Chapter 8

The line of cocaine disappeared into the rolled up hundred dollar bill with a noisy snort.

"Don't tell me that; don't you dare fucking tell me that."

Frank Murkowski hated talking business with his boss when he was doing coke; but lately it was hard to find a time when he wasn't.

"We got plenty of cars, boss, that ain't the problem. Fixing the titles is goin' good. The problem is we've got about as many dealers to play ball as we're gonna get. And there's only so many cars those dealers can move."

"Then you gotta explain to 'em how important to their health it is to move more fucking cars," Jack Polanski growled. "If we don't muscle 'em, the fucking gangbangers will. Fucking animals."

Competition with the new gang that had moved into the area was currently under an uneasy truce. Before he managed to get that agreement in place, one of his young lieutenants had come back from a meeting with them scared shitless and missing part of a finger. Jack had neither forgotten nor forgiven the offense.

Frank was careful not to let his emotions show. "Okay, boss. We're also turning up the heat on bringing in some repair shops. They can slap some paint on some cars and sell 'em themselves. Or they can sell 'em to the dealers, who won't know they're taking more of our cars than what they've agreed to take directly from us."

Jack tried not to show he was impressed with his subordinate's initiative. "Got any good prospects?"

"Yeah, one of our guys on the payroll in the 3rd precinct gave me a tip about a pretty good sized shop that will likely play ball. It's called "Honest" something or other. We've got a meet set up."

The hall in the dorm was quiet as Collette returned from 'players only' volleyball practice. They were held every morning, early enough that most everyone was still asleep when she got back. Cynthia, her roommate, assured her that she wasn't jealous at not being invited, saying she preferred to sleep.

She was thinking about getting over to see Bobby and the new baby Saturday, and then hopefully persuading Bobby to come back for a party that was happening on the floor that night.

He was sometimes reluctant to come to parties in the dorm, as it seemed he spent most of his time explaining who he was, and where he went to school, and yes he really was in high school, and yes he really was a junior there, and yes Collette really was his girlfriend...

She opened the door to her room to throw in her gym bag and grab a towel and her shower stuff, using just the light from the hallway for Cynthia's sake.

On the floor just inside the door was a piece of paper that hadn't been there when she left. She picked it up and took it with her to the shower, not seeing Cynthia surreptitiously watching from the darkness.

In the bright lights of the bathroom she saw it was a clipping from a newspaper - someone must have slipped under the door. There was no title, as it looked to have been part of a larger article. She sat down on a bench to read.

During the first few months of college, everyone wants to make friends. But no one knows how to do it, so everyone is really friendly all the time. You are likely to find yourself feigning interest in and enthusiasm for a lot of things to ingratiate yourself with your peers. "You're a semiprofessional mime? So cool. Where are you going out tonight?"

Collette chuckled. That was so true.

Eventually, mercifully, it all shakes out. Parties, activities, dorms and classes help you find people you actually like to talk to. That is, unless you're in your room every night, on the phone with your high school sweetheart, who's back home or at another school. Or worse, you're leaving school every other weekend to visit your significant other. Break up.

You should break up soon because you are likely to break up over Thanksgiving, anyway. You'll give it an earnest try, but you'll start to resent each other for forming new attachments, for not really "getting" what it's like at your respective schools, for being the reason you're both missing out on important experiences, like the hectic social sorting that's happening right now. Worse, other people will punish you for missing out: "Oh, yeah, the joke is kind of hard to explain. See, it started that weekend you were out of town."

Going to the same college as your significant high school other will not necessarily solve the problem. This is what happened to me. My boyfriend didn't like my new "scene"; I panicked because I felt that we were spending too much time — then too little time — together. We limped through the first two months of the first semester before we called it quits.

The college year went by, bringing a lot of new people and priorities into our separate lives. The following fall, we realized that all our growing pains had not diminished what was a very precious connection. We ended up getting back together and staying together through the rest of college. But we had to break up first.

— REBECCA ELLIOTT, Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of California, Berkeley

Collette put down the article and pinched her eyes shut – hard. 'I'm not gonna do it', she thought. 'Whatever asshole put this in my room is not gonna get the satisfaction.'

She crumpled the article and stuffed it into her shower tote amongst her soap and shampoo, and turned on the shower. When the water was hot enough she stepped inside, pulling the curtain closed behind her. She leaned against the wall, and let a single tear escape.

Did everyone around them believe it couldn't last? Was a breakup with Bobby inevitable? Were the stars lining up to make it happen?

She thought again of her dilemma over whether to tell Bobby about her tryst with Patty. Should she keep it a secret to protect Patty's relationships with Morton and Bobby?

But what if Bobby found out later – he would feel betrayed, regardless of her rationale for not telling him. If Patty got a guilty conscience some day and decided to confess to Morton or Bobby, she could destroy her relationship with Bobby. She'd lose him like Patty had lost him when she'd betrayed his trust.

Did she dare risk losing Bobby by concealing Patty's monumentally stupid and deceptive seduction? Or tell Bobby, and risk Patty losing both her life-long friend and her current lover?

She weighed her options, and made a decision.

When she finished her shower and had toweled off, she picked up her cell phone and hit the speed dial for home. She knew her parents would be up at this hour, even if the average college student wasn't.

"Hello, pumpkin, everything all right?" asked her dad.

"Everything's great, Dad. Hey, I was wondering, if you didn't have anything else planned, if I could have a little pool party at the house on Saturday."

"Any particular friends?" he asked teasingly.