The Other Side - Chapter 27

"The Other Side - Chapter 26" 

Becky poked her head into Jim’s room. "Hey, Jimmy boy have you seen Del — Oh my Gosh, Jim!” Becky opened pushed the door out of her way and walked into the room, her voice tender. “Jim, are you okay?”

Jim started at her entrance and attempted to hide his face - but it was too late. Becky could see that his eyes were red at the edges, brimmed with tears. She sat down next to him and gently rested her hand on his arm. He was staring at a picture of Delany and him taken on a vacation in Hollywood the previous summer. They were standing outside on the sidewalk as people rushed by. Delany was laughing hysterically as she jumped onto Jim’s shoulders, Jim’s mouth open in almost a grin as he held her up, looking like he could almost lose his balance -- an almost grin, but not quite, for fear of dropping the woman he loved. Becky recognized the street corner they were standing on as the same one in “Pretty Woman” where Julia Roberts got picked up, right down Hollywood blvd.

Jim loved Hollywood. Becky remembered the day she got an excited phone call from him telling her that soon she’d be getting a postcard from him and Delany. Possibly an autograph if they saw any movie stars. Vaguely Becky recalled a little nudge from Delany when Becky was dropping them off at the airport and Delany saying “If Jacob Jones walks the street in Hollywood, Melissa Ettison better move aside because here I come.” She had winked at Becky. Then turning she had given Jim a playful little kiss on the cheek and wrinkled up her nose at him, a habit that had slowly faded. They came back raving and laughing about their trip. They had the time of their lives.

Becky looked down at her friend, worried. "Jim?"

“Del—” Jim spoke absent mindedly, “she…went out.” His voice was shaky. Jim wiped his nose a little bit and didn’t look up from the picture.

Becky bit her lip. He had cried like this only one time before. “Did something…happen between you two?” She asked gently, massaging his back a little. “Baby, did you two get in a fight?”

“She—” He took a shaky breath. “She left to get me some school supplies.” He voice wavered. “She takes such good care of me!”

Becky's initial worries dissipated and her confusion set in. “Um, Jim, honey?” He looked up at her, his lip was shaking. This was going to need some serious explanation. “Let’s go for a walk, okay?”

So Jim dried his eyes a bit and the two of them left the apartment. His eyes were still red but he held his head up. Becky stared intently at the white sidewalk out before them, taking an occasional glance at Jim. Finally, he spoke, still a little choked up.

“Ugh, I'm sorry - it's just...yesterday…” he paused, looking into the distance, intently as if he could look beyond today and into the past and see the event that he was about to tell her about, “we came out and we were walking. Del and I. We were holding hands and she has this really gentle way of wrapping her fingers around mine. And she got this really shy quiet look that I never see her get around anyone else…almost like she has this weak spot just for me to see.” He was smiling a little now.

“I noticed she still had a little whip cream on her cheek from the fight, so we stopped a second and I couldn’t help but sort of -” He pulled up his shoulders, looking like a turtle retreating a little into his shell “I had to kiss it off…”

Becky smiled a little. Then she saw a tear run down his cheek. “Hey...” she gave his arm a little flick. “Why so blue? It’s sweet." Seeing him cry broke Becky’s heart. She never quite knew what to say or how to react. He was always the one to comfort her or tease her when she was sad.

He just shrugged his shoulders and took another breath. “C’mon, kid. I’ll buy you an ice cream cone.”

A slow grin crept onto Becky’s face. Jim was the only guy that ever fully understood and pampered her taste in ice cream. Delany wouldn’t allow it, but to Jim, Becky was his baby sister who he had to spoil. She was like a pet he carried around with him who could carry on a conversation and didn’t bark at strangers.

They were sitting on a park bench still early into the afternoon and Jim had a huge chocolate cone with gummy bears, extra fudge and lots of sprinkles (Becky had picked it out for him). She had gone all out with a banana split, which she now only regretted because of the difficulty in eating without a table.

Becky nibbled on her banana and looked at him. His eyes were still puffy, but he had calmed down. Taking the conversation off Delany had helped. He asked her a little bit about her date and what “this Gary guy” was like. She had a good time and told him so.

Becky smiled as she licked some caramel off her plastic spoon. She got a warm comfortable feeling thinking about the day before. Still, they hadn't gone for ice cream to talk about her. They sat quietly for a moment, before Becky decided to get down to business.

“Jim…”

He only shook his head. “I don’t want to go back, Becks.”

She wrinkled her forehead, confused. “Go back?”

He just shook his head. “College.” He sighed. “Not here anyway, I never wanted this…I just…” he breathed. “I just wanted to be with Delany. Becks, she’s all I care about. I couldn’t stand being away from her. But this isn’t what I want to do with my life.”

Becky looked down at the sidewalk, examining her shoes as if the answers to all the world's problems were tied up between the laces, waiting to be let loose. His story didn't surprised her. She had been surprised when all three of them decided to go to the same college. Thrilled, but surprised.

I just never thought about it. Now that she did, it didn’t fit. Jim was right; this wasn’t his place. When they were younger he had always talked about being some great director, working on film. In high school he worked backstage during drama performance, he loved that stuff. Where had all that passion gone?

Becky looked over at Jim's profile. Jim licked at his ice cream slowly, not even trying to keep up with the melting ice cream. His hair was slightly messy, as always. She thought about him working in a cubicle from 8 to 5, coming home to give Delany a kiss on the cheek, sitting down exhausted after a hard day's work, and doing it all again the next day. It just didn't fit. He was so creative, so innovative...

Becky then thought about him holding his camcorder, zooming in on her and Delany while he made his silly home videos. She remembered their trip to Hollywood and how Delany had described the look in his eyes once they were back. He had been ga-ga over the movie sets; hopping up and down like a little girl in a pet shop when he saw a camera that was actually touched by one of his favorite directors. He belonged in a profession that he loved.

Jim looked over at her. "Oh, I don't know why I'm dragging you all into this. It isn't like you don't have problems of your own."

Becky brought her eyes back up to meet his. "Jim, your problem are my problems. But what do you want to do?"

"Well...I'd like to just go from the bottom up, maybe just work on sets for movies or theatre, and then maybe get bigger." Jim sighed. "But they don't have 'classes' for that here. I'm in the wrong place!"

Becky nodded. Pennsylvania wasn't exactly known for its theatre program. She didn't mind giving out advice and she felt like the time was right to give some to him, the only problem was she didn't have any words of wisdom. She was just as stuck as he was.

"I...did look into something here," He said slowly, "while you were with Delany one day. Talked with an advisor; they offered help place me somewhere - said I could maybe call it an internship and stay enrolled in the school." Jim's eyes locked with Becky's. "It would be a step in the right direction. But there isn't anything nearby."

Becky bit her lip. "You've kind of already made your decision...haven't you?" Just looking into his eyes told her the answer. He wasn't worried about the choice anymore; he knew what he wanted to do. But from the red that was still rimming his eyes, it was the hardest decision he had ever had to make.

Becky and Jim went back to the apartment silently. Upon entering, they found that Delany was still out shopping. Quietly, Becky asked him one more question.

"When are you going to tell her?" She asked and Jim shook his head.

"I really don't know. I don't have any dates and I haven't even picked a place yet. I guess I'll just wait until it's all set, that way I can't back out." He nodded, almost to himself, as if to punctuate the sentence. Becky looked sadly upon her old friend and moved in to give him a hug.

"I'm going to miss you too, you know." She whispered and pulled away, trying to get him to smile. "When you are gone Delany and I are going to be two blubbering idiots."

Jim managed to crack a smile and then pulled away. "Thanks Becky." She nodded.

"Hey, it's ok if I head out isn't it? I was going to drop by Lynn's place and see how she was doing."

This got a reaction was Jim. His eyes went wide and suddenly he looked a little worried. "Be careful!" Becky just rolled her eyes and grabbed her purse as she headed for the door.

"Gosh, I don't understand why you two are so afraid of her...she's just a little hyper!"

----

"Becks!" Lynn cried and wrapped her in a hug. "What a surprise! I mean, yeah, you said that you would be coming by this weekend but I had kind of, almost, sort of, forgot! Not that I could forget about you at all Becky!" Lynn beamed, "Ooh, we have so much to talk about, come in, come in!"

Lynn propped open her door and led Becky into her dorm room. It was fully decorated with bright colorful paintings, a fun bedroom set of matching curtains, bedspread, and rug all adorned with big pink retro daisies. And then of course, knick knacks on almost very available space. Becky couldn't help feeling cheerful as she entered.

Lynn flopped onto her bean bag chair - causing her bangs to fall out of their bobby pins and hang in her eyes. "But enough stalling - tell me about you and GARY!"

Becky laughed, making herself comfortable on Lynn's bed. "Not much to tell really, he's nice and we hung out the other day."

Lynn seemed to be totally pleased with herself. "I knew you two would hit it off! When is your next date?" Becky just shrugged. "You mean you haven't set one up yet? Ooh, you have to!"

"Well, I didn't want to with school starting. I wasn't sure how my schedule was going to be."

Lynn just flung out her hand in a sort of 'Oh-don't-worry-about-it' manner. "You might as well do it now when there isn't any studying to do! If you wait then you'll feel guilty for not doing your work instead. I know you Ms. Edwards!" Becky stuck her tongue out but Lynn ignored her.

"Come on, it could just be something simple. Like a movie or something, there are some good ones coming out..." Lynn gave a sudden gasp and put her hand over her heart. "Have you seen the previews for Never Get Caught?! I just - oh..." Lynn stopped suddenly, as if she remembered who she was talking to. "Oh, Becky I'm sorry I didn't mean to..."

Becky didn't look into Lynn's eyes, but did her own version of a 'Oh-don't-worry-about-it' hand fling. "I couldn't care less about him anymore."

Lynn did her best to raise one eyebrow in suspicion but succeeded in only opening one eye wider than the other. "All right, if you say so..."

Becky moved onto another subject and they talked about school and their classes. They didn't have any together because Lynn's art major was a far cry from Becky's specialization. But they did see that they would have just about the same free time so they could organize times to hang out and get coffee.

As Becky was getting ready to leave, Lynn went over and gave her a great big hug. "Becky, girl, this year is going to be perfect. I can feel it in my bones!"

Becky rolled her eyes. "Sounds like what my grandma feels!"

"No, that's rheumatism!" Lynn declared with a toss of her head. "And no joking! I just know that we are going to have the best time ever this year. Everything is going to end up perfect, you just wait and see!"

Becky smiled at the confident declaration. "Okay Lynn, I hope you're right."

Lynn beamed. "Don't worry, I am!" She was about to close the door when she called out to Becky. "And you better call my cousin tonight and set up a date, otherwise I'm coming after you with a pitchfork!"

Becky called out a promise to make the date and headed down the hallway. She knew that she would have to call Gary; Lynn would check up on her. And if she found out that she didn't call him...well Becky wouldn't put it past her to find a pitchfork and make her declaration a reality.

---

Becky returned to the apartment to find Jim and Delany in the kitchen. Delany was giggling again as she worked over the stove.

Looks like he's doing all he can to spend time with her. She thought to herself and threw a hello their way. Delany turned around to look at Becky with a grin.

"I'm making burritos! And my homemade fried rice!" She turned back to the stove just in time to catch Jim mouthing 'It's from a box.' to Becky over Delany's shoulder. Delany gave him a swat on the chest and Becky could only shake her head as she walked past them.

Once in her room she dialed up Gary's number. She wasn't sure if he was doing it because of Lynn's threat or because she wanted to. Whatever the reason, Gary picked up with a hello.

"Hey...it's Becky." Suddenly, she felt a little nervous, but that dissolved as Gary chuckled.

"I can recognize your voice you know." She could almost feel him grin. "How are you?"

"Pretty well, actually. I just got back from Lynn's. She said if I didn't call you and ask you for another date she would let me have it."

"Does that mean you are being forced into this and really don't want to go on another date with me?" There was a joking tone in his voice, but also a genuine questioning one. She hadn't meant for him to take it seriously.

"Oh, no! I mean...of course that isn't the only reason, I was just...er...describing your cousin." Becky slapped herself on the forehead for the illogical sentence. Thankfully, Gary didn't seem to look into her babbling and chuckled instead.

"Ok, ok, so when do you want to hook up?" He asked and she shrugged before remembering he couldn't see the action.

"Um, when do your classes end tomorrow? Maybe we could see a movie or something." They discussed a time and chatted a bit before Becky heard Delany hitting a fork on a plastic cup and calling Becky in for dinner. Becky rolled her eyes and said good-bye.

Walking into the kitchen, she looked upon the mess in horror. Pots were everywhere and there was a blackened mess on the counter. Grated cheese lay all over the floor and half the cupboard doors were flung open. She looked up at Jim and Delany as they stood by three plates of food and looked sheepishly around as if just noticing what they had created besides the meal.

"What have you two been doing in here?!" She asked, and the couple looked at each other with grins before answering simultaneously.

"Cooking!"

"The Other Side - Chapter 28" 

Zz, Madame