Chapter 105: (Almost) The Last Dance

Saturday, April 7, 1984

I slept in, then spent a bunch of the day working on my English paper. This was one of a relatively few big chunks of time I’d have free for a while, and it made sense to get busy on it when I could.

I put the paper away a bit after four (worth noting that my first-life paper probably took me less than four hours to write, total, all drafts combined!) and started getting ready for Sadie Hawkins. Showering and changing takes time!

Undoubtedly, Sam was spending more time getting ready than I was, even given that Sam really wasn’t the hours-in-front-of-a-mirror sort. Well ... probably? Maybe she was, and I missed it because she was so good at it.

I still wondered if there was some sort of setup here, and if so, what? Most likely it’d be a chance to fall back in bed, and there was nothing wrong with that at all. It’d been a weird year, in retrospect. Even excluding the way Jas had struggled with my not hooking up with other girls not all that long ago (which I would exclude, because that was a very specific issue, and ‘hooking up’ wasn’t actually the issue at all), it was odd that I hadn’t, and odd that (as far as I knew) she hadn’t in a long time.

Certainly, the summer had brought us much closer together, and we had needed to respect that and nurture and grow our relationship, but part of our relationship was the way it welcomed outside partners. Sooner or later, that was going to happen, and it’d feel weird when it did.

Perhaps someone like Sam was just who I (or we!) needed — someone who had a history with both Jas and me, and someone who never, ever would’ve been a threat to us. Not that Sam wasn’t terrific, but I wasn’t her ideal guy and she wasn’t my ideal girl, and we both knew that.

And perhaps this was way too much thinking about something that wasn’t even on Sam’s radar. Well ... that might be a bit much. Sam was smart, and it was part of our history. It’d have to be on her radar. But it might be that she’d considered it, said ‘nah,’ and just wanted a nice dance with an old friend who would be moving away soon.

Either way, I was looking forward to the evening.

I arrived at Sam’s house a few minutes before five.

When I knocked, Lexi opened the door. She grinned and said, “Mom’s off with Sam, and Dad’s polishing his shotgun.”

“I don’t have a shotgun!” came a call from inside the house. “I just don’t walk as quickly as Lexi runs.”

Lexi grinned and said, “I am quick!”

She scooted out of the way and Gene (I was pretty sure it was Gene) Myers offered his hand. I shook it. We’d never met when I was dating Lexi, of course, but I’d met him a few times in the auditorium lobby after our musicals.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “How’ve you been, Steve? Come in! Sammi’s still getting ready.”

“Thank you, Sir,” I said, coming in, shaking my head inside at ‘Sammi’ (or was it ‘Sammy?’). I’d never heard anyone call her that before.

“No need for ‘Sir’ with me,” he said. “You’re, what, a couple of weeks away from being an adult yourself?”

I nodded. “Two weeks from today, exactly.”

“I’d welcome you to the club, but you’d be better off stopping the clock.”

I smiled and chuckled. “That’s something I hear quite a bit. There’s quite a bit to be said for childhood, but no one that I know is going to be startled by having responsibilities, and we’re all ready to hit the ground running.”

“Attitude has quite a lot to do with it,” he said, nodding. “You’re going to A&M, correct?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding, “along with Jasmine, Angie, and Paige, and we know some others who are going there as well.”

“Rice, myself,” he said. “Back then, we made fun of the Aggies. They were never as dumb as we claimed they were, of course, but it’s amazing to see how much A&M’s changed over the years.”

“My dad took some non-credit business courses there in the early 1970s. He can’t believe how much it’s changed either.”

“I hope it serves all of you well,” he said.

There was a commotion from behind us, and Lexi appeared, with her mom following, then Sam.

“Behold!” Lexi said, grinning.

“Shut up!” Sam said, but she was giggling.

“Girls!” their mother (Sally, I was nearly certain) said.

Sam was wearing a fairly daring red dress that showed a surprising amount of very pleasant cleavage. Not that she had a lot, but that’s (fairly obviously) never been a major concern of mine. Her dress had gold trim on the neckline, which made her choice of outfits for me make that much more sense. It wasn’t just ‘showy Steve,’ it was also ‘complementary Steve.’

“You look amazing,” I said, rising and smiling.

“I guess that means you like it,” she said, giggling. “I was going to ask.”

Sally, now behind Sam, rolled her eyes playfully and gave me a wink. I wasn’t sure of the subtext, but it did seem unlikely that anyone wouldn’t like Sam’s outfit, beyond (over)protective parents. The Myers weren’t that, or at least hadn’t been since Lexi put her foot down, if I had the story right.

“Your chariot awaits, my princess,” I said, offering my arm. That got a giggle from Sam, a snort from Lexi, and chuckles from her parents.

“I want pictures!” Sally said.

Gene was already getting up and grabbed the camera.

We posed for several pictures outside, with Lexi photo-bombing (not that the phrase was in use yet) two of them.

After that, I walked Sam to the car, helped her in, and then went around to the driver’s side.

“I hope that wasn’t too much for you,” she said, giggling just a bit.

“Nah. It’s been a while, but I still know the drill.”

As I started the car, she gave me a bit of a sly grin. “This might be the last time you go through the high-school-date parental inquisition.”

I nodded. “Might be, at that.”

“I’ve got a few to go, but Dad’s pretty relaxed. Dani and Lexi getting through high school — well, I’m counting Lexi at this point, anyway — with no truly major heartbreaks or meltdowns or new family members has helped them relax. They know I’ll be fine, and I know that, too. Plus ... well, you are a well-known quantity and this is Sadie Hawkins, where very few people stay out late.”

“I’ve had an interesting relationship with Sadie Hawkins dances.”

She giggled. “I’d say so! You turned down The Boss! And yet are now her closest guy friend! I suspect you’re just plain her closest friend, but I don’t know that. All of us know you’re the guy she’s closest to, though. I don’t think many other guys know that, which is probably all to the good.”

“Probably. Some of them might be upset.”

“You think?!” she said, giggling. Then she sighed. “Jess is ... she’s pretty damn amazing. The next cheer captain is going to have a time of it. Jess manages everyone’s egos and keeps everyone from melting down or getting catty, and she makes it look effortless. I know it’s work. I’ve been trying to learn everything I can from her while I’ve got the chance to watch. None of next year’s seniors have those skills, and none of the juniors-to-be — including me, before you get any ideas! — have them either.”

“But you’re trying to learn.”

She chuckled. “To be Jess? No. No one’s Jess! Jess is unique. No, I’m trying to learn to do well enough to muddle through. Aspiring to be Jess is a recipe for failure. Being the best me I can be is my goal.”

I smiled. “That’s a laudable goal for anyone.”

I pulled up to Red Lobster not long after.

Sam grinned. “You do know that doesn’t always work, right?”

I chuckled. “Jess and I have had this conversation.”

“Nothing is guaranteed to work with Jess. Unique! Like I said! But it doesn’t work on a lot of girls.”

“It works if what you want is a pleasant dinner.”

She blinked. “You know ... actually ... it probably doesn’t. With you, it will. With many guys ... depends on which date, but it could be a red flag that they’re trying to force the issue.”

“From history?”

“Yeah. I didn’t actually order the lobster, and I think that sent the date south quickly. Still, better earlier than later.”

“You’re welcome to order lobster this time.”

She giggled. “Ahh, but this is several dates for us, and you’d never force anything. Therefore, lobster is a safe option.”

I smiled, offering my arm. We headed in, and were quickly seated. Our waitress appeared almost immediately. Sam did, indeed, order the lobster, while I opted for crab and fish.

After the waitress had left, Sam said, “I heard Dad call me ‘Sammi.’ He’s literally the only one allowed to do that. It was cute when I was little, but I wanted to break the pattern a bit. The funny thing is that our names aren’t really all that similar, but the shortenings can be.”

“Maybe something to watch out for when naming kids,” I said.

She nodded. “And, when you’re the youngest, people are tired of arguing with the older ones, so you get what you want.”

“I’ve never been the youngest,” I said, chuckling.

“Sucks to be you!” she said, grinning. “Except, of course, that it doesn’t, unless I’m missing some secret heartache.”

“Nah. It definitely doesn’t suck to be me. Fate’s had a few shots at making it suck, but so far, so good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Landing on my head with my bike on top of me, for one. Getting hit in the head with a baseball bat. Car wreck, and then being hit by a truck as a pedestrian.”

“Ah, yes. I’d heard about all of those. Lexi — well, or Dani, but Dani never knew you that well — didn’t even know you when that guy attacked you, but she was all abuzz about how some kid in her class had gone after another one with a baseball bat.”

“My first real brush with high school fame,” I said. “If not for Jess, it might’ve been my only one.”

“Nah,” Sam said, smiling. “You’d have found some way to stand out. Jess certainly turbocharged the whole thing, though.”

“That she did.”

“Well ... this won’t suck. Probably. Some might,” she said, starting to smirk a bit.

“Oh?” I said.

She giggled. “I thought that might get you. It ... well, I thought about this, and it makes sense to just jump in. Mostly, this really is just about the dance, and a chance to go with a terrific guy. But ... you know ... lobster has its consequences.”

“I thought we just agreed that it didn’t.”

“Nope. What we agreed on was that it was fine for me to order the lobster. There are all sorts of reasons it might be. One of them is that I’m happy with the consequences.”

“And if I’m not?” I said, intentionally teasing.