I Will Be There by Bh76

“I’ll handle it, Mom. I’m sorry.”

Eric was using a weed whacker and had his ear buds in. Metallica was growling about bells tolling at their highest volume and he had no idea Emily was standing behind him.

“Eric!” she screamed for the third time. Frustrated, she grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. She was almost hit by the string of the tool as he spun.

“Jesus Christ!” he shouted. “What the fuck are you doing?” He pulled his ear buds out as he waited.

“Sorry, I was trying to talk to you and…”

“Yeah? Well, you almost got your toes cut off for that. What’s so important?”

He walked over to the ATV and climbed on. His next task was to install the missing fence posts. He didn’t care if she followed him or not.

“Well?” He groaned. “I’ve got work to do on the other end of the property.”

“I wanted to apologize, for upstairs. I was only jok…”

“Accepted,” he said and drove off kicking up gravel behind him.

She stood and watched the trail he left behind and wondered why he was being such an asshole to her.

She walked into the house and said, “He’s a real jerk, Mom. I tried to apologize, and he just drove off.”

“What did he say?” Julia asked as she mixed the cold taco salad she made for dinner.

“I said I wanted to apologize, and before I could finish explaining myself, he cut me off and said ‘accepted’ and then drove off.”

“Oh, boy. You must’ve really made him angry. To be honest with you, he wasn’t looking forward to seeing you because of how you ended your friendship with him. Then you don’t even say hello to him the first time you see him in years? You messed up big time.”

“He doesn’t have to be a jerk about it. It’s not my fault we lost contact.”

“It’s not?”

Emily had the decency to look away.

Julia chided, “That’s what I thought. You couldn’t bear the thought of one of your bitchy little cheerleader friends finding out that you were pen pals, let alone best friends, with someone like Eric. I told you then that you were wrong. He was a good kid, and he grew into a better man. Not just his looks, but everything about him. You should be ashamed of yourself, and I’m glad he’s giving you a ration of shit. You hurt that poor boy.”

“I never meant to…”

“You can lie to yourself all you want, but don’t lie to me. You cut him off and it went exactly how you hoped.” She looked out the window and didn’t see him. “Where is he now? It’s time for dinner.”

“He rode off on one of the four wheelers. He said he had work to do on the other side of the property.”

Julia picked up her phone and called Eric’s cell. He didn’t answer and it went to voicemail.

“Damn it! Now he’s ignoring my calls. Set the table, I have to ride out and tell him to come in.”

Emily grabbed the bowl from her mother and said, “I know I messed up, Mom. I’ve felt bad about that for a while and want to make it right.”

Julia shook her head, “Now that your ‘friends’ have all split into the wind, you’re sorry, huh. It’s safe now? You should’ve been sorry six years ago.”

She walked out and looked out to the fields. She didn’t see any dirt flying or any sign of him riding, so she figured he was working on the fence. She started the other ATV and headed along the fence line.

She remembered asking Emily, all those years ago, how Eric was doing. Emily’s response was that she didn’t have time to keep emailing a dork like Eric. Julia felt a pang of guilt that she didn’t push back on Emily harder to keep in touch with him. She felt bad that because Emily became one of the popular girls, she didn’t want to ruin anything for her. She merely told her that she shouldn’t shut him out and let it go.

She saw Eric as he shoveled gravel into a hole where he placed a post. He had his shirt off again, and she hoped he was wearing sunscreen. He was still pink and was peeling in spots.

He saw her approach and set the shovel against the post.

“It’s time for dinner, Eric. You’ve done enough for today.”

He shrugged. “Let me just get these three posts in and I’ll eat something later.”

“Avoiding her won’t make the problem go away,” Julia frowned.

“Look, I know you’re gonna take her side because she’s…”

“I’m not on her side. She was wrong to end your friendship.”

He sighed, “I just don’t want to deal with it. It hurts to see that she became one of the people that picked on us when we were in grade school. She’s not the Emily I choose to remember.”

Julia smiled sadly. “She isn’t like that anymore. When she went to college, she left all those friends behind. She’s back to being the hard-working bookworm she was before high school.”

“I really hope that’s true, Julia. I honestly do.”

“Come on back and have dinner with us. You shouldn’t eat alone. This can wait until tomorrow.”

He nodded and said, “Okay, give me ten minutes to finish this one and clean up. I’ll be back soon.”

He still wasn’t looking forward to having dinner with Emily.

*****

Eric walked into the utility room that separated the back door from the kitchen and began to wash the dirt from his hands and face. He was still shirtless and didn’t want to put the sweaty thing back on.

He rubbed some cool water on his face and hair and dried off. When he walked into the kitchen, both women were agog at his cut physique and how his short hair was styled after being tussled by his hand.

“I hope you like taco salad. I make it with crushed Doritos,” Julia said after she gathered her wits. Emily was trying not to get caught staring.

“With the red dressing? My mom makes it too. It’s one of the few things she makes well.”

Julia laughed. “Yeah, your mom, bless her heart, never cared much for cooking.”

“And she still doesn’t,” Eric admitted with a smile. He loved his mother, but a domestic goddess, she was not.

Emily sat quietly as Eric filled Julia in on his progress on the list. He didn’t mention the lack of progress the day before that was ruined by their making love and taking a nap.