Chapter 5: Jasper and College
A few day earlier, somewhere past the international terminal
It had been a long flight from Tokyo, and he was just glad to be back at O'Hare. It was his last run of the month; he'd have a few days off to enjoy early summer at the lakeshore. His condo was just a few blocks from Oak Street, and there was always something nice to look at by Lake Michigan in the summertime.
His eyes caught the bounce of a brown ponytail disappearing down a jet way as he passed. He indulged himself with McDonald's before grabbing a cab back to his place that morning. The driver had one of the local music stations playing. He made a mental note to get the charity CD mentioned; it was always full of good, new music for good causes, old and new.
As the cab passed a Barnes & Noble's, he remembered he needed to pick up some kids' books for Bella's book drive. Bella. He'd offered her some of his passes so she could just get away, but she'd never taken them for fun. He'd finally gotten her to take one to see her mom in Florida. He really did like her, liked her folks too, but it was all just so much like.
Still, if they both made it single to thirty, maybe like was as good a reason as any…
He remembered the one time they had tried to go further.
It was the start of their senior year in college. He'd found her in her room, unpacking a suitcase in silence, and that had startled him. She'd loved music, usually having to be asked to turn it down whenever her door was open in the dorms.
He'd been in Germany that summer, with ROTC, and hadn't had a chance to see or call any of his friends. Andrew hadn't been due in till the next day; the least he could do was see if his old roommate's girlfriend, who was also his friend, Bella, was back and settling in "okay".
She definitely was not OK. He'd noticed that during the last two months of school she'd seemed a bit off. At that time, she'd told him Andrew had sounded worried in his letters; there hadn't been as many, or as many emails either. She was sure though that all would be better when they'd meet up after her summer courses in Paris. Andrew had been at a university in the south of France for his junior year. Before he left, he'd asked Jasper to keep an eye on Bella for him. She'd worked a lot of crazy hours, and Andrew worried about her being out and about. They'd always been friendly, now they were real friends.
She'd plopped down on her bed, motioning him to sit at her desk. He'd asked how she liked a single room as a senior, even in an underclassmen building.
"Jasper I'm tired of the seniors." She'd told him she was tired of her class. Then she'd confessed it was not her entire class she was avoiding, it was just one member of her class. It was Andrew.
She explained what had happened over the summer.
She'd arrived in Paris, and had called him to see when he could come up to show her the city as they'd planned. He'd told her he would be up next week, and that he had to run. He was busy finishing up his year. He'd been short and tense on the phone, but she had thought it was just the stress of the finals, his whole term's grade depending on just those few exams. She'd counted the days till his arrival in Paris.
"You know Jasper,he told me he'd meant to catch me on my way back to the pension and talk to me alone." Bella stated while looking out her window. Instead, she'd walked in to lunch early, to see him sitting at the dining room table with a beautiful redhead, talking to Dr. Mac, his advisor and her professor for the summer courses.
Andrew had had his arm around the redhead. Bella had watched as he kissed her cheek. She'd almost gotten a ticket right then and come straight back to the States, but she'd kept her head up through lunch and the rest of her term, even had a date with a gendarme in Montmartre. Instead of traveling around Italy for her last week abroad, she'd gone alone on the TGV and sat on the beach in the south of France. She didn't want to go to Italy alone; so she'd just sat under an umbrella and read.
Jasper was shocked. He'd no idea what his former roommate had done. He was rooming with Peter this year, in the senior quad buildings. He'd had no clue as to what to say to this turn of events. He'd been silent for a bit, and then he'd asked if he could go to dinner with her later. They'd made plans to meet up at the student union.
Before heading back to his room,Jasper had stopped at the bookstore and mailboxes. He'd been surprised to find a letter from Andrew. He'd ripped it open quickly and grown angry as he read it. If it had arrived just a day earlier he could have prepared. It wouldn't have sat all summer in his box. He could have told her. James Andrew Hunter, Jr. was a dick. He crumpled up the note and set it on fire on the smoker's patio.
It has been weeks later, after an all campus party, when he'd tried to kiss her. It was a nice kiss, but no bells had rung or skyrockets had shot off. They'd jointly decided to remain just friends. They'd graduated. He'd joined the reserves and gotten his pilot position that summer. They'd ended up in the same city; she'd even helped him find the condo.
He decided to send her a quick text; it should catch her before her flight left.
Hey, Bitty Buddie, glad to see you use the pass. Say Hi to your Mom from me and have a good flight.