Pop: Chapter 19b

    "Dude, Rick told you all of this when we came back from spring break.  Remember.  He was your roommate by then." Will snidely remarks.

    "No, he didn't.  I would have remembered any such thing.  You didn't tell me either.  And remember, I was stuck in the ER for most of spring break before I had to take a bus back to Lexington."

    Rick tries to stay silent, but a mumbling whisper of "I forgot" barely can be made out.

     "It's all right.  Really." Pete starts back.  "After our first year at UK, my parents and I went to visit my sister out at San Diego."

    Mia.  Pete's sister.  Six, no, five years older than him.  She was at Murray State by the time he moved in.  Barely saw her all those years Pete lived there.  Maybe five, six times.  She hated that place and how her parents moved so fast without telling her beforehand.  Moved out to Cali as soon as she graduated.

    "We were there only a day, when my dad had a heart attack.  I guess traveling over an hour a day to and from work finally caught up with him.  He had to stay in the hospital for over a week, although I think they were being overly cautious.  Mom had already decided to move bak to our old town, just a newer place.  She then guilted me to staying with her until dad felt better.  This meant transferring to Morehead.  She even made me stay off-campus.  I was almost closer to the university than I was to the high school.  Even after dad returned to work full time, I got the feeling she wanted me to stay at home, so I did.  Even though I would've rather been at UK with you guys."

    "I remember that your old house was empty when I returned my temp job in Lex.  I just couldn't believe you had left without telling anyone.

    "I tried.  Everything was happening so fast, that I didn't have time.  I would've left a message with your mother, but I knew from your stories about her that she might not relay it.  Will and Rick's families were out-of-town too that week we moved, so I couldn't tell you two either.  How my mom arranged everything so quickly, from San Diego too, still amazes me."

    "I didn't have a phone, so that's why you didn't try to call me, but what about the others.  You didn't try to reach out to them either." I ask.

    "I lost their contact info in the move.  Like I said, everything happened in less than a week.  I can't tell you how much I lost in the move, that still could be in some box somewhere.  If I hadn't seen Pamela Davidson from the year behind us at the school cafeteria one day, I would never had been able to contact any of you again." Pete continues.

    "Yeah, she was one of my old neighbors.  She got a hold of my parents, who got to you, who called me a few weeks before spring break.  Pete told me and Rick everything, but I guess Rick forgot to tell you.  I never mentioned it, because I thought you already knew.  I just thought you didn't care about Pete any more, not that you didn't know the full story." Will explains.

    "Look, Pete, I'm sorry.  I wouldn't have treated you so bad if I had known.  However, that still doesn't explain why you didn't try to get back to UK to finish your degrees."

    "Well, like I said, I felt that my mom preferred that I stayed at home and stay with Morehead to finish up my Bachelors.  I didn't want to continue at Morehead for my Masters, so I applied to anywhere I could.  I did try to apply to UK, but I found out that I had missed that deadline by a few days.  I got the dates mixed up.  I couldn't stay at home any more, so I went out of state." I could tell that Pete was trying not to tell something by the faint downturn in his voice.

    "Where did you wind up going to?" I fearfully ask as the latest round of thunder prevents Pete from answering immediately.

    In the faintest of whispers, Pete replies.  

    "Knoxville."

    Blasphemy!