Laura, Jim and I

I was sitting on the hood of the car parked in front of room 128 when the door opened and they came out. She saw me and her face lost its color. Her eyes couldn't meet mine and she looked away. As I slid off the hood of the car he put his hands up in a defensive gesture and I said:

"Don't bother. Neither one of you is worth wasting my time on."

I walked over to my car, got in and drove away. There was a long story that led up to that confrontation.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I met Jim when his family moved into the house next door. He was eight, the same age as me, and the only other boy in the neighborhood. There were several girls close to my age, but Jim and I were the only boys. We naturally gravitated toward each other and by the end of the fourth grade we were as tight as twin brothers. We played Little League baseball and Pop Warner football together. I had his back and he had mine. If you were messing with Jim you were messing with me and vice versa. We were inseparable all the way through high school.

I met Laura when I started tenth grade and we started dating. By our junior year we were going steady. Jim had hooked up with Annabelle Spears and they were going on double dates with Laura and me. The night of the senior prom Laura gave me her virginity in the room next door to where Jim and Annabelle were doing the same thing.

High school graduation broke us up. Jim had no interest in going to college so he joined the Navy. Annabelle called him every dirty name in the book for running off and leaving her, but even so she said she would wait for him to get a permanent duty station and then she would join him.

Laura and I went to college. Me to Eastern Michigan University for a degree in Civil Engineering and Laura to University of Michigan for Information Technology. U of M in Ann Arbor and EMU in Ypsilanti were only a half hours drive apart so Laura and I were still able to maintain a more or less steady relationship. I say more or less because a couple of times Laura cancelled a date with me in order to go out with some guy she met at U of M, but of course she didn't tell me that part. I got that information from friends who also went to Michigan and they also told me that she dated on the nights that I didn't drive over.

It came to a head one night when I drove over and got there just in time to see her get in a car with some guy and drive off. I followed them to a restaurant out on Ann Arbor Road, gave them ten minutes to get inside and get situated and then I followed them in. I found them in a booth in the back and they were sitting side by side and not across from each other. He had his arm around her and she was making no effort to push it off or move away and put some distance between them.

Luckily there was a booth on the other side of the room where I could sit and Laura couldn't miss seeing me, but it wasn't until the waitress asked me what I'd like to drink and Laura heard my voice that she looked my way. I was pretending to read the menu and was not looking right at her, but I saw her eyes get big and she suddenly pushed the guys arm off of her and moved away from him. The look on his face as she did those things said plain as day "What are you doing?" That look told me that this wasn't the first time they had been together or even the second or third. They had been together enough that he felt comfortable putting his arm around her and he knew that she was okay with it.

I have no idea what they talked about, but Laura kept nervously looking my way while I sat there and pretended that I hadn't seen her. I finished my meal and then got up and left without once letting Laura see me looking at her and then I drove on home.

++++++++++++++++++

The next day was a Friday and Laura and I had a standing date for dinner and a movie on Friday night. That Friday night I skipped our date. I didn't call and cancel; I just didn't go. I unplugged the phone and settled in with a good book. Saturday I went to a party at the Delta Phi house and had a great time. I met a dark haired beauty named Robin, we danced a couple of times and she gave me her number and asked me to give her a call.

Sunday I had my head in the books preparing for Monday's classes when my doorbell rang. I got up, went to the door and looked through the spy hole and saw that it was Laura. I opened the door and she pushed by me to enter the room and then she turned to me and said:

"Where have you been? Where were you Friday night and why haven't you answered your phone?"

I closed the door, turned to her and asked her which one she wanted me to answer first.

"What?"

"That was three questions. Which one do you want me to answer first?"

"Don't be cute Rob; what is going on?"

"Okay then, I'll do them in the order that I like. First – where have I been. Here for the most part although I did go to a frat party Saturday night. Next – why haven't I answered the phone. That one is easy. I haven't answered it because it hasn't rung. My bad of course since I am the one who unplugged it. Then there is "Where were you Friday night." I was here. I called out for a pizza and spent the evening reading a very good book."

"Why didn't you call me and let me know that you weren't coming over?"

"I figured that you already had something going with your boyfriend."

"My boyfriend? What are you talking about Rob? You are my boyfriend."

"Oh? Well then who was that you were all lovey-dovey with at the restaurant Thursday night?"

"He is just a guy I know and we were not all lovey-dovey."

"Sitting next to you hip to hip, you leaning into him and his arm around you isn't lovey-dovey? What then would you call it?"

"It didn't mean anything Rob. We are just friends."

"If you didn't think you were doing anything wrong Laura why didn't you get up and come over and say hi. How about maybe asking me to join you so you could introduce me to your friend? Maybe sit down with me and say a few words before going back to join your date? Could it be that you didn't do that because then he might want to who I was and you didn't want to tell him?"

"Why didn't you get up and come over if it bothered you so much?"

"Because I wanted to see how you behaved."

"See how I behaved? Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I have too many people telling me about how much you date when I'm not around. I've also been told that you have been out with guys on nights you have broken dates with me so yes, I wanted to see how you behaved with another guy."

"You don't own me Rob. There isn't anything saying that we are exclusive."

"I thought there was Laura. I seem to remember giving you my class ring and my letter sweater as signs that we were going steady."

"Letter sweater? Class ring? Going steady? Oh come on Rob, that is just so high school."

"Maybe, but it happened in high school and when we left high school I don't recall you giving those things back to me and saying, "We are out of high school now so all bets are off." But that's okay. Since you don't feel like it binds you I guess I can look at it the same way. I did meet a nice girl at that frat party and she did give me her phone number so I guess I'm now free to give her a call."

Laura got a nasty look on her face and snapped out, "Fine! Go ahead for all I care" and she walked out. After she was gone I thought about how she hadn't made any excuses, hadn't said that she wouldn't do it again and hadn't tried to convince me that I was her one and only. As far as she was concerned she wasn't a high school girl any more; now she was a grown woman and things were going to be different and that pretty much told me to write her off. It wasn't going to be an easy thing to do since we had been together for so long, but better to find out where her head was at now than later.

+++++++++++++++++

I had a ton of homework Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it was Thursday before I got a chance to call Robin. We talked for a while and then made a date for Friday night. I picked her up and we went and had dinner and then instead of a movie she decided that she wanted to go to a party she knew about. It was at an apartment in Belleville and we got there just a little after eight and wouldn't you know that it just had to happen? The first people I saw when we walked in the door were Laura and the guy she had been out with on Thursday night.

"Oh fuck!" I said.

"What's the matter?" Robin asked.

"Them" I said as I pointed to Laura and the guy.

"You know them?"

"I know her."

"You know Miss Piggy?"

"Miss Piggy?"

"That's her nickname."

"Why does she have a nickname like that?"

"She's a slut. A real pig so someone hung the Miss Piggy tag on her."

"Are you sure that she's a slut?"

"What else would you call a girl who has a steady boyfriend that she says she is going to marry and who spends her time spreading for other guys when the boyfriend isn't around."

"You know this for a fact? The spreading part I mean?"

"No. To be fair about it I don't know it personally, but I've heard it from several guys who said that they have played around with her."

"You didn't say how you knew her."

"I'm the boyfriend she was going to marry right up until I caught her last Thursday with the guy she is standing with."

"Oh boy. Are there going to be any fireworks?"

"No. I had it out with her on Sunday. We are now officially toast."

"What are the chances that I would have heard from you if Thursday had never happened?"

"Slim next to none. But Thursday did happen and we came here to have a good time so hows about we get to it."

She took my hand and led me through the room to introduce me to our host. Laura, who had been facing away from us when we walked in, caught sight of me and got a shocked expression on her face. Shocked because she never expected to see me at a party like that or shocked because I'd caught her with her new boyfriend again I didn't know. I ignored her as Robin led me over to a tall man standing with a tall blond woman. She introduced me to Gary and his wife Ardis and we made small talk for a couple of minutes and then Robin led me away to get us a drink.

The basement had been made into a recreation room and it was being used as a dance floor. Robin and I danced, had a few drinks, she introduced me to some people and I had a great time. Every time I noticed Laura she was looking at me with an expression on her face that I couldn't read.

Around eleven Robin said that it was time to leave because she had something pressing to do on Saturday so we looked up our hosts and said our goodbyes. As I was driving Robin home she said:

"Your ex seemed to spend a lot of time looking your way tonight."

"Probably was surprised at seeing me there."

"No, the feeling I got was that she wasn't at all happy seeing you with another girl."

"Tough shit. She was the one who caused me to end our relationship."

"Maybe, but I don't think that she is happy about it."

"Maybe not, but she is going to have to get used to it."

"Does that mean I'm going to see more of you or that you are going to start dating all the ladies?"

"I'm a one girl at a time kind of guy. I enjoyed your company tonight and I'm going to ask you out again. Until you say no to my asking you are my one girl."

"What if I'm not ready to be hanging with just one guy all the time?"

"Then you say no when I ask and I'll go looking for another girl to date. When she gets to the point she says no I'll give you a call and see how you are. If it is still no I'll find a third girl and keep repeating the process until I find one who never says no."

"Well I do like your attitude and I can see possibilities so maybe we can give it a run."

"How about tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good."

I walked her to her door, said goodnight and as I turned to leave she told me to wait a minute. I turned back to her and she said:

I never kiss on the first date, but I guess there has to be a first time for everything" and she kissed me. "See you tomorrow" she said as she went inside.

+++++++++++++++++++

My dad was still up when I got home and he told me that Laura had called and that she had sounded upset. I told him that it was too late and that I'd do it in the morning.

As was my habit I slept in late on Saturday morning and when I got up and got to the kitchen for my first cup of coffee my mother told me that I needed to call Laura. "She has already called twice this morning."

"Not until I've had my first cup of coffee."

"Things not going well between you two?"

"Us two are no longer a two."

"Does she know that?"

"She should. She is the one who made the decision."

Just then the phone rang and mom answered it and then said, "It is for you. It's Laura."

I took the phone and said, "Yes?"

"Why didn't you call?"

"It was too late to call when I got home last night and I just got out of bed this morning."

"I don't mean that. I mean why didn't you call me yesterday evening about picking me up for our regular Friday night date?"

"We hashed all that out last Sunday Laura. You told me we weren't exclusive and you decided to date others. I told you that it was good enough for you to date others then I would too and you stormed out of the house."

"I didn't mean it Rob. You should have known that."

"Don't give me that bullshit Laura. You were already out with that clown I saw you with last Thursday."

"I was not out with him Rob. I went to that party alone and he just happened to be there."

"Sure Laura, whatever you say. It doesn't matter any way. I'm starting to hear all kinds of things about you and the things you have done. Things like how you got the nickname "Miss Piggy."

"I don't know what you've heard Rob, but it isn't true."

"Why wouldn't I believe that it's true after seeing you with your buddy at the restaurant? And I'm not buying that you just happened to accidently meet up with him at the party. He was standing way too close to you and had his arm around you when I walked into the party. No Laura, you aren't interested in sticking with just me and I'm not interested in being one of many. I would appreciate it if you would return my class ring and letter sweater. I realize that it is just too high school for an adult like you and it doesn't seem to mean anything to you anyway. See you around. Goodbye."

"That sounded pretty final" my mom said.

"She decided that being my steady wasn't enough for her and like I just told her I'm not interested in standing in line."

++++++++++++++++

I started keeping steady company with Robin and about two months after we started dating we ended up in bed together and it was then that I found out just how inexperienced I was. Laura and I had made love and it had been great, but it had been mostly all 'plain vanilla' sex. Laura wouldn't let me eat her pussy and the most she would do where my cock was concerned was kiss it and then pull it in her. We made love often, but it was always in the missionary position, but as I said it was great so I went along with the flow.

Robin was vastly different. Much, much more experienced than I was and she set out to correct my deficiencies. She sucked my cock and she swallowed. She wanted her pussy eaten before we made love and sixty-nine after to build me up for a second time. Missionary, cowgirl, reverse cowgirl, doggie and something she called the leg lift spoon were the positions she favored. She liked sex in semi-public places where there was a chance of being discovered. She kept things exciting.

I would have to say that she pretty much owned me, but somewhere deep inside myself I knew that Robin and I had no long-term future and that the day would come when she would cut herself loose from me. I hoped that it wouldn't happen, but I was still getting myself ready for it mentally.

Meanwhile, Laura made an effort to keep in touch. She sent me a card on Valentine's Day and one on my birthday. She would call every couple of weeks just to say hi and ask how things were going at school and how I was doing in my classes. I saw her from time to time at parties and she never seemed to be with the same guy twice. She would smile at me and give me a little wave, but she never tried to talk to me. Robin of course noticed and would tell me that she could tell that Laura wanted me:

"But she ain't gonna get you stud cause you are mine and I don't share."

All I could do was smile and say, "Yes dear."

While all of that was going on I was getting a letter from Jim about every two weeks or so telling me about how things were going in his life. He had finished boot camp and had gone into specialty training. He was assigned to the Naval Construction Battalion otherwise known as the Seabees. He was learning to build things and tear things down. He never asked about Annabelle so when I wrote back I never mentioned Annabelle either. Not that I would have anyway. He really wouldn't have liked hearing about what she was doing.

He hadn't been gone a week and Annabelle was putting out for some guy she met at a party. A month later he was gone and Annabelle was living with a guy she met where she worked and three months later he was history and she was living with a black guy she met when he towed her car into the shop when it broke down. I don't know it for a fact, but I heard that he had her pulling trains for a bunch of his friends in his apartment.

And then suddenly Annabelle was gone and no one had a clue as to where she had gone. At least not until I got a letter from Jim. He had finally finished training and was assigned to Norfolk as his permanent duty station. As soon as he was there he had sent for Annabelle and she had gone to join him.

"Wish you could have been here to be my best man, but we didn't have a lot of time to set things up. The sooner we could make it happen the sooner we could get on the list for base housing."

"Poor bastard" I thought, "First time you ship out she will have some other dude between her legs before the sound of the door closing behind you fades."

++++++++++++++

I wasn't hurting for money since my grandparents had set up a college fund for me the day I was born. There was enough in it to pay for college and allow me to rent an apartment off campus if I wanted to so at the start of my junior year Robin and I moved in together and I started to get a taste of what married life would be like. I liked it. After living together for about six months I began to think about making it permanent. I still had that 'itty-bitty' feeling that what I had with Robin was too good to be true, but Robin showed no sign of not wanting to continue our relationship.

That is she showed no sign until the day I suggested that we go looking for an engagement ring. That is when she informed me that when she graduated she was going back to California and would marrying her childhood sweetheart who was currently in England on a Rhode's Scholarship. He knew all about me and she knew all about the English girl he was living with.

"We knew that there was no way two healthy young adults with high sex drives were going to go several years without sex so we agreed on an open relationship. It shouldn't affect us in any way Rob, at least not right away. We still have a year before we graduate and leave."

But of course it did affect us or me anyway. Basically what it amounted to was that I had just been taken from what I thought was a romantic relationship and had been placed in a fuck buddy relationship. The problem was that I just wasn't a fuck buddy kind of guy. I needed more than just sex out of a relationship and Robin and I slowly pulled apart. The sex was there when we went to bed at night, but the everyday interaction that takes place between couples became forced and strained.

Four months – almost to the day – from the day Robin put a stop to my romantic aspirations she said to me: