Chapter 4: The Bombshell

Peter had been away for a few days with Becky at some family gathering of hers. As soon as Danny knew he was back he was on the phone. Peter lived two streets away and Danny wanted him to come over right away.

Danny had a whole pile of brochures on some of the other things they were going to do during the holidays. More importantly, however, he had all the brochures and information from San Joaquin Valley College. The information should have been posted out to him months ago but for some unknown reason this hadn’t happened. It didn’t matter because it was all here now and he wanted to go through it all with Peter before he began making any serious plans himself. To Danny it looked like a wonderful place and he wanted to show Peter all the great things there was on offer. He wanted to talk about all the exciting activities, clubs and events they could get involved in together.

It was in this happy mood that Danny dialed Peter’s number. Peter seemed more than happy to be invited over. Danny’s mother always cooked wonderful meals and she always had some amazing home baked cookies in the pantry. Peter was always invited to have supper with them and he was always happy to accept the invitation. This time was going to be no exception until Danny mentioned the brochures he had from SJVC. At this point Peter went very quiet then said to Danny over the phone, “umm ... actually ... yes ... I do need to come over. There IS something we need to talk about. Give me a few moments to get ready and I will be over shortly ... say about 10.30am. Is that OK with you?”

Danny said it would be OK but he couldn’t help noticing how flat Peter’s mood had become. He knew it couldn’t be anything too serious. He would have heard about it, surely! Maybe Peter and Becky were having problems after all. Were they splitting up? Could Becky be pregnant? Did Peter have some terminal illness that Danny was being shielded from? All these questions were dismissed from Danny’s mind as just stupid. Whatever it was it wasn’t going to be too serious. They would both be able to handle it together as they had always done before.

Peter arrived at Danny’s place just after 10.30am. As usual Mrs. Brown fed them both up large on coffee and home made cookies double chocolate chip and, oh my, they were really good as usual! When they had finished the two retreated to Danny’s bedroom where Danny had all his brochures spread out across his bed and study desk. Peter took in the whole scene but just didn’t seem to get excited. They had both been planning this for some time and even if Peter wasn’t excited Danny certainly was.

Without really looking at Peter Danny began to tell him what he thought they should get involved in. Danny picked up his class timetable and pointed out how all his lectures slotted in. He then pointed out how that was going to allow him to get involved in all the other things going on within the life of the campus. He really was waxing eloquent when Peter dropped his bombshell.

Peter had been silent all through Danny’s excited soliloquy. He stood there taking it all in and genuinely happy for Danny and all the plans and schemes he was expounding upon. When Peter thought the timing was right and Danny had paused to gather his thoughts Peter finally spoke. He turned and looked out of the window to the far distant hills and quietly said, “I’m not going to SJVC.”

The room was quiet for about five minutes. Danny sat down on his bed not caring that he was scrunching up all the papers beneath him. Peter stood by the window and kept looking at the mountains in the distance. Danny really didn’t know what to say. What the two of them had talked about and planned for nearly two years now had just evaporated.