One of the fun things about writing stories is how so often they take you in a different direction than you'd planned. This chapter definitely did that, but as James and Kellie made their choices based on what felt right, it seemed wrong not to do the same.
As always, thank you for reading. I'd love your feedback, if you have any.
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March 19, 1990
1.
The knock on my door woke me out of a very intense dream. I somehow got "Come in" out of my mouth, and my dad opened the door.
"Hey Jimmy."
"Hey Dad." I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "What's up?"
"Your mom and I are about to head off to work, and I wanted to talk to you real quick before we go."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Everything's fine. Are you doing okay? I know that there must be a lot of things going through your mind this week."
I chuckled. "You could say that."
"You know if you need to talk, Mom and I are here. You may not believe it, but we were 18 once, too, and we've gone through that whole 'everything seems to be changing at once, and even though it's good, it's a lot' phase."
"Thanks, Dad. I'm doing pretty well right now, actually."
"That's great to hear." He paused. "I know you're heading into the city this afternoon to meet up with Kellie and her aunt. You know which trains and stuff?"
"Yep. Wrote everything down."
"Good. And you remember what we've talked about regarding safety, right? The city isn't like where you grew up or even here."
"Let's see. I'm supposed to carry my cash in my hand at all times and run out in front of buses with my eyes closed, right?"
"I'm not kidding, son."
"I know, Dad. I will be careful. I don't want me or Kellie getting hurt."
"I know you don't." He paused again, pulling a small paper bag out of his jacket pocket. "Speaking of not getting hurt, I got you these."
He handed me the bag. Inside was a small box. When I opened the box, I saw the word "Trojan" and turned bright red.
"Dad, we haven't, y'know..."
"I get that. And this isn't like 'now go use these.' It's, well." Dad took a deep breath. "It's that you are Kellie are both 18, and you're both adults, legally allowed to make your own decisions. I just want to know that if you two do decide to fool around, you're protecting yourself - and her."
"Th...thanks."
We heard my mom calling from the front door that she was ready.
"Be there in a second," dad called out.
"Have a good day at work, Dad."
"I'm sure your day will be better. Be home by midnight, okay?"
2.
The plan was for me to be at the hotel by 2. That would give them about three hours for the campus visit, plus travel time, plus a couple of shopping errands they wanted to take care of. I'd offered to go with them on that part, but Kellie had just laughed and told me that they had "ladies' jobs" to do, and that she might just have a surprise for me. It meant that we'd have time to travel to the Field Museum of Natural History and spend a couple of hours there before we got dinner and did whatever else we wanted to do that night.
I was so worried about being late, though, that I ended up taking the 10 am train, leaving me with three hours to kill. I'd wisely (as it turned out) brought a couple of library books and my Walkman in my backpack, along with the box my dad had given me. I felt like everyone who saw me would know they were there, and I kept having to tell myself that many of the adults around me may very well had condoms in their wallet or purse and that I wasn't unusual.
Hanging out in the hotel lobby for three hours, however, seemed like a good way to make someone think I was a creep, so I found a coffee shop where I could just be one of the random folks hanging around.
The time passed, as time always does, and I made my way to the hotel at about 1:45. I asked one of the clerks if I could call Kellie's room, but she said she'd call for me. They had a brief conversation, and I was told that they'd be down shortly.
My heart jumped when I saw Kellie step out of the elevator. She was wearing a knee-length skirt and a purple sweatshirt, obviously from the school she'd just visited. She ran up to me and gave me a big hug and kiss, which I returned with a quick lick of her lips. As always, she just felt right in my arms.
"Did you have a good visit?"
"I really did! I'll tell you all about it, but the short version is that tomorrow's visit with have to go really well to beat out today."
"That's great, sweetie! Shall we?"
Kellie took my hand and her aunt walked alongside us as we made our way to the bus that would get us close to the museum. Aunt Jenny wanted to see the museum, too, and it was fine with me.
We didn't get super long to visit, given that the museum closed at 5 that day, but it was amazing. They had so many cool artifacts from all over the world, including from a mummy's tomb, plus some incredible dinosaur and other fossilized animals. Kellie and I were already talking about when we'd get back to visit, after she started school.