The reunion - The things I know now

Jackie and Luke trade a quiet drink for some long overdue mischief

"So when did you leave for South America". Jackie sat with her elbows firmly set on the table her face resting between the palms of her hands

"You remember that day you rear ended me?...."

"Oh god no! You have to be kidding me". Jackie was becoming flustered. "That will have to go down in history, as the worlds worst goodbye". Jackie stared down into her glass, grimaced and then looked back up intently at Luke. "Why did you leave so soon after graduation, were things really that bad?"

Luke got lost in Jackie's eyes for a moment. "You see the thing was". Luke stuttered a little, he hadn't thought about that day for years never mind talked about it. "Everyone we graduated with, finished high school thinking "Like my gawd, what am I going to do with the rest of my life". Luke done a perfect job of lampooning so many of the air heads he and Jackie attended high school with. "They were all freaking out because they were worried about what they were about to do with the rest of their lives, and I was freaked because I couldn't figure out for the life of me what I had done with the life I had already lived"

"Oh come on you lived a life in high school, you existed.... or did you!". Jackie slammed both her hands on the table and pulled a mock look of shock not entirely unlike Munch's "The Scream"

Luke was laughing away to himself. "You know sometimes I asked myself that very same question. Most people in high school had things and people that defined them, friends, clubs, interests. I finished the most formative years of my life knowing little to nothing about the person I was or the person I planned to be"

Jackie sat back swirling the contents of her glass and looking expectantly at Luke "So you left here less than a week after your graduation, did you find what you were looking for?"

Luke smirked to himself, maybe it was Jackie or maybe it was time, but it all seemed a bit silly now. "I guess I did. I remember arriving in a mountain town called Sorrata and feeling content for the first time in a long time"

"And what about love, or were you too busy finding yourself for any of that?" Jackie had an oddly endearing way of poking fun at him that he had missed all these years. Luke chuckled, looked down at his feet and shook his head. "What about Alex then, she hardly fell out of the sky did she". Luke winced at her choice of words looked down at his glass and then immediately back up at Jackie

"Do you want to get out of here?". Jackie hadn't missed Luke's shrewd attempt at dodging the question, but Jackie didn't mind her curiosity was peaked. She gave a sharp nod of approval. "Hold on here for a second, I just want to grab some things from the car"

The two of them stood adjacent to their former high school's football field by a chain link fence. "Do you always carry a wire cutters around with you? Should I be worried"

Luke was cutting through the fence like butter, in no time at all they would be back on their former stomping ground. "I had to make Mr Flopsy a rabbit hutch this afternoon. Alex insisted that if she was going to have her own room Mr Flopsy needed one too". Jackie was fighting the urge to break out in a never ending tidal wave of awhing and gushing over the shear cuteness of an 8 year old girl and her little rabbit Flopsy

Luke held the fence open for Jackie to squeeze through, Luke followed and the two walked shoulder to shoulder across the field and towards the picnic benches on the far side. Luke began sticking skins and rolling a joint "You don't still smoke pot do you!" exclaimed jackie with a mixture of surprise and disappointment

"God no! well not for at least 7 years or so, give or take a few full moon parties". Luke stuck the mass of paper and narcotics together, lit it and and took a couple of tokes and passed it to Jackie. "Huey gave it to me just before we left the reunion, I think he was trying to be nice... turns out time does change people" 

They sat staring at the school in silence until Jackie began to sigh. "What's up Jackie?" Jackie looked at Luke for a moment and then back towards the school. "I just wish I knew then, what I know now"

Luke produced a can of black spray paint from the inside pocket of his jacket, and shook it vigorously. He looked at Jackie with a look of mischief in his eye. "Well there's no point in keeping all that age old wisdom to yourself now is there Jackie?". Luke grabbed her hand and strolled over to the huge walls at the side of the building. "You get one chance to impart some knowledge on your millennial counterpart. What do you write?"

"You carry around a can of spray paint on you as well?"

"Well how else is Mr Flopsy supposed to know it's his rabbit hutch unless he has his name on it"

Jackie thought about it for a moment and then just started spraying, she was doing her best to make it legible while also trying to make it look like the handy work of a disenfranchised teenager and not a 30 something publicist 

                "Don't
                               Go On
                                            Blind Dates"

Luke chuckled and took the can from her and began spraying frantically. Jackie couldn't remember the last time she felt this alive

                 "Don't eat

                                  the yellow snow"

"Hardly sage advice now is it" Jackie sideways glanced at Luke as he stood there gazing proudly at his graffiti with his hands on his hips

"Say what you will but high school me would have thought this was hilarious". Jackie and Luke stood there beholding their masterpieces, passing the joint back and forth between them. Their hands hung idly by their sides until Luke slid his hand into hers