Chapter 67: Whippets

February 11, 1984, Rutherford, Ohio

"Hi, Mike!" Emmy exclaimed when Liz and I arrived at the apartment she shared with her cousin.

Liz and I greeted her, and she let us in.

"What's the plan, Em?" Liz asked.

"The other girls will be here soon. We can go out or just order pizza and hang out here. My cousin bought a video cassette recorder, and she has some movies, or we can rent one from the store down the street, or we can go to the theatre."

"Do you care, Mike?" Liz asked.

I shook my head, "I'm here because you asked, so I'm OK with whatever you want."

"Does that go for me, too?" Emmy asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"I'll be happy to do anything Liz wants to do with me with you, too!"

Liz laughed, and Emmy stuck her tongue out at me.

"How are things going, Emmy?" I asked.

"Good. I work at Lou's every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm and then two nights a week. That lets me have enough time to study, but also to contribute some money for living here. Lou will give me more hours during the Summer, and then we'll work it out so I can get hours that let me go to Rutherford Junior College so I can get my Associate's in criminal justice and apply to the Sheriff's department."

"No problem with school?"

"No. The bus stop is about a block from here, and I'm eighteen, so I just filled out a form which said my parents had no permission to see my grades or anything like that."

"I heard your dad is pretty angry."

"Fit to be tied. My mom is upset, you know, sad, but with what happened, I just couldn't live there anymore. And it's way cool to be on my own. Well, I'm living with my cousin, but you know."

I nodded, "It's like when I first went to Taft. I was on my own, but not because there was an RA. Of course, now I'm the RA."

"They let the fox guard the henhouse!" Emmy teased.

"Oh, please!" Liz laughed. "My brother may get laid occasionally, but he's still mostly a 'goody-two-shoes'!"

"Speaking of getting laid..." Emmy smirked.

The buzzer for the door rang, so Emmy had to go let whoever it was in.

"Somebody is horny," Liz said quietly.

"Obviously. She's not seeing anyone?"

"Just Clark!"

"Yeah, bad idea," I replied. "Fortunately, she's stayed away."

"Mike!" Mindy, Violet, and Valerie all squealed when they came into the apartment.

"My brother, the rock star," Liz said, rolling her eyes.

"Oooh!" Mindy cooed. "I'll be a groupie!"

I leaned over to my sister, "Having fun yet?"

"Oh, shut up!" she laughed. "I know you'll behave."

The buzzer rang again, and Hannah and Larisa joined the group.

"How about we order pizza and watch a movie on my cousin's new video machine? There's a store close we could rent something, or she has a few tapes."

All the girls agreed, and I suppressed a laugh at being 'stuck' in an apartment with seven girls, though one of them was my sister. And that was likely sufficient to keep things from getting too far out of control. After a bit of back and forth, we agreed on a large pepperoni pizza and a large sausage and mushroom pizza. Emmy called the pizza place, and once they told her the total, we all chipped in to cover the cost of the pizza and the Cokes they would deliver as well.

"I think I'll go rent a video," Emmy said. "I've watched everything my cousin has."

"I'll go with you," Liz said.

"Ooh! We'll take good care of Mike!" Mindy cooed. "We promise!"

I knew I should go with Liz and Emmy out of self-defense, but I also knew they wouldn't be gone long enough for there to be any REAL trouble. Emmy and Liz put on their coats and left the apartment, leaving me with Mindy, Violet, Valerie, Hannah, and Larisa.

"Soooo," Mindy said with a smirk, "how can we entertain Mike?"

"Ten minutes isn't NEARLY enough time for anything REALLY interesting," I replied with a grin. "And my sister will walk back through that door in less than that!"

"It's not like we can play 'Truth or Dare' or anything," Valerie said. "There's only one guy!"

"Oh, like he'd complain if every dare had to be done with him?!" Mindy asked gleefully. "He'd have a blast!"

"Have you considered HE might have concerns about that," I asked. "Not to mention, I could see the dares quickly getting out of hand and someone doing something they didn't really want to do because of peer pressure. I'd feel pretty lousy, but not nearly so bad as whoever it was that did something she didn't really want to do."

"He has a point," Hannah said.

"Oh, I know he does!" Mindy replied. "A very NICE one."

"Mindy, can we dial it back, please?" I requested. "As I told Emmy before, I'll do anything with you that Liz would be OK with me doing with her."

"And I was serious, Min," Hannah said. "Don't wreck what will be a fun evening because you can't keep your panties on!"

"Fine," Mindy groused.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. I'd expected to go out to dinner and go out to a movie, and I wondered if there was some ulterior motive at work. Knowing Liz, I didn't believe that to be the case. She'd have no problem with me being with any of her friends, but she'd also be extremely upset if I let Mindy ruin the evening.

"Take a chill pill, Mindy!" Valerie said. "We need to keep this to what Liz can do, too."

"I can't wait to get to Taft," Mindy declared.

And if she was expecting to spend much time with me, she was sorely mistaken. With all my other obligations, as well as Clarissa, Tasha, Jocelyn, and Maggie, I was going to have very little time, if I had any at all, for Miss Mindy Ellison, no matter what she might be hoping for.

"How is it there, Mike?" Violet asked.

"I like it. It's cool being away from home, but that means you have to take care of yourself. Your professors just expect you to do everything, and if you don't, you'll fail. Nobody will tell you not to party, but if you party too much, you'll fail. And if you need help, you'll have to ask for it. You have to budget your own time for homework and studying, and there is a LOT of homework and a lot of studying."

"How many hours a day do you spend on homework and studying?"

"It works out to at least twenty hours a week. That's four hours every night, Sunday through Thursday, and then oftentimes I'll do some studying or homework on Saturday morning."

"No way!" Mindy gasped. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. You'll have at least one hour of homework and studying for every hour you're in class. And if you have a chemistry or biology lab, you can add in even more time. My first semester, with two labs, it was five hours a night and a couple of hours on Saturday, and that was working closely with my lab partners and a study partner."

"Holy shit! Nobody said ANYTHING about that! Is that because you're pre-med?"

"I'm also in the Honors Program, but it's not just my friends who are science majors who study that way. My friend Clark, who was my roommate for the first two years, studies almost as much, and he's an economics major. My friend Larry is studying to be a High School history teacher, and he spends even more time studying because he has to do research and write papers. Angie studied almost as much when she was there, and she was studying to be a grade school teacher."

"I thought college was like High School, except you could have more fun because your parents weren't around," she protested.

"It can be, I suppose, if you don't care about your grades. There are some kids who are into the party scene, but I avoid them because I can't afford to get involved in anything like that, even if I wanted to."

"Don't you have fun?"

"Sure. But our idea of fun is what we did last weekend — went to a professor's house, hung out, listened to music, sat by the fire, drank wine, and talked. Or we'll go to the movies, or a dance, or sometimes even a party. But school has to be our priority."

"What a bunch of bores!" Mindy groused. "What about sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll?"

"I'm quite happy with the quantity of the first and last, but drugs are a complete no-no in my book. A bit of alcohol, but that's it."

"If you're studying that much, when do you have TIME for sex and music?"

"Music, all the time, including while we're studying. And there's plenty of time for sex, trust me! But like anything else, you have to be smart and make sure you keep your focus where it belongs."

"Can, like, girls sleep in guys' rooms or the other way around?" Violet asked.

I nodded, "Nobody does a bed check. I'm an RA, and neither the female RA nor I bother anybody about that. And every floor will be co-ed in the Fall, except for two or three. The all-girls dorm is being torn down, and they didn't build a new one."

"So, like, there are girls on your floor?" Violet asked. "What about showers and stuff?"

"Coed," I grinned.

"I call BS!" Hannah laughed. "No way!"

"Of course not," I replied. "There are separate guys' and girls' bathrooms. Most guys or girls wear robes, but sometimes they'll just wear shorts and T-shirts. It's against the rules to be naked in the hallways, and that can get you kicked out of the dorm, just like going into the wrong bathroom."

"What other rules do they have?" Larisa asked.

"Nobody under eighteen is allowed in the dorms. That's a new rule from last year. No drugs, which will get you expelled. No booze, which will get you kicked out of the dorms, though they may change the rules and let anyone who is 21 drink. No loud music after 11:00pm on school nights or 1:00am on Friday and Saturday nights. Otherwise, just don't break the law."

"Did you get to pick your roommate?" Valerie asked.

"I didn't want to, but you could. I opted for a random assignment, though the first one wouldn't accept me because I had icons in my room. He felt they were idolatry. He moved out, and I got Clark instead, and he's totally cool. Jocelyn asked to be Clarissa's roommate, so if you know someone who is going there who you want to room with, you can both request each other. But it has to be a girl!"

"Darn!" Mindy said, causing the other girls to laugh.

"They do have married dorms, but you have to show your marriage certificate."

"NO WAY!" Mindy exclaimed. "Talk to me in six or seven years!"

Liz and Emmy came back in with the movie.

"Wow!" Emmy exclaimed. "Everyone is dressed? I'm shocked!"

"That's HIS fault!" Mindy complained. "What did you get?"

"Caddyshack."

I'd seen it, because I'd turned seventeen before it had come out the Summer after my Junior year. I was more than happy to see it again, though, because it was one of those movies which would have been wrecked had it been on TV. Unfortunately, after it had gone from the theatres, there was no way to see it until they started selling videotapes.

The pizza and Cokes arrived a few minutes later, and we sat in the living room to eat. When we finished eating, we cleaned up and went back to sit down while Emmy turned on the TV and put the tape in the player. I ended up in the middle of the couch with Hannah on one side of me and Violet on the other. Mindy frowned, then sat in front of me and leaned back against my legs. Liz rolled her eyes and shook her head, then sat in an easy chair. Larisa sat in the other chair, and once Emmy started the movie, she plopped down into a beanbag chair next to Valerie.

Fortunately, the girls behaved during the movie, including the relatively tame sex scenes. That said, by the end of the movie, both Violet and Hannah were closer to me than they'd been at first, with hips and shoulders touching on each side.

"Mike, can I talk to you a sec?" Hannah asked.

"Sure."

"Privately?"

"Hey!" Mindy protested. "No fair!"

"Just TALK!" Hannah protested.

"You can use my room, Mike," Emmy said. "You know which one it is!"

The girls all laughed, and Hannah and I walked down the hall to the room where Emmy and I had celebrated her sixteenth birthday.

"What's up?"

"Maggie wanted me to tell you 'Hi' and let you know she really misses you. We tried to figure out a way for you to see her one of these weekends, but her parents haven't had anything planned that would let us do that."

"Tell her that I miss her, too, and that in about fourteen weeks, we can see each other whenever we want, with no interference."

"I'll tell her. Are you going to graduation?"

"Yes."

"And the parties?"

"Probably, yes."

"Cool! I'm sorry Mindy was acting like such a slut tonight."

"I wouldn't use that word, but I'm used to it with her. Don't worry about it."

"You can always call me if you want. I don't act like that."

"No, you don't. And you heard how busy I am. I'll probably see you at the parties, OK?"

"Sure. But you have my number if you change your mind."

"I do."

"Cool!" she said with a smile.

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, and we went back to the living room. I let Liz know we needed to head home because I had to be up early, so we said 'good night' to everyone and headed out to my car.

"Thanks for not being a pig," she said as we climbed into my Mustang.

"Seven gorgeous girls? Talk about a fantasy; well, six, sorry!"

"I don't mind if you think I'm pretty!" Liz declared as I backed out of the parking spot.

"You are absolutely the prettiest sister I have!" I teased.

"Hey!" she protested.

"Oh, like you can tease me, and I can't tease you?"

"Sister privilege! I won't be upset if you fuck my friends, and you don't get upset if I tease you."

I pulled out of the parking lot and headed for Route 50 for the drive home.

"I think I would get the better part of that deal," I chuckled. "But Mindy needs to completely tone it down. And if she thinks I'm going to sleep with her once she comes to Taft, she's high!"

Liz laughed, "I told her that's not the way to get you, but she thinks stripping naked in your room is what convinced you."

"It did get my attention," I replied. "But she also needed a serious wake-up call about what college is really like. We talked about it after you and Emmy left. She thinks she's going to party her way through four years, and if that's her plan, fine, but that means she won't be able to hang out with my group. We are not partiers, and we don't hang out with partiers."

"She was going to try to get on your floor."

"That'll be tough because a lot of current students will request Rickenbacker 8, so there will only be about six Freshman rooms, and those will be randomly assigned, three for girls and three for guys."

"Why are there so many requests?"

"We're the coolest floor on campus," I chuckled. "And not a single serious partier. It's almost all serious students. All my friends are on the floor, and for Senior year, some Sophomore and Junior pre-med students have already put in their requests, and they'll share rooms with people who currently have Seniors as roommates. We do not want any partiers."

"Didn't Dale go crazy his first semester?"

"He got into a serious party scene and ended up with two B's and three C's. Then he cracked down, and he's had almost all A's."

"I guess Jocelyn was like you."

"Can you see Jocelyn as a partier?"

"No," Liz laughed. "YOU would party before she would! She was always WAY too serious, even in High School."

"So was I."

"Sure, but she was worse. And you lightened up in a serious way. I know she had her accident and all, but she still has a stick up her butt at times."

"I think you'll see her change once she gets to Taft and is with my group of friends, especially Clarissa, Sophia, and Milena. They'll get her to loosen up without going off the deep end."

"Can I ask what Hannah wanted?"

"What ALL the girls want," I chuckled.

"My brother, the stud! Who would have thought THAT could happen?!"

"She wanted to tell me that Maggie said 'Hi' and that Maggie misses me. And to apologize that they couldn't arrange a time for me to see Maggie. She also asked if I'd be at the graduation parties."

"So, not a stud then!" Liz teased.

"Oh, she offered. She said I could call her if I wanted. And if the circumstances presented themselves, I could see doing that. I couldn't see being with Mindy no matter what happened."

"You aren't steady with anyone, and you've been with Hannah, and from what she said, you enjoyed it. Why not be with her again?"

"For the legitimate reason I gave her — I am really busy, and I probably won't be home again before graduation. I know you plan to visit, so you and I will see each other."

"You know that Violet wants you in the worst possible way, right?"

"I had the idea that was the case."

"And you had some kind of fantasy about her."

"How about I tell you a secret?"

"What?"

"Fantasy and reality simply do not always line up. The threesome I had was FUN, but it's not something I'd do again because it's just not me. It wasn't fulfilling in any way other than physically, and even that was dampened by the complete emptiness I felt. The real secret is, I was with one of those girls later and had some of the most fulfilling sex I've ever had, and all we did was make love in the most simple way, then cuddle and talk for hours on end. That was WAY more fulfilling than being with two girls."