Chapter 15: Four-Letter Words

“Wow! You have some pep in your step this morning. Look at you go!” Rachel tells me.

“Yeah, I’m finding it easier to get in a good 20 to 25 minutes without getting too winded.”

“Keep it up and you’ll be ready for the track team next Spring, no problem.”

“Thanks!”

Rachel and l and I are the only two in the Fitness Room this morning and we’re giving these treadmills a run for their money, I have myself up to a pretty rapid pace. We’re probably the only two students awake at this whole university this early on a Sunday.

“Did you hear what happened out a South Hill on Friday night?” she asks.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Chad got into a big fight.”

“He did?”

“Yup, a lot people seen it happen.”

“I was there Friday, I don’t remember anything like that. Unless it happened after I left. I went to another party with a couple of my friends.”

“He was apparently hitting on some girl and let’s just say that her boyfriend was not impressed, that’s when the trouble started.”

“Why was he hitting on some girl? He was there with Suzy.”

“That’s Chad for you ... Wants to screw everything that walks.”

“Wow ... I guess so,” then, under my breath, I say, “I’m sure not like that...”

“What, Kyle?” she asks.

“Oh, nothing ... I just said, I’m not like that.”

She smiles, “I know ... I can tell that about you.”

Well, that’s a nice thing for Rachel to take notice of. Maybe she isn’t such a tough one to crack, as Chad described her, you just need to learn what kind of guy Rachel appreciates.

“Did he get hurt?” I ask.

“A few scrapes and bruises. I honestly don’t know what goes through his head sometimes. He can be such a nice guy, you seen how he is in the mornings, when we work-out.”

“Yeah, I like him too, but remember, drinking too much doesn’t always bring out the best in a person.”

“You’re right, but Chad is usually a happy drunk, he doesn’t get nasty or mean like some people do.”

“Well, even happy drunks can make the wrong choices.”

I finish my run and we go for a light breakfast. Just like the fitness Room, the cafeteria is pretty quiet too.

“We should go on some runs around the campus while the weather is still nice, what do you think?” she asks me.

“Yeah, sounds good. How far should we go?”

“I think you’re up to doing a mile and a half to maybe two easy.”

“You think so?”

“The trick to long distance is pacing yourself. Start off easy and then find a good rhythm to settle in to and stick with it.”

“We aren’t you on the track team?”

“I couldn’t make it fit in with my heavy class schedule, but I’m thinking about trying-out in the Spring.”

“Really? That would be great, we could both try-out.”

“Yeah, we sure could.”

This is cool, Rachel and I could train together. I like that idea, I like that idea a lot.

Alex spent the whole day in bed yesterday nursing his hangover, but he did finally feel well enough to go to his Magic Club meeting that evening. I’m sure Gail being there was a big incentive for him to get moving. He is so happy to have a girl showing interest in him, I’m glad he found someone that shares his hobbies.

I have to work at noon today till 4:00. I’ll text Abby after my shift and see if she’s still up for going to Tony’s Brick-Oven Pizzeria.

Mr. Curtis is not in today, thank god for that. I don’t think I could put up with another day of his nit-picking after the shopping-cart incident last Friday. At 2:00, Ted and I take a 15-minute break in the break-room.

Ted says, “I heard you had a little accident in the parking lot.”

“Yeah, a cart got away from me and hit a car.”

“Gotta be careful of that.”

“Mr. Curtis sure reamed me a new asshole.”

“Yeah,” Ted chuckles, “He’s pretty good at that.”

“What’s his deal anyway? I offered to pay to get the scratch buffed out, but he didn’t want to hear it. He seemed happier taking it out on me.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, that’s how he is. I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that he’s not an easy man to get-along with.”

“I’ve noticed...” I roll my eyes, “I’m trying my best here, I’ve been on-time for all my shifts, learning everything I can. Does he just not like me or something?”

“Mr. Curtis has a hang-up about college age kids. I think he feels you’re all screw-offs, not interested in learning what it is to really work for a living. I know that’s not the case...”

“Kind of painting with a broad-brush, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes, it is.”

“If he thinks we’re all bad, then he’ll miss the good ones.”

“You’re absolutely right about that, Kyle.”

“I need this job and it is important to me. Do you think I should talk to him?”

“I don’t know ... he’s been the way he is for a long time. Just keep showing up on time and doing your best. It’s really the only advice I can offer.”

“Sounds like he’s an age-ist, dislikes me because of my age...” I mutter.

“Try not to let him get to you. As far as I’ve seen, you’re doing a great job here. I’ll try to put a good word for you when I can.”

“Thanks, Ted.”

At 4:00, I punched-out and went around the back of the store to get my bike. I text Abby, “Would you like to go out for pizza?”

She replies, “I would love to!”

I text, “I’m getting off work and I have to go back to the dorm to freshen-up. See you soon.”

As I’m changing out of my work clothes, I notice Alex seems put-out about something. He’s slamming the controls on his game controller, getting pissed at the game on the X-Box. “What’s up, Alex? Everything okay?”

“Ahhh, it’s nothing. Fucking game is pissing me off.”

I know there has to more to it, “Are you sure? You usually don’t rage over a game?”

He drops the controller and looks at me, “I think I screwed-up with Gail.”

“What do you mean? How?”

“Last night, at the club meeting, she wasn’t saying too much to me. I asked her if anything was wrong. Again, she didn’t say much, but I get the hint she’s pissed because I got so drunk on Friday night.”

“Did you say or do anything to make her mad?”

“I honestly don’t remember ... There’s a lot I don’t remember from that night other than never to do beer-bongs again...”

“Well, maybe give her some space, wait a few days and try apologizing. A good time get the best of any of us, I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“We made plans a few days ago to hang-out today, but she just texted me saying we can’t get together, something, just came up.”

“She’s just giving you the cold-shoulder, women do that when they’re mad. Like I said, give it a few days, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“You’re probably right,” he sighs, “Where are you headed off to?”

“Remember the old friend I ran into? We’re going out to eat.”

I ride my bike to Abby’s house, I’ll see if she has a bike and we can both ride to get pizza, or I’ll just leave it there and we’ll walk into town, Main Street isn’t too far from her place.

On 4th St., would you believe a couple of those parties that started on Friday are still going on? Talk about crazy, that’s just asking for a weeklong hangover. I shake my head and continue on to Abby’s street.

She lets me in, “Hi Kyle!”

“Hey, Abby.”

“You got here fast.”

“Yeah, the bike gets me around pretty well.”

“I have my bike too, and my car.”

“You have your car?”

“Yeah, a perk of living off-campus. I still walk or ride to my classes though. The car is handy, but no place to park it near the auditorium buildings.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” I nod. “So, I was thinking we could go eat at Tony’s and then whatever you would like to do. We could walk around, take a bike ride, I’m up for anything.”

“Anything?” her eyebrows perk up and she gets a smirk on her face.

“Well, you know what I mean.”

“I’m just kidding with you, Kyle. Seriously though, I am sorry for what I did the other night.”

“No worries, no harm done.”

“I hope I didn’t hurt you when I ... when I squeezed it.”

“No, you didn’t hurt me.”

“That’s good! Because I gave it a pretty good squeeze that is the last place I would want to hurt you–”

I put my hand up to stop her, “Yeah ... I’m fine, it’s fine, everything’s fine. How about we get going? I’m starved.”

We ride over to Main Street and lock our bikes up at Tony’s. The place is pretty busy, but they have one table-for-two available.

Abby tells me, “My roommate, Belinda, comes back tomorrow afternoon ... ughh.”

“You don’t sound so happy about that.”

“I’m not crazy about being alone in the house, but her being there isn’t much better.”

“Why? Don’t you get along with her?”

“We get along, for the most part, but she can be really obnoxious. She’s a Junior, so she thinks she should be in-charge. She expects me to pick-up after her and do the majority of the chores.”

“Well, how’s that fair? It’s your Uncle’s place after all.”

“She’s the daughter of one my Uncle’s friends, and with her being older, she thinks that gives her clout. She can be such a poopy ... bee-word!”

“A bitch?”

“Yeah, a Bitch! Hey, I like the sound of that! She’s a BITCH! A Real Poopy BITCH!” Abby is getting progressively louder, “That’s Buh-Linda! The Big Poopy BITCH!” I hold out my hand for her to tone it down, people are looking in our direction.

“I’m sorry, I got carried away. Swearing is something I’m still getting used to.”

In a hushed voice, I say, “This is not exactly the place to try it out and see how it fits. Okay?”

“Okay, Kyle.”

I have to keep reminding myself how sheltered she grew up. You might be thinking, What? Did this girl just land on this planet? In some ways, yes. These last few weeks have been a big life-change and a whole new world for me. I can only imagine how it crazy it must be for her gaining newfound freedoms most of us have taken for granted since middle-school.

I tell her, “When we’re done here, why don’t we ride over to the park and you can scream all the curse words you want?”

“Oh, yes! That sounds fun!”

“I’ll even teach you a few new ones.”

“Okay!” she enthusiastically agrees.

Our pizza arrives, hot and fresh from Tony’s fabled Brick-Oven. We talk more about our classes. I tell her, “You know, I was thinking. We share Economics 101, maybe we could help each other with the homework sometime?”

“That sounds fun!”

“Homework, fun?” I scoff.

“No, it’s not, but I would have fun helping you. Economics has been easy for me so far,”

“Not so much for me. Be prepared, you’ll probably hear me throw plenty of curse words around with the homework from that class.”

She gets a sneaky grin, rubs her hands together and says, “Yeah! We’ll get real loud and swear a lot when Buh-Linda is trying to watch her stupid TV shows.”

“You really don’t like her, do you?”

“Can you tell?” she snort-laughs.

“Look, I don’t want to help instigate of any trouble between you two.”

She shakes her head, “Oh, you won’t, not at all.” Abby sure seems to have it in for her roommate. Something tells me to watch what I say if this Belinda is around.

Yeah, this girl is a bit on the goofy side and more than a little naïve about a few things, but she is also so unlike any girl I’ve gotten to know before. I do admit, something about her interests me.

Before you say it, it’s not because I get the sense that she’s still interested in getting in my pants. I honestly don’t know where I stand on that yet, one thing at a time. Right now, working on getting to know each other as friends is what’s important. I do want her to understand that sex is a big deal, but that’s a possible conversation for another time.

After we finish the pizza, Abby and I walk around Main Street. We check out a used bookstore. She finds an illustrated copy of ‘The Two Towers” from Lord of the Rings books.

“Oh, I’ve been looking for this one for my collection. I love J.R.R. Tolkien. Have you read any of his books, Kyle?”

“No, but I’ve seen some of the movies.”

“You really need to read them, they are sooo good.”

“Maybe, someday...”

“Oh poop! I forgot my debit card. I don’t want to use up my cash, I’ll need it later in the week.”

“I can buy it for you.”

“You would do that?”

“Sure!”

“I can pay you back later.”

“Whenever, no biggie.”

She gives me a quick hug, “Thank you! If I waited and came back, it could be gone.”

We return to Tony’s to get our bikes. I show her where The Milverton Marketplace is and tell her about my job there.

“That Mr. Curtis sounds like a real dee-word. I mean Dick. A Real DICK!”

“You got that right, Abby, he’s a real dick!” I laugh.

From there, we go to South Hill Park. I show her the path that leads through the trees and to the field beyond where the parties take place. Normally on a Sunday night there probably wouldn’t be too much going on, but being that tomorrow is Labor Day Monday and we don’t have classes, there are already a handful of people here. They’re most likely getting started on yet, another night of beer drinking.