Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 111: Relationships and Rings
Friday, March 14, 1986
The next morning was ... interesting. We all got up a bit earlier than usual since Amy would have to get back to her dorm room and change before starting her day. She was just a bit blushy about being really naked with us, but got over it quickly.
The three of us got dressed and headed to breakfast. We were the first to arrive. When I heard footsteps on the stairs, Jas scooted off and talked to whoever it was.
That’s probably why Angie and Paige just said, “Hi, Amy!” when they came in. It was very warm, with no real teasing to it.
“Hi, Angie! Hi, Paige!” Amy said, and that pretty much covered it.
The next set of footfalls sent Paige scurrying off, and things repeated with Cammie and Mel. I was pretty suspicious about what was being said, but asking would be a very bad idea.
Once the three of us finished breakfast, Jas and I took Amy back to her dorm. I walked her up — over some mild objections — and said goodbye at her door. A few of her fellow residents were up and about, and Amy got what I think was the ‘walk of shame’ look from some of them. The boyfriend bringing you back at eight in the morning tends to get that sort of reaction. Nothing bad, but teasing is bound to happen.
Amy could deal with teasing, though. I wasn’t worried.
I headed back downstairs, and we took the car back home. On the way, Jas said, “If you were wondering, yes, everyone knows she’s in the ‘I love you’ club now.”
“I had guessed,” I said, chuckling.
“You know they’ll be happy.”
“Oh, I do. And it wasn’t the right morning for teasing. She’s in that club, but not the ‘tease away’ club yet. Darla is the opposite. I mean, she is in the ‘I love you’ club, but only with me. But teasing is just fine.”
“Yeah,” Jas said. “Amy would know everyone meant well by it, but ... I mean, you know Drama. You either get really thick skin or you just get teased all the more. Not that Darla was in Drama, but close enough.”
“Definitely. There’s a lot of teasing in high school, but Drama was the most. Debate wasn’t that bad, though there was some of it.”
“Yeah. You guys were mostly tame. Well, not you, or Angie, once you came over to the dark side.”
“The other thing is, really — and this is obvious, but still — any truly mean teasing amongst the six of us would be ... earth-shattering. The idea is so far-fetched it would take someone saying, ‘No, I meant that to put you down,’ pretty much. And any actual put-down would be, like, reevaluating our lives. Amy doesn’t have that security, yet. She’s not where she can trust everyone at that level. She’s not that far past the point where she can trust us at that level,” I said.
“Yeah,” Jas said, sighing. “But it’s really nice that she can, even if it’s limited. I think she’ll get there with the others. I’m not at all sure I would have thought that six months ago.”
“Oh, definitely. She’s made huge strides.”
“It’s actually really good that Darla was in debate. I don’t know how she would be handling things if she didn’t have the track record of knowing how you tease and knowing the rest of us. Her stuff is pretty damn embarrassing in a vacuum.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It probably wouldn’t have gone well. Although, with most people it would’ve just been a private couple thing. She wouldn’t have had to deal with a bunch of girls who all knew.”
“True!” Jas said. “But she also wouldn’t have had a rock-solid faith that the guy wouldn’t spread it far and wide. And, once he brought a girl into it, she’d be back to having to worry about girls knowing. A lot of girls are really bad when given ‘juicy gossip.’”
“I have been fortunate to avoid them.”
“Super-fortunate!” she said. “One gossiper in the core group and you never would have gotten anywhere with Jess.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And that would have sucked, though we never would have known it.”
“It would’ve been awful!”
“In so many ways.”
“I don’t think Darla will get to the ‘I love you’ club with me,” Jas said. It wasn’t wistful or anything, just matter-of-fact.
“I doubt that, too.”
“Really, I’m a little stunned that Amy did. Not that she could, but that it was so fast. It’s also right, ‘cuz I’m there, and it’s fast for me, too, but still.”
“That’s the thing. Amy is a lot of things. One of the things she isn’t is indecisive or particularly hesitant. Once something seems to be fine, and she likes it, she can just go with it. I really got confused about that at first. Fortunately, by the time it mattered, we were on the same page, because I would have really hurt her feelings if I hadn’t been ready when she was.”
Jas giggled and said, “She’s smart, beautiful, funny, and fun to be with. The odds of you not being ready are really low.”
“Oh, I meant more the ‘Are you sure you’re ready?’ sort of hesitation. Darla needed a massive dose of that. Amy doesn’t need any.”
“Oh! Yeah, that makes sense. And, yes, you would’ve hesitated if you thought she wasn’t ready.”
“The funny thing is, she was flirting with me when she mentioned Tiffany saying the third date meant ‘more.’ She already knew she wanted at least some sort of ‘more.’ Not ‘home run’ more, like some guys would mean...”
Jas giggled and said, “Some guys would just mean ‘blowjob more.’ That’s not bad for some third dates.”
“Either which way,” I said, nodding. “The point is, sex was totally on the table by that point. Something she was hoping we would get to. I knew she was hinting at something, but not how far along she was.”
“To be fair, she sucked at flirting,” Jas said, grinning.
“Well, true. And it worked out perfectly, even so. It’s just funny. There are these weird parallels between Amy and Darla, and also stark contrasts.”
“Yeah,” Jas said. “And ... well. I don’t know what Amy would think of, say, being tied to the bed. But I can be nearly certain she would jump into trying it with both feet the instant anyone proposed it. She’s got, like, no hangups and enormous curiosity.”
“And we sort of know why. Her parents tried to keep her a child, but missed that she was learning all about the world from books. But, since they thought they had all of that covered, and Amy never seemed to be curious about sex or dating, why give her the ‘milk and the cow’ speech? Or anything else?”
“Put like that, she’s almost the classic nerdy guy. Tons of knowledge about sex and dating, but no clue how to do any of it.”
“In a way, she is. Except she also has the girl experience of having had lots of chances to satisfy her curiosity, but never with anyone she wanted to do that with. The nerdy guy stereotype is more ‘What, someone will satisfy my curiosity? Anyone? I’m in! Sight unseen!’”
Jas giggled and nodded, then abruptly looked more serious.
“And that’s you, once upon a time.”
“Close enough, anyway, yeah.”
“You know your real story would blow Amy’s mind in the best of ways,” she said.
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it. It’s way too big right now. And not just right now, but ... a while. Maybe forever.”
“But the important part is that ‘maybe.’ It was never even vaguely on the table with Claire, and not really with Darla either.”
“Exactly, yeah,” I said. “It’s...”
I sighed and said, “It’s a burden. Most people never need to pick it up.”
“It’s also a joy,” she said. “Seriously, it makes me incredibly happy.”
“But that’s because you’re in it for the long haul. No one who knows has ever left the inner circle. Jane is the least ‘inner,’ but she’s still in it for the long haul. It’s ... it binds us together. If you don’t want to be tied to us, there’s no reason to know.”
We got home, parked, and checked with the others. They weren’t ready, and Jas and I could walk part of the way to our classes together, so we did.
She said, “Picking up where we left off: I have this feeling you’re thinking of your ex-wife again.”
“That’s like ... a worst case. But we can start there. Imagine I’d told her. And, I mean, I know myself. If it was a thing then, I would have told her.”
“And that would have been horrible.”
“God only knows!” I said. “I think it would have. There are very few things I ever did that gave her power over me, to hurt me, that she didn’t use in some argument. Not zero, and I’m both surprised and grateful about that, but ... not many.”
“Plus, just the ‘binding together’ part.”
“Yeah.”
“Who else?” she said.
“It’s a general thing. Say ... Sue. Sue would love knowing. It’s right up her alley. But Sue and I shouldn’t be entangled. I would toss in Mikayla or someone, but we weren’t really intimate. Sue and I weren’t, either, except...”
“Sue was in your life for years. This time, I mean. You knew her really well. That one’s plausible.”
“Gene, as another one. He’s a good friend. Arguably my closest male friend. Maybe besides Marshall — it’s hard to say. But telling him makes no sense,” I said.
“I’d agree about how close those people are as friends. You missed Michael, though.”
I chuckled at that.
“Michael might actually be my real closest guy friend. And that’s seriously bizarre.”
“More to you than me, but it just has to do with how we met.”
“Michael is, really, the only person I’ve ‘stalked.’ I set out to meet him in order to do exactly what we did. It worked! I just ... well, our being close friends is a ripple. A very good one, but it’s an unintended consequence that has potentially wide-ranging effects.”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “But that also creates its own barrier. You can never tell him.”
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