When Hannah Met Jim
JD rolled his eyes. Albert Bennish, Jr., was just like his old man - a surfer dude wannabe with an almost telepathic talent for reading your thoughts and then redundantly restating them. Hanging around with him was the next best thing to owning a pet parakeet.
"I know, Bennish. Isn't it always?"
"No, man - ever come here at night, after it closes? It's a lot quieter - until a different kind of bustling gets started--"
"Never mind. Hell, why do you bother with that empty boasting? You know as well as I do that you're still in the "V" club right along with the rest of us. And so does everybody else every time you try to put over otherwise."
Always a good-natured sort, Bennish didn't take offense at that. Heck, he probably was psychologically incapable of it. "Whatever, dude. But scope out the big cock chick - I think she's putting the peepers to your package, man."
"Knock it off, Bennish. It's not her fault her surname transliterates that way. And she isn't staring at my crotch," Jim said with exaggerated dignity, "She's just coming over to have lunch with me."
Bennish just looked back at him, stoner-like.
"With…me. As in, not…with…us."
JD waited a few more beats for the message to reach the center of his roommate's cerebellum.
"Oh, right, dude. I'll catch ya later." Seeing another friend - to Bennish, there wasn't a bipedal life form on the planet who wasn't his friend - he called out, "Hey, dudette, wanna come back here tonight…?"
Looking after him, Hannah shook her head, chuckling. "Tell me you didn't have a choice of dorm roommates, JD. PLEASE tell me you didn't."
"Oh, Bennish isn't so bad, Han. Half the time he's never in the room, so I don't lose too many brain cells from such limited exposure," JD said, grinning to indicate that he was just kidding. "Besides, he's the most easy-going person I've ever met. Do you know how many assholes there are out there? I consider myself lucky."
"Well, being a GDI, I wouldn't know," Hannah replied sweetly. "Of course, If they'd make the dorms co-ed, I wouldn't live off-campus, you know."
"Yeah, I know," JD replied ruefully. Here she was again, subtly putting the make on him. Or at least he thought she was; she was very coy about it, never speaking in anything more than vague, generalized entendres. Still, it made him uncomfortable; he was old-fashioned about such things, believing that the man should be the pursuer, not the woman. And he wasn't sure he wanted to pursue her, at least not yet.
Not that she would be difficult to run down if he did.
"I've got some biology homework that I could use your help with," she continued with a wink. "Wanna come over to my place tonight to compare notes?"
Cringing inwardly, he suddenly wished his whole life would go away. "No, thanks, Han, I've got some other things to do. Can I take a rain check?"
"Sure, JD," Hannah replied, subdued by the troubledness she perceived behind his brush-off. "I'll see you around, okay?"
But JD just sat there, the remainder of his lunch all but forgotten, staring off into space at not even he really knew what.
~ ~ ~
Up until Christmas Break, JD Relleum's life had been as ordinary as anybody else's. Grew up in a normal nuclear family, with a mom, a dad, and a bossy older sister. Did well in school, became adept at the clarinet and the saxophone, developed a dream of one day becoming a pilot. His high school marks had gotten him into the top public university in the state, and he'd finished his first semester without incident. He'd adjusted well to college life, made friends, and even a girlfriend, Hannah, if and when he decided to take her up on the offer.
They had met in freshman English, and he'd been knocked loopy by her long, tawny locks and matching slender figure. But he'd also been taught almost from the cradle to take relationships slowly, one step at a time, and thus he thought they should become friends, get to know each other as people first, before getting "involved," if indeed that was ever to be.
Hannah, by contrast, had been raised with a zest for life that dovetailed perfectly with her outgoing, effervescent personality. Her parents, despite being older than that of the bulk of her contemporaries, were so much in love and enjoyed being with each other so much that she just knew that that was the sort of relationship she wanted when the time came. And she didn't see any reason why the time didn't have to be now.
She didn't need ESP to know when a boy was checking her out, especially one that let her approach him first. So when she met JD Relleum, and he turned out to be a very nice guy, she figured, "Jackpot!"
But she had to admit that she was becoming a bit frustrated. JD was letting her only so close and no closer, despite the lengthening of their relationship. And it had gotten worse since he'd gotten back from the Christmas holiday.
Being the Gordian knot-cutter that she was, Hannah decided to try and draw him out and to her at the same time - whether he was ready or not.
~ ~ ~
That Saturday, JD was startled from another reverie by a knock on his door. Since Bennish was out, as usual, and had a key to the room, there was only one person it could be.
"C'mon in, dudette, the door is unlocked," JD drawled in his best Bennish impression, hoping she'd think he wasn't in.
No such luck. "I think you'd better stick to piloting, Jimbo" Hannah giggled as she entered the room, "Impressions just aren't your bag."
"Look, Han, I don't want to be rude, but--"
"You're going to be rude anyway? Well, why not do it in person, since it's just as rude to avoid your friends, especially when you're in such clear need of one at the moment."
JD opened his mouth, then closed it. Then repeated the process. "Damn, you do have a way of getting right to the point, don't you?"
"I believe in grabbing the bull by the horns," she shrugged. "And you've got to know that I'm almost always horny," she added with a suggestive eyebrow waggle.
Jim groaned in spite of himself. Despite her ribald chatter, he could tell that she had puzzled out that something serious was bothering him and had come to be of help in any way that she could. Having been read like an open book, what had he to lose by becoming a talking book as well?
"Okay, you got me. Pull up a stump and lend an ear."
Hannah, sobering, sat down without a word.
"It's about…well, something I found out when I was home at Christmas."
She beckoned him to continue after he lapsed into silence again.
JD looked up at the ceiling, seeming to gather his thoughts. "Did you ever imagine what it would be like to grow up believing that your whole life was one way, and then once you grow up you learn that it's completely something else?"
"No, I can't say that I have," Hannah replied deliberately. "But then that's not the sort of thing most people think about. I would imagine a person only thinks about something like that when they're confronted with it. Why, what did you find out?"
"My dad," JD replied with a sigh that wasn't quite a sob, "isn't my dad."
"Huh?"
"The man that I've always known as my father, Glen Relleum, isn't my biological father. Not that that changes his place in my life," JD continued with sudden vehemence. "Or that the shitass scumbag who did beget me and then never gave a fuck to even stick around does deserve a place."
"Wait a minute, Jim. Who told this to you?"
"My mom. Who the hell do you think it was?"
"Well, did she actually tell you that your biological father skipped out on her?"
Startled by her insight, JD lapsed into another silence. "Well, no, not in so many words. But then she never really said anything about him, and she had such a sadness about her when she was telling me that I just assumed that the prick just took her and then ducked out when I came along. And," he added, looking down at his feet, "I guess I was so stunned and, well, hurt, that I didn't give my mother a chance to finish."
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LADIES IN NUDE
Russian Brides
LADIES IN NUDE
Russian Brides
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