Mark's story
Oh, man, I slept great! I couldn't help thinking about Jen when I got back to my student slums apartment, and it was a wonderful feeling. There was just something about her, something I couldn't define. I pulled off my clothes, brushed my teeth, and went straight to bed, and was out like a light in just a couple of minutes. I couldn't remember any of my dreams, but I woke up feeling good and happy, so they must've been good dreams. I glanced at the clock, already knowing what time it was. I never bother with the alarm, because I always wake up automatically, at 6:14 in the morning. Not 6:12 and not 6:15, right at 6:14. I figured that I could take a quick bath, shave, brush my teeth, and be at Blazer Hall around 7:15 to see if Jen could go to breakfast. If she couldn't, I'd just meet her after class.
Jen looked pretty good. I figured that she'd have been back in her dowdy long skirt again, but she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, like any regular coed, and had her long hair pulled back in a ponytail, just like last night. Her hair was so long that it reached down to the small of her back, and the ponytail had a swing of its own when she walked. All of a sudden, I felt ten feet tall: Jennifer Matthews, the cool, calm, religious girl, the girl who never made an effort to look anything but plain, was taking an effort just to please
me!
I'd never had a real girlfriend before, and walking from her dorm to the Student Center, while holding her hand, made me feel proud. While most of the foot traffic was going the same way we were, there was one guy in a fraternity jersey who was walking toward us, and I noticed his eyes checking her out.
Any
guy is proud when another guy checks out his girlfriend with a look of envy. I had been dreaming about going out with Jen, prior to our first date, but my imagination never really took me to having such a pretty girlfriend.
And that's what she was:
pretty!
I can be objective enough to know that she's not some beauty queen knockout, but she was girl-next-door cute, the kind of girl guys dream about. I think she might have had on a touch of mascara last night, but she wasn't wearing any makeup this morning, and just looked fresh and clean.
We were just making small talk for most of the morning, when she said, "Mark, I've got to tell you, my parents are coming to pick me up this evening after class. I've got to go home for the weekend." I had guessed that something like this was the case, and I responded, "Would you like me to meet your parents?"
"Oh, no, not yet! My dad would lock me away in a closet if he found out that I had a boyfriend."
Oh, my God, she just called me her boyfriend! I was about as happy as I could be over that one, and it took a bit of effort to stay cool. "They'll have to find out sometime, Jen."
"I know that they will, and I'll want to introduce you to them, but I have to figure out how to do this. I know that I'll have to talk to my mom first."
"Of course, I absolutely understand."
The rest of breakfast was uneventful, as was the walk to class. I gave her a quick kiss when she got to her classroom, and was rewarded with a bright smile and a slight caress of my hand. Fifty minutes later, and I was tearing out of my classroom, and rushing down the stairs to meet Jen as she was getting out of hers. If any of my friends had been seeing this, they'd say, "Dude, you've got it
bad!
" A really cool dude would laugh that off, but I wasn't a cool dude, and anyone who said that to me would be right!
"So, when does your family pick you up?"
"My dad will get here right around four, and we'll leave right away, to beat the rush hour traffic out of Lexington. If we wait until five, it's just murder going out Winchester Road to the Interstate, and dad really hates big city traffic."
Jennifer hesitated a bit, and I could tell that she was a bit concerned about something. "Anyway, I kind of blew off homework last night, because
some
one decided that he wanted to take up my evening," - she smiled while saying that, a very un-Jennifer turn of phrase - and I've got to catch up before dad gets here. Plus, I've got to get back to looking the way he expects me to look. Rachel put this nail polish on me, and it doesn't wear off. I'll have to get some polish remover."
"For your toenails, too? Yeah, I noticed. The sandals look good on you." That made her blush a bit!
"Oh, I don't have to take the polish off my toenails, because I'll be wearing socks and shoes all weekend. If I keep it on, it'll remind me of you."
"I don't need nail polish to remind me of you. I promise that I won't forget last night and today." Hmmm, that might have been a bit too sappy. "But I'll leave you alone for the rest of the day, so that you can get caught up on all of your stuff. Can I call you Sunday evening, or should I wait until Monday?"
"How about breakfast again on Monday? Monica and Rachel and I have some stuff to do Monday afternoon, and Monday is usually the day my professors load us up with the most homework." I knew that Jen was right about that, but it also made me nervous. Was she backing off a bit, was she feeling that I was rushing things too much? I could tell: I was about to start overthinking this.
Friday evening came, and I was back in my apartment, trying to figure out what was going on in my world. I couldn't really concentrate on studying, and I really did need to study. I figured that it was time to clean my apartment, because maybe, just maybe, Jennifer would want to come over sometime. The apartment was small, with one really tiny bedroom, just big enough for a double bed, with a small night table jammed along the side. It had a transom window that didn't look outside, but actually looked into the hallway. I suppose that was some sort of code compliance requirement from the 1920s, when this place was built. The bathroom did have a window to the outside, and I was lucky: I had a corner apartment, with windows on two sides rather than one, and on the third floor, the top floor, so there was no one walking on my ceiling. The place was plain, with old hardwood floors, and the small, white hexagonal tiles on the bathroom floor.