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Valentine’s Day
“I didn’t send flowers,” Noel said as soon as Mags answered. He sounded slightly panicked. “Should I have? Sheridan said I should have.”
“Has he had a girlfriend for longer than a week yet?” Mags asked. Sheridan was Noel’s roommate. Mags had heard a lot about Sheridan. “Why take relationship advice from him?”
“I know, I know.” Mags could hear Noel’s head thunk on something – maybe the wall, maybe his desk. “He just sounded so certain about it.”
“I don’t want you to send flowers,” Mags said. “And you should know I didn’t send you any either.”
She heard him laugh. “I forgive you, Margaret.”
“I’m putting you on speaker,” Mags said. She had laundry to fold.
“I burn for your presence, Mags,” Noel said, his voice sounding tinny through the phone speaker. (Mags really needed to replace her phone soon.) “I pine without you. I am become as motes of dust, floating on the gentle breeze in the hope of landing on your face.”
“I miss you too,” Mags said. “But that dust metaphor needs work.”
“As soon as I was saying it, I thought no,” Noel agreed. “You’re my best critic, Margaret.”
“I should hope so,” Mags nodded solemnly. “Better than Sheridan?”
“Sheridan steals all my best lines and butchers them and somehow still manages to pick up girls with them,” Noel muttered.
“You never needed lines to pick up girls,” Mags said. “You had your – your face thing.”
“Tragically, my face thing won’t secure me an English degree.”
“You could switch to drama,” Mags suggested.
“Genius as usual, Mags. Talk soon, I have class in about thirty seconds.” A kiss was noisily blown at the phone before Noel hung up abruptly. Mags took her phone off charge and looked dubiously at the battery symbol, which hadn’t advanced much. Definitely time for a new phone, she thought, before it rang again.
“Forgot to say,” Noel said, sounding breathless as he, presumably, ran across campus at full tilt, “I love you.”
-
July 4th
“It’s nice how Pony and Simini are transferring back here,” Noel said, out of nowhere.
“Yeah,” Mags said, only half-listening. “It’s nice.” She was vaguely people-watching while waiting for the fireworks to start, and was currently trying to figure out whether the two young women in a nearby group were twins or not.
“I mean, they’ve been apart for a year,” Noel continued. “Everyone was predicting they’d break up, which is totally reasonable, because most high-school relationships don’t survive going long-distance. Or going to college in general. So a long-distance relationship while at college is like –” he made an exploding sort of gesture “– boom!”
On cue, the first firework exploded overhead.
They watched in silence for a while, Mags leaning against Noel’s side.
“Should I transfer?” Noel asked suddenly, still staring at the fireworks.
Mags blinked. “What? No.” She blinked again, and turned to look at Noel. “Why would you?”
Noel was quiet for a moment. “I miss you.”
“You can’t transfer back here for me, though.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” Noel tugged on his hair with agitated fingers. “You’re so smart, Mags. You got a full scholarship – that’s like finding a dragon in a carton of supermarket eggs. And you’ve explained what you’re studying to me so many times and I still don’t get it, but I know that I could not, in a million years, begin to wrap my head around it. And sometimes I just think… sometimes I think one day you’ll wake up and realise I’m not enough.” His voice dropped. “Sometimes I think you should realise I’m not enough.”
“Stop it.” She tugged his hands away from his hair and held them close.
“I want you to be happy, Mags,” Noel whispered, dropping his head to her shoulder.
“I am happy,” Mags said. “I have a good life. I’m studying something I enjoy. I have friends, I have family. I have you. And it’s enough. You are enough.” She swallowed. “You are everything.”
-
Halloween
“Have some kettle corn for me, Mags,” Noel said in her ear. “And a pumpkin bomb. Or maybe fudge. Ooh, do you think you could mail me some fudge?”
“No,” Mags said through a mouthful of chili fries.
“Cruel and heartless, Margaret.”
“It wouldn’t be as good, Noel. I’m saving you from disappointing fudge.”
Noel sighed. “College really should have a Halloween vacation. I can’t believe this is the second year you’ve gone to the Patch without me!”
“Sorry,” Mags said. To be honest, she was a little ambivalent about the annual family trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Going with her parents had been fine when Noel was there as well, and they could hang out together. Now it felt faintly childish. On the other hand, Mags did love going to the Patch. She supposed feeling childish was a small price to pay for that.
“Even Pony and Simini got to go this year,” Noel continued. “How is that fair? Everyone’s going to transfer back to Nebraska, and I’ll be the only one left living in a state where they don’t know the true meaning of Halloween. What is that noise in the background?”
Mags had been wondering that herself. A group of denim- and flannel-clad staff rushed past a little way away, and she caught a few words.
“I think,” she said into the phone, “that the billygoat is loose.”
“Huh,” Noel said, after a long pause. “Well, that’s one thing I’m not sorry to be missing.”
-
New Year’s Eve
“I really miss Alicia’s mom’s Chex mix,” Mags said, looking at the buffet.
“You could eat some,” Noel said. “You should eat some. I can experience it vicariously.”
Mags leaned into him. “I can’t kiss you if I eat it though.”
“Technically, you did last year.”
“And you nearly died. Again.”
“It was so worth it, Mags.”
“I would rather kiss you,” Mags said firmly, “than eat Chex mix.”
Noel clutched his chest. “I think you killed me with that declaration of true love.”
“Oh. Well, maybe I will go eat some then. Since you’re dead already.”
“If you wanted to actually kill me,” Noel said, “how would you do it?”
Mags thought for a minute. “I feel like saying I’d eat one of the many things you’re allergic to right before a makeout session is a bit too obvious.”
“Low-hanging fruit,” Noel agreed. “Low-hanging kiwi fruit.”
She elbowed him. “Maybe I’d coat your toothbrush with tree nut paste.”
“Ooh, I like it.”
“I’d inject it secretly while it was still in the packaging,” Mags said, warming to the theme. “So the detectives would see the plastic wrapping in the trash and figure it was a tragic warehouse error.”
“Because how could anyone get into that packaging without leaving evidence,” Noel agreed. “Cunningly plausible, Margaret.”
“How would you kill me if you wanted to?” Mags asked.
“I would never want to,” Noel said, wrinkling his nose. “But probably I’d tamper with the brakes of your car.”
“I don’t have a car, Noel.”
“And a good thing too. You never know when I might be tempted.”