Breath of Scandal(65)
Aside from his reluctance to live with Neal through another two years, he was miserable about leaving behind his newfound love, an eighth-grade English teacher at Palmetto Junior High. They had met by chance at the movies. Their first date had been nothing more romantic than going for coffee after the film, yet they had talked well into the night. For the remainder of the summer they saw each other almost every night. One evening after a drive along the seashore, Lamar had haltingly admitted, "I can't take you home. I live with my mother."
"I'd Re to be alone with you, too."
They settled on a clandestine meeting in a motel. There, except for the rape of Jade Sperry, Lamar lost his virginity. Because his friends were under the misconception that he'd been having sex for years, he couldn't destroy the myth and confide in anyone about the greatest night of his life.
He had been meticulously discreet, which was no small feat when living with Myrajane. It didn't matter to her that Lamar had already lived away from home for a year; she wanted every minute of his time accounted for. A benevolent angel had prevented her from hearing about the incident involving Jade Sperry. Myrajane had been one of the first to condemn Jade when Gary committed suicide. Knowing the unfairness of that, Lamar had wrestled with his conscience over whether to set his mother straight on a few facts. He had put up only a token struggle, however, and had wisely kept his knowledge to himself.
To this day, he couldn't believe that he had had the good fortune to walk away from that unpleasantness unscathed. Feeling as though he were living on borrowed time, he took
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extra precautions to assure that his mother not find out about his love affair.
Now, he had two sins on his conscience. One never got off scot-free for his transgressions. Lamar was paying for his secret misdeeds by being condemned to another year under Neal's tyranny.
He forced himself to get up and prepare for the evening. He really should unpack before the Delta Gammas arrived. Otherwise, they would put things where he wouldn't know where to find them. Because Neal expected it, he would get a little stoned, a little drunk, and would probably bring one of the Delta Gammas into his bedroom and have sex.
His recently adopted philosophy of life was that, in order to survive in the cruel world, one did what one had to do, even if one didn't like it.
CHAPTER
Fir 71 irtem
Morgantown, South Carolina, 1977-81 "Boy! Was that exam a bitch or what?"
Jade smiled up at the fellow student who had fallen into step beside her as she left the science building. "That exam was definitely a bitch. " The steeple chimes struck four O'clock. Trees cast long, slanted shadows across the campus lawn, and frisky autumn leaves tumbled in a brisk, cool wind.
"Biology's never been my bag. By the way, I'm Hank Arnett. "
"Pleased to meet you, Hank. Jade Sperry.
"Hi, Jade." He smiled disarmingly. "So, do you think you passed the exam?"
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,,I,m on a scholarship. I have to do better than pass. I have to maintain at least a three-point grade average."
He whistled. "That's tough."
"if the sciences aren't your bag, what is?" she asked conversationally.
"Art. Give me a Monet over Madame Curie any day. Do you figure Picasso knew or even cared how paramecia procreate?"
Jade laughed. "I'm a business major."
"Hmm." He raised his eyebrows as though impressed. "With a face like yours, I would have guessed music. Literature, maybe. "
"Nope, marketing and management."
"Jeez, my instincts were way off base. I sure as hell didn't have you pegged for a future tycoon."
She took that as a backhanded compliment. "Well, this is where I turn Off." They stopped at the intersection of two paved sidewalks. - It was nice to meet you, Hank."
"Yeah, for me, too. Say, uh, I was going to grab a cup of coffee. How's that sound?"
"It sounds good, but I'm on my way to work." "Where do you work?"
"I've really got to run, Hank. 'Bye." Before he could detain her, she turned and jogged to the parking lot.
Hank Arnett watched her until she disappeared from view. He had an even temperament, a tall, lanky physique, and a thick Southern drawl - His shoulders were wide and bony, and his thick, wavy, reddish brown hair was frequently pulled back in a pony tail. His affable face wasn't moviestar handsome, but the twinkle in his brown eyes was engaging. Most of his clothes were flea-market chic, and he wore them with panache without looking efferninate.
One of his virtues was tenacity. Possessing a good sense of humor, he found the foibles of life more amusing than irritating. During the course of her freshman year at Dander College, Jade would discover that. After their first meeting, Hank fell into the habit of walking her from their biology class to her car. Since it was her final class of the day before she had to report to work, she always had a good excuse
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for declining his invitations to have coffee. While she liked him very much, she discouraged his subtle overtures toward dating.
As Dean Mitch Hearon had predicted, Miss Dorothy Davis wasn't the easiest of employers. A maiden ladyand defensively proud of it-she was demanding and persnickety. Her store could outfit females from birth to burial. Miss Dorothy was personally acquainted with every scrap of merchandise in the store and could, by memory, provide a stock numbei for most of it. Her salespeople were terrified of her.