Unconditional Love Ch. 05

The next two weeks went almost exactly as that first one back at school had. I spent my Wednesday nights with Becca and the rest of my time with Erin. Art history was a much more interesting experience than I had expected, as our professor Dr. Sommers (she insisted we call her Lily whenever we were in class) was an excellent educator and a fun time too. Lily was quick-witted, beautiful, and extremely attentive in her teaching style. Becca caught on quickly that I was intrigued by Dr. Sommers in more ways than one, but unlike our first meeting with the professor she kept any concerns to herself. Midterms came and went quickly and before you knew it Erin and I were in the home stretch of our college careers. Erin grilled me all the time on what my next plans were after school was out, but I had stayed somewhat evasive for the last half of the year, because I wasn't 100% certain at that point. I wanted more than anything to have myself a gap year and then come back to post-grad rested and refreshed, but my budget was pretty tight right then and I didn't think I could make it happen.

Oddly, the only person I was really forthcoming with about my plans was Becca. She had wormed her way into my inner sanctum by simply being an attentive listener that hid her ulterior motives very well. Erin was guileless in these conversations and always wore her heart on her sleeve, so it made me want to chat about my thought processes a great deal less with her.

With only three weeks to go in the semester the weather had completely broken and we weren't getting those pissy, freezing Northeast springs, rather we were finally getting sunshine and warmth. The first week the weather had improved, Becca called me up in the morning on Wednesday and told me she wouldn't be leaving her school that day because it was going to be too nice an evening to be wasting indoors. I could hardly argue with her, so instead I asked her if that would be a good time for Erin and I to visit. She agreed and I called up Erin to confirm plans. With Erin onboard, it would make for a nice evening of sisterly enjoyment while I hung back and let them do their thing, all the while earning boyfriend points for coming up with such a nice idea.

We left early in the evening and got to her campus by about 5:15. The sun hadn't been near to the horizon yet so we were still enjoying a wonderfully warm night. We parked right outside in Becca's dorm's parking lot and headed to the front desk. Once there, we were buzzed in by Becca's roommate and we trudged our way up the stairs to meet them in their room. We knocked on the door and Becca's roommate opened up and let us know that Becca had headed to the quad in front of the administration building we had passed on the way in to get some sun before it went down for the night. We thanked her and made our way to the quad with little conversation. When we got there, we could see that it would be quite a chore tracking her down because the entire green in front of the building was covered in sun worshippers getting their first real fix of the season. We split up and tried to spot her that way.

I walked toward the dining hall that neighbored the quad and found Becca waving animatedly right on the corner of the sidewalk where the two buildings connected to one another. I turned back and called Erin's name, but she was a ways off so I turned back toward Becca and shrugged my shoulders with a good deal of emphasis to show her I made my best effort. Walking over to her, I was nearly bowled over by what I saw. She wore a black bikini top that really did not leave much to the imagination coupled with a pair of denim shorts that were cut entirely too short (all right maybe not too short so much as very short). She was barefoot and wore sunglasses on top of her blonde hair. That blonde hair looked much lighter than normal and she let it just fall where it would, frankly a very appealing look on her. When I arrived at her blanket, she greeted me with a teasing smile and a pretty intimate embrace. She cupped her hands together behind my head and kissed me hard on the mouth when I reached in for a hug. After that, she released me from her kiss and looked intently into my eyes as she let her grip on my neck relax a little. I tried to create a little more distance between the two of us, but that wasn't happening. She leaned in again to whisper something in my ear.

"I have so many nice surprises for you. I'm so glad you're here."

"Now is not the time for this conversation," I whispered back a little too harshly.

"I'm so fucking excited, you can't even imagine."

Just then, I tossed her arms off of me and hailed Erin as she met my eyes from across the quad. Becca did not pout as she normally would have, instead she shot me a wicked smile that honestly made me a little nervous. Something wasn't quite right about Becca today, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Erin joined us shortly thereafter, gave her sister a friendly hug, and sat down on the blanket Becca had been using to sunbathe on.

"So is this what you guys do to ring in the new season?"

"This is only the first part of the festivities, we have a big party on the first beautiful sunny day of the season. It's a tradition we have every year. It's usually a little earlier than this every year, so everybody has been waiting for forever. It's gonna be a huge deal."

"Wow, I wish we had something like that at our school!"

"Well, you guys should come, it's going to be amazing."

Becca shot a sideways glance at me right after she said it. I didn't meet her eyes, instead looking away at Erin and giving her a plaintive look. Erin missed my look however, because she was looking straight at her sister when Becca made eyes at me. Erin looked away quickly and spotted someone heading over in our direction. We recognized her from earlier as Becca's roommate. Her roommate waved to us and walked right up to talk to Becca, turning her away from us and speaking in a lower tone.

"Well shit…Hey guys, I might have to take a raincheck. It looks like our Art History professor called and is looking for some midterm work I forgot to hand in. Dr. Sommers apparently wants to talk to you too Bastian. She says your midterm had some problems with it."

"What? What kind of problems?"

"I don't know, but apparently it sounded serious. At least, that's what Kristi told me. Did I introduce you guys?"

We all nodded at Kristi who waved back a little sheepishly. She blushed when she did and she looked adorable. Her face flush, she said a quick 'hi' to all of us and got ready to head out.

"Wait wait! Kristi, hang on a second. Bastian, do you want to take me back to school? Erin, why don't you stay for the party with Kristi? She practically knows you with how much I talk about you guys."

Kristi again blushed and this time looked right at me. Erin didn't miss that look either. Things were getting a little hot for me, and I didn't want this blowing back on anybody else. I could tell Erin felt that uncomfortable with all the looks and I now wondered if she had seen Becca kiss me.

Kristi looked at Erin quizzically as if to say 'whaddya say?' but Erin wasn't there yet. Becca wore a smirk on her face when Erin turned to speak, but caught her words in her mouth.

"Yeah, actually. That sounds really fun Kristi. Where are going to be partying?"

"Well, everything kind of starts out here as the sun goes down, and then everybody goes indoors. I know a couple places we could hit, you just tell me what sounds best to you."

"All right. I can live with that. Bastian, will you be back in time to pick me up? Like around 2:00?"

"2:00? That sounds pretty late. What is Becca going to do on campus until 2:00?"

"Why don't you have her take a nap in my room, or maybe you could drive her back over when you're done and we can all get together then."

"Are you sure you're comfortable being here by yourself? It sounds like it's going to be a crazy night," I figured now was as good a time as any to be the concerned boyfriend.

"I'll be fine, it sounds like it's going be pretty crazy. I could use a night where I let go a little."

Becca grabbed her blanket off the grass, rolled it into a ball and handed it to me. I took it and leaned into Erin to give her a kiss. She grabbed me by the sides of my face and kissed me deeply and intensely. She was sending a clear message, and I wasn't stupid enough to miss it.

Becca and I headed over to the car in her dorm parking lot and got in quickly.

"So we have to be there for the start of class, so we'd better hurry."

"It's two minutes until the top of the hour. The school is fifteen minutes away if there's no commuter traffic. There's no way."

"Well then, I guess we better take our time and catch her at the end of class."

"Listen this whole things doesn't sound right to me at all, and I don't think it sounds right to Erin either. So whatever you have planned, we need to forget about it right now."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew what I had planned."

"I don't really care what you have planned. This is not a good time for it. Let's just make it believable by being gone an hour and come right back."

"Come ooonnnn. I promise you'll have a good time."

I was thinking it over when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I opened the messages app and there was a blue dot next to Erin's name. I tapped on the text and it read:

- dont do anything i wouldnt do xD -

My blood ran cold as I decided that that tipped the balance.

"I bet I can guess who that was," Becca intoned as I steeled myself for what came next.

"I bet you can," I said through gritted teeth.

"I'm gonna guess it's the same person who never lets you out of her sight. I'll guess it's the same person who, for the first time, is actually jealous and stupid and you know it."

"What about her being jealous makes her stupid? She probably suspects that you'd like to have sex with me and it's making her jealous. Does she not have a reason to be jealous?"

"You know what I mean. She can't prove anything, why would she get all crazy about it without even talking to one of us?"

"I don't give a shit! I'm serious! I'm not going along with whatever plan you have!"

I started to get pretty animated as I spoke and I realized that there was another couple in the parking lot staring at us. I turned the car on, quickly put it in reverse and left the lot as calmly as I could. Convinced that I would just take Becca to our campus and then drive her back in an hour, I took off towards school and didn't stop to reconsider my decision for even one second.

"Listen," Becca was sounding defeated as she broke the silence, "I just wanted to have a good time with you tonight, but I won't do anything you're not okay with. How about this, let's just go over and meet with Dr. Sommers, because she actually did want to see me. After that, we'll head back and that'll be that, all right?"

"Fine. What did Dr. Sommers actually want from you? Because that thing from Kristi was bullshit."

"She just wanted to review some issues with my midterm paper. She thought that there might have been a concern about plagiarism, but I assured her that couldn't be possible. She wants to talk to me about it anyway."

"You didn't cheat on your midterm, I proofread that."

"I know! But she wants to talk with me about what she read."

My defenses largely went down after that, because I had never known Becca to lie to me. She told her sister stories and it's not like she was the most honest person, but she had always seemed to respect our relationship in that way so I was a good deal less suspicious. Not to mention, Dr. Sommers did not strike me as the kind to want to get wrapped up in a student's bullshit. We got on campus not long after we talked in the car, and I drove right past my street and parked in the administration building's parking lot. It was about 20 minutes past 6:00, so we would have to wait until the class was over. When we pulled into the parking lot Becca was texting away furiously as I stopped the car and killed the engine. She threw her phone into her bag and cheerfully told me to go with her. Having no idea where she meant, I told her to go on ahead without me.

"No no, listen, I was just texting Tory from class, she said we could probably make it into class because Dr. Sommers is late."

"Nice! Let's get going quick then."

We hustled down the hill and made it to the big stony annex off the library where class was held every week. I realized that Becca was still dressed for sunbathing and looked pretty ridiculous going into a class that way. I told her as much and she laughed me off. She said she dressed like this in classes all the time. We rushed up the stairs and rounded the corner into the lecture hall, but it was darker than normal and my eyes took a minute to get used to the light. Standing at the head of the class, as usual, was Dr. Sommers, but no one else was in the room.

Becca walked over to Dr. Sommers and they spoke together for a minute or two. When Becca looked like she was done speaking, Dr. Sommers looked at me sternly.

"Didn't Becca tell you I needed to meet you two here?"

"Well, of course she did Lily. I mean, we're here aren't w-"

"That's DR. SOMMERS!" she roared at me before I could finish.

I admit it sounded a little insolent, but I didn't think I deserved to be shouted at. I nodded my agreement and looked back half-confused and half-defiant.

"I told Becca last week that I wished to see the two of you here at class time, not 20 minutes past. Do you have a good reason for being so late?"

Becca was now smiling smugly at me and it made me feel two inches high. I didn't know how I got wrapped up in this, but it was getting worse by the minute.

"As you're this late, I'm afraid we no longer have the time necessary to finish our meeting in this room. I have released the room for the library to use for another lecture. They are currently waiting for us to leave. That being the case, I'd like the two of you to join me across campus in the art building, where my offices are."

Becca did a double take and the smug smile was gone from her face.

"What do you mean? I thought we were going to have the meeting here."

"I told you, we no longer have time for that. Now come with me!"

Becca hung her head a little as we were lead out of the room, down the stairs again, and onto the street. We walked back up the hill, past the parking lot where my car was, and past three or four campus buildings when we saw the joint art/science building where a number of advisors and professors also had offices. Going up two flights and heading down a long hall, we arrived at the door to Dr. Sommers' office. It was a large, wooden door and actually was kind of imposing when it opened to a room with a vaulted ceiling and a giant wooden desk in the middle of the room. I knew the building was old and I knew that it was huge, but I had no idea that rooms of this size and this beauty existed in it. I was stricken by how cavernous the room was, every professor's office I had been in to this point had been a much more humble experience. Becca entered first and immediately sat down on a love seat along the wall facing what I assumed was the professor's desk. Dr. Sommers motioned for me to sit on the love seat with Becca.

"Thank you both for making your way in to meet with me today."

"It's our pleasure professor," Becca answered for us, apparently.

"I brought you here for a very specific reason, but I think Becca would do a better job explaining it than I would."

"What?"

I felt the air rush out of me as I realized I had been duped. Becca turned quickly on the love seat, looked me in the eyes and grabbed my hands.

"Now I know I said I wouldn't do anything crazy tonight, but I just want you to hear me out."

I clammed up at this point and let go of Becca's hands. I started to stand up, but Dr. Sommers looked at me imploringly and held up a hand and pointed back to the love seat to get me to sit back down. I hesitated as I saw her hold up her hand, but I did sit back down to hear her out. My professor I would listen to, but Becca was officially on my shit list.

"Becca approached me after our first class and asked me for my help, and I'm here to offer it. She explained the entire situation between you two and she has told me she recognizes that it can't last forever. The two of us have been meeting up at lunchtimes once a week to speak about what she views her options to be. I have been guiding Becca through this issue and we arrived at an interesting solution last week. We have just been waiting for the right moment to speak to you about it. This evening happens to be what we feel is the right time. Becca has been very measured in the way she has approached her solution and I salute her for that. That said, it is unorthodox so please try to keep an open mind."

Now I knew I was in trouble. If Becca was cooking up 'unorthodox' solutions to her issues around my sex life, I knew it would have to be a pretty big leap of faith.

"I don't know how comfortable I am with all this. I told Becca earlier this evening that I didn't want to engage in anything sexual while Erin was on her guard like she is right now."

"You can rest assured that Becca will make sure that whatever happens tonight stays between us."

"Wait a second, what about Kristi? Is she is on this too? I don't know about all this."

"Kristi doesn't know anything about what's happening here tonight, but she does know about us," Becca was starting to at least flesh out some of the details, "she really doesn't know anything about tonight, I promise. Lily called her and told her everything she said to us while we were on the quad together, but that's it."

I was extremely uneasy and didn't know where to look as both Lily and Becca eyed me expectantly. Lily looked a little cooler on the issue, she likely viewed this whole experience as a bit of a lark, but it certainly wasn't any such dalliance to me. Becca looked concerned when I turned my head back to her and I could tell she was even a little bit hurt. I didn't want anyone to feel hurt, I didn't even want anyone to feel awkward, I just wanted for this whole scenario to end.

"All right," Becca turned her head to me morosely, "I'll make you a deal…"

It sounded like I was being thrown a life preserver, I just hoped it wasn't made out of cinder blocks.

"How about this: we have our fun tonight, but after that, we're done. I won't bug you about this stuff anymore, but you can't bug me about it either. We'll just pretend that none of this ever happened. Nobody gets hurt, and nobody has to worry about it getting back to anyone it shouldn't get back to."

This was tempting and while Becca wasn't the most trustworthy person in the world right in that moment, I had to strike while the iron was hot. I cocked my head and rested it on my hand as if I were deep in thought. Becca looked at me suspiciously and Dr. Sommers seemed somewhat distracted as she fidgeted in her seat and looked at her fingernails.

"Oh stop fucking pretending. We all know this is exactly what you want," Becca shouted lowly. Hearing this from Becca hurt me a little and I didn't want to give her the impression that I didn't care for her; saying yes to this deal too quickly would signal exactly that.

"Listen, I'd love to think that this is a great deal, but why would I want to just give up on you like that?"

"Because you've been waiting for an opportunity to get rid of me for weeks! You love having me on the side, but I'll never be Erin will I?"

Things were finally getting real. I didn't know a way to come out of this making everyone feel good, so I figured I may as well just do what I wanted to do. I was changing my mind seemingly every minute or so, so I just went with that last thing I thought might be a good idea.