Chapter 68: New Year’s Eve

Thursday, December 30, 1982

We got up at eight. Angie and Paige showed up around nine, dressed and awake. I was suspicious that they’d gotten even less sleep than we had, though. Ah ... young love! Or lust, or whatever.

After a bit of discussion, we packed up and hit the road. We were on the road by ten-thirty, after calling our respective parents and letting them know we’d be home by late afternoon. Soon after leaving we stopped at another restaurant recommended by the concierge for another very tasty breakfast.

I took a detour about halfway home, which got me a curious look from Jas.

“What are you up to, Mister Driver?” she asked, grinning.

That drew attention from the back seat.

“Yeah, where are we heading?” Paige asked.

“I heard about an interesting restaurant in La Grange and figured we could try it since we have some time.”

“Oh, cool!” Paige said. “I’m up to try whatever.”

“As we all know, very well,” Jasmine said, grinning.

“I didn’t mean that! Well, okay, I guess I mean that, too.”

Angie grinned. “My good luck!”

We all chuckled at that.

“Apropos of which...” Paige said, then launched into ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’. We all sang along. Given the story behind the song, ‘up to try whatever’ seemed perfectly fitting.

We rolled into La Grange about one, and I pulled up to the Bon Ton Restaurant. I’d been there just once, nearly forty years ago, with my parents on a family trip. It’d closed in 1985, though the family kept running a bakery and some other businesses in the same location. The food was great — well worth the detour.

That said: that wasn’t the only reason for the detour. After eating, I headed to the edge of town, winding up at a fairly nondescript, somewhat weed-filled lot that held a big house in obviously poor repair.

Jas got it first. “Is that...?”

“The one and only.”

“Cool!”

Angie got it, and started ‘La Grange’ again, which clued Paige in.

“The one and only Chicken Ranch?” she said.

“The one and only,” I confirmed.

Jas and Paige switched songs — as I’d guessed they might — and launched into ‘Hard Candy Christmas’. Angie and I joined in. We drove off, still singing. None of us knew ‘Best Little Whorehouse’ all that well, but well enough that we could rattle off a few of the songs.

“That was ... surprisingly cool,” Jas said. “Not that often you can visit the inspiration for a musical and movie, especially with it just some old crumbling house that no one’s keeping up.”

“That’s why I headed this way, really,” I said, smiling. “The Bon Ton was great, but I figured, why not go see it? It’s not like I got to see it while it was in operation.”

Paige giggled. “You’d have been, what ... seven? ... when it closed? Too young, by any standard! Even mine!”

We all laughed at that.

Angie said, “It’s fun to get a chance to visit places you might otherwise have missed. I love it when I get to do that.”

Of course, only I picked up on what Angie really meant by that. I’d never made it by that weed-filled lot my first go-round, and it meant a bit more to be able to do it now.

We made it back to Houston around four, dropping Paige off first, then Jasmine. Both got some fairly serious goodbye kissing from their dates, along with promises that we’d see each other tomorrow at Mike’s family’s New Year’s party.

After dropping off Jas, and saying hi to Camille, I hopped back in the car and headed home.

“So...?” I said.

“Um ... what?” Angie said. She had a bit of a smile, though.

“So, when are you going to admit to yourself that you and Paige are really dating?”

Angie blushed. “Um ... now? I guess? You know I wasn’t sure until the trip.”

“I know you told yourself you weren’t sure. Look, I’m not at all saying Paige is ‘the one’. She’s likely not ‘the one’ for you, just ... statistically. But neither was Gene, and you told yourself you were dating him.”

“Um ... because ... I wasn’t carrying a torch for a guy?”

“And that matters?”

She blushed a bit more. “No. No ... you’re right. Not for this. I’d have as much trouble getting serious with a guy as a girl, no more and no less. Either one has to contend with Carrie’s ghost.”

“Yeah, that’s how I saw it. And ... Paige will probably lose, in the end. Gene did. Dan did, even more. I suspect Max would have, in the end.”

“Max would have, but ... not before ruining everything. You saved us all from that.”

“So...?”

She gave a slightly exasperated sigh. “Yes. Yes! Paige and I are really dating. I mean, to the limits of high school 1982, where we can’t go to dances as dates or smooch at school or whatever. We can get away with holding hands, at least, but ... well...”

“Good. I mean it, sis. I’m glad. Not because it’s Paige, or because she’s maybe ‘the one’, but because I think you stalled out with Gene just to avoid dating, in a way.”

She blushed. “Yeah. We were ... fuck-buddies. And ... I liked that, and we can still be that. But ... yeah ... I realized quite a while back that Gene was really a way for me to avoid putting my heart on the line. And ... I’m pretty sure she’s not ‘the one,’ but she’s more ‘the one for now’ than Gene was. This’ll be good. Unless Mom gets wind, then it might not be good.”

“Mom will manage, if she gets wind. And, it’s ‘until’, not ‘unless’.”

She blinked a bit. “You sound certain. I am not certain. Of either!”

“Mom’s changed a lot. She’ll grumble, perhaps, but she accepts Lizzie, and if she can do that, her mind can already accept that it’s not that bad.”

“I’ll believe you. I think. It still worries me.”

“Just gotta be you, just like I had to be me when I didn’t know how much Mom was changing.”

“True enough.” She sighed. “I’m not sure I want to deal with that. Particularly if she rats me out to Dr. Ott. It’s one thing for him to stand up for Lizzie. He was pretty clear he didn’t approve at all, and I am ‘one of the flock,’ officially.”

“I dunno that she’d do that,” I said. “It wouldn’t ... couldn’t ... go well.”

“I think you’re right, but then I desperately want to believe that you’re right. ‘Cuz, if you’re wrong ... that’ll be one awkward conversation.”

“A reason not to do it. Mom knows Dr. Ott would pressure her, too. Gently, but pressure. And Mom doesn’t want that.”

“Again ... I’ll trust you. Some.”

“Think of it as ... well ... suppose you and Carrie had worked out. Surely you were going to tell them?”

“That was Major-Disappointment Angie, and she was a grown woman, over thirty. Totally different. I’m half her age and — so far — only the one big disappointment.”

“Still ... unless you’re going to write off girls...”

“Hell, no! Fine! I see your point, I do. I could’ve waited a few years for this, though.”

“Then don’t date Paige.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I hate it when you’re right!”

“You also love it.”

“Yeah, yeah. I do.”

I parked the car in front of the house.

“Saved by the bell! Or the house, anyway!” she grinned, then gave me a quick hug. “Don’t worry. I’m beyond happy that you’re looking out for me. I’m just, also, really nervous.”

“I get that. But I feel confident that it’ll work out.”

“Got that. Thanks.”

I got our bags and carried them to the house, pondering whether I’d be ill-using my future-knowledge to ‘invent’ better roller bags. Probably. But it was a niche desperately waiting to be filled!

Mom and Dad were waiting on the couch when we came in the door, and got right up to offer hugs. I could smell cooking smells and was pretty sure Mom must have held dinner.

“It’s good to see you!” Mom said. “I know you were fine, but...”

“But we’re still getting used to you being gone,” Dad said. “Three weeks this summer helped with that, but it’s still...”

“The house is just too ... quiet,” Mom said.

I nodded. “We’re happy to be back. And, even when we’re gone...”

“We’ll always come back,” Angie said, smiling. “You couldn’t keep us away!”

“I’ll take that as a promise!” Dad said, grinning. “Now, I hope you haven’t had dinner? We’re hungry!”

We assured him we hadn’t, and that we were hungry, too. A tasty dinner took care of that. Mom was definitely a better cook this go-round. I could (and did) credit our nudging, but it could, of course, just be that we were in the best of all possible universes.

Friday, December 31, 1982

We did very little on Friday. Now that the trip was over, I was starting to get nervous about Jessica’s little ... issue. I gave Cal a call to make sure that he was still willing to back me up with things.

“Happy New Year, Cal!”

“Happy New Year, Steve! To what do I owe the pleasure? I mean, I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“I know, but this isn’t party conversation,” I said.

“Oh, yeah. That. Yeah, I’m still in. I have an idea, though, and I’ve already checked on it as much as I can.”

“Tell.”

He chuckled. “I know a couple of guys that play at another school. Pretty good, really, and ... big. The thing is, they don’t play here. Makes it harder for the bad guy to figure out who’s involved, if he wanted to.”

“Gotcha. I’m good with it, if you’re sure about them.”

“Hell, yeah. They’re really solid guys. No nonsense. The idea of someone blackmailing anyone over anything doesn’t sit well. They’d like him to make a move, really. And they’d never tell anyone anything. I’m damn sure of that.”

I had my suspicions as to how Cal knew them, but I was fairly sure it was as friends. As far as I knew, Cal and Andy were completely monogamous and happy about it. Of course, I might just plain not know. But, well ... whatever worked for them was fine with me. I was still pretty sure that Jas and I had the only open relationship in Study Group, though.

“Thanks. I owe you one, man.”

He chuckled. “Hell, no, you do not! I ... Andy and I, each of us and together, owe you way more. Believe me! Hell, I doubt we’d have had a year like this one if we were all ... nervous and jumpy. Or alone and miserable. Or ... whatever.”

“That was just doing the right thing, nothing more.”

“And so’s this,” he said, chuckling again. “Seriously, dude. No one owes anyone anything.”

“Got it. Thanks again!”

“You’re very welcome.”

That was a relief. I’d have hated to drag Cal, or Andy, or anyone, really, into this, if things blew up. Two guys that shouldn’t be recognizable? All to the good.

If I got recognized? Fuck it. I’d happily explain to anyone and everyone that I was just standing up for Jessica — my friend, and one of the best people I knew — against a jerk who was threatening her. The odds that anyone would look down on me for that were between slim and none, even if it came out what she was being blackmailed over. She might get some nasty looks, but me? Anyone who’d go so far as to say that helping a friend in trouble meant that you should be subject to sexual blackmail was themselves a total jerk, and I couldn’t care less what they thought of me.

Ang and I headed out around seven for the party. We made the usual ‘See you next year!’ jokes with Mom and Dad as we left. Ang was going with a nice casual pink dress, where I wore my gold shirt and red pants. It’d be a test run for Valentine’s, though only Jas and I knew that, so far.