Chapter 2, Finale
The Hospice nurse arrived to pick up any remaining items that could be utilized for other patients. I embraced Carmen and thanked her for the support and care she showed us during a very difficult time.
I helped her pack up the items she considered useful and as I was placing them in a bag, Frank walked in with some empty cartons. After three years of marriage, I still felt like a newlywed and embraced him.
The truck was filled to bursting and my father left with Janelle for the storage facility. Only a few items remained and with Frank by my side, we quickly packed the remainder.
Amy's apartment was finally empty; everything she owned was packed in boxes and destined for storage. Shortly new tenants would inhabit the space not knowing the joy and sorrow that transpired within these walls.
I looked around at the bare walls and tears welled in my eyes. Frank knew I needed a moment by myself and left to wait in our car. I sagged with my back against the living room wall and remembered past events in a linear fashion. I saw myself at college and...
One: My father put the last two boxes in my dorm room and I followed him like a dutiful daughter to the car.
"Drive carefully." I stated in an adult voice and embraced him.
When I saw tears in his eyes, it surprised me. My father was not demonstrative with his emotions and I rarely saw him cry. My feelings of love for him welled up inside of me and I sprouted tears as well.
"Why are you crying? I asked him.
"I'm going to miss you Jessica. I know I don't say it enough but, I love you." He declared with honest emotion.
I squeezed him tight and gave him a buss on the cheek. Knowing how much he cared for me had my eyes flowing like a faucet and I watched till he drove out of sight.
"Homesick already?" a voice questioned behind me.
"Julie!" I squealed with delight when I turned and saw who the voice belonged to.
Julie was a friend of my sister Amy's.
"Amy swore me to secrecy. I'm the R.A. (resident assistant) on your floor." She stated with pride.
Julie and I reminisced as we walked back to my room.
"Anything you need just knock on my door" She stated succinctly.
Later that day I met my roommate and we seemed compatible. Like me, Christa was an education major and as I discovered over the course of the semester, fun loving and sweet.
When I went for the preliminary try outs with the swimming team, my recorded times were well below what I accomplished in high school. Afterwards, I met with the coach and discussed the injuries to my leg and knee. We agreed that I should continue my lap swimming regimen but only Monday thru Friday. He insisted that I add the element of strength training and I was assigned to a sophomore member of the team for guidance.
Life in a college dorm was a noisy and sometimes chaotic affair. Occasionally, I would visit Julie in her room for a small dose of quiet. I met her boyfriend and we started hanging out as a group with Christa joining the mix.
Because of my dedication to swimming I never drank alcohol to excess in high school but, college was a different matter all together. Away from my father's and Amy's supervision, I was a prime candidate for a journey to excess.
Julie's boyfriend, Tyler, always had beer or something stronger. Parties in the dorms were common on Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the R.A.'s didn't seem to mind as long as the party was under control and didn't get out of hand.
On many occasions, Christa and I had to support each other as we staggered back to our room. One morning, I woke still dressed and on top of my bed. At first, I didn't see Christa but there she was, lying on the floor fully dressed.
With Sundays spent nursing a hangover, little studying was accomplished. When I saw my mid-term grades, I panicked. I had a "C" average except for a "B" in Freshman English.
When I made my nightly phone call to Amy, she knew something was amiss.
"Jessica; is something wrong?" she inquired.
Amy was the only person I could confide in and not expect immediate retribution. I spilled my guts about the partying and grades. She was quiet for a moment or two.
"I guess you better buckle down and study harder or Dad will have your head on a platter." She declared factually.
Amy was the brainy one in our family. I was gifted in the art of troublemaking and had to apply myself when it came to my studies. For the remainder of the semester I gave up excessive drinking and discovered I still had a good time.
During my "abstinence from excess" phase, a peculiar thing happened. Tyler, unbeknownst to Julie, hit on me. Christa and I were always wearing skimpy outfits when we visited Julie and Tyler. Several times, I noticed that Tyler took every opportunity to look me over when he thought I wasn't paying attention.
As with Allison, I knew he wouldn't be looking if he wasn't interested. I tried my best to ignore him, especially because he was Julie's boyfriend. I remembered some of Amy's college advice.
"Guys' will want to have sex with you and it doesn't mean they like you. They just want to have sex and get off." She stated with the knowledge of past experience.
Tyler was good looking and had the lean "swimmers" type body that turned me on. One weekend Julie went on a girls' only trip to the beach and Christa went home to see her boyfriend.
I resolved to spend the weekend studying and free of distractions. Friday after my swimming rehab, I was walking down the hallway in my dorm and saw Tyler leaning against the wall outside my room.
"What's up?" I asked with a curious but suspicious tone.
"Just thought you might want to party a little." He stated in a flat voice.
Alarm bells were going off in my head but I ignored them. I invited him in and it was like inviting Count Dracula to a blood bank. Tyler had some pot which I had never smoked but watched him and Julie enjoy on several occasions. Their exhaled smoke probably gave me a contact high but with my consumption of booze I couldn't tell.
He had some imported Beck's beer which I had grown fond of on previous weekends. However, I was determined not to succumb to Tyler's obvious plan to take advantage of me while his girlfriend was away.
Music played in the background as I drank my first beer quickly. Tyler was smoking up a storm and I started to get woozy. After my second beer, I knew that I was feeling the effects of his smoke cloud in my room. And, I discovered something about pots effect on me. It made me horny as hell!