Donny N' Marie

The next day Donny decided to surprise Marie for New Year's Eve, so he bought a plane ticket to her hometown. He refused to let their first New Year's Eve pass without kissing the girl he was planning on marrying. His flight was scheduled to land later than nine in the evening.

8========D<

When Christmas was over, the alumni committee began getting ready for the New Year's Eve party. The third day after Christmas, Marie realized she hadn't talked to Donny since Christmas night. She knew that he and his mother were leaving Corpus Christi the day after Christmas, but she'd neglected to call him the night after they got home.

I'll call him tonight, she thought to herself. She had no more than completed that thought when her phone rang. "Speak of the devil," she said out loud. She looked at the caller ID only to find it was Mindy Hanrahan.

"Hi, Mindy," Marie greeted her new friend.

"Oh, I'm so glad I caught you, Marie. Someone broke into the gym and trashed all the decorations."

"Oh no. Why would they do that?"

"Everyone seems to think it was some punk kids looking for booze. Dumb asses should know it's a dry party."

"Well, that just sucks, Mindy. What can I do to help?"

"A few of us are going to go redo everything. I can't get a hold of half the people I was supposed to call. Can you help us?"

"I'll be down there in twenty minutes."

"Thanks, Marie. You're a lifesaver."

Twenty minutes later Marie started on a task that would keep her occupied right up until the party started.

8========D<

"Bye, mom. I'll see you in the spring."

"Donald Henry Osborne... you better not even think of leaving me here all alone on New Year's Eve without so much as a goodbye kiss."

He went over to where his mother was sitting and gave her a big hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"Are you sure you want to go that far, Donny? This girl hasn't called you in three days, and I hate that you might be going thousands of miles just to get your heart stomped on."

"I don't know what I'll find mom. I know it's killing me to be away from her though. I tell you what...If I get my heart stomped on, next semester I'll enroll in Austin."

"Baby, for your sake then I hope you go all four years on the coast."

She kissed him on the cheek, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to flow. He too was fighting off tears when his friend Patrick honked from the driveway.

"I love you, mom. Happy New Year!" he called out as he bounded out the door. As the sound of Patrick's car faded, she said between sniffles, "You too, sweetheart. You too."

Donny and Patrick had been out drinking enough times during the previous two weeks that Patrick knew his friend's state of mind. They'd talked all about Donny's plan for a few nights.

"Dude. Are you sure you still wanna do this? It sounded great when we were stoned, but now I think you could be headed for some shit."

"Let me guess. She's too hot to stay faithful to a chud like me?"

"Well I wasn't gonna call you a chud, but you have the right idea. I know you don't want to hear this, but this chick ain't called ya in a week and you don't think she's out with an old boyfriend. That to me sounds naïve my friend. And to think you could have bagged Samantha Jensen last night instead of crying in your weed about this other chick."

"Motherfucker, you didn't see a single tear from me. Ain't nothing to cry over until I know the whole story."

They pulled up to the terminal and Donny got out. He gave Patrick a fist bump and told him not to get too fucked up.

"Happy New Year, you pussy-whipped bastard," Patrick said as Donny closed the door. Four hours later Donny was in Marie's home town.

8========D<

The students busted their asses all night and the gym looked even better than before it was trashed. There was still enough time for everyone to go home and get ready for the party. Luckily they could wait until the second to clean up and they'd have help from the school custodians.

Marie was dead tired, but she looked forward to the party. She'd just got out of the shower and was dressing when she realized she hadn't talked to Donny in quite some time. He'd called her twice but she'd been too busy to answer, always promising herself that when she took a break she'd call him. But the breaks were few and far between.

She was wearing only a towel. She picked up her phone to call him and looked at her alarm clock. "Enough time to have some phone sex with my poor neglected guy," she said out loud to the empty room.

Her first call went straight to voice mail. Odd, she thought as she began getting dressed. After each piece of clothing, she'd call with the same result. By the time she was dressed and ready for the party she was sure that Donny was ignoring her on purpose.

Finally, just after she got to the party, she tried one last time. This time when it went to voice mail she was upset. "Damn it, Donny," she said. Just then one of the girls on the committee came over, acting a fool and pinched Marie's butt. Marie thought it was one of the guys and unloaded. "You immature perverted fucker! Why do you have to be such an asshole?"

She turned to see it was Shannon and laughed. "Damn it, girl. If you were a guy I'd have kicked your butt. Only one guy is allowed to grab me there." Then she realized that she'd been leaving a message for Donny.

Oh shit, she thought. When she looked at her screen to push # to make the recording start over, she realized that her phone had dropped the call.

I hope that didn't save, she thought. She called again. This time when it went to voice mail she said "Happy New year, sweetheart. I can't wait to talk to you. I have been so crazy busy. Please call me. I love you." Maybe it dropped before it recorded that first message, she thought hopefully.

The party was going strong. Dancers filled the gym floor and revelers filled the tables. Even though no alcohol was being served, there was still plenty going around. Marie spent most of the night dancing with her brothers and father.

8========D<

Two guests at the party were Stacy Dove and Michelle Foster. They didn't dance with anyone; they only sat and ridiculed the others. Stacy would make a rude comment about someone or another and Michelle would echo the sentiment.

Inevitably, their conversation turned into a weird game. "You know who would make an awesome couple, Michelle?"

"Who?"

"Steven Goodall and Ramona Simon."

"Goody two shoes and super semen slut? Yeah, I can see that happening," Michelle answered with an eye roll.

"How about Jerry Damien and Luther Grace?"

"Oh yeah. Jerry's a racist homophobe and Luther is black and gay. Why not be more realistic?"

"Like?"

"Like Marie Ormond and Frank Kruchten."

"Hell they're practically married already," Stacy said facetiously.

"I know. Don't they make a sweet couple?"

"I know. Don't they make a sweet couple?" "Marie Ormond and Frank Kruchten." "Hell, they're practically married already." Did I just hear that? Donny asked himself. He had been at the party for only a few minutes. He had planned on finding Marie and then approaching her at midnight. In his jacket pocket, he had a sterling silver chain with a jade Buddha he planned to give Marie. It was an exact match of a necklace Roman gave to Julia to seal their love.

Donny saw Marie dancing with a tall handsome well-muscled guy. Her head was resting on his shoulder. Donny's heart fell several stories watching the couple. When the dancers turned, Donny recognized her brother, from the photos in her dorm room, the one who was over in that fuckin' war.

At 11:50, a pretty brunette got up on the bandstand and took the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen," she began. "I am Amanda Stewart and I'd like to introduce you to some people who made this evening possible." She rattled off a bunch of names that meant nothing to Donny.

He had almost worked his way over to where Marie stood when he heard a name he knew. "Frank Kruchten."

I forgot that asshole went to school with Marie, Donny thought. He was about to tap Marie on the shoulder when he heard a second name that he knew. "Marie Ormond."

He watched Marie rush up to the stage as the brunette announced a couple of other names. Then it happened. One moment Donny was all smiles, watching Marie on the stage. She was radiantly beautiful; then in his world turned to shit. Frank grabbed Marie and kissed her deeply.

It wasn't a congratulations kiss; it was a soul kiss in front of a crowd of applauding onlookers.

"Marie Ormond and Frank Kruchten. Hell, they're practically married already. I know. Don't they make a sweet couple," ran through his head as he turned and headed out the door and out into the night. He managed to hold his sobs until he was safely back in his rental car.

He sat there for a minute until his eyes quit watering. "Fuck her then. She wants him she can have him. He started the car and drove back to the airport. He contemplated going back to Texas and his mother, but he didn't want to hear how right everyone had been about the girl who was too hot for him. Instead, he bought a ticket back to school.

In the gym, all people could talk about as the countdown to the new year began, was how Marie had kneed Frank in the groin, and then with one single punch, knocked Frank out on the stage; everyone except Craig Zander. He had seen the kiss and then a guy moving quickly out of the gym had caught his attention. He made it out to the parking lot in time to see his roommate leaving. "Damn slut," he swore under his breath as he walked to his car.

8========D<

As Donny was buying his one-way ticket back to school, Marie was icing her hand. "Damn, sis, you got yerself a mean right hook," Wayne teased. She threw him a look and he said, "Pweese don't punch me out," as he broke into gales of laughter.

Oh shut up and hand me my phone. There's someone I desperately need to call."

Marie felt better as Donny's phone rang instead of going to voice mail, but he didn't answer. "I should have been better about calling him," she said as she began to cry.

"Come on, sis. It's New Year's Eve. He's in Texas which is two hours ahead of us, so he's probably passed out by now."

Marie agreed outwardly with him, but she felt deep down that something was wrong.

The days between New Year's Day and the day Marie drove back to school were long and frustrating. She tried calling Donny daily and never got an answer. She even contemplated calling his mother, but then she realized that there were too many Osbornes in the Houston area to try to call them all.

8========D<

She did see Donny's roommate Craig one afternoon leaving a convenience store, but he seemed to try to avoid her. Her parents and brothers kept coming up with reasons why she might not be reaching him; his phone might be shut off, his mother might have switched carriers, but then why didn't he call and tell her the new number?

The only excuse any of them came up with that might be plausible was that Donny had done something and gotten his phone privileges taken away. "You'll see," her brother Jimmy said after coming up with that one. "He'll have a lame excuse like his phone was stolen by roving gypsies or marauders, but he got grounded."

Every time she stopped for any reason on her drive back she called. When she finally reached the college she drove through every parking lot in the dorm area to see if his car was there. Finally, she gave up and went to her room.

Maybe he'll be waiting in there to surprise me, she thought to herself. When she opened her door all she found was a padded envelope with her name on it that had been pushed through the mail slot. She got excited when she recognized the writing as Donny's.

She opened the envelope to find a jade Buddha necklace. Just like the one Roman gave Julia in our story, she thought. She was overjoyed that Donny had bought her something, but horrified that she hadn't gotten him anything.

Also in the envelope was a thumb drive. She unpacked quickly and plugged the thumb drive into her laptop. When she opened the drive she saw three files. One was titled "Readmefirst.Doc," the second was their story file, and the third said "readmelast.Doc."

She opened the first one and read the document. "Marie, Here is all of my work on the completed story for writing. Do with it what you want but I ask you to read it first. You can take full credit even... I no longer care. "

She was tearing up. "Why is he being this way?" About that time her roommate Dawn walked in. She immediately asked Marie why she was crying. Marie told her about getting busy and neglecting to call Donny and how he wasn't taking her calls.

"If I were you I'd just go tell him to grow the fuck up. So you got busy. Let's read what he put in the story."

The story went along just as they had outlined it until Donny forced the couple to part ways for a few weeks. At this point, he had begun to write strictly from the male's point of view. Roman called Julia every day for the first few days. Julia seemed to want to talk to him less and less until he stopped calling her and she never called him.

Marie realized that it must have been just like that for him. He had called her each time, not once had she called him. As she read on she became apprehensive.

In the story, Roman decided to surprise Julia with a gift; a jade Buddha on a silver chain. She and Donny had come up with that early in their outlining. It was to play a pivotal part in the story.

When Roman got to a party where he thought Julia would be, he heard people talking about her pending nuptials to Perry. He had been just about to tap Julia on the shoulder and surprise her when the party emcee calls the two of them up to the stage.

"Oh God no," Marie sobbed as she suddenly knew where this was headed. She barely made it through the part where Perry kissed Julia in front of the celebratory crowd. At that point, Roman left the party and went home.

Roman moved back to his home town and tried to put his life back together. Perry and Julia lived happily ever after and often laughed about how they'd played Roman for a chump.

"It didn't happen that way," Marie sobbed. "Where's the part where she punched him out?"

"What? Who'd you kiss?"

Marie went on to explain how Frank had kissed her at the New Year 's Eve party. Dawn laughed when Marie talked about punching Frank's lights out. "But he left before I hit him. He didn't see. He didn't see."

Marie finally opened the last document. "Yes, I was there. I heard them talking about you two being a couple. I'd ask why you two had to drag me into your sick little game but that would mean talking to your lying ass. If you ever had any genuine feelings for me, please leave me alone. I'll only be here until the end of the year. I wish you and Frank good luck."

8========D<

A full month after returning from break, Donny still hadn't gone to many of his classes. He'd avoided creative writing completely figuring his work on the story should count enough to get the credit for that class. He had parked his car at a storage facility within walking distance of his dorm.

On Valentine's Day, he went on a double date with Craig and his girl. Donny's date, Simone, was everything a guy could want in a girl, but she wasn't Marie. Late in the evening, when Craig and his girl had gone off to be alone, Simone snuggled up to Donny and felt him stiffen... and not in a good way. "What's wrong, Donny? Look. I like you and I am not a slut. I won't push you. Chelsea and Craig told me what that other girl did to you."

"Don't get me wrong, Simone. You're great. You're everything I want in a girlfriend. But I can't just jump into bed until I'm in love. The worst part is I am afraid to love here. Next fall I'm going to the University of Texas. I don't want to lead anyone on."

"I understand. Look. If you change your mind feel free to call me. I'd like to kick that bitch's ass for hurting you."

8========D<

Valentine's Day found Marie waiting until after class to speak with professor Knoffler. She had only been waiting for a few minutes when he entered his office.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Miss Ormond?"

"It's about my writing partner or lack thereof, Professor. How am I going to finish this story on my own?"

"Ah yes. Mr. Osborne did send me the final draft of the story. It was very dark and upsetting, but in all ways, an acceptable work, wouldn't you agree?"

At that moment Marie let loose all the tears she'd been holding in for weeks. Professor Knoffler gave her the sympathetic ear she so desperately needed. When he'd heard her out, he told her his plan. Marie agreed to do one thing the professor felt would go a long way to fixing things.

"It may or may not work, but it will put you two in contact, and you can explain exactly what happened."

"Thank you, Professor. Maybe we can give the story a happy ending after all."

Donny had managed to avoid Marie since returning to school, but not Frank. Frank had heard through the grapevine about the demise of their relationship. Donny was nursing a hangover in the student union when Frank saw him.

"Well well, asshole. I bet you feel pretty fucking stupid now risking your ass for a whore who was using you. I'll bet you never even got to find out just how nasty the little whore could be."

Donny remembered the feel of taking her virginity, the softness of her lips and tongue, the force of their kisses and the first few moments afterward when she confessed her love for him.

"Fuck off, asswipe. What more do you want, huh? You've got her. I don't give a shit anymore."

"Oh, I've got her, you fucking hick. I had her in every position imaginable while we laughed..." Frank was stunned by the speed of the fist flying at his face. He was even more surprised when a huge black blur stopped the fist inches from his face.

"You don't want to do that, son," said the soulful voice of Luther Baxter. Luther was the starting tackle on the football team. "All you'll get out of it is trouble. Now move along." Donny realized he stood no chance against this mountain of humanity so he turned and walked away.

You should have kept your stupid ass in Texas with all the other inbred fags," Frank yelled from behind him. He was about to shout an answer but Luther's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Motherfucker, you might want to shut your pie hole. Half the guys who will be protecting your skinny white ass from being sacked are from Texas. Don't mess with Texas, son."

As Donny got out of earshot, he knew how he was going to deal with Frank. Thank you, big guy. Thank you, he thought as he smiled for the first time since Christmas.

8========D<

His smile was short-lived, however. When he booted up his laptop he found an email from Professor Knoffler, not requesting, but demanding his presence in his office the next day at noon sharp to discuss the "story" he had written. "Ignoring this request will carry dire consequences," the final line of the message read.

"Fuck," he said out loud.

"What's with the foul language dude?" Craig asked.

Donny showed him the email. "He probably pissed off because he couldn't wax the carrot over my story."

"You should have let Superslut finish it."

"That was my intention; I just wanted him to see how much of it I did. She could have finished it any way she wanted."

"Well, you should go see what the guy wants. Maybe he'll give you an out."

8========D<

At 12:30 the next day Donny sat in Professor Knoffler's office waiting. Twice he contemplated leaving a note telling the Professor to fuck himself, but in the end, his need to defend his work won out. He could hear the professor talking to someone in the adjacent room, but he couldn't tell who.

Finally, the professor walked into the office and slung his jacket over the back of his chair and sat. For a moment, they sat in silence. Donny was about to say something when Professor Knoffler finally spoke. "So, Mr. Osborne, would you care to tell me what happened to the eroticism of yours and Miss Ormond's story? I asked for erotic and feeling, you gave me sad and depressing. Well written, but far from what I asked for."