Chapter 28

“WHOA, GIRL! Let me see that hand!” Natalie said to Tori in the locker room after track practice. Tori had just put her engagement ring on.

“This hand?” she asked innocently as she held out her hand.

“Does this mean you ... he ... are you...?”

“Yes! He proposed after the game Saturday and I said yes. We spent all weekend celebrating, so I was a little sore running today.”

“Evil girl! Congratulations!” The girls in the locker room all gathered together to look at the diamond on Tori’s hand.

“Really? You’ve only known each other for, like, three months!”

“Less, actually. But I know it’s right. We’re getting married right after graduation and then, after the honeymoon, we’re enlisting in the Marines. I think we’ll get matching tattoos.”

“Now that’s commitment,” Amy said. “A ring you can take off. A tattoo is forever.”

“It seems like a long time, but it’s everything I want. He’s kind and considerate. Did you know he didn’t show up for the celebration at school Saturday? He was preparing my room with flowers and candles and a massage. He even got a big tub to put in the old shower stall to fill with water so we could take a bath together. And then, he carried me to the bedroom and got down on his knees to ask if I’d marry him. I’d marry him tomorrow if I could.”

“It’s a new twist to living in your parents’ basement. You can live in their barn,” Rosie said.

“I’m on my way home to face the parents now,” Tori sighed. “I know they’ll be concerned, but they are pretty cool when it comes to how I run my life. They put up with a year and a half of having Dennis and eleven girlfriends. I think they’ll adapt to this.”

The girls continued to chat and celebrate. Natalie walked with Tori to her car, surprised that she’d grabbed her hand to come with her. Across the parking lot, they could see Brandon waiting by his car.

“Nat, it’s really cool,” Tori said. “I know you guys will worry about me and I want you to know this is what I really want.”

“You know we all still love you, honey. We want you to have the very best of everything,” Natalie said.

“That’s kind of it. I don’t make comparisons, but Brandon is a lot like Dennis. Except he’s all mine. You could have had Dennis to yourself if you’d said so in the beginning. You just let Diane and Brenda and Amy and Rosie and and and, horn in on your man. I would never have let that happen if I’d been in your shoes. But that didn’t work for me. I’ve made love to Brandon more in the past month than with Dennis during all the months we were together. I know that’s not a sufficient gauge for whether the relationship is right, but this is right for us.”

“Oh, Tori. I’m so happy for you I want to burst.”

“Maybe someday you’ll have the same thing,” Tori said, hugging her friend.

“I don’t think that will ever happen,” Natalie said. “Not like you have. But we’ll have our happy ever after, even if it’s different than yours.”

“Good luck,” Tori whispered.

“And God bless you both,” Natalie responded.

Tori waved across the lot to Brandon and he got in his car as she got in hers. Natalie walked home.

“Hey, lover. Can we talk for a few minutes?” Natalie asked Dennis on the phone.

“Of course! You sound down, babe? What is it?” he asked.

“Oh ... I don’t want to talk about this on the phone. Can I come over?”

“Sure, you can! You know I’m always available to you,” he said. His heart started beating in his throat. “Nat, you aren’t breaking up with me, are you?”

“No! Oh, no! I’m sorry. It’s something different. I just need you to hold me.”

“I’ll meet you on the way.”

Both teens left their homes and headed toward the other, still talking about trivial things with a lot of ‘I love yous’ thrown in. When they met, they disconnected and Dennis kissed his girlfriend in the middle of the street. They held hands as they walked back to his house.

“I feel so dumb,” Natalie said. “Tori and Brandon got engaged.”

“Wow! That’s fast. I like Brandon, but I didn’t expect them to move to that level already.”

“Yeah. I guess that was part of what was on my mind. I worry for her. But we should be happy for her. It’s what she wants, right? Why am I sad?” Natalie asked, leaning against him.

“She has been a big part of our life,” Dennis said. “We made love together. We shared intimate secrets. I guess, in a way, it’s like she’s leaving us again.”

“She’s chosen a life path that is so different. They’re going into the Marines together. It feels like every decision is going to put more miles and more experiences between us. I’m so glad Amy and Lana are graduating with us. It would be terrible to go away without them,” Natalie said.

Instead of going straight to Dennis’s bedroom, they went to the kitchen and fixed tea. They took a cup to Dot in her usual chair. Somehow, she didn’t look as mournful and dejected as she had a year ago. This time, she was just waiting for Tom to get home.

“So, what has you two so quiet tonight?” Dot asked.

“Lots of things, Mom,” Dennis said. “I think we just figured out how big a change is coming into our lives when we graduate. Tori got engaged.”

“I see. And now you think your circle is getting smaller. You feel like everyone you know and love is going in different directions and you will be all alone,” Dot said.

Dennis and Natalie looked at her and nodded.

“Did you go through that, Mom?”

“Honey, by the time I graduated, I was married, had a baby, and was living out in the country away from everything I knew. I felt trapped and abandoned and alone. I never thought about my friends leaving. I’d left them all behind. If it hadn’t been for Elsa showing up about the time I got pregnant again, I’d have felt like I had no friends. Then, she and Randy were just a mile away and we spent as much time together as we could, even while we were all working as hard as we could with families and farms to care for. I guess I won’t say it will be easy for you.”

“Mom, I didn’t know you felt trapped and alone,” Dennis said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Dennis. I knew what was going to happen the first time I dated your father. My mother warned me. His mother warned me. But being a farm wife and living with Will was all I wanted. The thing is, it’s that way for everyone. We’ll all make a decision and live with the consequences for the rest of our lives.” She glanced toward Peg’s bedroom—only for a moment, but enough for Dennis and Nat to notice.

“The thing is, we’re taking the ones closest to us with us,” Natalie said. “Amy and Lana will graduate with us and go to Salter U with us and when we get there, we’ll be joining Brenda and Ardith. But I worry about Tori. They’re going to join the Marines. They know that being married is no guarantee they’ll even be stationed together. Talk about being isolated and alone.”

“That’s a life many people have chosen and done fine with. Have faith in them. And don’t stop being their friends.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

Dennis and Natalie collected the cups and rinsed them, then headed to his room for bed.

“Will it be okay for you to stay over?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’ll let Mom know. We’re both eighteen now and I can tell Mom and Dad are loosening the reins a bit. I think Mom knows I was down, too. She probably thinks it’s because basketball season is over. I guess that’s part of it, too.”

“Yeah. I like track and leading conditioning exercises, but there’s nothing quite like basketball.”

“I wish we could travel with Brenda and Ardith. Boston is so far away.”

“Just think. Next year we’ll be traveling with the team.”

“I wish Ardith would hurry up and make the offer official so we could celebrate.”

“Don’t wish for that too soon,” he answered. “She said she’d make the offer as soon as they were out of the tournament. We do want them to go all the way.”

“Do you think it’s possible?”

“I talked to Coach Dearborn about it this morning. He warned me not to get our hopes up too high. In women’s sports, co-ed colleges have a distinct disadvantage. There are women’s schools that are on this bracket. They have the same total student body as the co-ed school, but they are all women. That means, they have twice the number of students to recruit from. It’s almost the equivalent of Bartley going against the Saints. The level of play at a school twice our size is really amazing. More people to choose from.”

“Well, I don’t want them to lose, just so I can get a piece of paper a week earlier. Let’s go to bed and cuddle. Maybe in the morning I’ll feel like making love before we go to school,” Natalie said. They got ready and slipped into bed next to each other, just to hold the other’s naked body and have skin contact.