Chapter 104: Check-Ins

Saturday, June 5, 1982

It’d been over a month since we’d met Jane for an appointment. This was the longest break yet. Of course, we’d seen her at the play, but that was different. I was feeling the gap. The next one would be worse. Barring a crisis, we’d do a quick, private check-in just before the trip and then wouldn’t see her until August.

Mom was aware of this, and she had her own reasons for not wanting things to change too much. So, it wasn’t that much of a surprise that she’d bring the subject up.

“Kids, I wanted to check with you. You’re both doing really well. I know Dr. Stanton has helped with that, and I know you both really like her. But I wanted to make sure that you want to keep on seeing her and feel like it’s helping.” The words sounded like she wanted things to continue only if we wanted, but the subtext of ‘I hope you still want to see her’ seemed clear to me.

“I definitely want to keep seeing her,” Angie said. “It’s helping, and I think things will keep coming up. Even if it’s just stress or something, since we’re both so busy now. It’s self-inflicted, but having someone professional to talk to really helps.”

“Me, too,” I said. “I can’t be sure what will come up next, and I can’t see that I need all that much counseling, but it’s an hour a month well spent.”

“Well, as long as you both are happy, I’m more than happy to keep taking you,” Mom said, smiling. “I really like Dr. Stanton, too, and I certainly can’t argue with the results at all.”

The relief was pretty obvious. Mutual benefit: Mom had more certainty that Angie and I were fine and behaving, and we had freedom to do the things that were the most important to us right now. Win-win.

I gave Jane a hug once we were back in her office, then settled into my usual chair.

“So,” she said, smiling, “how are my favorite time travelers?”

I chuckled. “If you know any other time travelers I’d be surprised. And happy, I think!”

“So far, no, sadly.”

“We’re doing well. I suppose I should let Angie answer for herself, but I’m pretty sure of the answer. We’re both enjoying the free time after school. Well, mostly. I guess there’s one big school thing that’ll be news.”

“Oh?”

“Three of the candidates in the Student Council race filed protests to the results, challenging a variety of things. That went to the School Board. Almost all of the protests were tossed out last Tuesday, as expected, including the one aimed at me specifically. However, there’s one still out there aimed at Lizzie.”

She shook her head. “What were they alleging?”

“That my speech improperly singled out a candidate I wasn’t running against, that I taunted my opponent in the cafeteria, that the cheerleaders’ campaigning was inappropriate, that class time was used to make posters, that their posters were torn down, and that Lizzie violates the morals clause because she’s a lesbian.”

“Ugh. And I’m certain none of that happened, except of course that Lizzie is a lesbian.”

“Exactly. I think we’d won even that, but one of the conservatives on the School Board cleverly delayed things by requesting that the school district’s legal counsel review the case to see if the state’s Sodomy Law has any relevance to the morals clause. They’re rehearing just that part next Tuesday. I think that was a win, though. I think the conservatives wanted it tabled indefinitely, not just for a week.”

“Ugh again. That law is an abomination. It needs to go!”

“I have some good news on that front, but less than I wish I did.”

“Oh?”

“It’ll get struck down. Um, I want to say just after 2000 sometime. The thing is, the state never repeals it and keeps trying to use it to screw with people. For instance, most city governments start giving benefits to same-sex partners even before 2000, but the state keeps claiming it’s ‘misuse of taxpayer funds’ because, after all, the law says those things are illegal. Even if gay couples can legally marry in the state and are entitled to equal protection. It’s just ... well, never underestimate the ability of people to be jerks.”

“That’s a long wait, but I guess the country needs time to catch up.”

“It’s better than that. That’s the law. Houston’s going to have a big fight over gay rights in just a few years and, unless something’s gone wrong here, the conservatives lose. Twice. By the early 90s places will start giving benefits. Houston’s gay community will thrive by the late 1980s. Not that we’ll be San Francisco or anything, but all the big Texas cities will have large gay communities.”

She smiled. “That’s a relief.”

“On the down-side, they were still fighting over ‘conversion therapy’ when I died.”

“Professionally ... and personally, too... that is the real abomination. Okay. We’re very sidetracked. Didn’t I once say that you and Angie are the definition of sidetracking? Anyway, besides the protest, what’s happening?”

“More than once, and you’re right. So ... let’s see. Jasmine and I are doing great. We had a really good conversation about our relationship and we’re still on the same page. She brought up college plans with a totally not subtle implication of ‘are we together for the long haul?’ And, we appear to be.”

“Clever, but I know she’s clever. That’s an easy out.”

“Which she mentioned. We could always claim we’d do the long-distance thing.”

“Which has a terrible success rate.”

“The cast party was fun. Well, both of them, the chaperoned party and the kids-only party. The kids-only party had a lot less clothing and a lot more discussion of sex, but we mostly confined ourselves to a lot of making out. A lot of mine was with Paige, which was ... surprising and not surprising.”

“Oh?”

“I think everyone’s felt that something was going to happen sooner or later. Angie said once that she thought Paige and I might fit, but not then. I think she’s wrong, in that I’m not sure we’d ever fit romantically, but having a fling? That’s been likely for a long while.”

“Why not romantically?”

“Paige, historically at least, is totally open on relationships. Think of an impulsive Jasmine with no guardrails. I think she’s finally learning, mainly from watching us.”

“A good thing, then. She’d be heading for trouble otherwise, most likely.”

“Moving on, Sue and I experimented, some. Sue and Jasmine experimented some, too.” Jane rolled her eyes at that. “Not at the same time or in the same place. Sue claimed we’d probably kill her from over-excitement if we tried that.”

Jane shook her head, sighing, and said, “And?”

“Sue is very happy to have hormones, and seems to like both genders just fine. None of us are assuming anything. She’s doing the whole puberty transition and crazy hormone thing at high speed and when things settle out, who knows what will happen?”

“Wise. She seems fine, though?”

“She does. I think having an outlet immediately available is helping, though perhaps it’d be better if she had the usual time of learning to deal with restraint. I’m not sure. That’d be hard when all of her friends are sexually active and pretty obvious about it.”

“Likely it’s for the best.”

“We’ll see what tomorrow brings. We hadn’t gone any further than she went with Jasmine.”

“That’s a polite way of phrasing things, I suppose. You’ve omitted Jessica this far.”

“Angie thinks she’s falling in love with me, and I suspect she’s right.”

“That is a bit of a surprise.”

“I’m surprised. Angie maybe less so. I’ve been trying to avoid being overly romantic but, in a way, maybe that made it worse. We had an interesting conversation last night. She nearly took things further than she’d said she wanted to and, when I mentioned not pressuring her, she said that by not pressuring her, it might be harder for her to resist. She’s used to fending off pressure. No pressure means she’s just fighting off her own temptation.”

She nodded. “I see that often. Not as often as pressure taking a girl where she didn’t want to go, so it’s not a great tactic for a guy to try as ‘reverse psychology,’ but it does happen. I know you more than well enough to know you’d never let her think you were indifferent about going further, simply respectful. Indifference is contempt, but respect is respect, and being respected feels good and is attractive.”

“I see that. Last night we did a ‘typical high school date.’ I took her to an inexpensive barbecue restaurant — something no one’s ever dared to do — and then ‘Star Trek II’. She likes science fiction, but of course no one else knows that. So, what wasn’t at all a romantic date might have actually been quite romantic to her.”

“You’re showing that you really know her and value her. Put that way, her falling for that isn’t that much of a surprise. And?”

“And, it’d be bad if she really fell hard and went after me, but it’d be a much, much bigger disaster if I fell for her that way. I’m not about to do that. We work very well as friends. Unless she were to change in big ways, we don’t work as romantic partners. Jasmine and I work as romantic partners and as friends. Plus ... suppose I fell for Jessica. Jasmine’s already in the mix. If I dropped her to chase Jessica, then Jessica would go into things knowing I’d drop my girlfriend for a better offer, which would prime her for jealousy.”

“At least you both went in with eyes wide open and the idea that things had an expiration date.”

“I have to hope her eventual boyfriend is the sort that will be fine with her having a close male friend. I think we make very good friends, and she needs a guy that’s on her side and not mesmerized by her whole image. She made the point the other night that, until me, she’d never been out with a guy who wouldn’t have done anything in his power to get in bed with her. And, if I hadn’t already turned her down, she’d have assumed I was that way.”