Friends & Lovers

Charlie and Mindy have managed to weather the initial storms of their college lives together, and their love is still intact—both spiritually and physically. Finding the privacy they need to celebrate their love has been difficult, but they are managing to get what they need, if not all that they want. Having solved those first problems of carrying on their love in this new environment, they are ready to look outward and to expand their horizons by making new friends. But a dark secret still hangs over them, and they have to decide what they can reveal to new friends and what they must guard from all others.

To make matters worse, the small church-related college frowns heavily on students who indulge in the contemptible offense that it carefully calls “extra-marital sexual intercourse;" that adds an unwanted layer of difficulty to their lives.And then without warning, just as they have come to believe that they've found a stable equilibrium of friendship, studying, and loving, they face disaster: The stern Reverend Doctor Elias Calvin Stone, Professor of Religion and Dean of Students, summons them to his office—an office that is notorious for being the early end of many college careers.On his way to learn his fate and his lover's, Charlie can already hear his disappointed dad asking, “Couldn't you have been a little more careful to avoid being caught?”

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

She pointed toward the house we had just left. The curtains on the front window were discreetly closed, but they weren't as heavy as Buck and Steph seemed to think. With the light from the dining room shining through the front room from beyond them, we could see that two figures—one female and one male—had taken each other into their arms and were sharing a very non-fraternal embrace and kiss. To be sure, they weren't Doing the Dirty Deed before our eyes. On the other hand, the embrace we were witnessing wasn't a siblings' embrace. We couldn't have sworn to the identities of the people whose silhouettes we saw. But we had just been in that house; we knew who was in there.

Mindy prodded me, and I realized that I'd stopped to stare. “Keep moving,” she hissed at me. “Don't give them a chance to catch us staring. We aren't ready to let on what we know.”

Guiltily, I started moving again. “Hunh? Why not?”

“Use your head, Charlie!” she said. «We got along well this evening, and I think they like us. We could be really close friends with them—especially given the…special circumstances…we share with them. And that could turn out to be really, really good for all of us.

«But getting there is going to be pretty delicate. We want to save our friendship with them—and strengthen it. How do you think we'd react if someone caught on about us and just bluntly confronted us? Especially if all they really knew was that they'd seen us feeling each other up on a park bench?»

“Hmmm.” She'd gotten her point through. «I guess we'd be pretty…angry?…afraid?…resentful?…defensive?…embarrassed?…all of the above? I guess it wouldn't be collusive to strengthening a friendship.” I looked at her as we walked.

She grinned, I saw in the dim glow of a nearby streetlight.

«That word is conducive, moron.» She elbowed me in the ribs.

«But you're getting the picture. We have to know for sure that they're Doing It with each other—and not just feeling each other up every now and then—before we can say anything. And we have to think carefully about what to say when we decide that it's time to say something.»

«Well, how are we going to be sure? I doubt that they're going to invite us over and then screw in front of us…"

“I'm working on that,” she said mysteriously. “What we saw as we left their house is a second piece of the puzzle. I'll have a third piece tomorrow. And that should be enough.”

I looked at her. Even in the dark, she saw the question in my eyes.

“Never mind. I'll tell you when I know,” she said, even more mysteriously.