Chapter 81: A Risk of Breaking Glass

Saturday, April 10, 1982

The phone rang around 10:30am. “Hey, Steve!”

“Hi, Honey! How are you?”

“Curious! My boyfriend was spotted canoodling with a cheerleader last night!”

I chuckled. “And you want to chew me out in public?”

“More like in private, and I won’t chew. But lunch is called for. Yes, it won’t be just me. No, I’m not telling who else.”

“And that’s the Jasmine I love.” She giggled. “Where?”

“Mall. We’ll figure something else out for dinner.”

“I’ll be there.”

“11:30am. I need time to put on my face.”

“Considering I know how little makeup you wear, that’s a disturbing image.”

She giggled a bit more. “Love you, Steve. See you in an hour!”

“See you then!”

I got to the mall at 11:30 to find Jasmine waiting. Just Jasmine, apparently.

“Someone bail out, honey?” I said, hugging her, kissing in a mall-appropriate kiss. Or, at least, not too inappropriate.

“Nope. They’ll join later. I get you first!”

“No complaints from me.”

“There had better not be!” she said with a grin. “And you know that the opposite of that is really true. If something doesn’t feel right, tell me.”

“Communication, communication, communication.”

“Definitely. So, in that spirit ... mini-golf?” We interrupted the conversation long enough to order Chinese.

“I’ll start with something that’s unnecessary to say, but Jessica insisted, so I will. Most of what I share — not mini-golf, but including our dinner destination — has to stay between us. Well, and Angie; you know she’ll keep things under wraps.”

“Ooh. Dirt! Of course I’ll behave. That’s the flip side of the communication coin. We need to communicate, and that means we can’t always communicate the same with other people.”

“Definitely. So, mini-golf was her idea, and the idea was to get spotted.”

“I got that. Have fun?”

“Really, yes. Quite a bit. Both talking at dinner and playing mini-golf. We have another date tentatively planned for a week after State, sometime. We both need to check our calendars. What do you think, calendar?”

“I think you need a smack!” She did. Lightly and playfully. “Calendar! Hrmph! Yes, that’s fine. You have no idea what it does for my reputation that my boyfriend is canoodling with Jessica Lively and comes home to me. Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

“Or, cums at home with you.”

Smack! “That was cute. They don’t know that, though. They probably guess that you do somewhere, anyway.”

“Pretty sure a lot of girls know more than I’m entirely comfortable with.”

“You’d be right. Okay. She liked Dim Sum?”

“Quite a bit. I’m sure you can guess that she’s hard to read. I’m certain someone who she wanted to spend time with could feed her out-of-date dog food and she’d keep a smile on her face and make sure they knew it was the best ever. That said, I think I can read her enough to say her enjoyment was genuine.”

“That is an image, right there. You think she’s that good?”

“I strongly suspect that, if anyone knows the real Jessica at all, it’s Jessica. Fifty/fifty on that.”

“Interesting. See, that’s a thing that anyone could guess, but I definitely can’t say to anyone now.”

“Yup. She said very little that was actually controversial. Maybe that not all the cheerleaders are straight.”

“Lots of people know that, or guess ... or hope.”

“I’d have guessed. I can’t possibly already know every lesbian and bisexual girl at Memorial.”

“Not even close,” she giggled. Our food appeared; we grabbed it and started eating.

“It was no surprise, but the whole original date offer was planned. Not just political, but definitely political. My turn-down was a genuine surprise, though. She seemed happy about it, all around. She said she would have felt very poorly if she’d rained on Megan’s parade and I think she was honest there. And this way we just talked.”

“Makes sense. And, I agree. I believe she’s a good person. Very, very ... polished. Very rehearsed. But a good person. She could’ve ruled by fear very easily. If she had, she’d be on my list of nos, but then you’d put her there, too.”

“Interesting.”

“Take Cheryl Hall. If there’s anyone who’d be anti-Jessica, it’d be Cheryl. Aced out for cheer captain, something Cheryl sought for years before she even met Jessica. And, yet, everything I hear is that they really and truly are fast friends and Cheryl thinks the world of Jessica. And ... Jessica’s easily good enough to pull off deception there. But, Cheryl? She’s just not that good an actress.”

I nodded. “I got that vibe all night. Obviously that’s part of why I agreed to a second date. I made the point that I’m ‘safe.’ She knows I won’t chase her.”

“You could dump me.”

“If I dumped you like that, I’d lose the respect of everyone I know. Starting with myself. Besides, I’d also be a total idiot.”

“Aw! Sweet! One of the reasons I’m keeping you!” She grinned and winked.

“Being ‘Jessica’s boyfriend’ is also a very short-term gig.”

“True. I wasn’t sure if you saw that.”

“I did, some. Angie saw it more clearly. Jessica said that she’s not dating anyone else until fall, thus neatly removing the possibility of cheating.”

“If you and Jessica get anywhere near behavior that would be cheating, I will be jealous!”

“We made out for about five minutes.”

“Jealous! Very jealous! You owe me ten!”

“Just ten?”

“To start with!”

“So, what’s the plan for today, girlfriend?”

“You have a secondary date shortly. Then home. I have some homework for you! You haven’t been over the material in much too long!”

“You got some homework done with my sister.”

“Thankfully! I do not want to get out of practice! Also, Lexi, midweek.” She grinned and licked her lips. “Megan gets a night next weekend; I get the other. With or without guests; you’ll see.”

“Works for me. I don’t know if she’ll want a whole night. Maybe we’ll have lunch.”

“No idea, really. In her place, I would. But I could see her just wanting to make out and then attacking some other guy.”

“Me, too. I used to think that girls wouldn’t want to get involved with a guy who’d never be their boyfriend. But, then, Lexi and Sheila. And Mikayla.”

“Sheila’s out. Which I know makes you happy. She’s smitten with Amit.”

“Good!”

“Lexi is not smitten. Doesn’t mean she’ll be back, but she’s going to start over.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Eh. She’ll be fine. She did so much better handling herself this time. I thought he was promising, but, oh well.” She looked up and then waved. “Ah! Your other date has arrived.”

I turned my head to find Sam waving. She was wearing a green top and a short black skirt. I waved and she smiled back at me.

“I’m going to go shop. You two do ... something. Don’t worry; she’s keeping her clothes on. For now.”

“I should hope so! A naked girl at the mall would be ... something to see!”

Smack! She got up and smooched me, then turned to go.

Sam came over and hugged me. “Hi, Steve!”

“Hi, Sam!”

“We talked about just walking the mall and talking. Want to do that?”

“Love to.”

“Yay!”

I got up and smiled at her. “You pick. I’m good with whatever.”

“I can really take you clothes shopping and you won’t complain?” She grinned at me.

“Sure. Especially if I can watch you try things on.”

She blushed, but grinned a bit more. “Hey, if we can figure out how to get you in the changing room, I think I’m game for that! Except you have to try something on, too!”

“I don’t get what girls see in guys, but, hey. I’m glad they do.”

“I get both. Yay, me!”

I followed along. She opted not to hold hands. I found out why after a trip through one clothing store. “I know you were out with Jessica Lively last night. No problems with that, but I think the gossip would get all weird if we were spotted holding hands.”

“I don’t have a problem with that, but, yeah. It might mess up Jessica’s game.”

“So ... I’m fourteen now. Not by much, but, fourteen. Which means I’m legal, for you and Jasmine anyway.” She giggled and winked.

“I am very much in favor of avoiding jail time.”

“I’m ... I think ... I don’t want to be a tease.”

“Don’t worry a second about that. You worry about what you do want.”

She nodded. “I think last time I implied I wanted things, like, now. And I do. Want them. But I think it should wait until June. At least, the, um ... big thing.”

“I didn’t have a timetable.”

“Look, a lot of me wants to drag you into a changing room. Now! But I think it’ll be better if I’m done with classes and you’re done with classes and play practice, and whatever’s going on with Jessica has played out longer, and ... I’m nervous, too.”

“I’d question it if you weren’t nervous. I was plenty nervous my first time.”

“It’s weird thinking of guys as being nervous, much less you.”

“Guys have a ton to be nervous about. Most of them are terrified about not lasting, which is a great way to not last. They’re terrified they’ll do it wrong, that the girl will laugh or hate it or hate them or a million other things.”