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Part XII: 1988- End of Innocence
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
It'd been the first thing she'd thought of it. Call it desperation. Call it disgust with Kirk, and the awfulness of what had happened that night...
Kirk had to be the one responsible for covering it up...Jason had emphasized He and Him.
Who else could it be?
"Or so we tell ourselves when the choices presented to us our perhaps the most difficult." Galdamez raised his solo cup of fruit punch. "Or when we don't look hard enough." He took a sip. "Oh, dazzling Dionysus! I do believe this punch is spiked!"
"Well I can't have any. I'm supposed to be pregnant," Jamie gave a quiet laugh, "And now I have to find a pharmacy. I don't suppose you can help any?"
"I wasn't offering!" Galdamez replied, before suddenly downing the punch with enthusiasm. "I'm afraid I've helped you all I can, dearie. But don't fret. Should you stay the course, your voyage will soon be over!"
"I'd stop the world and melt with you..."
"Oh," Galdamez's eyes fluttered. "Excuse me! I must go and reminisce! This decade...'twas a very special time for me, indeed." A tear came to his eye. "I must go. Good luck!"
And so he disappeared into the crowd, the task assigned and the memories flooding back faster than he'd like.
Jamie clicked her tongue and breathed deeply. And as she began to walk out, she recalled the rant her father had delivered, the day Mary Ellen Muffet had broke Bartholomew Quint's heart, by faking a pregnancy.
According to the rumor mil, she'd gotten a positive test result by either sticking the test in Cola, or peeing in it, and then blowing it with a hair dryer...
She had no idea if it would work, but what choice did she have?
"Hey!" Paula called, racing down the little path from the pool house, "Hey, wait up! Jane! Janey! It's me!"
A few boys wolf-whistled at the unrestrained aerodynamics Paula's, er, carriage were performing as she wobbled along in her go-gos. She didn't seem to notice, or else not care very much.
***
"What the hell was that?" a statuesque blonde appeared in the still-open pool house doorway, looking off in the direction of Paula, and Jamie before her, before looking back at the boys, "Sounded like Another World in here."
"Nothing for you to worry about, Pam," Sam said assuredly, palming his pool cue from one hand to the other.
"Oh, that's nice. Real macho, Sam. All my fears and doubts have gone poof just like that," she snapped her fingers.
"Well, if you wanna make something to worry about, you're more than welcome..." he smirked at her from across the pool table, lining up another shot.
"You're off center, Sam."
"You can't just walk into the game halfway, and start telling me how to play."
"Your funeral," she walked to Kirk, her hips swaying back and forth in a shimmering green chemise. Sam was unable to take his eyes away, causing him to screw up his shot.
"Oh, son of a bi..."
"What's going on, Kirk?" she cocked her head to the side, "Don't softball me around, either. Paula looked pretty tripped out."
"She always looks like that. It'd be news if she didn't."
"Not now, Sam," Pamela looked at Kirk, "I heard something about my birthday party?"
-Paula, Pamela, and Sam
"Nothing is going on, sis," Kirk growled, towering over the petite Pam. "What is it with crazy chicks tryin' to goof me around today?"
Jamie looked back to see Paula.
This might get complicated...
"What's up?"
"I'm not a chick, Kirk. I'm your sister, and your bullshit doesn't work on me."
"It's nothing to do with your honor, Pam, if that's what you're worried about," Sam said lazily. Pamela turned back to him, smirking, "Oh, my honor? Is that a thing we're talking about now? I didn't think we cared about that in these fallen times of ours."
"You think it's sexy talking like that, don't you?" asked Sam, "Like you're so smart and sophisticated."
"Well, I'm something next to your Fred and Barney act," Pamela rolled her eyes, "But when I see a girl running out of here like she's just been exorcised..."
"Oh, she's got some demons, alright," Sam laughed haughtily, "You wouldn't believe."
"Oh, so that's what it was, huh? Some at-home exorcism?"
"Baby, you know I'm for it..." his eyes were alight with an almost animal sense. Pamela smiled despite herself, flicking her attention to her brother for the barest moment.
***
"I wanna help you!" Paula panted, "Listen, I know we just met tonight, but...don't get me wrong...you don't seem like you've got a lot of friends."
She looked long and hard at Jamie's clothes, apparently drawing on deep wells of human charity not to say whatever she was thinking, "Look, I don't wanna make judgments or anything, but I know Kirk can be a lot, and you're gonna have everyone and their Daddy stacked against you anyplace. So, if you want a nice place where nobody judges you...yanno, for the..." she stage-whispered, "Piss test. I know one."
-Pamela, Sam, and Paula
"It's nothing," Kirk continued his attempts to get Pam off their backs as he hit his next ball. "Just a girl and her lies. Probably a downtowner looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. Well, she can bite me, for all I care."
Jamie was quiet for a minute, maybe two...
What kind of place?
"Maybe she already has," said Pamela thoughtfully, turning to Sam, "Wanna get a drink?"
"What, now you wanna be friendly?" Sam cocked an eyebrow.
"I want a drink," she cocked an eyebrow, "What, have you decided to abstain?"
He grinned, "Forget it. See ya, Dev. Sweet dreams and all the rest of that," he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Pamela rolled her eyes at the touch, but didn't shrink away either.
***
"St. Mary's Home for Wayward Girls!" Paula said chirpily, fishing around in her purse for a dinged up laminated card that, among other things, smelled strongly of bubblegum, "It's part of our school. Well, not really, but sort of. Like, the nuns run it just the same. It's an orphanage, but they also do, like, counseling and women's self-defense and stuff. I volunteer on the weekends. We've got to get, like, a gazillion service hours in so we can graduate. It's not bad, and you feel good to be doing stuff. Just give 'em a call. They'll take care of ya. Get ya whatever you need."
-Sam, Pamela, and Paula
Jamie tentatively took the card, and said, "Thank you. I really appreciate it."
She wondered how Paula would react to knowing that her sister worked there, or the fact that she was lying about being pregnant...
"No problem! Us girls gotta stick together, don't we?"
"Sounds pretty hot," drawled a new voice.
Paula turned on her heel, rolling her eyes, "Really, Foster?"
"Wasn't eavesdropping," Jimmy lifted his hands as if in surrender, "Just taking an evening stroll."
"I bet. Who invited you?"
"Nobody. I came to bail my sister out."
"Who invited her?"
Jimmy cracked a shit-eating grin and Paula rolled her eyes, "Forget about this one. Total burnout."
"Who're you going with again?"
"Jason is not a burnout. He's gonna be valedictentorian."
"Sounds contagious."
"Forget it," Paula readjusted her purse on her shoulder, "You watch out, okay? I'm rootin' for ya."
She took off. Jimmy turned to watch her go.
"It's my winning personality. Nothin' better for clearing a room, and it don't smell as bad as not showering."
-Paula and Jimmy
"Charming," Jamie said, giving a small smile, "So, you're Jimmy...Foster?"
Noah mentioned having a relative named Jimmy. Not that she'd ever met him...until now that is.
"That's me. You may be familiar with my sister, Sal. Or, at least, she must've been with you, since she sicced me on ya before those perfumed prep school twats could ooze on ya, or whatever they were planning."
He cocked his head to the side, "You go to St. Mary's, or are you slumming it on the government like us common schlubs?"
-Jimmy
"I'm thinking of going to the local community college," She had no idea what she wanted to do yet, "Is it any good?"
"Fuck if I know," he shrugged, "I'm dragging myself through junior year. It isn't pretty."
He observed her warily, "You got some kinda beef with Kirk Devlin? Sucks for you," he got a pack of Camels out of his faded denim jacket, lighting one up in a practiced gesture, "Bad guy to get on the wrong side of. Got a lot of clout with the lemmings."
-Jimmy
Well...considering her suspicions of him...yeah. She had a beef with him.
"It's complicated," She replied, "You know him?"
"Everybody in this swampshit town knows him," he extended the case of Camels to Jamie, cocking an eyebrow in an unasked question, "Star of the lacrosse team, Daddy owns a couple of banks, doesn't know how to shut up... You get it. Real delightful person. They've probably got 'em everywhere. Our model's just more obnoxious than most."
-Jimmy
Jamie turned down the offer.
"I can tell. He's an asshole."
"Sister's a piece of work too, if that's any judge," he shrugged, "But I don't know about that."
He narrowed his eyes at Jamie, "So, what? You come out the bad end of a fling with him or something? Come to get your reparations or whatever? No judging if you do. If I'd screwed and got screwed by some rich chick, that would've been Mission 1 for me too."
-Jimmy
"You could say that," Jamie folded her arms, "I'm pregnant. And he's the only guy I've been with."
She shook her head, "I'm not looking to get married, but if he needs to accept responsibility."
Jimmy regarded this in silence for a while, before somewhat self-consciously putting the rest of the smokes back into his pocket.
"Well," he said at length, "That's a bitch, huh?" he exhaled a plume of smoke into the gloaming, "So, what does that mean? 'Responsibility'? Keeping in mind you're talking to a guy with limited experience of it."
-Jimmy
"My dad's words. Not mine," Jamie clarified, "He wasn't exactly happy when I broke the news to him."
"I bet. If my Pop could put a tracker on my sister whenever she leaves the house, he would. Me, though...I could come back with worms, lice, and scabies, and all I'd get is a 'Oh, you rascally scamp'," he snorted, "But what does it mean? Like, for you? What's 'responsibility'?"
-Jimmy
"I don't know...be apart of their life, I guess?" Jamie shrugged, "Don't be a deadbeat."
"Right," he chuckled softly, "Doesn't hurt that he's loaded. I mean, wouldn't want the little guy to lose out."
Jimmy was quiet for a while, looking Jamie over out of the corner of his eye, "I guess you must want it. The baby, I mean. Otherwise, why not just..." he made a sort of 'snipping' gesture with his free hand, which he seemed to think demonstrative of the concept he was alluding to, "You know?"
-Jimmy
"Yeah," Jamie said after a moment, knowing what he meant, "I want him."
"Him, huh?" Jimmy smiled, "Isn't it a bit early to know what it is? Or is that just...like, you want a 'him'?"
-Jimmy