Back to School
Summer made way for Fall. I had finally found a job in retail at a J.C. Penney’s in the mall. Mark was actually working there and making a good commission in the Men’s Suits department. My only reservation was that Carrie worked there in the Portrait Studio. Alan went off to the Marines boot camp. Denver and Matt went away to college upstate. While Denver tried to maintain a long distance relationship with Laurie, it was hard. Denver became rather jealous and suspicious that Sean may possibly have had interest in Laurie. While I can not confirm that, I too suspected it, even if he never would have acted on it. Two weeks after Denver left, he called me asking questions about what everyone has been doing in a not so sly way of getting info. I pretty much told him there was nothing to report and stop worrying. Denver in turn, told Laurie that I had told him everything and that she should come clean and tell him herself. Of course, the next time we all hang out, Laurie jokingly calls me “Denver’s spy.” I took offense to that, and our relationship downgraded from there.
Normally, I would have worked harder at maintaining a strong friendship, but I was already put off by her treatment of Jean over the summer. Jean, to her credit, tried her best smooth things over between her two friends by being a mediator of sorts. But when she accused me of saying that I wanted to hit her with my car it was apparent that things would not improve anytime soon. For the record, I corrected her by saying that my actual words were “The only thing she could do to make me happy was if she got run over with a car, preferably mine.” But you know how rumors spread…
Jean and I were still very close and she became more popular in school when she got picked up by her college friend and taken out to lunch in his “Super Nova” on Wed afternoons, when I had no classes. Every so often she’d invite other a friend or two. One of those times, she had invited Dena and her boyfriend. They were obviously in the midst of a fight and while we all agreed to go to one place, they walked across the street to another place. Within a month they were broken up.
To cheer her up, Jean made Dena hang out with us while we went to do something… I think we just went to the Boardwalk and hung out. Cheering people up is what I do best and I guess I made an impression.
The next day Dena called me out of the blue to thank me for a good time. Obviously, Jean gave her my number because I had done no such thing. We talked for hours and really hit it off. Before the end of our conversation, I had asked her out on a date. The die was cast…