Welcome To The Sandwich Hour

The bell rang just as I opened the main door to walk into the building. It has been almost six years since I stepped foot on these ground, it all seemed so different now that I wasn’t a student.

I made my way down the long corridor to the common room and turned left. As I walked through the room I tried not to make eye contact with anyone but I couldn’t resist the urge to seek a peek around to see if I could see Cassie. It didn’t take long to spot her; all you had to do was look for the group with the most school jackets. She was sitting back on to me, so she didn’t see me but it helped to see her sitting there laughing with her friends.

I continued on my way towards the gym, which was just past the common room. The closer I got to it, the louder the calls and cheers from inside got. Once I stepped through those gym doors, I found that I wasn’t so upset anymore; it was weird that knowing I would see Josh in a few minutes helped make me feel better. I just hope he’s not mad I’m here.

A quick glance around the room was all it took to spot him, although I almost missed him. He was sitting halfway up one of the bleachers on the left. The reason I almost missed him was that he was among a couple students; he was talking about whatever was in the books that the kids had opened in their laps while he kept an eye on the kids playing on the floor.

Now that I could see him, I found I didn’t know if I wanted to bug him, was it really that important to have come here? I asked myself, it’s not like you won’t get to talk to him later tonight. If he sees you now, he’s only going to worry that there’s something wrong. I took one last look at him and I turned to leave.

“Aunt Anna, what are you doing here? Is everything ok?” Cassie stared up at me with concern written all over her face. Oh shit, I didn’t think she would see me.

I smiled, “Everything is fine Cass. I was…well…” I shrugged and pointed over my shoulder.

She went to look but then she stopped. “I don’t know why I need to look; you came to see Coach Baker, didn’t you?” I nodded, “Then why are you leaving so soon, the guys said you just got here. Is there something wrong Aunt Anna?”

“No,” I replied as I shook my head. “Josh is just busy; I didn’t think I should bother him after all.”

“I don’t think Coach would mind,” Cassie’s eyes flicked to something behind me. “Do you Coach?”

Josh chuckled as I half turned towards him, “Of course I don’t mind Cassie.” He smiled down at me, “hello Beautiful.”

Cassie quickly made some excuse to leave and after she was gone, Josh led me back to the bleachers where he was sitting before. All the students that were around him were now scattered throughout the bleachers, watching the guys on the court playing, so all that was left where he was sitting was a clipboard and his lunch.

“I wish I could take you into my office but I can’t leave the kids unsupervised.” He told me as we sat down. “I was kind of expecting to see you today. I looked towards the door so much; I think I was making the kids nervous.”

I watched Josh as he opened his lunch and pulled out the sandwich he had made for himself this morning along with the tomato slices he had put in a container so that they didn’t make the bread soggy. “Why were you expecting to see me?” I asked.

He spread his sandwich open to add the tomato to the lettuce, bacon and cheese that was already on the bread. Once he closed it back up, he held out half to me. “I figured you would go see what you could find out today, you did go see Jordan and Hank, right?”

“Thank you,” I took the half that he offered with a smile. “Yes, I did go see them. Jordan didn’t have much to say though; he enjoyed telling me very little too. But he is going to Heather’s after work to see if she’ll let him see Jenna before bed, so he’s happy.”

Josh nodded as he chewed on the piece it just bit off. For a brief moment, I swear I saw a little bit of jealousy in his eyes. “Is everything ok Josh?”

Again he nodded. “At first, I was worried that she wouldn’t let him see Jenna,” he told me after he swallowed what was in his mouth. “Now I’m jealous that he was able to without getting the legal system involved.”

“Thinking about Jesse?” I asked, knowing that it was a silly question.

He chuckled, “I never stop.”

I lifted my hand to his shoulder and rubbed it, “Josh I know you miss him but it won’t be much longer, he’s here this weekend, right?”

Josh leaned back against the bleacher behind him and stretched out. “Yeah, he should be here Saturday, unless Walter and Roy have some good news for me tonight when I meet with them.”

I was a little surprised at this; he didn’t mention that he was meeting with them to me before this. “Oh, I didn’t know you were meeting with them.”

He turned his head towards me, he was frowning. “Yeah, we were going over to my parents place for dinner, remember?”

I shook my head, “No Josh I don’t. You didn’t tell me and I already have plans for tonight.”

Josh sat back up, “You aren’t coming to my parents’ house for dinner?”

“No Josh, you didn’t tell me and I made plans with Jordan.”

“Well cancel them,” he told me.

“No!” I stared at him, “If you wanted me to go with you, you should’ve told me about it.” I turned away from him, “I can’t believe you would even suggest I drop everything.”

“I figured you would seeing you know how important getting my son is to me,” I felt his hand on the small of my back as he leaned in closer to me. “Anna, I thought it was important to you too.”

I looked at him; his face was so close to mine. “It is important to me Josh and so is helping Jordan.”

Josh sighed and sat back again, “Ok I’ll just call mom and tell her that you can’t make it. She’ll be disappointed though, and probably won’t understand why.”

“Look Josh, I told you I wasn’t dropping my plans with Jordan so don’t try to make me feel guilty.”

He glanced at me, “What were you doing with Jordan?”

“Something we haven’t done for a real long time, talk.”

Josh nodded, “So that’ll take the whole night?”

I sighed, “He’ll get home around 7 he said, if Heather lets him see Jenna.”

“Anna,” Josh turned back to me. “Dinner is at 5, you can still come for it, if you want. You don’t have to stick around afterwards, but I would really like you to be there with me.”