I thought of Anita, thinking back on our relationship together since that first time I'd come over pleading for her help with a girlfriend problem, engineering her seduction of me. Since then we'd never gone a week without finding ourselves in each other's arms, in each other's body. As far as physical pleasure went she still remained the best. I wondered if, when she met the man she would marry, she would constantly compare him to me? Or would she maybe teach him some of my techniques? This thought actually amused me, making me chuckle for perhaps the first time during that miserable week. Anita teaching her new boyfriend and future husband some of the things she'd learned from a teenager.
I yawned and stretched, preparing to hop out of her bed and head for the shower when a thought from left field suddenly struck me. I froze in mid-stretch, coming fully awake, turning me head and looking at my bed-partner that was just about to give in to the final submersion of sleep.
Anita was already supposed to be dating the man that would marry her! She was supposed to have met him before Tracy graduated from high school. I remembered that clearly from my previous life. He'd been at her side at Tracy's funeral! By the time I went off to college she was supposed to have married him and moved away. But she was doing none of that. She had no boyfriend. The closest thing she had was… me.
What had happened? Why hadn't she started dating him? Why wasn't she falling into her previous pattern as Beirut and Nina were doing? I tried as hard as I could to rationalize a reason for the absence of the boyfriend but only one explanation held water. I had interfered with that by starting a relationship of my own with her.
What had been his name? I thought, trying to remember back over a considerable span of years. Something with a J in it was all I could come up with at first. The name danced for a while on the tip of my tongue until finally I was able to snag it. The last name continued to elude me but a first name was all I needed.
"Anita?" I said, shaking her gently until her eyes opened a little. She stared up at me blearily.
"Whu?" She grumbled.
"Do you know anybody named Jack?" I asked her.
"Huh?" She said, waking up a little more now.
"Jack." I repeated. "Do you know anyone named Jack?"
"My ex-father-in-law's name is Jack." She said. "Do you mean him?"
"No." I shook my head. "Any other ones?"
She thought for a second. "Well there's Jack Valentine at work." She said.
Bingo! Once she told me the last name it came back to me. Her future married name was supposed to be Anita Valentine.
"Why would you ask that?" She wanted to know.
"Tell me about Jack Valentine." I prodded her.
She gave me a puzzled look for a second but, like Tracy and Nina, she was well used to the occasional strange question or statement from me. "He transferred to my department about a year ago." She finally said. "He's divorced and kind of good looking. He asked me out a few times last year but finally he gave up when I kept turning him down. He's dating some tramp from accounting now. Word has it their relationship isn't going so well."
"Why," I asked cautiously, "Did you turn him down when he asked you out?"
She looked at me strangely and then smiled. "Why would I want to go out with some pinhead when I got you?" She asked. "You take care of ALL my needs. Well, most of them anyway."
"Anita," I said, thinking as quickly as I could about how I was going to phrase this. If I'd learned nothing else from my experience with Julie it was to treat a woman during a conversation like this as you would an unexploded bomb. "Don't you think that, well, maybe you should occasionally go out with guys your own age?"
"Why?" She asked softly.
Why? "Uh…, well, you know, because you might want to uh, develop a relationship with a man and maybe, you know, get married again someday."
"I would like to get married again someday." She told me, scooting a little closer to me. "And I DO have a relationship with a guy going. You."
"But Anita." I said. "I'm only seventeen years old. I'm in high school. I'll be going off to college next year."
"I know." She nodded, slapping playfully at me with her hand. "And once you're eighteen years old we won't have to keep our relationship a secret anymore. We'll be free."
"Free?" I said, looking at her like a rabbit in a set of headlights.
"Yes." She nodded. "I figure I can go with you wherever you go to college. I can get a job practically anywhere with my skills. We can rent a house while you get your degree. The only hard thing is going to be telling your parents about us." She shook her head sadly while I stared with my mouth agape. "That's certainly not going to be fun."
"No," I muttered slowly, numbly. "It wouldn't be fun at all, would it?"
She leaned over and kissed my nose with a quick peck. "But don't worry." She assured me. "It'll work out. Love will find a way. Why don't you go take your shower now? You don't want to make your parents suspicious do you?"
"No." I said. "That wouldn't do at all."
I was deeply troubled once again as I walked home and headed upstairs that evening. I brushed by my mother before she had a chance to get a good look at my face and see my emotions there. As I crawled under my covers and shut off my light I found myself actually grateful for my fight with Julie. It was thoughts of her that had kept me from telling Anita then and there that I had no intention of marrying her or having her follow me to college. In fact I never intended to sleep with her again. But I had to think carefully first about how I was going to break that news to her. It was clear that I was in the process of screwing up her life but good. Instinctive moves to correct this action might not necessarily be the best ones. The situation would need to be reflected upon first.
As I was reflecting I fell asleep. When I woke up a whole new day was beginning.
I half expected Mike to show up at my house in order to walk to school with me since his car was broken. When he didn't, I figured that one of his parents must have given him a ride. I didn't see him during the classroom portion of the day at all but that was hardly unusual. During lunch period, when I still didn't see him I was forced to conclude that he wasn't there. The conclusion was confirmed when I boarded the bus for ROP and he wasn't there either.
Where was he? I wondered worriedly. Was he sick? Had he maybe taken ill during his shift the previous day? Although that nicely explained why he hadn't been on the bus yesterday or today it didn't ring true. I had a premonition of more disaster brewing. A premonition that turned out to be correct.
Mike was supposed to come over to my house for a study session after school and when he didn't show up I called his house, noting that my hands were trembling a little as I dialed. He answered the phone on the second ring.
"Mike?" I asked. "What's up?"
"Nothin'." He told me sourly.
"Where were you today?" I asked him. "Didn't see you in school or at ROP."
There was a long pause. Finally he said, "I got in trouble yesterday dude."
My heart started hammering in my chest as I heard his words. I forced myself to ask, "What kind of trouble?"
"The captain at the station caught me smoking a joint out behind the apparatus bay."
"What?" I asked slowly. "You were smoking a joint there?"
"Yeah." He answered. "I usually smoked them in the car on the way to the station but I didn't have my car. Figures he'd come out to have a smoke just when I was trying to take a few hits."
"And what happened?" I asked next.
"I got suspended for a week." He told me. "I also got kicked out of ROP. They're gonna give me three classes to replace it."
"Mike, Jesus." I said, unable to think of anything else.
"It's cool." He told me. "I didn't really like hangin out at the fuckin fire station anyway. And the captain was an asshole. Anyway I had a meeting with the counselor and my parents today and she said I should give the independent study a try."