Senior Year Box Set

“I hope she realizes that I’m giving her a shot with no guarantees,” I said, giving myself an out if her design ideas weren’t something I liked.

“I know, but I’m just saying …” he trailed off.

… that Cindy would be crushed if she didn’t get the job. I would have to really hate her ideas to ruin her dreams.

Kevin took us to the center of campus to the oval. It was a quad that was huge, almost 11 acres. At one end was the Thompson Library, which had been recently renovated. We found a spot on the library steps where we could sit down and eat our doughnuts. They had one called the Buckeye that had chocolate frosting and peanut butter filling the center. It was better than I expected. They’d included a menu that said I could get an egg sandwich for $2.25. I could understand why this place was packed with broke college kids. I put that information away in case we ended up coming here.

◊◊◊

Tami and I were the only ones who had seen the campus before, so Kevin volunteered to show the others around. Despite our issues, I wanted to spend some time with my friend. It was a beautiful early fall late morning, so we found a big oak tree on the quad to sit under. It allowed us to people-watch as we talked.

“How is Alan doing?” I asked, surprising her.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I do. Even though we’re not talking now, I’ve known him since kindergarten, and we were friends for a lot of that time.”

“I suspect he thought he could bully you, and you wouldn’t do anything about it,” Tami said.

I just shook my head. Alan always thought he was the smartest guy in the room. The problem was, he had almost no common sense. He was forever making some cutting comment and then wondering why Jeff and I had to protect him.

“Did you know he was talking smack to most of the football players? I didn’t truly appreciate how many people he pissed off until we had our falling out. Most of them just sucked it up because they thought I would defend him. For a smart kid, turning on me was probably the dumbest thing he could’ve done. He had to go to Wesleyan, or he would’ve had to face some hard truths in the form of a butt-whipping. I know Yuri was looking forward to seeing him.

“When everyone discovered that he would’ve actually let Lincoln lose a game just to screw Wolf, Tim, and me over, he really put his foot in it. Hell, he almost caused Coach Hope to go down in flames, too. It wasn’t only the team after that. I don’t believe there’s anyone left in school who wouldn’t want to join Yuri in a little payback,” I said.

Tami looked thoughtful for a second.

“Alan and I had a long talk. He’d expected that Mike would welcome him with open arms, but soon found out that wasn’t the case. I sat Mike down and told him that, even though you and Alan weren’t currently talking, you wouldn’t put up with something happening to Alan.”

“I’m glad you stepped in,” I mused. “Alan might not be my favorite person right now, but if history is any indication, the two of us will someday mend fences. I doubt we’ll ever be good friends again because I no longer trust him. I can see us being civil, though, and I hope this change works out for him.”

Tami bit her lip while looking at me.

“You know that when the whole Brandon nightmare happened last year, I thought Alan might really have done it. Now, I feel guilty about that, but can’t get that thought out of my head.”

“I’m sorry about how I reacted,” I apologized.

“David, I never blamed you for all that. Brandon staged it to maximize our pain. In the end, you were the one who got me some justice. I talked to your mom, and she told me how you reacted when you found out. I’ve long known that your feelings have always been honest.

“With that in mind, are you really okay with me dating Tim?” she asked.

I shook my head at the sudden change of topic and looked down.

“You know me too well. There’s a part of me that can’t stand seeing you with someone else. Fortunately, that part of me has gotten smaller over time. Deep down, I’ll always think of you as my one and only. I’ve known for a long time that I love you. When I was little, I think I recognized that we would always be best friends.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think since you told me that you weren’t ready for a relationship with me. Since then, I’ve learned some things about myself and, if I’m completely honest with myself, you did us a favor. If we’d been together, I would have tried to make everything perfect because you deserve that. You’re too important to me for me not to. If we’d been in that kind of relationship, and I was dealing with all my drama, I might have cracked.

“There’s no way I could have been the perfect boyfriend, especially in light of what my life has become. I’m sure you felt it too. I suspect if we had become each other’s one and only, we would have destroyed each other. This last week has been a wake-up call for me.