt the need to pick on you.”
“Oh…” My bad. She handed me the book and I opened it up to the page where her pencil was. Doodles my ass, the girl had drawn a picture of Nick, and it was amazing. “Holy shit.”
“Actually, it’s Nick…” she laughed.
I shot her my own don’t-fuck-with-me look and looked back at the picture. I flipped back a few pages and was equally blown away by her so-called doodles. I was a doodler, she was an artist… there was a big huge fucking difference. There was a drawing of Skinner sitting on the tour bus holding a drumstick in his hand. There were sketches of street signs and different things I only assumed she’d seen in the assorted cities on the tour, and there were pages upon pages of other drawings that I hadn’t looked at yet. “Jesus, Em… These are fantastic.”
“They’re not that great…”
“Bullshit… this one of Nick, you did that today while sitting here?”
“Yeah…”
“From memory? He wasn’t here when you started it?”
“I haven’t seen him in a day or two actually…”
“And you managed to draw a photo-quality portrait of him by memory… Emma that’s more than great.” I could see her shutting down, she hated compliments. I covered my ass quickly, “I know you hate compliments. But you have an amazing talent here… that’s all I’m going to say. Thanks for letting me see this. I really appreciate it.”
She smiled at me and nodded, “You’re welcome.” I handed her the book back still reeling about the drawings inside of it and she quickly changed the subject. “Let’s go outside and use my new lighter… I need a smoke.”
