It was really good to be home with Grandpa, even if it was just for a week. Stan came over shortly after I arrived and showed me his latest medals--he'd won Worlds easily, and I thanked him for his thoughtfulness, especially the toys that he'd sent. Johanna had been thrilled with hers. Dinner was devoted to catching up on pretty much everything but John, and I was happy to learn that Krista and Marc had started to date. She'd broken up with her boyfriend just after New Years, just a case of people growing apart. Marc had kept in touch and had told me that news. I really hoped things worked out for them. They were both awesome people. Mom and Dad came to dinner the next night and wanted to know more about Will. They were kind of worried about the pressure of his status as a star football player and wanted to make sure I wasn't being taken advantage of. Will wonders never cease, they were learning to be parents at last. And when I said that my financial aid package had come in and I wasn't getting the waiver any more--and I really couldn't be too upset about that, it had saved me a ton--they insisted on giving me money to make up the difference, even though I could pay with the money in my college fund, Pell grants, and scholarships.
The next day I went to the rink with Stan to say hi to Marc and Krista, and my brother and I put on skates and goofed around with them. Then Ekaterin wanted Stan to review changes to his choreography for his new programs, but that was ok because Paul had arrived for his shift. I gave him a big hug and congratulated him on his ACTs; they were slightly higher than John's had been. He was already sweating about college applications. He'd taken his junior year very seriously, winning an election for class president and he'd been elected student body president as well for next year. He had a good mix of clubs and activities and I told him to relax. He was going to do fine.
"I wish you were going to be here this summer," he said. "I miss you."
I winked at him. "Another reason to apply to UCLA," I said and he laughed.
"Like I need more," he said flippantly. "I want to apologize for my part in those scenes when you were trying to give us a tour," he said, sobering. "I shouldn't have made a fuss in public and I embarrassed you. It's just that I was so mad. I really just wanted you for my sister."
I blinked a few times. "The two of us are still friends, though, and you're important to me, I assure you. I appreciate your apology, though, and in case you were worried, of course I forgive you."
"I really don't like her. She's such a bitch, acting as if she's superior to everybody around her, and she's not. Grandma and Grandpa have had them over a few times for dinner and I don't think they care for her much. She looks down on anybody without at least one degree, and Grandma never went to college, but she's a really successful costumer. I burns me that she thinks she's better than my grandma. She's beautiful and smart, but she just seems so... cold. If I were my brother, I'd worry about getting my dick frozen off when I was in her. Maybe he uses Polarfleece-lined condoms, guaranteed to protect to 15 below. Oh, jeeze, I hope he's using protection. Once there's a kid, there's no getting rid of her." I couldn't help myself, I laughed.
"I shouldn't have laughed, it was mean," I apologized, and he shrugged, not caring.
"Selfish bastard, he's only thinking of himself. But Will Holmes, wow."
"You said that already," I teased him.
"What's he like, though? He seemed nice, really good to you."
"He is," I said, smiling at the thought of him. "I've never been treated better. It's not just that he holds doors for me, which I think is sweet, he accepts everything about me. That is just so powerful." This time I did get a little misty. "We've had disagreements, but it's never gotten mean, we talk about it enough and either drop it or go away to cool down. It's kind of hard, though, in a way that it wasn't before. I've never been standing somewhere with my boyfriend, being social, having fun, and having females proposition him right in front of me. And not just college students, grown women who should know better. Not just asking him out, which wouldn't be too bad, but serious propositions. With me standing there, his arm around me. They don't care that he's got a girlfriend or they assume that he's going to cheat. I never had to deal with that mess before." It was why the guys with girlfriends always hung out as a group in social situations to try to cut down on that kind of thing, and Will tried to shield me from it as much as possible. He took it easy on me because of things like that, and I took it easy on him because there was so much pressure on him. Then I changed the subject; Paul had his first girlfriend and I gently teased him a little about that.
I had to get going, though, but we agreed to go to lunch once before I went back to school. I hurried my departure when the door opened and John walked in; apparently he was back working at the rink for the summer. I was super glad that I wasn't staying in town for the summer. I hadn't seen him since the time at dinner. "L--Delia," he said guardedly.
"John," I said frostily. And that twerp Paul started to laugh.
"Never seen you as an ice queen, General," he said. "I could get frostbite just from being around you." I just shook my head at him and left. I was meeting the girls at the skating park and I really wanted quality time with my friends.
I was so glad to see them I got a little teary, but I wasn't the only one. "I missed you guys so much," Maya said, keeping her arm around my shoulders. "After John's fuckery, I realized how much you all mean to me. Sure, I have new friends and I'm having fun, but they're not replacements for all y'all." We laughed. Texas was rubbing off on her.
"I know," Cass said. "It was like old times, teaming up to take down evil." I laughed again and everybody joined in. "Ok, so we didn't actually bring down evil, but we were ready too. Who'd have thought John of all people would turn out to be such a loser?"
"I saw him at Starbucks the other day. It was all I could do to keep from slapping the shit out of him," Zayna said.
"Guys, he's allowed to make his own bad choices," I felt obligated to say.
"He's not entitled to treat my friend like she's disposable," Keshondra said sternly. "He has to take the consequences."
"You mess with one of us, you get the horns," Maya shrugged. "I thought better of him. It's different with guys we meet in college, though. They're new guys and we're all kind of trying them on for size, wink, nudge, figuring out what we want and need in relationships. But you two have been in the trenches together."
"He deserves what he gets," Zayna said in a steely voice. "Paul loathes the bitch, though, and his respect for his brother has taken a pretty big hit. Part of that could have been avoided if he'd kept his family in the loop, but apparently he just sprung the ice bitch on them out of the clear blue sky."
"John should have stayed in therapy longer," Keshondra said dismissively. "He's still got a screw loose. But Will Holmes! Gotta tell you, Delia, even our team respects him. But that time I met him he was so sweet."
"So what's he really like?" Maya asked. "People are impressed that one of my friends is dating him. Even in Texas." So I told them about how wonderful he is. Carol sighed.
"And you can't work something out?" she said wistfully.
"No," I said with regret. "I've actually thought about it, thought about finding a career that I could pack up periodically as he's traded, but I can't. I honestly feel that the path I'm on is where I need to be. And I thought that being Starry Knight's little sister was bad? Being the girlfriend of an NFL prospect is infinitely worse. Everybody wants a piece of him. And the women are bug nuts. Once a woman put her hand on his lower abdomen, right above the fun zone and I almost punched her out. I've been taking kickboxing," I said to Zayna, who'd recommended it. "It's fun. But Will doesn't need a psycho girlfriend, the NFL wants their players to be upstanding citizens with poster-perfect families. He handled it well, he always does, but it makes me seriously crazed. And this is in the offseason. It's only going to ramp up during his senior year. And the pro game is even a level over that. Plus I worry about that concussion disorder that pro football players seem to have. Or the cumulative effect of their injuries. The quality of their lives takes a nosedive in their later years. He's a running back, he gets slammed to the turf a lot. I used to like football, but I don't know if I can watch now. He's promised to quit if he has two more concussions, but it's not like there's a magic number for that disorder thing. Nobody knows that much about it. I utterly adore the man, but I just can't sign on for that." My voice caught and I apologized as I wiped tears away. "Sorry. But I just... grieve that there's not a future for us."
"Aw, sweetie, you've had quite a year," Zayna said, rubbing my back.
"But it hasn't been all bad," I said, brightening. I put my hand out to Cass and we did the secret handshake. Independently we'd joined the same sorority. We talked about it, comparing notes. "I like that the chapter house is so small that most of us have to live in the dorms. It keeps things friendlier with the non-Greeks and it's more fun to know a cross-section of the school."
"It's different at A&M," Maya said. "There's really an us and them vibe." But that opened us up to a discussion about our campuses and other friends that took up all afternoon.
"What are you going to be doing for roommates next year, Delia?" Carol asked.
"Rooming with two of the girls from the house. I'm too old to room with a stranger," I quipped and they laughed. "Then for my senior year I can live in the house. I want to stay on campus because it's so much cheaper than an apartment and I love being on campus, but the school only guarantees you three years of university housing."
"Are you still going to grad school?" Zayna wanted to know.
"Oh, yeah. If I stay put and get accepted in to my program, I'll earn a masters on the way to a doctoral program. And I really want to do oceanography, the master's program is six to nine quarters, and the PhD program is usually six quarters past that. So it's really reasonable. And I would get teaching experience. I might like to work in a university at some point. The university recently joined the Southern California Marine Research Institute, which is an initiative to build a new research and clean-technology facility at the Port of Los Angeles that may become the largest marine research institute in an urban setting in the world, sharing resources with 10 local universities to operate a facility that provides waterfront access for oceanographic and marine biology studies, maintenance for scientific vessels, and a formal channel for cooperation among researchers in the Los Angeles area. "
Cass whistled. "Who else is going to go to grad school?" Turned out, all of us. With so much focus on a bachelor's degree as an entry-level qualification these days, to stand out you needed more. Zayna wanted to study publishing and editing--at USC (I was sad, Keshondra smirked), Carol wanted to focus on epidemiology and public health from the policy side rather than go to medical school, Cass wanted to go to dentistry school, Maya wanted to pursue public policy as a way to work more effectively for the National Parks Service, and Keshondra wanted more economics, for some reason. In fact, Zayna had the news for us that she was transferring to 'SC for her junior year and would apply for their progressive Masters to start in her senior year, earning her bachelors and masters in only five years, total. Keshondra and I were thrilled that she'd be so close.