A/N: A short one today. Comments much appreciated!
[*]
After dropping the attendance for their respective home rooms with the secretary, Tami and Kimberley stopped, as usual, to "rest their feet" at one of the benches in the main hallway.
"So how was it?" Kimberley asked her.
"How was what?"
"You know. It."
Tami gasped. "How do you know we did it?" Tami hadn't talked about it with Kimberly yet. "Did Eric tell Jack? He's not telling people is, he?"
"Honey, Jack is not people. Jack is his best friend."
"Still."
"Still what?" Kimberley asked. "You talk to me about it. Well, you talked to me about the other stuff anyway. Frankly, I feel kind of slighted that Jack knew y'all were doing it before I did."
"I was going to tell you," Tami swore, but she hadn't really wanted to report on the first encounter. "We just did it for the second time yesterday."
"And…?"
Tami blushed a little and smiled. "It was really great the second time. We did it in his bedroom. His parents were out all evening, and we weren't rushed. It was…I don't know. Different. I don't know how to explain it, but it wasn't just sex."
"I'm jealous. I mean, not of Eric. Of y'all. together. God, I'm so horny, Tami. A girl is not supposed to be the one in this position."
"Are you really going to break up with Jack over that? You know, if a guy was breaking up with a girl for not putting out, we'd both call him a jerk."
"Not over that, Tami. It's just, we're going to be ten hours apart in college. He'll find a good Catholic girl. It's inevitable. And I'll get laid a few times before I eventually settle into a relationship with a pre-med student."
"When are you going to tell Jack?"
"I'm waiting until after graduation. I don't want to ruin his graduation. But not long after. I don't want him wasting his summer staying in Rankin as long as he can just to be with me, when he could go ahead to Oklahoma, get settled."
"How do you think he'll react?"
"I don't know," Kimberley said. "He'll probably be upset. Feel rejected. But I think he might also be relieved. He's sweet to me. He likes me. He enjoys being with me, while we're here." She waved her hand about the hallway. "But I'm not that girl, you know. The one he's going to settle down with. We're moving on. All of us. Beyond this small town."
Tami felt suddenly sad. She'd spent half her youth wanting to escape this town, and now that she envisioned it all fading into the past…it was almost like a part of her was dying. It had to die, she knew, for the future Tami to be born, but it hurt. "You'll stay in touch, won't you? With me?"
"Of course," Kimberley vowed. "You and I, we'll still be meeting up for girls' weekends when we're fifty."
"I'll bring the wine," Tami promised.
[*]
The chairs click-clacked as Tami helped Eric put them up on the tables.
"I got something for you." Eric disappeared behind the counter. Tami followed. He handed her a heart shaped cookie, on which he'd rather sloppily written in icing, Tami + Eric. She smiled. "You're sweet as sugar. I'm going to save it."
"I'll get you a bag."
With the bag tucked in her backpack that also contained her study materials for their upcoming finals, she walked with Eric back to the parsonage. "You want to stay for dinner?" Tami asked. "Or are you still afraid to look my dad in the eye?"
"I'll stay. Not long though. I need to spend some time with my mom. She's freaking out a little about me leaving the nest."
"Well, you're the last one." Tami took his hand as they walked. "I'm the first. But I'm also my dad's favorite, so…he's freaking out a little bit too. Quietly."
"That's the way he does everything. Quietly."
He glanced into the window of a jewelry shop as they passed.
"Did you tell Jack we did it?"
Eric looked from the shop to his feet on the sidewalk. "Uh…"
"Because that was private, Eric."
His hand had grown tense in hers. "Well, he asked why I looked so happy Monday morning after English. So I told him." He finally looked at her, less nervous, more defensive now. "It's not like I was bragging about it. Not to Jack. And it's not like you haven't told Kimberley."
"I hadn't. She found out form Jack."
"Oh."
"It's okay," she muttered. "I'm not even sure why I'm upset about it. You didn't do anything wrong. I guess I just…I feel that was something really special between us."
He stopped walking and turned her face-to-face. "It was something really special, Tami. And I won't talk about it anymore if you don't want me to."
"Thank you," she said softly. They kissed there in the middle of the sidewalk, while a warm spring breeze ruffled her hair.
They walked on, her arm laced through his this time. "How serious do you think Jack is about Kimberley?" she asked.
"What do you mean? They're going steady."
"I know, but, does he envision them together in college?"
"I guess. Why wouldn't he? If you've got a great girl in high school, why wouldn't you want her in college?" He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
"We're not going to be as far away from each other as they are, though."
"Only 212 miles," he said. "I can drive it in less than three hours."
"If you're going way over the limit!"
"Oh, I will be if I'm coming to see you." His tongue snaked out between his teeth.
Tami liked that cute smile of his, but she wasn't smiling. "I just...I think they're going to break up, and it makes me a little sad."
"Well," he whispered, "we're not going to break up." He slid an arm around her waist and she leaned her head against his shoulder, rested on his strength.