Chapter 45: Catching Up, Making Plans

Sunday, November 17, 1985

Morning hadn’t been a great time to talk about things with Jas. About as far as we got was her saying, “So ... did you...?”

“Medical limitations,” I said.

She giggled and elbowed me.

“Not what I meant, but I’ll take it. Stuff?”

“Definitely stuff.”

“Can’t wait!” she said, kissed me, then scooted off to breakfast. We had church to get to, after all.

After church, and after we’d had lunch at home, Jas and I headed to our room for a bit. I figured the others would guess what we were talking about, but that was fine.

“Tell!” she said.

“Fingers were very busy, and Darla got to kiss me in a new place.”

“Oh, my God!” Jas said.

“Something I heard a few times last night.”

“I almost can’t believe it! In a way, sure, I felt like something would happen, but in another way I felt like something would get in the way and it wouldn’t.”

“You and Angie were right. She was ready to get caught, at least partway,” I said. “And ... well, the whole ‘getting caught’ metaphor felt ... apt.”

“Tomboy ... likes being shown she’s also a girl?”

“Maybe ... tomboy likes being shown how to be a good girl,” I said.

“Oooooh! That might be a new fantasy!” Jas said, grinning. “Oh, I like that!”

“You won’t be surprised that we talked a bunch, after.”

“I would have been stunned if you hadn’t!”

“There’s a lot there, but ... well, I’d made sure I was ready to chase. At dinner, she was pretty clear — flirting, not anything direct — that she wanted to be chased. Maybe more than either of us realized. And ... yeah. Absolutely no lines were crossed, and her head is in the right place ... including if the guy wasn’t a nice big bad wolf...”

Jas giggled a bit at that.

“But ... yeah. We have a new game now, I think, and both of us know the rules a lot better than we did before last night.”

“I’m ... seriously, I’m all kinds of happy,” Jas said. “Darla needed that. Her head wasn’t in the right place, not after Kirk. I mean, it is now, I trust you on that, but she needed to be chased almost as hard as he did but respectfully. And I couldn’t exactly tell you to do that, because you wouldn’t, at least not easily. Darla couldn’t tell you to do that because she didn’t even know she needed it. I just trusted that you would either get there or she would end the chase first. If she ended the chase first, that’s fair, because she would have needed that at the time, and you two could have tried again later. Because ... um.”

“Um?” I said, after she didn’t go on.

“Okay. So. I can’t tell you that you’re going to really catch her, because I seriously don’t know. But what I can tell you is that, until you came close to catching her, I think the odds were really bad that anyone else was going to, at least as long as you were around. And ... I don’t mean she’s obsessed with you, meaning you you. She’s not, or this would be a totally different conversation. It’s more ... Ang and I agree, it’s that she was seriously gunshy after Kirk, and she knows she doesn’t need to be gunshy about you. Ever. No matter what. Both because you would never cross any lines, and also because if you somehow did, Darla would get to watch seven of your closest female friends kick you in places where it really, really hurts. A lot.”

I chuckled a bit.

“Remind me never to trigger that.”

Jas grinned.

“We know you won’t. Darla knows you won’t, too. It’s just ... yeah. She wins either way. But ... Kirk fucked up her senior year and her freshman year. We all know it. Besides you, any guy was maybe a Kirk. I think she’s mostly over that, but the first round, the first time she let go of control enough to go wild, that ... it takes more trust than she had. Now she knows what it’s like and she can look back and say, ‘Yeah, I still had control, and I knew what to do if things got crazy.’”

“Which is very good.”

“I’m really happy,” she said. “For both of you.”

“Thanks, honey!”

“Plus ... tomboy turned into a very good girl. I’m totally loving it!”

I chuckled and said, “Medical limitations.”

“You’ll recover soon, Mister Big Bad Wolf.”

“True enough!”

“I love you very much,” she said.

“And I love you very much, too,” I said.

I called Darla in the early afternoon. We didn’t talk long, but I would have checked in after a date anyway, and it felt even more important after such a momentous date for us.

Based on what she said, and didn’t say, I figured Louise was there. Nevertheless, she sounded pretty emphatic when she said, “I had a wonderful time, and I can’t wait for our next date!”

I wasn’t entirely sure when that would be. We would all be going to the TCU game on Saturday, but we could drive there and back on Saturday if we wanted. If Candice and Sherry decided to go, it was possible we could even invite Darla (and maybe Louise) to ride with us, because Cammie and Mel could ride with Candice and Sherry. If not, that probably wasn’t an option.

Friday was therefore an option. Thursday was, too. It wasn’t an exam week for either of us, and classes tended to slow down at least a bit before Thanksgiving.

Amy and I needed more time together, too, but that could even be Sunday if she was good with that. I was in no way ready to bring out the Big Bad Wolf for Amy, but it wasn’t impossible for him to make an appearance at some point. I didn’t know what Amy wanted from me, that way, and we weren’t where we could simply discuss it.

In the midafternoon, I pulled Angie aside to talk for a bit, settling in my room.

“So ... you had Darla nailed, pretty much.”

“I’ve gotten a partial update from Jas,” she said, grinning.

“I can give you my view,” I said, then did.

She nodded.

“That all checks out. Unsurprisingly, since Jas’s view is mostly just yours. Good job, big brother. I mean that! Not just because I like you having a good time, but because I think it’s what Darla needs, not just what she wants.”

“Jas made the same point. That’s where I am as well, now.”

“So ... what else?”

“Now do Amethyst.”

Angie blinked a second. Then she said, “Wait. You’re serious!”

“I am.”

“Um ... I ... don’t have a fucking clue! This is a real possibility?”

“We danced around it. Heck, we slow-danced around it.”

Angie giggled a fair bit and said, “What does that mean?”

“We talked about whether we were having nice conversations or real dates. I mentioned Jess and basically said ‘it can be both.’ Then we got into what ‘dates’ mean, and she volunteered ‘kissing’ and also ‘more.’ What ‘more’ meant was vague, but she did say Tiffany...”

Angie made a cute face at the name.

“ ... said third dates involved ‘more,’ and ... of course ... our next date will be our third.”

“Tiff-any...” Angie said, really enjoying messing with the name, “ ... sounds like a piece of work. I’m glad I don’t know her! Anyway, yeah, that’s the stereotype: put out or stop dating. Bullshit, but popular bullshit. One of those idiotic dating rules.”

“You obviously know I agree.”

“Still, pretty clear what ‘more’ means, and it sounds like it’s not on Amy’s agenda, but firmly on her radar. That means ... fuck if I know. You might get the third date fucking. Or you might not even get a decent kiss.”

“We covered kissing last night,” I said. “It was awkward and ridiculous and a lot of fun.”

“Then you get a decent kiss next time. Assuming she thought it was fun, too.”

“Pretty sure that’s a definite yes.”

“So, there you go. A decent kiss ... and maybe fucking,” Angie said, smirking.

“Honestly, I’d be surprised with ‘hot make-out session.’”

“I would, too, but Amethyst, or Amy, or ... both? ... is not Darla. Amy isn’t anyone you’ve ever dated. Hell, she isn’t anyone any of us have ever dated, I’m nearly certain! I think that’s a really good thing — for you and for her — but it means we just don’t know. She might be all over this as a way to finally get laid. Usually, that’s not a problem for girls — at all! — but Amy is not the usual girl by any stretch of the imagination. And ... you know I’m exaggerating. Getting laid is easy. Getting laid by someone we want to be in bed with can be much more difficult.”

“I remember that from earlier conversations. And, also, common sense.”

She giggled a bit and nodded.

“Anyway, yes. She’s definitely not ‘usual,’” I said, chuckling.

“We’ll all be waiting with bated breath. I have no clue, but that’s good.”

“I think so, too, really, but I still wanted to run it by you, because I really have no idea. With Darla, I knew it would be slow. With Amy, I thought there was a reasonable chance we wouldn’t even get to kissing. Now? I don’t know if I’m chasing her, if she’s chasing me, if we’re both chasing each other, or if no one’s chasing anyone, really. I like it, but...”

I shook my head, and said, “No ‘but.’ I like it. You’re right: she’s not like anyone else, except ... she’s fascinating. Which makes her like you, Jas, Jess, Paige ... a lot of people. Not at all the same, but that’s the most important thing.”

She nodded.

“Because you’re you. Most people stop at ‘tits and a pussy.’”

I shook my head again, groaned, and said, “I have to hope that’s not true.”

“Eh. It’s not, but it also is. You put things in what I think of as ‘the right order,’ but that makes you wildly unlike other guys. Heck, Gene, who I really like and respect, started with ‘tits and a pussy’ and only got to ‘wow, fascinating person’ later. With Sue, that was reversed, but that’s because Sue’s Sue and he knew her for a long time before she was even a candidate for dating.”