Chapter 78: Happy Places

Saturday, April 3, 1982 (continued)

After the session with Jane, I called Jasmine to find out what the plan was to be.

“Depends. Me, or me and somebody else, or just a different someone else?”

“Interesting question. My first reaction is to say I’d never pick not-you. Except, as we’ve discussed, it’s important that I don’t say that because sometimes not-you is fun.”

She giggled. “Point, Steve. So?”

“So, I’m going to do something that’s never led me wrong. If you’re willing to pick, pick, please.”

She giggled some more. “Another point to Steve! No, it wasn’t a trick question, I just like that answer. Okay. I can go with that. Meet at Pho King in thirty minutes. No, I’m not telling you who you’re meeting.”

“I can go with that. I should mention — next weekend I’ve got both Friday and Saturday, but Jessica would like one or the other. She’s not sure which. Saturday lunch is also on the table; I’m definitely not expecting things with Jessica to go right to bed.”

“No, nuh uh. Gossip says she never goes right to bed, and my experience with you says you never go right to bed. I’ll bet you’ll have a nice talk and plan a second date.”

“You’re seeing a second date.”

“She’s not an idiot. Yes, I’m seeing a second date.”

I chuckled. “Thanks, honey.”

“Love you, and, if I don’t see you later tonight, I still love you.”

“Love you, too, honey. Also, I do have news for you, but it’ll keep. Nothing bad, but worth covering in person. We can talk at study group, if not tonight.”

“And undoubtedly will!”

I made it to Pho King right on time, to find a suspicious car already waiting. Sure enough, my favorite blonde was already there and talking with Jasmine. And Mikayla. Jasmine was in one of her floral dresses. Mikayla had gone with a dark green blouse and a rather short black skirt, one that would get her sent home from school.

“Fancy meeting you here!”

She turned. “Steve?! What?” Then she turned and looked at Jasmine. “You!”

Jasmine giggled. “Any objection to double-dating?”

“This may be one of the weirdest double dates in the history of double dates!”

“Nah. Back when Charles and Marshall were pretending to be bi, they were dating Jennifer and me. We wound up on a double date, girls and guys. I don’t know if it worked any better, but it was really strange.”

“I ... can see that.”

“Go order, Steve!” Jasmine said with a grin.

I went over and ordered, then came and sat down in the empty seat next to Mikayla and across from Jasmine. Mikayla hugged me right away. “Congratulations, Mister Vice President!”

“Congratulations, Madame Treasurer!”

“Thank you, Sir! You truly kicked ass with that speech. I’m in awe! Please don’t get sucker-punched twice in one year!”

“As long as he doesn’t use a baseball bat.”

“Mel said there’s a meeting Tuesday after classes.”

“She failed to tell me. I guess I’ll hear tomorrow. Well, except for hearing now.”

“Except for that, yeah!” she said, giggling.

“So! I bet you’re all wondering why I asked you here,” Jasmine said with a smirk.

“Nah. I know why you asked us here,” I said, adopting a matching smirk.

“Do you, now?”

“Uh huh. You love Pho King!”

Mikayla and Angie broke out laughing. “Got you!”

“Yeah, like I’d deny that! Like I said, Pho King is fun for the whole family!” That prompted more laughter. “Slightly more seriously, I’ve — obviously — got a date with your sister, and the two of you need to spend more time together.”

I looked at Mikayla; she looked at me. “We do.” “We definitely do.”

“See? I’m always right.”

The guy behind the counter rang the bell and the girls went up for their soup. By the time they were back, he rang it again and I fetched mine. Not the large.

Which, as I’d hoped, Jasmine picked up on. “No large soup?”

I grinned. “Nah. Angie doesn’t need my leftovers. Not as such.” I gave Jasmine a significant look, which caused her to reach across the table to whap me ineffectively.

“You! You’re lucky I love you!”

“I am very lucky you love me.”

“And, there, see? That’s how you get out of trouble.”

Angie and Mikayla giggled.

“I didn’t know you’d be here, big brother,” Angie said.

“And I didn’t know you’d be here, little sis.”

“Jane may be laughing at us, since she knew we both had dates, and quite possibly knew they were with the same girl.

“Well, tonight I’m dating Mikayla.”

“Goodie!” Mikayla giggled, hugging me.

We talked about school and slurped soup. ‘Brigadoon’ was a major subject. So was the election. I didn’t mention Cindy Baird’s mischief, not yet. It wasn’t Mikayla’s business, really.

After we’d finished our soup, Jasmine grinned. “This is where we split up. I know what we’re doing.” Angie blushed, but not all that much, and nodded, too. “You two figure out what you’re doing.”

I got up and hugged my girlfriend. “I love you, honey.”

“I love you too, boyfriend!”

“And, I love you too, sis,” I said, hugging Ang.

“Love you, big bro. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“And that is...”

“Undecided, but you have a lot of room to play with.”

All three girls giggled. I offered Mikayla my arm. “Any ideas about what we should do next?”

She grinned. “Definitely, but I think we should keep our clothes on at least for now. How about ... mini-golf?”

“I like that. And you picked the right Marshall for that.”

“Why? Angie doesn’t play?”

“No. Angie doesn’t lose!”

“Oh!”

I walked her to my car and helped her in, then got in myself.

“So...” she said, smiling, “this is a date, unless you wouldn’t like that.”

“I like dates.”

“Good! It’s also officially our second date.”

“I like second dates, too.”

“Also good! Look ... I’m pretty ... forward. I like you. A lot. It’d have been really easy to just opt for something that’d involve less clothing, but I’m taking a page from Jasmine’s book. Plus, mini golf doesn’t take so long that we won’t still have evening left.”

I probably blushed. I’m guessing that’s why the giggle, anyway. “I guess we’ll see. I like you quite a bit, too.”

She put her hand on my leg. High on my leg. Distractingly high. “You have to tell me if I’m coming on too strong. I know, I know. What guy’s going to say that? But I’m pretty sure you would, so, I’ll say that up front. The last thing I want to do is let fucking fuck up our friendship.”

I laughed. “That’s an interesting way to put that!”

“You’re not the only one who plays with words, you know.”

“Never said I was.”

“I’m sticking with what I said before, except, now, you’re on month six with Jasmine. Still going strong. Sheila’s got a new boyfriend that you set up.” She caught my look. “Yes, boyfriend. I’ve got the inside word on that. Sheila was very happy with their date. So was Amit.”

“Good for them.”

“Lexi’s looking to maybe have something brewing, and, while you didn’t introduce them, I’m pretty sure you were good for her. All that makes you quite intriguing. And that doesn’t even include turning down Jessica Lively, of all people, then making a date with her anyway. And making Megan a very happy girl, though I’m pretty sure not that happy. Yet.”

I was definitely blushing now. I shrugged. “It’s amazing what happens when you treat girls like they’re people.”

She chuckled. “Funny. All too true, too. Anyway, also as I said before, we’ll be working together for a year, quite possibly in two different ways. Friends is good. Friends is important. If we can manage that and hop in bed, metaphorically speaking at least, on occasion, that might be even better.”

“Interesting attitude. One I haven’t exactly tried, so far.”

She giggled. “I have. Somewhat. Not quite like this, so ... we’ll see.”

I pulled up to the mini-golf place, parked, and went around to help her out. She smiled, walking in on my arm. I paid, and we headed for the course.

“I know you and Sheila went here. It sounded like a good idea.”

“We had fun.”

“So she said.” The way she was smirking suggested she might be thinking of a different sort of fun.

“I’m curious. Are you following Jasmine’s lead, relationship-wise? Or...?”

She shook her head. “No. Not that. If I had a steady boyfriend or girlfriend I think I’d want to be exclusive. Or at least with that gender, maybe. I could easily see having a boyfriend who’d be fine with my spending time with girls, anyway. Guys seem to like that idea.”

“I have to admit, it does things for me.”

She giggled. “Naturally. So, no, anyway, it’s not that. It’s ... I figure I’m only here, what, maybe ... sixteen months? A bit more or less? Minus summer programs? Suppose I meet someone great and get exclusive. Either they want to go to school where I am, or we’re trying to make the long-distance thing work. Now, just ... bluntly ... the long-distance thing won’t work for me. I’m not going through years of college plus likely graduate school not getting laid. Not happening. So, we break up. I hate break-ups. Now, even saying goodbye to someone I’ve been sleeping with might not be easy, but it’s a whole different thing from it being someone I’m all hearts-and-flowers in love with.”

“I get that,” I said, nodding. And thoughtful. “You don’t want to be lonely, but you don’t want the drama of a breakup. Believe me, I get that. I’m no fan of breakups. The reason I waited months after Nancy was fearing I’d just have some awful rebound relationship and make a mess of things.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t paying much attention to you then, but I know some of the story. She moved, right?”

“Yes. She’s in Southern California now. Near Disneyland.”

“Cool place, but rough on both of you. I think I’ll find someone where I am who’s already decided to be there, too. Then we have years to figure out if it’s real.”

“You just made me realize something. High school gets harder that way, not easier.”

“If you start at fourteen and use all four years, yeah. Freshman year you have this big expanse of time. Forever, right? Four years! By the end of junior year you’re paring down your college options and have to face the fact that, a year in the future, you’re going to say goodbye to a whole lot of people you’ll never see again, or maybe only at reunions. Sure, I’ll try to stay in touch, we all will. But, mostly? That doesn’t work all that well once you’re in the real world.”

Thinking through this, she was right. The odds were high that I’d lose touch with many of the people I was close to, now. It’s too hard to call and write constantly, so people don’t. And, even if they do, you just grow apart. It happens. Part of what I needed to do was to figure out which friends I’d try to keep. I could also hope that some went to the same university.

“Interesting. It may be a good thing that I’m having this conversation now.”

She laughed. “Definitely. Okay, though, that’s enough heavy stuff. Let’s play a game. Tell me something about Steve Marshall that I don’t know.”

I shrugged. “I don’t actually know what you know...” She smiled and nodded. “ ... but ... well ... I don’t know if you know that I’ve had two lucky escapes from serious injury or death in the last year and a half, not just one. And the first probably is what saved my life for the second.”

“Seriously?! How?”

“I wrecked my bike late in the summer of 1980. That doesn’t sound serious, but it resulted in a concussion, and I was at the bottom of a slope in a wooded empty lot near the bayou, where no one knew I was. Broken neck, longer period of unconsciousness, anything like that and I’m in an awful situation. Even a broken leg would’ve been a big problem; I don’t know if I could’ve made it up the slope and I don’t know if I could’ve yelled loud enough for someone to hear me.”

“That’s ... something. I get it; you can walk away, but change a few things...”

“Yeah. I could walk out and get someone at the nearest house to call my parents. I spent a few days in the hospital for observation. Since then, I’ve always worn a helmet and never really biked outside places where I could be found if something were to happen.”

“Good plan. I know the second. That was insane.”

“He wrecked my helmet, which I hadn’t yet taken off, but that’s about it. But, no helmet, baseball bat to the head...”

“Why did he do it?”

“He was Angie’s ex-boyfriend. I might have been somewhat involved with dissuading him from courting her.”

She nodded. “I’m pretty sure if I ask you, you won’t tell me why, and Angie will. So, I’ll ask her.”

“Works for me.”

“So ... that’s a good one. I’ll give you one that’s health-related too, if a lot more minor.”

“I’m curious.”

“You know the stage saying ‘Break a leg’?” I nodded. “I actually did. Junior high, play rehearsal. I stepped right off the stage and landed wrong. It was a clean break that healed fine and I did the show in a cast.”

“The show must go on! But I guess I shouldn’t say that to you.”

“Eh ... you can. I don’t think lightning will strike twice. And it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Lots of attention, and I do thrive on attention.”

I chuckled. “I’ve not had the opportunity until the last month. I’m catching up.”