The break up

 Her stomach ached, the dull painful ache that comes before you vomit. Funny, she thought, they always talk of love and the heart. She became like the flower everyone forgot to water, her strength sapped until she could no longer stand.  (Somehow she found a kitchen chair, hard oak, pressed back, and sat down, shoulders slumping forward, elbows propped on knees) Maury sat down on the pressed back hard oak chair, shoulders slumped forward, elbows propped on knees.
Maury sighed slow and deep, pushing the wind out as though it would cleanse her of all that had come to pass. The fog that filled her mind began to swirl around one thought, I need to call Sonya, and this one thought began to warm the air like the morning sun breaking through the (a) damp mist, opening fleeting fields of vision as you drive along that (an) unfamiliar highway.

Maury (She) reached for her purse. The black leather bag lay in its usual spot, fully charged cell phone zipped within the inside pocket. Her fingers moved instinctively to speed-dial and Sonya's number.

The familiar recording of (Sonya's favorite song ??? music artist ???) played in Maury's ear. It cut off abruptly, replaced by Sonya's voice.
"Hey chica!"
Maury tried to speak, but she suddenly felt buried alive, momentarily unable to breath as though a great weight lay  upon her chest. The only sound that escaped (escaping) was a sharp intake of air.
"Hey Maury, you alright?"
One long silent second passed. "No," Maury answered (finally) and began to cry.

A hundred and twenty miles away, Sonya's mind raced with questions. A paralysis began to grip her chest (muscles). "Maury, Maury answer me.What happened? Is Jason O'K?"
"He's fine."
Dread crept into Sonya's voice, "Are you O'K? Is it--something with you?"
"Yes. I mean, no, not me, not something wrong with me." Maury (inhaled deeply, the physical act steadying her nerves, calming her mind as would a high diver at the moment of push off, the second before the body catapults outward, momentarily weightless) took a sharp intake of breath. "It's Jay." She exhaled. "He's left me."
"Oh my god!" Sonya's voice held the last word on a high note.  "What do you mean he left you? What happened?"
"I don't know." Maury shook her head from side to side.  "I can't believe this. He comes home from work early today and when I ask him what's up he gives me this speech. He tells me things haven't been good for a long time, that we don't really get along anymore. Then he starts to tell me I know this too--"
"What?"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. And then he gets a suitcase," Maury's voice begins to crack, "he gets a suitcase that HE HAD ALREADY PACKED from inside his walk-in closet!"
"Maury, I just can't believe Jay would do this to you." Sonya could hear Maury begin crying again. The bastard, she thought. More sobs came through the phone. "That's it," Sonya decided, "Listen girl, I'm driving down."
Maury's sob broke off, "What?"
"I said I'm driving down. If I leave now I can be there by nine-thirty."
"Sonya, you don't have to drive here tonight."
"Yes, I do. I want to. I'll throw a couple things in a bag, grab my car keys, and I'm off."
Maury sniffled, "Thanks."
"I'll call you when I'm on the road." Sonya closed her cell phone. "The bastard," this time she said it aloud. Minutes later she emerged from her bedroom carrying a small suitcase. She walked through the galley kitchen, stopping long enough to grab two bottles of wine from the cupboard and shove them into her over-sized purse, then headed out the condo door.

Sonya drove down the on-ramp and eased her blue Ford Focus into the flow of traffic. Within the darkened interior the radio remained quiet, allowing her thoughts to fill the space, interrupted every now and again by a high pitched squeech of wiper across the windshield. Lights from passing billboards, on-coming traffic, and streetlamps took turns outlining the anamorphic droplets, highlighting their slow erratic track downward on the glass windows. The car seemed as though a time capsule, reflecting Sonya's all too familiar sense of shifting ground.

 "I bet he's got another woman," she thought. Jay wouldn't upset his world for something small. Oh no, not him." Sonya kept rewinding scenes from college when Maury and she first met Jay. Seated at a front row desk on the first day of freshman Microeconomics, Sonya watched Professor Bards and Jay enter the classroom together, both men relaxed, chatting as though they often shared lighthearted tid-bits. Jay walked with Bards up to the front desk and the two continued their conversation for another minute, just long enough for all the girls in the room to notice Jay's slightly faded jeans, button down shirt, and scuffed, brown-leather penny loafers on his sockless feet. His sandy brown hair was cut short on the sides, fuller on the top. Jay's whole demeanor was clean casual and radiated confidence. He never spoke to Sonya through-out that whole semester. That's why she was sure he didn't know her name when Maury and she bumped into Jay at (bar name...drinking age 18 until Sept.1 1986).  She had noticed him the moment the two had settled onto bar stools. He was at a table with three other guys she had seen around campus but never met.
"Hey Sonya."
The intimacy of Jay's voice startled Sonya, causing her to momentarily flinch. Maury and she had just ordered drinks, and Sonya had been digging through her purse when Jay approached. He smiled down at Sonya, looking directly into her eyes. She made a mental note to breath normally.
"How have you been? I hadn't seen you around campus yet this semester."
How have I been? Sonya's mind began to race. Her brows instinctively raised before knitting together in puzzlement.  "Yeh, I guess--our paths don't cross this semester."
The guy who never spoke to her before reached for his wallet as the bartender placed a beer in front of each girl. "Here, let me catch this one." He leaned in between the two, handing across a five. Jay looked again at Sonya, " I bet you're happy to be done with ol' Bards, I know I am. My name's Jay," he turned towards reached out and took a firm hold of Maury's hand. "Sonya and I suffered through micro-econ together." Maury's face had broken into a wide smile, her green eyes looking upward into Jay's.
Before they knew it, Jay had pulled up a bar stool. Halfway through their first beer Jay's pal, Mike, had joined them. By the second beer it was obvious to Sonya that Jay was interested in Maury. At the end of the evening
he told Maury he'd give her a call. Of course, for Jay, that didn't mean immediately, or even soon, for that matter.

Sonya and Maury continued to bump into Jay and his crowd around campus throughout the spring semester. Each time he would greet the two as though he had been hoping to see them. Then he would turn his charm on Maury, focusing just the right amount of eye-contact, his blue eyes feigning a warmth and sincerity mirrored in his voice but never in his actions. Jay finally called Maury in May as the semester wound to a close. Prior to this phone call, Jay sent Maury's emotions on a roller coaster track whenever the two met, chest palpitating excitement each time they talked, high exuberation the next day, followed by a plummeting decent into the dark, painful world of  self-doubt and despair when his call never came. But this time Jay did call, so the girls met him at (bar name). He was alone, his usual crowd having packed up and headed back to their homes. For the next few hours the three enjoyed a few beers. They talked about their final exams, laughed at some of the profs, and shared their plans for the summer. Sonya and Maury both had bartending jobs lined up at the same restaurant in Milwaukee.  Jay was going home to Duluth, Michigan. His father owned a hardware store there. Jay would spend his summer as he had for the past five summers, re-stocking, nuts and bolts, loading 4' X 8' plywood sheets into truck beds, and running the register.

As Maury and Sonya walked home that May evening, Sonya couldn't help but wonder if Jay called them out of desperation. All his friends had left campus. "Do you think Jay had called us because there wasn't anyone else left to hang with?" she asked Maury.

Maury thought about this for a moment. Maury always liked to think about things before she said something. "Possibly," her voice sounded serious. Suddenly, Maury's face lit up with a smile. "But tonight, this wonderful spring night with the stars twinkling above and you and me walking home from a nice evening with a VERY cute guy--I don't care!"


Highway traffic lightened as Sonya drove further south, out of the small city of Madison and into the open farmland. Her thoughts drifted back through the years. She remembered her first boyfriend, (name). The relationship lasted the whole summer. Meeting in the neighborhood park, they'd sit talking for hours on the picnic table up near the old woods, away from the little kids and the park pavilion. (  ) took two whole weeks to work up the nerve to try and kiss her. Oh, how she paniced when she realized what he was trying to do, certain he could tell she didn't know (how to kiss) what she was doing. But he didn't notice and from that time on they'd sit kissing for hours on the picnic table up near the old woods. It was sweet. He made her feel terrific. And then it ended. (  ) had only wanted a girlfriend for the summer. Sonya told him no problem. Life goes on.

What ever happened to him? For the rest of the ride Sonya