Junior Year Box Set

By the first of the year, I might be well on my way to being able to retire before graduating high school. The only catch in my plans for making ‘walk-away money’ was the following week, Star Wars would release their next blockbuster. The studio had placed our movie at the beginning of the holiday season with the hope we got out of the gate quickly. If we did, we could be the alternative when Star Wars was packed, but you still wanted to see a movie. The studio thought we could ride their coattails and make extra money.

I finally looked at Pam, and she gave me a funny look in return.

“How do you do it? How do you get past a broken heart?” she asked.

It took me a moment to get back into our conversation.

“You’re asking me that?” I asked, and began to laugh.

“No, seriously, how do you do it? I know Tami left yesterday. When I moved here from California, I just curled up in the backseat of our car, crying my eyes out. Seeing them together this summer, it felt like my heart was breaking all over again. I know you’re hurting inside, but to the world, you look like you’re fine.”

“Oh, Baby, come here,” I said, pulling her into my arms. “Let me ask you a question. Do you plan on having him in your life again? Even if he begged to come back to you, would you take him back?”

Pam shook her head after she considered my question.

“Then why give him the power to hurt you any more? He doesn’t matter. He made his choice to move on. Now you need to do it, too,” I told her.

“I can’t help it, I still love him.”

“And I still love Tami. I’ll always love her; that’ll never stop. The thing is, you have to live your life for you. Neither one of them is ever coming back, nor do I think I want Tami anymore. I tried. I put myself out there, and she wanted something else. I can understand that, but I can’t let her ruin my life anymore. I can’t give her that kind of power over me. To be honest, no one will ever have that much control over me ever again. You need to figure it out, Pam. He’s been gone for a year. Are you going to let him keep you from dating your junior year?”

“Are you offering to date me?” she asked.

“If you’d asked me at the end of school last year, the answer would have been ‘yes.’ You’re smart, sexy as hell, and the best part is you’re not afraid to tease me and keep me off-balance. The clincher is I like you as a friend. I think, for right now, it’s best for me to back off on dating and focus on other areas of my life.”

“I thought you liked me,” she teased.

“I like you just fine,” I said, leering at her.

“Now, back to my original question, do you like Zoe just fine also?”

“Don’t know, but I would like to get to know her.”

“You’re so bad,” she teased me.

“I’d bet my last dollar that Zoe isn’t like that. If I were looking for sex, she wouldn’t be on the list.”

“Why?” Zoe asked, scaring the hell out of me.

Pam’s shoulders were shaking. The little shit had set me up. Someone was getting their bottom spanked. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders.

“Zoe, it has nothing to do with how you look. It has to do with me respecting you and your beliefs,” I reasoned.

“So you think because I’m Mennonite, I’m not interested in guys?” she asked, clearly irritated.

I raised my hands in surrender. Mennonites were part of what was called Anabaptists. The Amish were probably the most well-known branch of this Christian movement. While the Amish are readily recognized by their dress and horse-drawn carriages, the Mennonites dressed like the ‘plain people,’ which made them indistinguishable from everyone else. They tended to live in close-knit communities, and our local Mennonites all seemed to live on the farms between the parkland and the river. It kept them isolated from everyone else.

“I may be a ‘stupid boy’ and say dumb things, but I want you to know I’d prefer to get to know you before you talked me into going to bed with you,” I said.

“I’m going to seduce you? Who do you think you are?” she asked, and it seemed she just got madder.

I had dug myself a hole, and there was no getting out of it. I started to get a little irritated. I had tried to be a nice guy, and Zoe had treated me like dirt.

“You know what, you’re right. Who the hell am I?” I said, then turned to Pam. “Let’s get going. It was clearly a mistake to stop here.”

I got up to leave, and Zoe stormed off. Pam shook her head sadly.

“I think you have a new fan,” she told me.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope, she likes you.”

Yep, guys are from Mars and women are definitely from another planet. There was no way Zoe was into me.

◊◊◊

When I got home, I called Jim, Wolf, Tim, and Ty and asked them to come over to my house. I told my parents I wanted to talk about visiting campuses for unofficial visits this fall and thought it a good idea to take my core guys with me. Mom reminded me that Alan might want to go also, so I called him, and he agreed to come over.

Mom must have called some other people because Kendal and a guy I’d never met before showed up unexpectedly. He reminded me of someone.