Chapter 16: True Colors

Monday, August 26, 1985

Mel and Cammie had breakfast ready at around nine. Candice and Sherry joined us this time. They wouldn’t on most days, most likely, but it worked today.

Mel and Cammie headed off around ten in pursuit of new hair for Mel. We were looking forward to the big reveal.

While they were away, we got on the phones and started inviting people to the party. We reached about one-third of the ‘GSS Gang’. Claire would have to call us — we didn’t have her number. Darla, too. Lindsay was in, though, and was bringing Vanessa.

I invited my CS friends, too, and we invited many of the people from our various study groups.

This could easily wind up being thirty or more people. We had room, so — the more, the merrier!

Just after lunch, Jas and Paige took off for the grocery store. I offered to go, but they said they had things well in hand. For all I knew, it was an excuse to get out of the house and engage in girl talk of one sort or the other. Not that they needed to get out of the house to do that, but who knew what it might be about?

I knew Jas hadn’t caught up with Katy yet. Were they still dating? Not dating? Were we ‘Schrödinger dating?’

This would all be resolved shortly. But, in the meantime, Paige was certainly an option for Jas. For me, too, and I was pretty sure that would happen sometimes.

Ang came by about fifteen minutes later.

“Let’s go to Hullabaloo Cafe and get them their favorites,” she said, grinning. “Everyone will want iced coffee. That’ll keep until they’re back.”

“Sounds fun. We could make their drinks here, though,” I said, just to make the point.

“Nah! We’re going to have a lot of coffee here, including fancy stuff. Sometimes it’s nice to get it, just to get it. Besides, I want to get out of the house and walk, and it’s a nice day.”

“Works for me,” I said.

We wound up holding hands the whole way. Much of the conversation was around dating. Angie and Paige were apparently at least considering the idea of a threesome with the occasional GSS girl (or whoever might be interested). That, or just one or the other of them getting with someone, but threesomes were preferred.

A threesome with Jas was also a possibility, or even a likelihood. One with me was out, for obvious reasons.

As Angie put it, “We decided you being in the room with me while I’m with someone else wasn’t behaving years ago, and ... if we’re going to stop behaving, I want it to be while doing something more meaningful.”

We checked in on that, too. Still an option, but neither of us were where we wanted to do it right away. Years of waiting had tamped down the ‘rampant lust’ side of the equation. The ‘it would be glorious’ side was still there, but muted.

If I had to guess (because we didn’t actually say this part of it), I think we both thought something big might happen one day. Could be tomorrow, or it could be years away. That would probably be what decided it.

In any case, while it no longer felt wrong, it also didn’t feel right, not quite yet. There, and possible, but not imminent.

That, really, was the shorter part of the conversation. The longer part, which covered half of the walk to Hullabaloo Cafe and most of the walk back, was about weddings. Specifically, our weddings.

We were increasingly certain a dual wedding would be the best option. Both of us continued to feel that Houston’s UU church (the one very near Mom and Dad’s church) would be good. We would have to meet the minister and make sure we wanted it there. Picking a church we’d never gone to was perhaps odd, but having it in College Station would be awkward for many of our guests. If, for instance, Grandmother could attend, it would be a lot better for her to stay with Mom and Dad than in a hotel in College Station. Much less traveling, and she would be happier staying with them.

Flying into College Station was possible, but it was a pain in the ass compared to Houston. The local airport was small, and flying in would require changing planes in Houston, most likely. I was fairly certain it didn’t even have jetways.

We were trying to keep the weddings from being a circus, but ‘circus’ was looking more and more likely. At a rough guess, we had well over 100 guests on the list. With us almost two years away from the big day, the odds were extremely high that the number would grow, and probably by a fair bit.

The thing is, once you eliminated various members of the extended Seiler and Nguyen families (and who knew how many of those we would get?), our guest lists were well over 90% the same. A double wedding solved that problem.

Angie said, “We’ve been inseparable since August 1980, pretty much. How could we not get married at the same time, considering? It just makes sense. Anything else would feel weird. Jas is happy sharing the spotlight with me. Though, is it my spotlight, or Paige’s? Sometimes I think it’s more her spotlight. But Paige is happy sharing the spotlight with Jas, too, so there’s no problem there.”

I shrugged and said, “It can be both of your spotlight. You do what works for you.”

“We always do!”

We got to Hullabaloo Cafe halfway through the talk. There was a short line. It looked like Amy was back (the hair was hard to miss!). She had her back to us when we entered, doing something with one of the machines. Lots of steam seemed to be involved.

We waited through the line (which continued to grow behind us). When we got to the front, she took our order. She seemed halfway between her ‘Wednesday Addams’ persona and her ‘happy, bubbly Amy’ persona. I guessed this was her ‘clerk’ persona.

I noticed her name tag said Amethyst, not Amy. Perhaps she’d always been an Amethyst, and ‘Amy’ was just a nickname in the dorm.

Of course, most people have different faces they show to different people. ‘Steve Marshall’ was a different person in English, Math, Physics, Spanish, and the other ‘regular’ classes than he was in Drama and Debate, and a different person again in computer classes. Then there was at-home ‘Steve Marshall’. They weren’t as abrupt as Amy’s ‘Wednesday’ and ‘Amy’ personas had been in the dorm, but that could easily have been a game to mess with people.

After we’d paid her, and while she was filling our order, I said, “How was your summer?”

She blinked, looked at me, and seemed about to say something else, when she suddenly blinked again and went, “Wait. You’re Claire’s guy, right?”

I smiled and said, “That’s where you know me from, yeah.”

She nodded.

“I’ve been good,” she said. “Quiet summer. Took a couple of classes. Got the job here. They helped me get a class schedule that lets me work, so I’ll be here, too.”

“Friends of mine told me about this place,” I said. “They mentioned the hair. I had a guess.”

“So,” she said, putting two of the coffees into a carrier, “You’re following me?”

That had a ‘Wednesday’ edge to it, but not badly.

I smiled and said, “Nah. Just ... I only know a few people here who match the description.”

“Another one later today, though,” Angie said. “One of our friends is going purple today. She’s at the salon now.”

“Ah!” Amy (Amethyst?) said. “Perhaps she is following me.”

“She’s wanted it since freshman year in high school.”

“So I didn’t corrupt her,” Amy said, sounding disappointed.

We all chuckled.

“And how is Claire?” she said.

“I haven’t heard from her in a while,” I said. “We’ll catch up very soon.”

“Tell her I said hello. And that I’m glad she hasn’t died,” she said.

“Will do!”

Angie gave me a look at that, but I just grinned.

“I’m glad you haven’t died either, by the way,” she said, producing two more coffees.

“As am I!” I said. “Oh, this is Angie, by the way.”

“Hello, Angie!” she said. “Nice to meet you. And glad for you, as well.”

“Me, too! Both meeting you and that you’re not dead yet.”

Amy cracked a smile at that. I wasn’t sure if it was Angie picking up on the Addams side of things or if it was the nod to Monty Python. It could have been either or both.

The last two coffees went in a second carrier and we headed out.

“She’s ... interesting,” Angie said. “What was that about not being dead? I can’t remember anyone saying that before.”

“It’s part of her thing, apparently. And, no, I don’t know if it’s an affectation, just who she is, or whatever. When I met her with Claire, she veered between sounding like Wednesday Addams and being pretty bouncy and perky. This was largely in the middle. Since I’d met her in another context, I guess she felt comfortable tossing in a reference to death.”

“Interesting!” Angie said. “She’s pretty cute, and ... well, I’m not one to talk about who’s ‘unusual,’ considering.”

“Me, neither,” I said.

As it turned out, we could still hold hands thanks to the drink carriers, so we did.

Paige and Jas showed up just after we got home. They seemed really happy to have the coffees.

Mel and Cammie returned about an hour later, having been gone for about five hours in total.

When they arrived, we got an extra surprise. Mel’s hair was indeed a lovely purple with great highlights. The surprise was Cammie, who now had a not-quite-natural shade of red.

“She talked me into it!” Cammie said, before anyone could even ask.

“I did not!” Mel said, snorting. “She came up with this on her own.”

“After you!”

“Still!”

They were both giggling, though, and holding hands.

“It looks awesome!” Jas said.

“So cool!” Angie said.

“And hot!” Paige said, grinning.

“Lovely,” I said.