Chapter 53: ‘Psycho Raging Anger Monster’?

Wednesday, January 9, 1985

We talked about tonight’s party over breakfast. Angie and Paige seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, even if they would just dance together for group dances. They were pretty ‘out,’ but there were some risks they just didn’t want to take yet. Being a thousand miles from home with a bunch of people we didn’t know well, some of whom would share an overnight bus ride with us, made it more of a risk than it might otherwise be even with Jas and me there to watch out for them.

Jas had brought her maroon ao dai and I’d brought my complementary maroon shirt, black slacks, and gold bowtie ensemble. It would be hard to miss we were a couple, or at least I thought it would be.

I hadn’t brought a sport coat. The ao dai was somewhat ‘dressy,’ but not ‘fancy,’ at least not by Jasmine’s standards. We’d worn pretty much the same outfit at ToC, after all.

I had no idea what Angie and Paige had brought, which was fine. They didn’t know what we’d brought, either.

We were on our own today and spent several hours trying out a few of the green-circle trails. They felt challenging enough to us, anyway. I doubted anyone was feeling at all bored!

Lunch was lunch, and we did more skiing in the afternoon, though not at quite as rapid a pace. Now that we were relatively stable, things like learning to make tighter, more controlled turns, vary speed at will, and so forth became more important than raw speed, at least to us. I saw some fellow Aggies go shooting by at what seemed like ridiculous speeds.

I also saw a few crashes. At least two people (one definitely an Aggie, based on the armband) were carried off, likely either with concussions or some sort of broken bone, and a few others looked to be walking pretty gingerly after wiping out. The buses were likely to have a few people in casts or otherwise banged up. I imagined that was par for the course.

Checking in with the girls, we agreed future ski trips seemed like a definite possibility. Future ski trips like this one were a bit more questionable, but we would still be closer to ‘starving students’ than ‘rich folks’ for a few more years.

Officially, anyway.

We had a relatively quick dinner, then took a quick turn in the hot tubs before cleaning up and dressing for the party. It was being held in a meeting room at an adjoining hotel. Our hotel was too small to have sufficient meeting space for a group this size.

The whole thing felt like a high school dance (albeit at a small high school), but that was fine. We were all veterans of high school dances, and it was likely the only dance we’d attend this year.

Angie and Paige wore the complementary dresses (pale green and pale pink, with opposite-color belts) they’d worn at ToC. That meant we were all wearing what we’d worn there except I was just wearing slacks, not a suit.

When we left the motel, it was in the company of dozens of other Aggies heading to the dance. I didn’t see anyone we knew, but then we didn’t know many of the others.

The room was about a third full when we got there. My guess was we might get half to two-thirds of those who went on the trip. That wasn’t a bad turnout.

Someone had hung up a big A&M flag on the wall, and they had a DJ playing mostly recent music. Most of it wasn’t great for couples dancing. I hoped they’d play some slower things later.

That said, we got right out and danced, starting with Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’. I found that amusing. I think Angie and Paige found it even more amusing.

We were mostly dancing in a group, but anyone who was paying attention could have easily determined Angie and Paige were really dancing with each other. I doubted anyone was paying attention, though, and they weren’t the only girls who seemed to pretty much just be dancing with other girls.

For one thing, about twice as many girls as guys were dancing at all. That wasn’t unusual, in my experience. Many guys would sit it out unless they had a partner, whereas many girls would just get up and dance if they could. To my (relative) credit, I’d gotten up and danced at the one dance I’d gone to in my first life during high school. Many guys hadn’t danced at that one, either.

The DJ eventually got around to playing slower songs and Jas and I danced a few together. Angie and Paige passed, as I’d guessed they would. This was 1984. I suspected they might make a splash at A&M’s big senior dance, but who knows? That was years off at this point. It might go better for them if no one saw it coming (except, say, us and some GSS people). There was very little chance I could run interference for them at A&M.

During a break after one of those slower segments, I was headed off the dance floor to get some punch for Jas and me when Becca found me.

“Hey,” she said, smiling.

“Hey,” I said. “Is your friend okay?”

She giggled.

“Yeah. Katie wasn’t that drunk, really. You’re right, though. She shouldn’t have been in a hot tub like that. She shouldn’t really have been out at all.”

“All’s well that ends well,” I said. “You’ll have to excuse me. I need to get something to drink.”

“I’ll come with,” she said.

I smiled and shrugged.

The punch table wasn’t far. I got two glasses, and Becca got one.

“What was that your girlfriend said? About it being okay for Katie to be in your lap?”

I was surprised by the question, but I’m sure it had seemed odd.

“We have an open relationship. It’s not ‘against the rules,’ though the rules kinda do require that I agree to things,” I said. “Same with her, of course.”

“Of course,” Becca said, grinning a bit. “How’s that work? I mean ... it seems ... unusual?”

“It’s worked for us since our sophomore year in high school,” I said.

She blinked.

“I’m not sure I can even remember who I was dating that far back! It sounds like it has worked!”

I got back to the table. Jas’s eyes immediately flicked to Becca, then back to me. It was pretty obvious to me that, in her mind, she was laughing her head off at me.

I gave Jas her punch, and she said, “Hey, Becca! Want to join us?”

“I ... don’t mind,” Becca said, looking a little surprised, but sitting on my other side, putting me between Jas and Becca.

Angie and Paige perked up a bit. I suspected both of them were also highly amused.

“So...” Jas said. “What were you guys talking about?”

Becca blushed a bit.

“Um ... it was actually about what you said in the hot tub?”

“Oh!” Jas said, giggling. “Yeah. Just so we’re clear, I meant it.”

“So he said,” Becca said. “I have to admit, I don’t know anyone who’s doing that, exactly. Catting around behind their girlfriend’s back ... or boyfriend’s, for that matter ... sure. But, like you two are...”

Jas smiled.

“Works for us. I’m pretty glad I thought of it.”

Becca blinked again, but smiled.

“That’s what matters, I guess. So ... you’re also freshmen, right?”

“Yeah,” Angie said.

“What dorm?” she said. “We’re in Mosher.”

“That’s in the Commons, right?” Paige said.

Becca nodded.

“Yeah,” she said.

“We’re in a house a bit past Northgate,” Jas said.

“Wow! So jealous!” she said. “Nothing wrong with Mosher, but my roommate is a pain in the butt. Katie’s is, too. Penny’s is actually nice. The four of us are going to take over a suite next year, probably, if we don’t move to an apartment, but for now it kinda sucks.”

“We’re very glad to be off-campus,” Angie said, with the rest of us nodding.

Just then, the music switched to Animotion’s ‘Obsession’. Paige yelled “Yes!” and grabbed Angie’s hand, dragging her towards the dance floor. Whether that was ‘sending a signal’ or not, who knows?

Jas said, “Might as well join them,” and got up. When Becca didn’t immediately move, she said, “You, too. If you want to, anyway. C’mon!”

I got up and offered Becca one hand and Jas the other. It seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.

We got out there and danced. I’ve never claimed to be great at free-form dancing, but I’m not bad (in the opinion of the experts I care about, anyway: Angie, Jas, Paige, and select others), and I had fun with it. My focus was mostly on Jas and Becca, with some on Angie, Paige, and a few others nearby.

Becca, for her part, seemed to be enjoying it, albeit with a bit of a ‘What did I get myself into?’ look on her face part of the time. I didn’t think that was about Angie and Paige, but rather about dancing with a guy with his girlfriend right there encouraging it.

We made it to the slow songs, where Jas ‘arranged’ for Becca and I to dance together, pretty much by pushing us together. I wasn’t upset — we’d done this plenty of times at Memorial dances — but it was still at least hinting at some of the issues that’d come up a few summers ago.

After the one dance, we headed back to our table (Becca still in tow) and sat back down. The conversation picked back up, covering things like where we’d gone to school, where she had (Kingsville), her background (farming, which I’d guessed from her major), and so forth. After a while, she said she’d better get back to her friends.

We said goodbye, that we hoped to see them on the slopes — or at campus — and that was that. We got back to dancing not long afterward.

The party lasted until midnight, but we (and many of the others) left around ten-thirty. Most of the ones who remained were either people who didn’t really care about skiing or people who cared a great deal about ‘hooking up.’