Chapter 22: After Party

The Ride Home

“I hate this fucking granola valley,” Tobe said. “Tonight sucked.”

“You’re just in a bad mood,” Julia said. “Let it go.” 

Julia was giving Tobe a ride back to Alden.  Julia was going to offer a ride to Ben and his friend but she didn’t see them when she was getting ready to leave.  Or Richard.

Tobe fumed.  Julia just stared ahead.

 “Would you be happier if we went to McManus’s for a sandwich?” Julia asked.

Tobe shook his head. “No, not after I heard what goes into their food.  I just want to get home and sleep.  I need to study tomorrow.”

“But will you?”

“Hell no, I’ll go to the beer bash in Hartford.  And you?”                 

“I need to get a mock-up of the newsletter ready to present to Sabra some next week.”

“And will you do that?”

“No.  Jonah needs the car, we’ll hang out.  I was going to stay there tonight but I can’t reach him.”

“That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you…” No, Julia thought, please don’t ask. “Do you think Jonah would be interested in DJing with me? Together, as a duo?”

“I’ll ask him,” Julia said. “But he’s been so busy.”

“Just ask,” Tobe pouted. “You know I had a bad night.”

“Nathan wimped out.”

“Yes, again.  He said he’d be there, and he didn’t show.”

“Maybe he and Ryan got lost together,” Julia said.

“Unlikely.”  Tobe leaned against the seat and sulked.  Nathan Fischer was graduating in the spring; Tobe didn’t have much time left to convince him that they were right for one another.

“Chicken,” Julia said.

“What?”

“I said, I think the drive thru is 24 hours at Kentucky Fried Chicken, do you want to go?”  Tobe felt the chafing of Richard’s discarded hot pants against his thighs.  If I just lost ten pounds …

“Sure, what the hell,” he said. “I’ll become a vegetarian again tomorrow.”

Oak Room Confidential

Despite it still being sunny out at 6 pm, the Oak Room was dark.

“Sit by the windows,” Ben told Dave. “I can’t see in here.”

“You still have your sunglasses on is why,” Dave said.

Ben took the glasses off and put them in his front pocket.  “My mind’s in a million directions today,” Ben said. “And I think I’m a little hung over.”

 “This is what … the second time in your life?”  Dave asked.

Ben shook his head. “Third.  I got drunk this summer too.” 

“Big man,” Dave said.

“That’s me,” Ben said.  They put their trays on an empty table. “I didn’t get the sausage today, last week I bit into something I couldn’t identify.” 

The woman sitting over at the next table glared at him. “Thanks a lot,” she said. 

“I’m such a dick,” Ben said.

“Speaking of …” Dave said. 

“No, and no, Big Ben did not get lucky, but…”

“Yeah?”

“Remember the couple I told you about?  The South American guy and the other one my age?  Arturo and Jeremy?”

“Yeah?”

“The lights went out and,” Ben leaned over the table and lowered his voice, “Arturo felt me up.”

Dave was quiet for a moment.  “Jesus, why can’t I go to one of those parties?” 

“You want a guy to stick his hands down your pants?”

“You know what I mean.  I spent the night watching TV with Zack. I may as well be back home,” Dave said. “Was the Star Trek guy there?”

 “Edgar?  No, he wasn’t.  I haven’t seen him anywhere and haven’t heard from him since I blew him off,” Ben said.  Thank God.

“And how’s your friend Todd?” Dave asked.

“He didn’t make it back to campus with me, lucky jerk,” Ben said.  He’d call Todd later for details. “Oh, and speaking of …”

 Dave turned around toward the area of the room where Ben was staring. “What, is he here?”

“No, but his roommate’s right over there in the smoking area,” Ben said. “See him, that kid who looks a little weaselly? That’s Darin, and the woman with him with the bobbed hair?  That’s Maria.  They’re always hanging out together.”

“Are they nice?”

“I don’t know.  She’s funny when I’ve talked to her, and she’s cool, but Todd doesn’t think too highly of them. I guess I wouldn’t either if they were always hanging around my room when I was trying to study or sleep.”  There was something about Darin’s overbite that Ben didn’t like.

“So, you want to come hang out by the pond after we eat?” Dave asked. “I’m going to read for a while longer.” He indicated the copy of Misery in his front pocket.

“I didn’t get any studying done today and I need to.  I need to start a paper which, by the way, is great because working at the Center allows me to have a key and I can use it in the off hours,” Ben said. “I can do all my papers there and not have to worry about the computer labs.”

“Come on,” Dave said. “Hang out for an hour. It may be one of the last nice days.”

“You said that last weekend also.”

“Well, it may have been, we didn’t know did we?”

Ben thought a minute.  “All right, I’ll go.  Maybe I’ll get lucky by the pond.” 

#

“And there goes Todd’s little friend Ben … Benny … Bennaboo,” Darin said. “Why are we eating here anyway?  You said you hate the Oak Room.” 

Maria took a drag of her cigarette. “Don’t question me,” she blew the smoke away from Darin. “And I hate the weekdays here, not weekends.  Why isn’t Lars here, wasn’t he supposed to stay over last night?”

“He was, but he said he wasn’t feeling well and he went home.” Which was bullshit. Lars just didn’t want to fool around.  He was so moody. “I’ll fuck him tonight.”

“But Todd will be home,” Maria said.

“So what?  Maybe he ended up going home with somebody like Jeffrey Dahmer,” Darin said.

“Well, that’s morbid,” Maria looked around. “I have to get off campus soon; I can’t stand looking at these kids anymore.  Let’s go shopping anywhere that’s open.” She stubbed her cigarette out in the remains of her ziti.

“On the bus?” Darin asked

“I’ll drive,” Maria said, pulling set of keys out of her pocket and dangling them in Darin’s face. “We’ll find something.”

“Since when do you have a car?” he asked.

“Since always,” Maria said. “I don’t let many people know because I don’t want to be a taxi.” 

“Then I’ll definitely go,” Darin said. “I’m ready.”

“Then get ready to walk because unfortunately I’m stuck in the D-lot and we need to trek almost a mile to get there.” 

Chapter 19: Sex and the Single Undergrad

Is That What You’re Wearing?

The humid summer weather came back to campus at the end of the month.  Temperatures were in the low 80s by noon.  Ben walked out of Spanish class and was trying to tie his jacket around his waist with little luck when he spotted Jeremy, in his Lycra shorts, sitting on the wall by the Fine Arts Center reflecting pool (empty as always due to leaks). 

“Well hey,” Ben said.  “Are you heading to the gym?”

Jeremy gave him a puzzled look. “No, why?”

“Never mind.”

Jeremy, Ben had learned, took things seriously and didn’t get sarcasm.  But then, you’d need to be serious with Arturo as a boyfriend.  Ben had learned that Arturo wasn’t just being friendly when he’d seek out the new kid in the room. There was an inappropriate hand on the ass, or brush against the crotch, usually followed by a “just kidding.” But Arturo wasn’t always kidding. Apparently that monogamy didn’t exclude groping green undergrads, but Jeremy never acknowledged if he saw anything. 

Jeremy kept his distance from most of the other guys his age. Ben had yet to see him acknowledge either Richard or Tobe.

“So where are you off to?” Jeremy asked him.

“To the fabulous dining hall,” Ben said. Stop with the adjectives, you sound like an idiot. “Are you on the meal plan?”

“I am, but I ate.  I’ve got to study for a chemistry test.”

“Hard sciences, ugh,” Ben said. 

Jeremy didn’t react. “Are you going to the party Saturday?” he asked.

“No where? Here on campus?”

“No, in Hampstead at Josh and Sharon’s.  Have you met either one?”

“I’m not sure; I’ve been introduced to so many people so far…”

“Josh has a ponytail, he’s Richard’s boyfriend?”

“I don’t know Richard all that well.”

“Sharon is short, shaved head,” Jeremy continued. “About two hundred pounds …”

Ben had definitely seen her in the UGLBA office.  She’d struck Ben as being unfriendly and moody. 

“What time does it start?”

“No idea. I figure Arturo and I will get there at about nine or so, but call me and I’ll give you directions.  I’d go with you, but Arturo and I are going to see La Femme Nikita beforehand. Hold out your hand …” 

Ben stuck out his hand, palm up. Jeremy turned it over. “You won’t sweat it off on this side,” he said, taking out a pen. He wrote his number down.  It occurred to Ben too late that he could have just used a piece of notebook paper, but it was nice to have Jeremy holding his arm.  The pen tickled.

“I’ll write it down as soon as I get back to the dorm,” Ben said. “Thanks.”

“You should go.  A lot of us will be there, and it’s easy to get to.”

“But the buses?” Ben asked.  The idea of going to a party alone made him uneasy. 

“What about the buses?” Jeremy asked.

“I can barely afford a can of soda at the snack store, how much does it cost?”

“You are new.  Dummy, during the school year, all the buses are free,” Jeremy started walking backwards, still talking. “Call me tonight.”

Ben nodded.  He looked down at the number on his hand.  Jeremy had nice handwriting.  

Sex and the Single Undergrad

“I think I ought to be paid extra just to put up with Sabra leering at my tits the entire time,” Julia said.

“You don’t have tits,” Maria said.

“That’s what makes it extra annoying.”

“Does she mentally undress you with her eyes?”

“She does everything. I must turn her on.  She’s always, always nervous when I talk to her, she looks away, she stammers …” Julia said.  She was exaggerating.  Sabra had barely glanced her way most of the time but she needed to keep Maria amused.  They didn’t have much to say unless they tried to outdo one another. 

Working at the Center was proving to be as fun as a dirt nap.   Macon Brigham was ineffective.   He’d developed a nervous tic that made him blink and wince as though somebody invisible was constantly throwing a punch at him.  He had also been claiming to have the highest IQ recorded.  Carlos, the lone grad student employee, was convinced that Macon had lied about his car accident to make people feel sorry for him but Carlos was another story.

When Sabra was in the office, Carlos made a show of huddling over the file cabinet.  When Sabra was out, Carlos sat on the couch reading old issues of The Advocate that would be missing the pull-out personal ads by the time they went back on the shelf.

Julia had only worked with Ben that first day he was there; she had no idea of his work ethic. 

“The newsletter comes out once a month, so I barely ever have to be there, but I still get keys to the office so I can use the office whenever I want, to use the computer or whatever after hours.”  Not that she planned one spending too much time in a University office that had been converted from a resident director’s apartment. 

Maria snubbed her cigarette out on the steps. “Cedrick fucked me in the ass the other night,” she said. 

Julia wasn’t sure how she was supposed to respond to that. “And how is Cedrick?”

“He’s great,” Maria said. “You should definitely meet him, maybe Jonah could come too.”

“Jonah’s so busy DJing that I barely see him,” Julia said. “So you’ve been dating Cedrick nearly three weeks?  A new record.”

“Almost.”

“Going to some fancy restaurant in Hampstead to celebrate that you can’t afford?”

“There’s no such thing as a fancy restaurant in Hampstead,” Maria reached for her cigarette case and opened it. “Empty.”  She threw the back in her bag, then continued to stare into it frowning. “Oh wait, wait, I have something to show you, did you read this one today …” Maria pulled a copy of The Patriot out.

“Why do you read that shit?” Julia asked. 

“I don’t, but I bumped into Terri in the Student Union and she was on the warpath,” Maria said. “It’s here in their editorials.”

“The entire paper is an editorial, it’s a lame paper run by stupid white men,” Julia said. “The Young Conservatives suck.”

“It’s still more amusing than The Daily Centaur, and it only comes out once a month.” Maria unfolded the paper, and read the headline. “’Gays begin annual recruiting drive’ and look, there’s a photo of Ryan and Macon at the table.” 

Julia took the paper from her.

“Oh damn, I just missed having my picture taken that day and I was looking so pretty.  I can pretty much figure out what the article says.”

“You should respond to it in that newsletter you’re working on,” Maria said.

“Maybe. I have some pretty definite ideas of what I’ll do, but I don’t want the newsletter to give these idiots any more publicity.”  Which was somewhat untrue; Julia would have loved to respond, but Sabra was making it clear that she had the ultimate veto power and had said she didn’t want to be caught in the “petty battles” between student groups. 

Julia was sick of thinking about Sabra. Time to change the subject. “So, how well did Cedrick fit inside your butt?”

Chapter 8: Meanwhile, Across the Concourse...

Meanwhile, Across the Concourse…

Summer and all its wonderful freedoms felt so far away and classes hadn’t even begun, Maria Levett mused.  Classes starting up again was too big a price to pay for the luxury of free local buses. 

Once Min had delivered the news about the smoking lounges, Maria grew increasingly annoyed and walked out on the meeting.  She ended up at the Campus Center.  She looked at the items for sale, considered buying a “Thelma and Louise” poster but decided against it as she didn’t feel like defending the movie to people accused it of “man hating.”  She bypassed the student group tables, the credit card companies and the academic freak show for a sofa in a dark corner.

Maria asked herself the same questions every year:  Why had she moved back into the dorms?  Why was she even attending this school?  During the summer, Maria had lived in a nice apartment in town, could smoke whatever and whenever she wanted, her roommates were never there - which was good considering who some of her overnight guests had been.  The dorms sucked with their stupid, archaic rules.  Fuck Min.  He was just an RA.  There was no need to act like a damn cop over the smoking. 

The campus center resembled an airplane hangar and it also sucked, but at least she could still smoke there – or had that changed?   When she’d been dating Laertes -great name, small dick- across town at Alden College (and how long did that relationship last, one week, two?) the Alden campus center in all its moneyed glory depressed her and Maria decided there would be no more dating anybody in the area who went to a better school, men or women.  It was too depressing to see all the amenities offered at the other local schools.  A Green Tree Women’s College student – all the students at Green Trees pronounced the entire name of the school- she’d hooked up with at a dance once told her that their students were served milk and cookies in their dorms every night. That didn’t appeal to Maria. It was too goodie-goodie.  But at least the other schools in the area got something besides more and more repressive rules.

Maria had only herself to blame for being here, and that pissed her off the most.  She wasn’t an in-state student. Maria was from western Pennsylvania, the middle of nowhere.  When she was five, her father lost his teaching job, and they had moved in with his mother in the leafy Riverdale district of The Bronx.  Maria remembered that as being one of the better times of her life.  After two years, they moved back to Pennsylvania, her parents divorced and the grandmother died shortly thereafter.  Maria had never returned to The Bronx.  But on this hick campus, all Maria had to say was that she’d lived in The Bronx, and everybody got the idea that the half-Dominican/half-Jewish girl had been raised on the streets.  It was an impression Maria didn’t bother to correct.

Maria had been lured to the University by the Hotel and Restaurant Management program but lost interest after a semester and declared a History major.  That had also been a mistake.  But it was almost over.  Maria was, at long last, a senior.

“Got another one?” a voice said.  Maria looked up.

Julia Wood.

Julia who was smart enough to live off-campus in a large two-storey house with other on-campus housing refugees dubbed “The Queer Ghetto.”  Julia with the hot black DJ boyfriend who let her do whatever she wanted.  Julia from the well-off family only Maria knew about.   Julia always got the better deal. 

“What are you doing here? Classes don’t start until Wednesday,” Maria fumbled in her for a cigarette in its silver case.  Butterfingers. She fished one out and handed it over.  Julia took out her silver lighter emblazoned with her initials.

“Oh, I’ve got shit to do; I was just visiting the guys,” Julia pointed in the direction of the table.  Ryan still looked glum and Macon was talking to some students at the Poetry Club table next to theirs. “Thank god they put them as far away from the Young Conservatives as possible this year.”

“Oh, yeah, right,” Maria said. 

“I’m here because I need to locate my chem. professor and beg to make up an incomplete. There’s a rumor he’s on campus today and I need to trap him,” Julia said. “He made me wait all summer until he returned my phone call, so I’m not letting him off easy. Asshole.” 

“You still have incompletes too, huh?” Maria asked. “I have two that I’ve never bothered to try and finish. Now I need to so I can graduate and get out of here. Yay me.”

Maria watched Julia smoke.  If Maria had anything on her, it was that Julia wasn’t beautiful, barely attractive at first glance. Julia was tall, pasty, limp hair, dark, horn-rimmed glasses, but she still managed to have charm.  When Maria had joined the UGLBA her sophomore year, figuring a three week fling with the girl in the dorm room next to hers enhanced her eligibility, she and Julia had been wary of one another, both sensing that the other was vying for the title of “center of attention.”  Julia had been in the group longer and didn’t like it when anybody took the spotlight away from her.  Eventually, the women decided that the best thing to do was to form an alliance.  And that included sharing some secrets, like the fact that Julia didn’t consider herself a lesbian or even bi.  Maria asked Julia why she would pretend that but Julia pointed out that she’d never pretended to be anything. Nobody had ever asked.  Maria thought it was strange, but didn’t pursue it.  Julia had a way of twisting language and reason around to always get her way.

 “Get this,” Maria said. “The dorm smoking rules are being restricted.  People have complained it was too smoky in the smoking lounges.”

“Lame,” Julia said. “And starting this week, nobody can smoke in the UGLBA office anymore either.” 

Julia and Maria had both voted to keep the smoking in the office, despite the walls turning gray over time, but they were overruled.  Maria had threatened to never set foot in the office again, but a week later she’d been back, having nowhere else to hang out that she found even semi-tolerable.

 “You should have taken the upstairs apartment with Terri like I told you to,” Julia said. “But you waited too long; Colleen and Geordie have it.  You shouldn’t have gone back to campus housing.” 

 “How is life in the ghetto?” Maria asked. 

Julia grimaced. “We’ve been there three weeks.  Terri and Heather have broken up, and now Heather is talking about moving out.  It’s made things interesting.”

“At least they’re in separate apartments,” Maria said.

“Thanks god for small favors, but if Heather leaves mid-semester, Richard and I are screwed on rent.  Terri keeps her roommates.”

“And how’s living with Richard?”

“Fine.  He and Tobe and Ryan are out all the time,” Julia dropped the cigarette on the stone floor and stomped it out. “Okay, I need to get the fuck out of here and hunt down Professor Langley. And before I forget…” Julia took several fliers out of her purse. “Put these on the bulletin board on your floor to entice the newbies.”

Maria looked at the fliers. “These are ugly.  Did some queen design these from his hospital…”

“I already made that joke,” Julia said. “It didn’t go over well.”