Dark Night

Summertime

"I had no idea that it was that bad," I said. "All he said was that she'd broken up with him."

"I did some digging around, then hired a PI down there to get some proof once I had a lead. Turns out that she dumped him for some older rich guy. Met him online.  She doesn't even have a job. Don't worry, I have no intention of ever telling Marc," she said when I opened my mouth. "But I needed to know for myself what was going on."

I was still reeling from this calamity when we went back to the rink, but I covered it and John went to lunch. It was up to Marc to share the information really, but I was glad that Krista had told me. I'd have to be extra careful with him. Then a team from a rec league showed up for practice, and I was busy counting players for the coach, taking in skates to be sharpened, and alerting my boss when a couple of kids wanted to make a purchase in the small shop that the rink had for both figure skaters and hockey players. The rest of the afternoon was peaceful, John was back to normal, and I had enough time when I got off shift to go home to change to a nicer shirt and grab a hoodie before going over to the Tang's.

I got there before most of Paul's friends and he opened my present right away, a blue UCLA t-shirt. The design on it was 'weathered' so it didn't look brand new, and the graphic was cool. I'd planned for it to be a bit big, but now that I'd seen him I was worried that it would fit at all. He dashed into the house and came back wearing it; it fit, but it was snug and he seemed delighted.  John and his mom got home as I was listening to him telling me about high school. He seemed to be having a pretty good time although he was getting a little apprehensive; college was coming into focus with the promise of ACTs and SATs next year.

"Where do you want to apply?" I asked, sipping at a diet Coke that Mr Tang had given me. I suspected that John had made sure that my beloved beverage would be available.

"Caltech, Stanford, USC, UCLA," he said. "In-state, you know, but they're really good schools."

I nodded. "I'll never speak to you if you go to USC, though." He laughed, but looked a little worried. "Just kidding. Keshondra goes there and we still speak." He still looked nervous, so I poked him. "Go wherever you want. I have to put in a plug for UCLA, though, my roommate is in aerospace engineering, she's doing an internship this summer at SpaceX. She works really hard, I rarely saw her, but she says it's fantastic."

John plopped down in the seat next to me and handed his brother a package. "Happy birthday, dork." Paul rolled his eyes but ripped into the package, which turned out to be a book on engineering. A textbook, I should say. "It's the book they use for a general intro to engineering class," John said. "Sorry it's used, but those things are really expensive."

"Dude," Paul's friend Jake said, leaning forward. "Cool. A real college textbook."

"Wow," Paul said. Then more of his friends arrived and John and I retreated a bit to let them crowd around. Mrs Tang came out and started grilling--Mr Tang was a menace with fire and wasn't permitted to man the grill anymore after he almost set fire to the house once. We had our choice of hamburgers or grilled salmon--most of Paul's friends had burgers but the salmon was delicious. There was a devil's food cake, entirely appropriate, and ice cream, both delicious, but then I do love my sweets. I chatted with John's parents for a bit, thanked them for the dinner, then hugged the birthday boy, told John I'd see him later, and went home. I had several months of cat deprivation to catch up on and I wanted to spend more time with Grandpa.

Stan came over around eight and told me that they'd gotten in touch with Arthur, who was perfectly amenable to adding to his composition. "Finally," Grandpa said, ribbing him. "I was beginning to think that you'd never get in gear and choose your music. You'd look pretty funny out there just pantomiming and jumping with no context." Stan made a face.