Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee(22)
“And you guys talk alike.”
“Apparently so.”
Talking about Delia has reminded me to check in on her. She might give me a graceful out to the evening. I mean, I’m having fun, it’s fine, whatever, but still. I take a big bite so I don’t have to talk, and I text her.
Me: Why is it totally ok to melt cheese on scrambled eggs but you can’t on boiled eggs?
A few seconds pass.
Delia: OMG you’re right. The thought of melting cheese on boiled eggs makes me wanna vom.
Me: First off you gotta make the boiled eggs hot and that is the grossest thought.
Delia: It IS. Hot boiled eggs would feel very off-putting. Is Law-man making you eat eggs for dinner???
Me: Nah, I was just thinking about it because I’m eating a cheeseburger and thinking about stuff we melt cheese on.
Delia: Sorry, I’m still thinking about hot boiled eggs and trying not to yak.
“That Delia?” Lawson asks.
“Oh…yeah. Sorry.” I put my phone down. I didn’t notice him looking at me.
“You had this little smile on your face while you were texting.”
“She and I are always cracking each other up. You have friends like that? The Idiot Twins?”
“The Idiot—” he says quizzically, and laughs. “Oh, Hunter and Colt? I’m barely friends with those guys.”
“Kudos. How do you even know them?”
“Scout camp when we were kids. They used to go out in the lake and one would fart in the water and the other would try to catch the bubbles in his mouth.”
I snort involuntarily and clap a hand over my mouth before I can spray him with bits of bun, meat, and cheese. “Yeah, that is real gross.”
“It’s somehow way nastier than smelling it, even though both involve taking it into your body.”
“Let’s make a deal right now that we’re never, ever going to use the phrase ‘taking it into your body’ with reference to a fart ever again, because I find that very upsetting.”
Our shudders subside, and we eat for a while in silence. It’s not a tense silence, but it’s not an easy one either.
Lawson finally breaks it. “So what’s next for you? We graduate soon, right? You a senior?”
I sigh. “Yeah, senior. I applied to a few schools. I’m planning on going to UT Martin so I can stay close to Jackson. It’ll make it easier for Delia and me to keep doing the show. But…”
“But what?”
I wave it off. “Nothing.”
“You sounded like you wanted to say something else.”
“No, it’s that my parents are pressuring me to go to UT Knoxville instead. My mom knows a lady who works at Food Network, and they have an office in Knoxville—”
“For real? In Knoxville? Weird.”
“I know, right? Travel Channel has its headquarters there too, apparently. Anyway, she could get me an internship, but I don’t know.”
“Sounds like a cool opportunity.”
“Maybe you should be hanging with my mom right now instead. Y’all would get along.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I’m on TV here. That’s gotta be better than getting coffee for…Alton Brown’s secretary or whatever.”
Lawson pops a french fry in his mouth. “I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not.”
“You know something I don’t?” I put only the thinnest of veils on my irritation. I did not sign up for an awkward quasi-date with some dude I barely met and who listens to bad music, only to get the same lecture my parents could give me.
He shrugs. “I know when you fight, sometimes the position that seems the best isn’t. You gotta think long term. Give up something now to get something better later.”
“Well, thanks for that helpful advice. It’s definitely never occurred to me to think more than several hours into the future.”
“I’m not trying to piss you off.”
“Who’s pissed?”
“I can hear it in your voice.”
“You’ve known me for how long now?”
“Long enough.”
“Anyway, Delia would be super bugged if I left. This show is like her whole world. I don’t think she’d be able to do it by herself.”
Another silence. This one is definitely strained.
I break it. “What about you? What are you doing when you graduate?”
He nods, considering the question. “College at some point, but I want to take a year off to work and train really hard. I’ll be in my fighting prime in a few years, and I want a shot at going pro. I really like my coach and my gym here, so I’m sticking around.”
“How long have you been at it?”
“Well, I started Tae Kwon Do pretty early before moving into Muay Thai—”
“What’s that?”
“Muay Thai? It’s this Thai kickboxing style where you use your whole body to put force into kicks and strikes.”
“Oh, like the way I eat pizza.”
“I got into that and Brazilian jujitsu when I was fourteen, which is when I started fighting MMA.”
“Why MMA, of all things?”
“I have three older brothers and a bunch of older cousins.”