Chapter 83: Discontent

Tuesday, April 9, 1985

Lindsay’s greeting before Math was a bit more subdued than usual, so I said, “What’s up? Lousy Easter?”

“Lousy Monday,” she said, sighing.

“Oh?”

“Paula. She’s ... well. I’m not sure things are going all that well.”

“I think that translates to ‘Things aren’t going well,’” I said.

She chuckled a bit, if weakly, and said, “Yeah. Fair enough.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Yes? No? I’m not sure?” she said, sighing. “Let’s give it a couple of days. I’m trying to put it out of my mind, really.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

We sat down and got ready for class. I hoped whatever it was would blow over, but it was just as likely that Lindsay would wind up back on the market shortly. Paula seemed nice to me, but I wasn’t the one trying to date her. Nor would I ever be, unless something very surprising happened.

When I got home, the answering machine’s light was blinking. The message was unexpected and made me feel a bit embarrassed.

It was from Darla. We’d all known she was going to A&M, but had completely dropped the ball on staying in touch with her. Of course, it would be fair enough to say she had also dropped the ball, but I was (in my own mind, at the very least) supposed to be adult enough about this stuff to stay in touch.

Mind you: there were probably forty freshmen at A&M who had been in my graduating class at Memorial. I hadn’t kept up with the vast majority of them. Still, I hadn’t dated any of the ones I’d lost touch with — except for Darla.

She wanted to catch up, which seemed completely reasonable to me. Was there subtext? I had no idea. It was phrased as wanting to catch up with ‘us,’ not ‘Steve,’ so perhaps there wasn’t. On the other hand, catching up with ‘us’ would, necessarily, put her in touch with me, and we had dated, after all.

I called her back, and we decided on lunch Friday at the MSC cafeteria. Everyone should be able to make it, and it would be fun to catch up.

We finalized our taxes that evening. Basically, that was just everyone signing where they needed to. We should have done this earlier, but there was little cost to waiting. I would send them out by certified mail tomorrow. The cost was small enough that it was well worth it for peace of mind!

Jas grinned at me once we were snuggled up in bed.

“So...” she said. “Darla, mmm?”

“Darla,” I said. “Mmm.”

She giggled.

“Think there’s anything there?”

“I think ... maybe,” I said. “Maybe not. It’s been a while. There was almost something there before. There might be something there with time. Not now, I wouldn’t think, unless she’s really been carrying a torch for me.”

“Which would really suck,” Jas said, nodding.

“Yeah. It would. So ... maybe. I’ll have to be a bit careful...”

“Claire.”

“Claire,” I said. “Darla had it figured out with Linda, and she knows who I am. But, if she wants time now...”

“She’ll have to wait, because you wouldn’t slight Claire.”

“Yeah.”

“On the other hand, Claire likely has an expiration date,” she said.

“I agree, and ... well. We’ll see. Heck, maybe Darla’s got a boyfriend.”

“She might,” Jas said. “She should, really! Girl’s got lots of good things going for her.”

“She does.”

“On the other hand, she’s also met the best guy around and hasn’t yet gotten as much benefit from that as she could have...” Jas said, eyes twinkling.

“That’s a bit over the top,” I said, chuckling.

“Only in the best way!”

I chuckled a bit more.

“Seriously ... we’ll just see. Our schedule is complicated. Still may work, but ... complicated.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“And ... well, she’s patient. Or she was.”

“Very much so.”

“So ... maybe you two don’t really date until next fall. If you do at all, I mean. Might be good. You and Darla having something like what you have with Claire would be cool, really,” she said.

“I ... think so, too. Probably. If it’s what works for her.”

“That goes without saying! It’s got to work for her or just no.”

“I guess we’ll see,” I said.

“We will!”

We kissed, then snuggled up and went to sleep. By now, the fundamental oddity of Jas and I discussing my dating plans with other girls was mostly long since forgotten, but sometimes ... sometimes I still noticed. And appreciated it.

Very, very much.

Wednesday, April 10, 1985

Claire happily agreed to ‘Ladyhawke’ based on my (intentionally vague) description of the story. I limited it to things I might reasonably have read in a review somewhere. Giving ourselves a reasonable amount of time to get home and change after class, we planned dinner at seven, then a later showing.

Jas had already made a movie date with Katy as well. I doubted we would see the same movie. If we did, we would probably not sit anywhere near each other, at least. It’s one thing to be dating someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend, another to do it quite so openly. Neither Claire nor Katy really wanted to get too far into that.

Tonight was the first on-campus GSS meeting since the lawsuit had ended. A&M was still ‘weighing its options,’ but they were also allowing GSS to meet on campus. Their ‘option’ was much more looking for a way to ‘unrecognize’ GSS. Really, it was a matter of dragging their feet and trying to make it less obvious to everyone that they’d lost for good.

In any case, we had a large meeting room in Rudder Tower. With that in mind, the eight of us (including Claire and Katy) met for dinner at the MSC (adjacent to Rudder Tower). I still didn’t know Katy all that well, but she seemed nice, and she and Jas were definitely having fun. I doubted it would last, but neither would Claire and I. All of us might remain friends, though.

The GSS meeting was filled with exactly the fireworks I’d been hoping we might avoid. Marco started with good news: GSS was, for the moment, recognized. The paperwork had been filed, they’d stamped it, approved it, and we were officially good to go. As expected, some parts of the administration were still making noises about this being a temporary thing, but Marco and the lawyers seemed pretty certain it was settled.

Speaking of the lawyers, they were happy. A&M had paid GSS’s legal bills, as required by the agreement with the Attorney General’s office. That was a huge relief for GSS — had things gone otherwise, the financial burden would have been substantial.

After that, Marco metaphorically lobbed a grenade into the meeting. He resigned, effective immediately, making it clear that he felt many people were unhappy with his leadership and the progress GSS was making. He then waved and left the room.

Pandemonium ensued. Debbie Brown (who had obviously known this was coming) was in charge, and she wasn’t happy about it. She tried to keep some semblance of a meeting going (which started by saying she hoped Marco changed his mind), but it turned into people speaking, sometimes without being recognized.

Surprising me only in who it was, the voice that emerged out of the clutter after about five minutes was Mel’s.

She said, “People! Everyone! Hush!”

Something in her tone actually worked. Maybe she’d gotten it from riding herd over Mark and Morty, or maybe this was Social Committee practice, but she got everyone to quiet down.

Once people had settled, she said, “Can’t we all act like we want to be part of the same organization? Obviously, everyone wants to speak! We can’t all talk at once. Debbie is in charge. Let her call on you! Wait your turn! Be respectful!”

Wonder of wonders, it worked.

The bad part (though maybe it was good, in the end) was that the squeaky wheels were the ones to speak next. The complaints that had led to this flew back and forth. Marco sided too much with the men. Or too much with the women. Or perhaps someone else was the one. The group was too concerned with service. It wasn’t concerned enough with service. We were too social, or we weren’t social enough. The name needed to be changed (to one of at least six different proposals).

Things went downhill for a bit, and then what I’d been expecting for months finally happened. Angie got recognized to speak, and she said, “Everyone! Take half a step back and think about what’s happening. Half an hour ago, we got great news. News we had been waiting for, hoping for, some of us even praying for. Some of you have been waiting for this for years! And, as soon as we got it, look what happened? Right now, I am ashamed to be a part of this organization, because we’re doing exactly the wrong thing.”

There was some muttering at that, as you would expect, but no one shouted, at least.

She continued, saying, “As soon as things stopped being ‘us’ versus ‘them,’ half of you seem to have decided that there is no ‘us.’ Now, I get that there’s always going to be tension. Those of you who are guys? You’re right. Us girls have it easier in many ways. We can hold hands, hug, and all sorts of things you can’t do.”

She paused just a second, then added, “The thing is, no one in this room caused that!”

A few of the guys actually blushed at that.