The following Saturday Nancy had her lunch at the snack bar again – as she did most days – and once again Logan was there at the same time. She thought she’d made a friend out of him the previous week. Over the course of the next week, they’d been very friendly toward each other, just as friends, someone on campus each of them knew and liked. She and Logan had a lot of classes together, and they’d often stopped to talk briefly before and after classes, or anytime they happened to run into each other; they’d had lunch together several more times, mostly just talking about class work.

Now, it seemed to her that Logan was pretty down in the dumps again. “Hi,” she said as she carried her tray over to him. “How’s it going today?”

“Pretty lousy,” he grumbled dejectedly. “Trent didn’t go to a football game this afternoon, so he’s blaring that rap shit all through the room. He’s got a bunch of his friends hanging out with him and a couple of them are real gay-bashers. I mean, shit, worse than he is. There was no way I could hang around the room this afternoon, not that I’d want to anyway.”

Now there is a guy who needs a friend, Nancy thought. “So don’t,” she smiled. “Logan, last weekend I told you that you’re welcome to come over to my place. We can study together, or just hang out.”

“Do you mean that? I don’t want to put you out.”

“Of course I meant it, Logan. That’s what friends are for, to help each other out in times of need.”

“You’re sure?” he sighed. “God, I haven’t had a friend who would reach out to me for something like that since … well, sometime before Ronnie and I drifted apart.”

“You do now,” she replied confidently. “I didn’t … well, I didn’t have friends who would help me out for a long time, especially after I had to break up with Mary Lou. I was really surprised that Jack and Vixen and the others even were willing to be friends with me, even after they bailed me out of a tough spot anyway. I learned it’s nice to have friends, and if anything I need to pass some of it on.”

“Nancy,” he shook his head. “I, well, it’s been so long … and even from a girl. I, uh … thanks, Nancy. I really appreciate it.”

“Good,” she smiled. “Let’s get through with our lunches, then we can go over to my place where we can be friends and don’t have to put up with stuff others hand to us. I think we’ve both got things we need to talk about, and they’re things we can talk about with each other.”

*   *   *

Finally, Mary Lou thought as she pulled into the edge of Hawthorne. Maybe I can finally find Nancy this time and talk some sense into her.

She loved that girl, and she was sure Nancy didn’t realize just how much she did, or else she wouldn’t be at this godforsaken campus. If only Nancy had realized just how true their love was, how pure and perfect, she’d have been up at Meriwether where she belonged!

Mary Lou wasn’t sure if it was still possible for Nancy to transfer to Meriwether now that the semester was under way, but she didn’t care, either. True love could overcome obstacles like that. She’d already overcome a lot of them, just to get this far. Having to go down on Ray again had been disgusting to say the least, but again it got her the use of his car for a few hours. She now had about three hours to find Nancy and talk some sense into her before she had to head back, but she had every hope in the world that Nancy would be riding with her on the trip north. When she did, things would be back like they were supposed to be.

It hadn’t been difficult to get the address of the house that Cody and Jan owned. Even with her limited skills on the Internet, it had been easy to find with a search engine. There was no indication that Nancy was actually living there, but it was the best lead that Mary Lou had for finding her lost lover and getting her back.

It took a little bit of looking, but soon she found the big old Victorian house with the right number. However, there were a lot of cars parked on the street, and no place for her to park. The best she could do was a spot a block away, and then she had to squeeze Ray’s big old clunker of a car into it. She got out of the car and walked back up the street to the house.

Almost shaking with excitement, she went up to the door – it was locked, but there were four doorbells, none with any names on them, just “Apartment 1” and so forth. That didn’t tell her much of anything, so she pushed them one by one, waiting for a response. If someone came to the door, they might well know if Nancy was living there.

There was no response. What she didn’t know was that two of the doorbells didn’t work, and fixing them was one of the things Cody had on his job list when he could find time for it, and he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. As it happened, the ones that worked were for Nancy’s and Susan’s apartments, and neither of them were in the building at the time. With no responses, she didn’t have any idea of what to do next, and she had no other leads for finding Nancy. She could look for her around the campus like she’d done the weekend before, but that had turned up nothing, either.

So close and yet so far, she realized there was nothing to do but to stay around for a while and hope that someone would show up. After thinking about it, she decided to drive around the campus anyway on the odd chance she might turn Nancy up. She hiked back up the street to Ray’s car, got in, and started driving around, making a note to drive past the building frequently in hopes of seeing someone outside.

She drove around the campus for a while, not seeing any sign of Nancy, but on her third trip past the apartment building, she saw her! Finally, she exulted … but then she looked again, and her joy turned to pure anger. Nancy was walking up the street with some guy! A fucking guy! Had Nancy deserted her, her true love, for some damn man? How low and disgusting could she get?

Amazingly enough, this time there was a parking space right in front of the house. Maybe that was a good sign, maybe she was close to success now! All she had to do was to talk to Nancy, to make her see the error of her ways. What could her lover hope to accomplish with a mere a guy, instead of her?

It still took her a moment to get Ray’s car parked in the open space, and while she did, she noticed that Nancy and that loathsome guy had walked into the building together. My God, was she living with him, fucking him? How faithless! What a slap in the face of true love!

Half-mad with anger and desire, she sprang from the car and raced across the lawn to the steps to the front door of the house, fearing that it had locked behind Nancy and that man. At least now she knew where Nancy was, so the rest ought to be easy! She pushed up against the door, and realized that somehow it hadn’t latched.

There was a flight of stairs leading upward, and she could hear Nancy and that miserable, disgusting guy near the top of them. Mary Lou raced up the stairs after them, determined to have it out with her lover, show her the error of her ways. She made it to the top of the stairs just as she saw the two going into a room. My God, was Nancy going to be alone in the apartment with him? How revolting … it should have been her!

She rushed the door, managing to push it open as it was being closed in front of her. “Nancy!” she shouted. “Please! It’s a mistake! I have to talk to you.”

“What? Who? You! What if I don’t want to talk to you?” Nancy replied, angered and shocked at Mary Lou’s sudden appearance. “You messed up my life and embarrassed me so much I don’t want to talk to you ever again!”

“But Nancy, please!” Mary Lou pleaded. “Don’t … don’t … don’t … how could you betray me like this? I love you, Nancy! I’ll love you forever. Please don’t do this to me. Come back to Meriwether with me where we can be happy.”

“Get out of my apartment,” Nancy replied sharply, getting a grip on herself. “I don’t ever want to see you again, and I certainly am not going back to Meriwether with you!”

“But Nancy! Please …”

“Is there some problem?” Mary Lou heard a cool feminine voice behind her. She looked up, to see Jan Archer standing there, a hard expression on her face and a gun in her hand.

“No, there’s no problem,” Mary Lou replied frantically. “I just want to talk to Nancy, to make her see reason. There’s no reason for her to be with a guy when I love her. We have a true love, one for the ages.”

“I don’t want her here, Jan,” Nancy said angrily. “She needs to leave.”

*   *   *

With four people living in the two-bedroom apartment, it was rare for one of the residents to be there by themselves, but that was the case this afternoon. Summer was at the library researching a project, and Alan was over at the math lab in the Wyndham Science Center. The Cherokee was overdue for an oil change, so Jack had taken off to deal with that, leaving Vixen by herself.

Vixen was listening to some soft music as she studied, and hadn’t noticed anyone going up the stairs, but the sounds of yelling coming from above were unmistakable. What’s more, she recognized Mary Lou’s voice. Oh shit, here we go, she thought as she got up from the battered old couch. She raced up the stairs, hearing the confrontation getting noisier with every step she took.

The door to Nancy’s apartment was wide open, and Vixen could see Nancy and that guy she’d been hanging out with, along with Jan and Mary Lou, who was yelling at Nancy about her being unfaithful to her, with a guy of all things! How could she be so cruel?

“Hey, skank!” Vixen yelled. “You’re not wanted here, so why don’t you get the fuck out?”

“Who are you calling a skank, zit-face?”

Vixen knew that Nancy didn’t want anything to do with Mary Lou, and Mary Lou was possibly the enemy from Spearfish Lake High School who Vixen hated the most, mainly because Mary Lou had been her main tormentor throughout high school, called her things like “zit-face” and far worse for as long as she could remember. “I’m calling you a skank, because that’s what you are,” she sneered. “You may be a lesbian now, but you’re always going to be remembered as the punch board for those losers on the old football team.”

That was enough to make Mary Lou turn away from Nancy. “I don’t have to take shit like that from a pizza-face like you,” she yelled, charging Vixen, her hands held wide so she could claw this impudent nothing of a girl with her long nails.

It wasn’t the first time it had happened; fourteen months before Vixen had a very similar confrontation with Mary Lou, and Mary Lou had made the exact same attack. Vixen had the same response: she dove in, grabbed Mary Lou’s hair, and pulled her attacker’s head down right into her rising knee.

“Aiiieeee,” Mary Lou screamed as the pain of Vixen’s knee to the face struck her. Fourteen months before the same knee to the same face had resulted in Mary Lou receiving a broken jaw, and Vixen was hoping for the same result this time. It seemed like there was a good chance she’d get her wish.

“Jesus, you fucking dyke bitch, don’t you ever learn?” Vixen sneered. “Now get the fuck out of here or I’ll really hurt you!” She hadn’t let go of Mary Lou’s hair, so gave it a pull that propelled her out Nancy’s apartment door and toward the stairs to the first floor.

“Aiiieeee,” Mary Lou yelled again, managing to get her feet under her enough to stay on them as she stumbled down the stairs.

Vixen followed her out the door and as far as the top of the stairs, “And don’t fucking come back,” she yelled after her, watching as Mary Lou made it to the bottom of the stairs and out the front door onto the porch. She turned around and looked into the open apartment door. “Fucking bitch,” she replied angrily.

“Thank you, Vixen,” Nancy said. “I was afraid something like that was going to happen.”

“And I thank you too,” Jan added. Vixen only noticed now that Jan was holding a gun in her hand. At least things hadn’t gotten that far.

“If you think you broke her jaw, maybe I ought to have a look at it,” Jan frowned. She was an EMT after all, and had a lot of concern for others.

“Naw, the hell with her,” Vixen shook her head as she started for the stairs. “I better get downstairs and make sure she really gets the hell out of here. If I did break her jaw and she’s in pain, maybe that’ll remind her how I really feel about her.”

*   *   *

Mary Lou wasn’t thinking about much other than her pain as she staggered out the door, down the front steps, and out to Ray’s car. Fortunately it was just out at the curb, because her jaw was in such incredible pain that she could hardly think at all. She knew that her jaw had been broken again – it felt the same as it had a little over a year before, except that this time it was worse. She got behind the wheel and somehow managed to get the car started before Vixen came out on the porch.

Only as she drove away did the thought cross her mind that her attempt to reason with Nancy had turned into an incredible failure. Nancy hadn’t listened at all, and she was there in her apartment with a guy! How could Nancy be so faithless? That really hurt, and hurt in a way even worse than what Vixen had done to her jaw. She and that damn guy were probably up there balling each other right now!

The only thing she could think of was to get back to Meriwether. There wasn’t going to be any reasoning with Nancy today, not with Vixen around ready to hurt her – and Jan there with that gun! Through the cloud of pain that almost overwhelmed her she hoped that there would be a chance later to straighten things out …

*   *   *

“Thank you, Jan,” Nancy said as Vixen headed down the stairs. “I was afraid that was going to happen. I’m sorry to have caused you any problem.”

“It worked out,” Jan sighed. “She was so frantic that she wasn’t paying attention to the fact that I had a gun, and I’m afraid it would have been difficult to get her attention. I guess we both owe Vixen on that one. She really broke up the standoff.”

“I only hate Mary Lou,” Nancy shook her head. “Vixen downright despises her.” She turned to Logan. “I’m sorry about that,” she told him. “I wasn’t expecting that to happen.”

“It’s not all bad,” Logan smiled at her. “It shows that you have friends who’ll help you out when you need it. That was the girl you broke up with, right?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Well, it’s easy to see why,” he sighed. “You sure did the right thing on that.”

In a moment they heard Vixen coming back up the stairs. “God, Summer is going to be pissed at me,” she said, her anger obviously fading a little now.

“Why’s that?” Jan said with a frown.

“That’s the second time I’ve broken Mary Lou’s jaw with that same damn move, and Summer missed seeing it both times.”

“You really don’t like her, do you?” Jan laughed.

“Hell no, I’ve taken enough of that zit-face and pizza-face shit from her to last a lifetime. It feels good to hand a little bit of it back to her.”

“You know,” Jan replied thoughtfully. “Your face does look a lot clearer than it did when I met you a year ago last summer.”

“Yeah, it’s cleared up a lot,” Vixen laughed. “I don’t know if it’s from the birth control pills I’ve been taking or from fucking Jack so much, but either way, I’ll take it.”

It took a little while for the excitement to die down. The four of them stood around talking for several minutes; both Jan and Vixen were on the alert in case Mary Lou returned, though Vixen said she made sure the downstairs door was latched and locked. Eventually after they had dissected the incident in about every way that it could be done, Vixen conceded that she’d better get back to the books, and so did Jan. They soon left Nancy and Logan standing there in the apartment.

“I’m sorry, Logan,” Nancy said again. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, but everything ought to be over with now. You’re welcome to stay if you wish.”

“I’m glad you’ll let me,” he said. “I mean, though, if this has you too upset, I’ll be glad to go.”

“No, I’d be happier to have you stay with me right now,” she smiled. “I really don’t want to be alone, and you can see why. She is what I wanted to put behind me.”

“No fooling. God, a girl like that could go a long way toward turning a straight guy gay.”

Nancy took a moment before she replied. She wanted to make a statement that she knew could build a friendship or ruin it. Either way, she couldn’t help but say it. “She could also drive a lesbian to guys,” she said finally. “It may, uh, have happened to me.”

“You think?” he said, looking into her eyes, and understanding her a lot more than he had before.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “But, well, I take a look at her and I wonder if a guy might not be a better choice.”

“Nancy, you’re saying that you’re not sure how much you want to be a lesbian?”

“I guess I am,” she sighed. “Oh, hell, I don’t know how to say it. I’ve never been sure how much of a lesbian I really am. I mean, I have doubts, and I’ve always had them. Mary Lou just added to them.”

“Nancy,” he said softly. “I understand. I really do. I, uh, wouldn’t want to admit it to some of the people I know, but I think I can say it to you. I guess I’ve had the same doubts.”

“About whether you’re gay?”

“Right,” he nodded. “I mean, I could never say it around Ronnie, mostly because he sort of led the way, but after he faded from my life, I began wondering.”

“I see,” she sighed. “Logan, I think we have more to talk about than I thought.”

“I do, too. I mean, I have doubts I’ve hardly been willing to admit to myself.”

“Let’s get something to drink and sit on the sofa,” she smiled. “I think we can reveal our deepest secrets to each other a little more comfortably if we’re sitting down.”

*   *   *

Mary Lou was in real pain as she drove Ray’s car back up the road toward Meriwether. Her jaw, her mouth, hurt incredibly, at times so bad that she couldn’t see straight. The pain came in waves, sometimes several minutes apart; several times she had to pull to the side of the road to let a spasm pass.

She knew what had happened since she’d experienced it fourteen months before, when Vixen had broken her jaw the first time. She had no doubt that it was exactly the same thing again. In her more lucid periods, she tried to invent in her mind the most exquisite tortures she could administer to the girl who had caused her so much pain, but they were always washed away with the next spasm of agony that came across her.

The miles back to Meriwether seemed long and incredibly arduous; it seemed as if she’d never get there. The pain increased as she realized just how thoroughly Nancy had rejected her for the sake of that smirking guy! The more she thought about it, the more that mental pain became even worse than the physical pain in her jaw. In the back of her mind she realized she needed to do something about it, somehow, but right now wasn’t the time.

By some miracle she finally managed to make it back to Meriwether College. She pulled to a stop in an open space in front of a fire hydrant at Ray’s dorm and shut off the car. She sat there for a moment in a degree of relief, knowing that she needed to go find Ray to give him back his keys. It was too damn bad that this had worked out so poorly, but maybe it would go better next time. The relief faded as yet another spasm of pain came onto her. She’d been so focused on driving, on getting back to Meriwether, that she’d managed to fight off earlier ones, but this one was worse and she could do nothing but let it overwhelm her …

“Mary Lou?” she heard distantly. It was Ray’s voice … how could he have gotten here? “Mary Lou, are you all right?”

“Nooooo,” she mumbled. “Hurt. Mouth. Hurts.”

“Jesus, it looks like someone whacked you a good one,” Ray said. “I think maybe I’d better take you to the emergency room or call an ambulance.”

“Noooo,” she pleaded, but her heart wasn’t in it. She wasn’t aware of much after that – another spasm of pain came across her jaw, so intense that she wasn’t aware of anything for a while.

She was only vaguely aware of flashing red lights, of some hands lifting her out of the car, putting her on a gurney. She was even less aware of riding in the ambulance across town, only vaguely aware of the bright lights overhead as she lay on her back in the emergency room. The pain of someone probing her jaw was incredible, and it made her want to scream, but all she could do was mumble, “Nancy … Nancy … I love you.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.