Summer after graduation, like most of my previous summer breaks, flew by. The difference this year was that Mikey and I wouldn’t be returning to high school in the fall. We were already in mid-to-late August and planning for our move for college. After Jennifer and Mikey split up, he finally told her that he intended to go to Washington State University with me.
My desire to attend WSU was due to their veterinary school and the reputation of the program. There were five vet schools in Idaho but only the one in Washington State. Applying to an in-state program would have been cheaper for me, but after I visited WSU and knew I just had to study there. I liked the professors and the small town vibe of Pullman. The university was just far enough away from home to feel like I was on my own so I could experience being an adult. Sharing an apartment with Mikey or pledging to the same frat house was our goal.
Even though Mikey and I had enjoyed a fair amount of freedom as teenagers, our parents loosened the strings even more after our eighteenth birthdays. Not much changed considering I lived on a small allowance and Mikey bagged groceries for nine bucks an hour, but we enjoyed hanging out at each other’s houses. Kathleen, his mother, was super cool and loved having the both of us there. My folks felt the same way about Mikey, so we came and went as we pleased; eating far too much, working out, and having a lot of sex.
We wondered if our parents felt any different about our frequent sleepovers now that we were officially a couple. If they had, nothing wasmentioned so we kept up the same routine as usual with me staying mostly at Mikey’s almost every night.
Mikey seemed more like himself after we graduated. He remained slightly more serious than I’d remembered after that Sunday when I’d found him in his room acting odd. He explained he was trying to be mature and act more like a man, so I let up on him since he had been doing precisely that. He seemed to have grown up overnight and sometimes I felt like I was lagging behind.
He wasn’t a braggart about grades and scholarships, but Mikey was a star pupil in high school. Besides being a stud athlete, he always made the honor roll as well. He graduated second in our class and was given some odd title that he couldn’t have cared less about. I didn’t tease him because I couldn’t even pronounce the name of the title. I believed he made sure his GPA ended up just a hair under Keith Gillie’s so he wouldn’t have to give the Valedictorian address. He denies it of course.
I brought up the change in him several times, even trying to say it in a complimentary way so as to not be accusatory, but he’d simply shrug and say he was growing up. I pushed harder one night because I was tired of his simple answer so he finally did expand on why. Of course, what he’d said that one time was all I’d needed to hear.
“I want to be the best for us, Coop,”he’d stated.“I need to act like a man to be a man so I can take care of us.”
“I’m going to be a vet, Mikey,”I’d argued.“I’ll make plenty of money for us.”
“Not that kind of take care of you. I want to protect you and always be there for you,”he’d stated.“I need to be a man to do that.”
I stared at him after his declaration. He was serious, and the tenderness in his voice was so sincere and incredible that I burst into tears. I think it was that precise moment and those tender words that proved to me how much he’d matured and that he did truly love me. I never questioned him again.
My cell buzzed and it was him texting to let me know he was off to work and would either see me at my house or his after nine PM. I watched for him from my window until he came out of his house and waved. He hatedwearing his khaki slacks, a shirt, and tie. I insisted he looked handsome. He said he looked like a Mormon missionary, to which I replied,even hotter.
I let him know I was meeting Hastings at McDonalds to catch up and say hi, and that Jen would probably be there.Suit yourselfwas his response. I loved that about Mikey. He just wasn’t jealous and never held grudges.
* * *
“Where’s the ball and chain,” Hastings asked when I joined them at a table in the back. Jennifer had her head resting on Hastings’ shoulder. Apparently she’d landed on her feet just fine after the blowup at prom.
“Work,” I said. “Till nine again.”
“Jesus, dude. Your summer’s ruined because Mikey works so much,” Hastings said.
“He did the same last summer,” Jen added, dipping a fry into a chocolate shake. Mikey jokingly mentioned her French fry dipping trick to me in the past. I watched as she slowly slid it across her lips as she gazed at Hastings, before moving it back and forth into her mouth. Poor, poor, Hastings. From what I’ve been told, he’d better plan on having blue balls.Should have stuck with me.
“We’re going out to Campbell Lake later, “ Hastings said. “Why don’t you come along? Megan, Greg, and a few others will be there.”
There was nothing more I’d like to do than go swimming. The temperature was higher than ninety degrees and I wanted out of cleaning the garage but knew my dad would be pissed if I didn’t.
“Can’t,” I stated, trying out Jen’s fry to shake method. “Not bad,” I said, winking at Hastings.
“I fuckin’ wish,” he complained.
“I promised I’d clean out the garage for my dad,” I said, getting back to the reason I’d have to miss hanging out with the old group, a gang to which I was thrilled I still belonged to. I wasn’t a great swimmer but I would’ve loved the cool lake and the company.
“Next week then,” Hastings said.
“Must be nice being loaded, and not having to work,” I added, motioning toward Jen’s BMW. “We don’t even have a car,” I bitched.
“We?” Jen asked. “As in you and Michael Hill?”
“Yes, that’d be us,” I said, hoping that Jen had let stuff go by now. Prom night had done major damage to her reputation and thankfully she was heading to Seattle and a new school to stab her way back to the top.
“So,” she began, turning to Hastings. “You were right, Michael Hastings.”
It annoyed me the way she insisted on using full names. “How’s that?” I asked, stupidly taking the bait.
“This Michael said the two of you would be together forever,” she explained. “He says you guys are the marrying type and that you’d probably had your hearts set on one another since like, forever or something.”
