I had just finished making a batch of mai tais and poured them from the kitchen kettle into a glass punch bowl, and was sampling one when people started coming in. The freshmen were fairly predictable. They concentrated on mai tais, since that was free, and they all drank too much too soon. That shit had a kick to it, and if you weren't careful, you could get real stupid real fast. Some of these guys would have three or four within the first hour and end up passed out somewhere. I had one, but I was nursing it along.
The party was supposed to start around eight or so, and the first ones there were all the freshmen, the single brothers, and any brothers who had girls staying for the weekend. The meat wagons didn't start coming back until around half past. Sometimes, if we were lucky, some of the girls would come over in their own cars and bring friends. This was one of the first parties of the semester at any of the houses, since most of the rest were having parties the next week, and attendance was high. I quickly found myself filling and setting out plastic cups of punch from behind the bar, with Marty supervising and taking the occasional mixed drink order. Somebody else was handling the basement, and the floor was already rumbling from the sound of the stereo down there. Led Zeppelin and the Stones seemed to be the order of the day, with a heavy dosing of Aerosmith.
Things were moving along quite nicely. I remember filling some cups, going off to the kitchen to make another batch of mai tais, coming back and pouring it into the punch bowl. Then I turned around, set the kettle on the floor behind us. I stood upright and faced the front of the bar. There she was, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.
It was Marilyn Lefleur.
Chapter 28: Dueling
Friday, February 8, 1974
It had taken me five years, three months, and three days to get to this point. Everything I had done since I had recycled was aimed at being here, at this point in my life. Nothing else was important. Nothing else mattered. No matter what had changed in my life, I knew one thing. I had met Marilyn Lefleur at the first party spring semester our freshmen year at a Kegs party at RPI. That was a constant. Up until that point, we had never had any contact, not even in the slightest. She came to the party, we met, we fell in love, end of story.
Everything I had done in the last five years was done with the sole purpose of maximizing my chances of being at this party and meeting her again. I had come back to RPI to be here. I had joined ROTC, and had hung around the pool hall, all so that the Kegs brothers would notice me and invite me over (I had originally been found playing pool.) I had kissed every ass possible so that they would invite me to join, just so I could be here, tonight, at this party. No matter what the price would be, I had decided to pay it. If that meant leaving my family or joining the Army, so be it. I had to be here, tonight, in the formal room, to meet Marilyn. Nothing else mattered.
I just stared at her. She was so beautiful to me as to take my breath away. Okay, to be absolutely fair about it, Marilyn wasn't, and had never been the most beautiful girl on the planet, not in any objective sense. Jeana, for instance, was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and if she had been half a foot taller would have been a shoo-in for any number of fashion or men's magazines. Marilyn was never quite in that league.
That's not to say she wasn't good looking. She was. I remember clearly once when Maggie was looking through some old pictures of us and she said, in the most delightfully tactless way, "Wow, Mom, you used to be hot!" While I tried to keep from laughing, Marilyn looked daggers at Maggie and asked me if she was allowed to kill her. Of course, the best response was when I told Marilyn she was still hot, but now it came in flashes. That got her laughing so hard she snorted milk out her nose!
At 18, Marilyn was definitely hot! She wasn't all that tall, maybe 5'4", with a nicely curvy build, large B or small C cup, and a wickedly round and interesting rear. She had a round face, with a perky upturned ski lift sort of nose, big brown eyes, and masses of curly chocolate brown hair that fell in ringlets past her shoulders. She was dressed in jeans so tight it made you want to watch her ass and cry, a tight red and white gingham shirt, and really ugly flat shoes.
She was standing there, looking at me, with a shy smile on her face, watching me as I stood there stupidly, my jaw dropping, with a plastic cup of punch in one hand and a ladle in the other. I just stood there and stared at her. I had just spent over five years devoting myself to this moment, and I couldn't even speak. She was actually here!
She looked at me, and then looked at the cup of punch in my hand, and then glanced over at Marty, before looking back at me. The next thing I knew, Marty slapped me from behind my head. "Wake up, dopey!"
That woke me up. I snapped out of it, and looked at him and then turned back to Marilyn, still standing there. It was time to speak. "Huh?"
Marty muttered under his breath. Marilyn said, "Can I have some of that punch?"
"It's a mai tai.", I replied.
"Okay, can I have some mai tai?"
Marty smacked me again. "Carl, you are beyond hopeless. Give the lady a drink, and then go around the table and talk to her. You're acting like you've never seen a girl before! Jeesh!"
I must have turned about three shades of purple as I blushed, and Marilyn laughed loudly. I grinned and shook my head. I handed her the cup of mai tai, and said, "You are absolutely right!" I poured myself a drink, and before Marilyn could escape, I was around the table at her side. "I really want to apologize. I'm normally not like that, but you are just so pretty, you took my breath away!" It was Marilyn's turn to blush. She wasn't wearing any makeup other than some light lip gloss, but that was always her style. "I have to ask. Who are you?"
She blushed again, and smiled. "I'm Marilyn. Marilyn Lefleur. Who are you?"
I just couldn't help myself. I gave her a big shit-eating grin and said, "Oh, darling, I am your Daddy's worst nightmare!"
She started at that, and then burst out laughing. "Oh really!? That's pretty big talk from a guy who couldn't even say hello a minute ago!"
I gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. "It's like I said, you took my breath away."
"So who are you really, and what makes you my father's worst nightmare?", she asked, smiling.
"Well, I'm Carl, Carl Buckman, and as for your father, well, I can guarantee that no father alive wants a boy, any boy, looking at his little girl like I'm looking at you!"
"And just how are you looking at me?", she asked teasingly.
"Not like a little girl!"
"That's still awfully big talk for a guy who was about to drool into the punch bowl!"
"Speaking of which..." I set my cup down and took hers from her hand, and then refilled it from the punch bowl. Then I grabbed my cup and took her free hand in mine. "Let's go downstairs. Do you dance?" I didn't give her a chance to answer, but simply tugged lightly and she followed me, laughing at me the entire way.
Once down in the basement, we drained our mai tais and started dancing together. It was mostly classic Seventies rock and roll, the good stuff, with some Southern rock thrown in, which I always enjoyed. When Jerry Masters, a senior and our DJ, switched to Stairway To Heaven, Marilyn didn't even hesitate when I took her in my arms and held her against me. She simply sighed and laid her head against my chest as we swayed in time to the music. At the end of the song I held onto her and lowered my face to hers. It was a first kiss, all over again, and went just fine!