Time Skip by Craig L. Seymour Read Free Book Online Page A

sank as he thought she was about to give him an ultimatum. “But I’ve kinda had to get over that.”
    He wanted to yell ‘yes!’, and a sense of relief washed over him. He was now well practiced at concealing such internal emotional outbursts, so she had no idea of the relief he felt as he gave her an understanding nod, “mm-hmm,” and tried to look disappointed.
    “I’ve been waiting for you to stop acting like you’re not good enough to have a girlfriend. I thought if I gave you some time and space you’d decide you were ready to give us a try. Or even that you’d find someone else and I’d know I shouldn’t wait anymore. But it’s been like… a year. I don’t know what’s going on with you. I don’t know if we ever really had a chance. I don’t think I want to know. I just want to get on with life. And I want you to get on with yours.” Lovelle looked as though he were about to speak, but she shushed him, “I don’t need an explanation.”
    “I…” he tried to interrupt again.
    “No! I mean, I don’t want an explanation,” she stated emphatically. “Whatever is going on with you, you’ve got to get over it.” Trina paused to let that sink in. “I met someone a few weeks ago. We’ve been out a couple of times and I don’t need any complications from you. You said once before that you needed my friendship. I hope you’ll always feel that way, because that’s all I’m ever going to offer you now.” She stated this with such cold dispassion that Lovelle felt certain that she had been practicing this speech to ensure the proper delivery.
    They chatted a while longer, but that was pretty much it. She had a boyfriend, and he was jealous as hell. He didn’t want to be, but he was.
    For a while he almost felt like he had made a mistake. The release he had been wanting had finally come, and now he was unhappy about it. For as long as he had been trying to put Trina off, he knew that he had also been trying to keep her close. It was as if he knew deep down that his plans to reunite with Katie stood a very good chance of failure, and he wanted to hold Trina in reserve. Looking at it now, this seemed to him to be very selfish and manipulative, but he could not help feeling the disappointment of losing this option. Being so close to Trina again, and for all of that time, had brought those old feelings very close to the surface. They came almost flooding back as soon as she let him know that he could be with her. And now he didn’t know how to feel about how the situation had resolved itself.
    Luckily, the semester was just about over and he didn’t have to wallow in self pity for too long. He could go home and occupy himself with other things. And after 17 months of serious dedication to his ‘cause’, he was ready to give himself a break.
     
    *****
    The summer of ’88 was a time of change for Lovelle. He decided it was no longer necessary to maintain a pretense of immaturity. In his brooding mood, he hadn’t been doing a very good job at it anyhow. Coming back from his first year away at college was as good a time as any for ‘growing up’. From there on out he would do the things that he wanted, instead of the things that he thought were expected of him. In reality, it had taken him a lot longer to mature than nineteen years, but he could see no reason to repeat that performance. His second life bore so little resemblance to his first life, he couldn’t imagine how it would benefit him to continue that facade.
    Back at school, for six months Lovelle put aside nearly every concern except his pursuit of a career in the FBI. He had racked up as many hours as possible at his summer job and he worked like a dog once he was back at school. This left him with no time for a social life, and therefore no time to get himself into trouble. The only problem was that it also left him plenty of alone time to think about Katie. And as the final semester of his sophomore year approached, Lovelle