Not Perfect(51)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Michigan was playing Michigan State, and for some reason Tabitha cared. Well, she knew the reason, and his name was Toby, but she pretended she cared about the game. It was the same game she and Stuart had watched at the Fox & Hound the year before. It was a crazy, awful game, with Michigan State winning in the last ten seconds. They had all felt terrible as they left, except for Tabitha, who was sorry for them and the team, but was perfectly fine.

She pulled Stuart’s T-shirt out from his side of the bed, smoothed the wrinkles, and put it on with jeans. It was a cold November day, but she didn’t want to wear anything else. She went into the living room where the kids were watching The Princess Bride. The cable and Netflix were long gone, so now they just watched DVD after DVD. Fern complained at first, which surprised Tabitha, since she thought Levi would be the most bothered. But now they just acted like it was normal. It made Tabitha wonder what else they could easily live without. Lots of things, probably.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” they said at the same time.

“So, you guys don’t mind if I go?”

“No,” they said at the same time. Their attention was firmly placed on the television screen and the sword fight taking place there.

“I’ll be back with dinner,” Tabitha said.

“Please bring those mini burgers,” Levi said.

“And the chicken fingers,” Fern said.

“Will do,” Tabitha said. She pulled her red-plaid jacket out of the closet, then thought better of it and put it back. She scanned the coats and saw one of Stuart’s fall fleece coats—navy-blue and perfect.

“Bye,” she called.

When she got to the bar, it was as crowded as she had ever seen it. She walked in and looked immediately around for Toby, even though she was going to pretend, even to herself, that she didn’t care that much. She spotted the head of the alumni association chapter. He was dressed all in maize from head to toe, including his shoes, but his skin was painted blue, every single bit of it, at least every single bit she could see. When he turned around, she could see that his butt was green—the color of Michigan State. He looked crazed, walking from person to person, giving some sort of directions. The game was scheduled to start in eight minutes. People were milling around. She didn’t see Toby.

There were no seats at all, so she went to the wall of windows and sat on the bench that ran the length of the room.

“Hey, Justin!” someone called, and the head of the alumni association turned around. “Go Spartans!”

Justin looked confused, then he saw there was a whole contingent of people in green right next to them. That didn’t usually happen. Generally there was some effort made to put two opposing teams as far apart as possible in the big bar, or even better, they met at another bar, but apparently not today. Maybe it had been done on purpose. She could see Justin furrow his brow, like he was thinking who to complain to, then he turned his back on the perceived interloper and climbed up onto a table in the center of the Michigan crowd.

“Wolverines!” he screamed. “I need your attention.”

Tabitha was happy to have something to focus on. She felt silly sitting there without anyone to talk to.

“I want to sing one rousing round of ‘The Victors,’ and after that I have an announcement. Are you with me?”

“Yes!”

“Are you with me?”

“Yes!”

“And I want them to be able to hear us in East Lansing—do you hear me?”

“Yes!”

“One, two, you know what to do!”

Just as everyone started singing “Hail to the Victors,” Tabitha saw Toby push his way through the crowd. She was so relieved, it caught her off guard. Sure, she came here to see him, she knew that. But she didn’t realize how much she wanted to see him, how disappointed she would have been if she hadn’t seen him. He was wearing a basic sweatshirt, navy with the word MICHIGAN spelled out in maize. The whole fight song went by and she didn’t even hear it, she didn’t sing along like she usually did, she just watched Toby stop at the beginning of the Michigan section and look around, scanning the crowd. When his eyes settled on her, he smiled. She smiled back.

“Now, I am going to make my announcement,” Justin screamed. Both Tabitha and Toby looked at him. Justin turned his back to the crowd, then he took green confetti out of his pocket and scattered it from his green butt. Tabitha thought it looked like unicorn poop. The crowd went crazy. It was a recurring theme here, obviously: the opposing team was always shit—in one way or another. She looked over at Toby, who was laughing. Two minutes to game time. Toby moved toward Tabitha, and she felt all sorts of strange twinges and butterfly effects. She worried her mouth was twitching slightly, and she tried to control it; she didn’t want to look like she was having a seizure, or, worse—that she was actually nervous.

“Hi!” he said when he reached her.

“Hi!” She hated the way she sounded—breathless and eager. “Hi!” she said again, more firmly.

He swung his backpack around to his front. He looked at Tabitha and scanned the space around them like he was looking for something. There wasn’t a single inch on either side of her.

“I figured it would be crazy crowded today,” he said. He unzipped the pack and reached in, pulling out what looked like a folded maize-and-blue umbrella or a scrunched-up hammock. She watched while he unfolded it, and it became a tall, skinny chair with MICHIGAN written across the back. He put it down, just to the left of Tabitha, and gestured to it.