Chapter 60: One More Semester Done

Tuesday, December 14, 1982

Angie was pretty much herself the next day. We didn’t talk about the card. My guess was that Angie brought it to school. Even in our best hiding spots, it was up there on the list of things Mom just couldn’t find. Of course, so was the money I’d hidden in the house. But I’d hidden that while they were out.

The card would probably need to get into the safe deposit box. Or perhaps Jane holding it would be better.

Meanwhile, Jasmine was picking up a sniffle. I hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. ‘Tis the season, though, and it’d be better now than while we were in San Antonio. I also hoped she didn’t pass it to everyone at Study Group. But, if she did, we’d all signed up for the closeness, including the risk of the occasional disease. At least this wasn’t the very bad kind!

She also let me know that a couple of relatives would be visiting from Wednesday the 22nd until Boxing Day. Even though Boxing Day wasn’t a thing for either of us, we certainly knew when it was. She’d probably be able to visit a bit, but — after much consideration — they’d decided not to invite me over. We might think (or know!) that we were serious — ‘we’ including Camille and Francis — but they felt like their relatives might not feel the same. I couldn’t disagree; while my ex-wife and I had always treated our kids’ dates with politeness and respect, the idea of any of those dates being ‘serious’ at sixteen had been laughable.

On the other hand, much as I loved my kids, Jasmine and I weren’t them. Not at all. Me less than her, for obvious reasons, but my daughter had hardly been a straight-A student excelling in multiple extracurricular activities. Nor — even counting how August had gone — had she been nearly as mature as Jasmine was at sixteen.

And, speaking of kids — Camille and Francis’s kids — Andrew would also not be visiting. He and his girlfriend were going skiing, apparently. Jasmine seemed a bit vague about it all. As in, I think she didn’t know herself, not that she just didn’t communicate them well to me. It’d been a long time since I’d seen Andrew, and might’ve been nice to catch up — after all, he might be a future brother-in-law — but ... another time.

Study Group was pretty much all business, but we made time in the last half-hour for a cake for Andy’s birthday — not until the 19th, but this was our last meeting for the year — and for some celebrating and hugging and goodbyes. I’d see some of the gang over the holidays, but others not until January. When you see the same people pretty much every day, three weeks without them is ... interesting. Some good, of course, but much not so good. I do love my friends, and I’d miss them.

And the clock was ticking, ticking, ticking. A year and a half or a bit more, and I would hug and say goodbye to some of these people for the last time, or nearly. Maybe we’d see each other at reunions, or a brief get-together if we came home from college at the same time.

Only Angie really knew what that would be like. Knowing it was as much a curse as a blessing, today. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Thursday, December 16, 1982

Jessica met me on the way into school. It was fairly obvious to me that something was up, and I figured it wasn’t football-related. She’d gone almost a month dating Ben before splitting up — amiably, of course — and, as far as I knew, hadn’t settled on a new partner yet. Likely that would wait until January.

She hugged me with a big grin, looking calm and happy. Her voice, however, was not. “The jerk called. I got a really good recording. We need to talk.”

“After school?”

“Only real way. Benches?”

“Works for me.”

She dropped the hug, bounced a little, and grinned. “Great seeing you! Happy last day of the semester!”

“To you, too!”

She scooted off.

Jasmine hugged me from behind a minute later. “Watching her ass?”

“I might’ve been.”

She giggled. “You’d be crazy not to. So?”

“She has news. We’re meeting after school.”

“Better late than never, except ... I guess for this, better never. But, still.”

“Yeah. We’ll see what the news is.”

“Or you will. I’m fine with getting what’s okay to share, you know that.”

“I do. Thanks, honey.”

We headed off to class together. As (almost) always, my semester ended with Debate, and our final — ‘Holy Grail’, this semester — was always fun. This time, Jasmine was along to add to the fun. We only had one final on Thursday, so we’d be done by early afternoon. Hurrah for winter break!

Late in class, Darla came by. “What are you doing for the holidays, Steve?”

I shrugged. “Resting!”

That got a giggle.

I went on, “Not sure. Hanging out with Jas, of course. And lots of family stuff.”

“If you have free time...” She left it hanging out there. Um... was I interested?

I might have paused too long. She blushed a bit. “I mean, I know you and Jasmine are, um...”

“In an open relationship, yes,” I said. That got a bit more of a blush. “It’s certainly a possibility. I can call, maybe? Or you could, though...”

Even more of a blush. “Um ... yeah. Okay, so...”

She got a piece of paper and scribbled a number onto it. A number that I instantly recognized, even though I hadn’t dialed it in over thirty years. Not since Dave had moved out of that house...

“Thanks. Just in case, here’s mine.” I handed her one of my cards.

“Oh! This is nice!” she said, looking at it.

“They come in handy. Also, my dad supplies printing companies, so it was easy to arrange.”

“Cool! My dad fixes chemical plants.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“Oh, it is! And he’s very good at it. He wants us to become engineers, but I’m not sold on it. Neither of us is.”

“You’ve gotta do what works for you,” I said. “Engineering looks interesting, but so do so many other things.”

“I’m considering it. I just don’t know, yet. Anyway, I’d better let you go. Um ... hopefully talk to you. Soon, I mean!” She was blushing again.

“That sounds good,” I said.

I’d barely turned around when Linda turned up.

“Sounds like I got aced out by my partner,” she said, grinning a bit.

“Um...” I said. Very intelligent response!

“I’ll take one of those cards, if you’re willing to share,” she said. “I’d like to get to know you better, too. And I don’t mean as a euphemism. I like you, a lot, and ... I think it’d be interesting.”

“I do, too,” I said.

She grinned. “Cool! I won’t be all bummed if we don’t get together, but ... it sounds like fun.”

“Thanks. I hope it works out.”

“Me, too!”

Two surprises in less than five minutes. Now that it’d happened, I realized I’d been waiting for those two shoes to drop all semester. Now they had. Where things would go ... who knew? I thought about that for a minute, and then decided to take my life into my own hands now, instead of risking it later.

“Um ... Darla? Linda?” I said.

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

“Can we talk just a minute?” I gestured over to the practice room.

They gave each other a look and then joined me.

“Yes, Steve?” Linda said, with a mock-innocent look that told me they probably knew what I was going to say.

“Look ... you know this...”

That got a tiny giggle from both of them. Yup. They were ahead of me. Still good to bring it out. I continued, “I have no idea how things will go with either of you, or how they should go.”

That brought a bit of surprise. Maybe just that I’d say it?

“I don’t want either of you feeling slighted or being mad at each other if things go differently. I mean ... you’re two different people. Of course, things might go differently. But I’d rather just stay friends than risk getting you two mad at each other. Or mad at me, for that matter. We’re friends and teammates, and that matters.”

Linda blushed, then looked at Darla, who blushed, too. Linda said, “Um ... okay ... so. We did talk about it, but I guess ... not like that? I mean, we’re just having fun ... I think. But, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about, you know, ‘What if Steve and Darla hit it off and we’re just, you know, kinda friendly?’ I probably should have thought of that, but I didn’t.”

Darla nodded. “Me either. I’ve dated less than Linda has...”

Linda blushed a bit at that, too. Interesting.

“But I’m not new to it, either, and ... yeah. Of course, I’ve been on dates where we wound up just kinda friendly. Or even not, but I know you well enough to be fairly sure that won’t happen. How about ... the two of us will talk, like, soon, and if there are any issues we’ll tell you? And I guess I know that puts you in a slightly awkward spot, since you’ll have to trust us that we really did figure things out.”

Linda nodded. “That works. I think we can do that. I ... yeah. I probably would have felt awkward if you two got really close and we were just ... you know... not close.”

“Thanks for mentioning it, Steve,” Darla said.

I smiled. “I’m glad I did. Thanks for not clobbering me over it.”

That got a smile from both of them.

“Free pass on that one,” Darla said.

“I can probably find another reason to clobber you, if I want to,” Linda said.

“Have a great break, both of you,” I said. “I do need to think, too. It’s not fair to either of you to rush things. But it’s not fair to wait too long, too. We don’t have as much time as you think we do, with family things and other plans, but I promise, break or later, I won’t just drop this or pretend I forgot.”

“Good!” Darla said, then hugged me.

“Thanks!” Linda said, hugging me after Darla had let go.

“Bye!” I said, heading back out. From the look on Angie and Jasmine’s faces, I figured they pretty much knew what was going on, and why. And were greatly amused.

I made a beeline for the benches after class, knowing Angie and Jasmine would follow. When I got downstairs, Jessica was nowhere to be seen, so I settled on a bench. Even with it being December, this wasn’t a terribly cold day, and I don’t chill easily, either. Jessica might well be freezing in this weather. Angie and Jasmine complained plenty about the cold, so they’d probably linger inside until I was done with Jessica.

Of course, Jessica is Jessica. I was pretty sure she could keep herself from shivering — even if she was at dire risk of hypothermia — if she wanted to, simply by sheer force of will.

About ten minutes later she came out and plopped down beside me.

“How was your last final?” she said. The giggle betrayed that she knew the answer.

“If I can’t answer questions about ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, I deserve to fail.”

“True enough.”

“How was yours?” That was a similar joke. Her last class was P.E. Of course — that made it easier to excuse her from class when needed, which was often.

“Great, of course. Okay, so ... he called. The tape is great. He pretty much admits to everything, doesn’t say anything that’s a problem, and ... I mean ... it went so well that I’m looking for the flaw I’m missing.”

“I’ll listen, of course, but I doubt you’re missing anything. I know you better than that.”

She smiled. “Thanks. I just ... I want this to work. No ... I need this to work. And he played into it perfectly. So ... I can’t have you over right away. We’re going out of town for two weeks starting tomorrow. That’s more good than bad, because it let me put off meeting with him until early January, before school starts.”

“That works. He wanted that timing?”

“Oh, he’s pissed that he has to wait. I’d much rather get things done while school isn’t in session, though.”

“Yeah. Me, too. Okay ... so ... I’m going to need to ask my trustworthy friends for help. They’re going to know a little, but not too much.”

“I’m okay with that. I know they’ll have to know, and I know I can trust them, don’t worry. They’re great people. I’d date them, except they can’t very well dump their girlfriends and there wouldn’t be a lot of point to it, otherwise.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

She gave me a quick, not-too-tight hug. Exactly the sort that wouldn’t (probably) trigger breathless rumors that we were ‘getting back together!’ I hugged right back.

“Thanks, Steve. See you in early January. There’s no date set. My plan is to push for Tuesday the fourth, but it’s pretty flexible.”

“Works for me. Have a fun vacation!”

“I plan to! I think this helps. It’s not hanging over me while I’m gone, and I know I’ve got him, at least as far as what we need to threaten him.”

“Yeah.”

She hopped up. I got up, too.

“Bye! See you in January!’

“See you then!”

I met up with Angie and Jasmine, who were waiting nearby.

“So?”

“She has enough evidence to cause deep trouble for the bad guy. Well, I believe she does. I haven’t heard it. I need to mobilize the troops and make sure we’re ready.”

“It worries me, but you have to help, I know,” Jasmine said.

Angie nodded. “Me, too, but ... yeah. Nothing else to do.”

“And, seriously. I’m not bad, and then ... Cal? And anyone he trusts? Yeah,” I said.

“Cal would pretty much put the fear of God into anyone but a college linebacker. And some of them,” Jasmine said.

“Many of them,” Angie said, chuckling.

“Yeah,” I said. “The thing is, we don’t have to fight him, probably. We just need to make him see reason. Even if he beat everyone up, all it does is get him in deeper trouble. It’s not like we’d bring the only copy of the tape.”

“He’s screwed,” Angie said. “Well, or not, in Jessica’s case. I wish...”

“We all wish,” I said. “But we can’t, not unless X changes her mind, and even if I knew who she was, I would never pressure her. That’s brutally unfair. X doesn’t deserve what she’d get, if Jess stood up and took X down in the process.”

“Sucks,” Jasmine said. “Why do parents need to be like that?”

I shrugged. “They believe what they believe. I like what I believe more, but I’d be a hypocrite if I said they had to believe what I believe.”

“What they believe sucks,” Angie said. “Jas is right.”

“We can’t fix the world, though,” Jasmine said, sighing. “We can just make our little piece of it better.”

“That’s what we try to do,” Angie said.

“Yeah,” Jasmine said, nodding a little. “You ... and boyfriend ... really do. Everyone sees that. And ... you’re good at it. So ... keep it up!”

“I will,” I said, slightly nervous about the shift in conversation. But not too nervous.

“Me, too,” Angie said.

“Okay, so ... plans,” Jasmine said. “We’re free! San Antonio the twenty-seventh, right?”

Angie and I nodded. “Back the thirtieth. So we get a night at home before New Year’s Eve at Mike’s,” I said.

“So ... what next?”

“I figured we’d do something Saturday, at least. And I mean, more, after. But maybe take tomorrow to rest?”

“I like that. And Mama and Papa will like having me around all day.”

Angie said, “I plan to sleep until ten or something. I can use it!”

We headed for the car, plotting our break a bit more. Once we were driving, I said, “By the way, both Darla and Linda said they might want to get together over the break.”

Jasmine giggled. “I was wondering if they’d gotten the nerve up.”

“They did.”

Angie blinked. “Well, that’s a both a surprise and not, I guess. So...?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll certainly call them back. I mean, that’s only polite.”