Sunday, December 2, 2012

THE SANDMAN - PART 5

THIS IS PART 5 of 9. To read previous sections click below:
PART 4
PART 3
PART 2
PART 1


It was Friday night in Provo which meant every living soul in Happy Valley could be found doing one of four things: Date night, girls night, guys night, or party time.

The door to Rex’s apartment opened. Jamie walked in and shut the door to prevent the cool air from coming in. Adam was somewhat of a stickler when it came to the apartment’s utilities and lectured his roommates about how much money was wasted trying to heat the whole neighborhood. Rex didn’t mind.

Adam was sitting on the couch with his computer in front of him. He had his guitar on his lap. Adam turned his head over his shoulder to see Jamie walk in. “Oh hey Jamie. Come on in.”

Rex came walking out from the back of the apartment when he heard Jamie come in. She walked over to the couch across from Adam and sat down. She still made herself at home like she did when she was dating Rex.

“What you been up to tonight, Adam?” Jamie asked. Rex sat down beside.

“Just practicing some guitar. I’m working on a new song one of the other students in another class posted online.”

“Well, we’re about to head over to the party,” Rex said to Adam.

“I’ll follow you guys if you don’t mind.” Adam shut his computer, put down his guitar, and walked back into his room. After a few moments he walked back into the front room with a noticeable cloud of cologne following him. Jamie looked wide-eyed at Rex when she got a whiff of the cloud. Rex just shrugged. This was normal. “Let’s go,” said Adam excitedly.

When Rex, Adam, and Jamie were about a block away from the party they could start to faintly hear music from the party. As they got closer they joined a steady stream of students coming from other directions to the party. There were people all over the property. Some were sitting on old faded couches that were sitting on the porch. Some were sitting on the porch railings. Some were just standing on the front lawn holding cups with cheap punch, talking.

“Who lives here?” Rex asked Adam.

“I actually don’t know. All I know is that Lauren is going to be here,” answered Adam.

The house looked like most other houses south of campus. It was at least fifty years old. You could tell the students that had lived there over the years had painted it a number of times themselves. The paint was chipping. The landscaping, however, was much nicer than most other student-occupied houses. The lawn was mowed nicely. And Rex noticed that a small flower garden on the side looked rather nice except for a small pile of sand someone had inadvertently dumped in the middle and tried to spread out uniformly as best they could.

Rex, Adam, and Jamie squeezed through a group of people talking in the front doorway. Jamie was in the lead. Their first stop was the refreshment table. They each grabbed a drink and some licorice. Then they headed for the basement. It was just as crowded but they managed to find a few open spots on a couch, although Adam had to sit on one of the couch’s arms. They weren’t there long when Adam spotted Lauren across the room. He nodded in her direction then looked at Jamie and Rex.

“I’ll catch you guys later, okay?” Adam said to Rex and Jamie.

“Good luck,” Jamie said with a smile. After Adam left, Jamie looked around the room and found a guitar in its stand. She walked over, grabbed the guitar and took it back with her to the couch. She crossed one leg over the other, put the guitar in place and started to strum. It had a capo on the second fret. She started to play a song quietly and sang to herself. A few people noticed, but they didn’t seem to mind because they turned back to their conversations and the music that was already playing over the speakers in the house. “I wonder whose guitar this is.” she said to Rex.

“It’s mine,” said a semi-familiar voice from the crowd. Rex and Jamie both looked up from the guitar and saw Remington Jenkins appear from the crowd. He walked over to them. His eyes were mostly on Jamie.

Jamie stopped playing and took the guitar off her lap. “Oh, hey Remington. You live here?”

“I do indeed.”

“This is a nice place. How many of you live here?” asked Jamie.

“Just me in fact,” replied Remington. “No roommates. Please, Jamie, keep playing. Don’t stop on account of me. I didn’t know you played.”

“Well, it’s really more of a hobby,” said Jamie, taking the guitar off her lap.

“Me too. Although I should be playing more. I AM taking an intermediate guitar class this semester. I just haven’t had a chance to play it since I did my last recording for class on BYU-Tube.”

“I’ve heard of those videos,” said Jamie. “They’re really popular.”

“Yeah, well, what with Alyson’s death this week, you can imagine things were pretty crazy. I’m still trying to catch up with assignments. It’s been especially hard in American Heritage since Alyson was my TA.”

“Hey, she was my TA too! What section are you in?” asked Jamie.

“I’m in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00 section. You?”

“I’m in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1:00 section. How’s the class coming for you?”

“I’m doing okay I guess.”

“That makes one of us. How’d you do on last week’s test? I got a 72, but luckily with the curve it’s still average.”

“I actually got really lucky. I got a 95.”

Jamie punched him in the arm with a grin on her face. “It’s people like you that ruin the curve. People like you and this guy here.” Jamie nodded toward Rex.

Remington snapped his fingers and pointed at Rex. “Let’s see, don’t tell me. It was Rex, right?”

Rex nodded.

“So you’re an all-star student, huh Rex?” said Remington.

Rex just sort of shrugged. “I’m pretty good at figuring stuff out I guess.”

“He actually helps me with some of my articles sometimes,” said Jamie.

When Jamie said this, Remington got a little stiff in the jaw. He was very good at not letting on that something about this statement was bothering him, though. He maintained a very good poker face. Rex noticed the change, though.

“Really?” said Remington, calmly. “You, uh...you didn’t by chance help Jamie with her most recent piece on Alyson, did you? I mean, it was such a good piece.”

Rex had an even better poker face. He was now in a game of chicken with Remington. “I helped her with a few things. Grammar mostly. I really murder her papers when she lets me edit them.”

“Oh? You’re studying English then? Want to become a writer?” asked Remington, still with his poker face.

“Economics, actually. I want to make a killing in business some day,” said Rex, still not flinching.

“I see,” said Remington. He broke his poker face. “Well, Jamie, I’ve got some really great ideas for some of your future articles. Why don’t we go to the kitchen upstairs, get a drink and talk about them?”

“Uh, sure, I guess.” said Jamie, again being too nice to say no.

“Rex, I hope you enjoy the party tonight.”

Jamie walked up the stairs. As Remington turned to follow, Rex suddenly grabbed Remington’s upper arm. He wanted to say something, but nothing came.

“Is something wrong?” asked Remington, calm and collected, not in the least bit startled.

Rex opened his mouth. “Nothing.” said Rex. He let go of Remington. Remington sort of glared at Rex as he turned and walked up the stairs.

Adam came and took Remington’s place next to Rex. “Hey Adam. How you liking the party?” He asked, but didn’t give Rex a chance to answer. “Where’d Jamie go?”

Rex rolled his eyes in frustration. “She went upstairs,” he said.

Adam continued. “Listen, Lauren just left the party to do some homework so I think I’m going to head back now as well and get my video uploaded. You coming or staying?”

“I think I’ll come too,” said Rex, still looking toward Remington with disdain.

To be continued...

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