Jerk of Hearts, Queen of Spades

________________________________Chapter 14

The school year was drawing to a close. Looking back, Reggie realized that he had been so preoccupied with Midge that it had slipped right by. Only one more day of classes - with an early dismissal to boot - and they were free to do whatever they wanted.

He and Midge had spent all weekend together, at his house, out and about, at their haven along the riverside. Especially there, where they could let their passions run wild if the hour was late enough. But they also enjoyed a movie or two, she took him out dancing... and they went for long, long drives. His parents didn't buy him quite every sundry item he asked for, but they had given him a gas card, and just this once he abused the privilege. The indescribable joy of having Midge next to him as they cruised down the highway with the top down, her sporty hair whipping about on the breeze and peals of laughter floating along behind them... it was better than the sex. It was better than anything.

Monday night, after school let out, they had gone out bowling with the gang: Reggie, Midge, Betty and Jughead on one team, Archie, Ethel, Chuck and Nancy on the other. Veronica had just come from her manicurist, so she sat and cheered while sipping at her smoothie. The first game, Team Midge (as everyone unanimously insisted they be named) managed to come out ahead by twenty-two points. The second, they lost miserably by over fifty. Neither team complained much about their losses.

Without quite enough money to play a third, they made their way back to the pool tables and racked up some balls, with Reggie and Chuck facing off against Ethel and Jughead. This resulted in an especially entertaining dance, as every time Ethel took the pool cue from Jughead, she made quite a show of trying to hold his hand, which Jughead calmly resented every time. It came to a head when Jughead tossed the stick at her and stomped off to the snack bar to buy himself something greasy that might abate his fury.

While Reggie was waiting for him to return, chuckling to himself, he suddenly noticed Veronica looked distinctly shaken up - and Betty, the nearest one to her, seemed miffed about something. He walked over and queried.

"It's her own fault for asking," Betty gusted with a shake of her head. "Don't dig for information you'd rather not unearth."

"S-so huge," Veronica was babbling in a barely-audible tone, holding her index fingers several inches apart in front of her face. "That's... not when she looks like... how does she hide something so... great day in the morning!"

Reggie glanced over at Midge, who rolled her eyes, drumming her nails on the edge of the nearby pool table she was leaning against. His mean streak reared its ugly head. Gritting his teeth, he leaned in and whispered directly into Veronica's ear, "You know I've got about half an inch on her, too, right?"

Veronica suddenly excused herself to find the powder room.

Now, however, it was the last class of Tuesday. In the morning, there would be homeroom, and then an assembly; spirited-yet-lame things to send off the students for the summer. Even though he was supposed to be playing the trivia game Miss Grundy had arranged for fun, it was hard to keep his mind on it with the lure of freedom just hours away. If he made it.

At that moment, the door opened a crack and a managerial head poked itself in. "Miss Grundy, would you mind terribly if I borrow young Mr. Mantle for a brief word?"

"Mind?" she said with a smug grin. "Take him - please."

The class laughed him out of the room. "Yeah, yeah, a real riot. Go soak your heads." Once out in the hallway, he said, "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Soak their heads, eh?"

"It is easier to be spontaneously clever at times, and less so at others." He shrugged. "So what's cookin'?"

Mr. Weatherbee permitted himself a quiet laugh, rocking back on his heels. "Yes. Well, I just wanted to take the time to laud your efforts."

"Efforts?"

"As far as Miss Klump is concerned. Her mother called me this morning and assured me the girl will be finishing out her kay-through-twelve here at Riverdale High."

A glow crept into Reggie's face. "That's a good thing if ever there were one."

"Yes, and I'm sure it's down to you. Unless senility has finally begun its work on my poor, addled mind, I recall recommending you and your ragtag menagerie of gold-hearted fellows give it a go. I'm fairly certain that's precisely what you went out and did. Am I wrong?"

"There could be a ring of truth there," he said with a nod. "But sir - as the principal, aren't you supposed to be all objective and suchforth?"

The elder man waved a careless hand. "This is Riverdale, not The Rock. I believe it's necessary and vital to take a personal interest in your students, when appropriate. And... I must admit, in spite of your predisposition for hijinks and mayhem, the memory of this particular class will probably stand out above many others. Perhaps BECAUSE of the hijinks."

"Are you requesting that I shake your hand with a joy buzzer when I graduate?"

Mr. Weatherbee frowned. "I am not! But, I suppose if you choose to do something so gauche, I would CONSIDER not shredding your diploma on the spot. Thank heavens that's still a ways off... now, back to class with you."

Once the bell had rung, Reggie immediately went to find his locker. The sooner he was out of there, the sooner he could be home, trying to find time to be with Midge. But instead, something found him, and hauled him outside by his lapels.

"What the- put me down, I- HALP!"

Stars exploded in his eyes, and he stumbled backward down the stairs, only just managing to swing sideways from the railing and land sprawled on the soft grass instead of the hard sidewalk. "Whab... what did I do... huh?"

"Listen, you bum," Moose told him as he flexed his huge, meaty fist in the other hand. "We got some words ta have."

Here it was, at last; the showdown for Midge's hand. Reggie had been wondering if it was going to come to this, or if Moose would be the bigger man (both literally and figuratively) and step aside. "Fine. Fine, then - let's go! Put up your dukes, I'm ready, I'm pumped!"

"I don't wanna fight you, Reg," he grunted. "Just talkin'. Of course, if ya don't feel like listenin'..."

"Whatever," he gasped as he dragged himself to his feet. Did he have lead horseshoes in his hands when he hit him, or was that all muscle and bone? "Lay it on me. What's your beef today?"

"Midge likes you best," he said calmly, rationally. "I can tell she does - even if I don't know why so good. I mean, yeah, you're pretty smart, and you got money and a nice car, and your looks ain't bad enough to scare off little kids..."

"I'm touched."

"But Midge ain't like all those others you wined and dined," he went on, eyes narrowing, a vein throbbing in his neck. "Youse know that now like I did. I never cared none that she had guy pipes instead of girl pipes, 'cause I could tell by lookin' at her that she was a true lady. She's different, and that means she's extra special. So you understand you gotta treat her real nice, real careful. Like she's made o' diamonds."

"Yeah," Reggie sighed heavily, at last latching onto his train of thought. "And I will. You can trust that, even if you don't believe anything else I ever said."

"Oh, I know you will," Moose growled. "That knuckle sandwich I just fed ya? It was an appetizer. You ever mess up, or break it off, or hurt her bad... I'll serve up the main course."

Reggie nodded, swiping at his lip - no blood. Not quite a heavy enough hit for that, but he'd probably have a fat lip soon. "Got it, big guy. But just so you know... I appreciate you looking out for her interests. Seriously."

Moose nodded in a very satisfied manner. "And that's why I'm not cleanin' your clock; 'cause I know ya get it. We both do."

Reggie smiled to himself as he watched the broad back of Moose re-enter the school. A promise between men, was it? Worked for him.

________________________________

The early morning sun was peeking its way through tree branches when Reggie's convertible arrived at Midge's house. For some reason, he had this notion that he would sit out there in her driveway and simply watch her house, waiting for her to come out. Of course, her mother normally gave her a ride to school on her way in to work, and then she either caught the bus, a ride with a friend, or walked home. But today, he wanted to drive her there. So what if it was only one day of the school year? He wanted them to get there together this time. It felt important.

BUT NO ONE CAME OUT. Reggie rushed the door, burst it open - and found all their furniture and posessions were gone. Worse still, there was a bomb with a timer attached! Screaming bloody murder, he ran outside-

"HEY!"

Reggie's eyes fluttered open, and he saw Midge bending over his door, beautiful, soft lips inches from him. "Whngh?"

"I appreciate you coming all the way out here to fall asleep in my driveway," she tittered. "But... was there something else you wanted?"

"Oh... oh, yeah!" he laughed nervously, rubbing his face with great gusto to wake himself up. "Just wanted to know if you'd give me the pleasure of your company as we storm the halls of higher learning."

The grin that lit up her face was so breathtaking he almost yanked her right into his seat. "Thought you'd never ask. And my mother already gave her blessing, though she said if you start to drift off the side of the road, we should stop somewhere and get a cup of black coffee in you."

It was a beautiful, sunny morning, with hundreds of birds chirping for them. Reggie didn't want to actually arrive at school; he wanted to keep driving and driving, taking her to where the land ran out and they found the sea. Then, he would get them a boat, and they could sail right off the edge of the earth together...

"Pull over real quick?"

He blinked. "What?"

"Into that thrift store parking lot. We've got almost half an hour to make a five-minute drive, we can linger."

At a loss as to why they should waste time in front of a thrift store that wasn't even open yet, he did so. "Okay. Now what, we paint graffiti on their premises?"

"I'm going away for the summer."

Giant, serrated metal prongs squelched through flesh, sinew and breastplate to crush his heart, then sever all veins and arteries before it ripped it out of him and tossed it callously into the sewer. "Wh... beg pardon?"

"For part of the summer," she amended, staring down into her lap as she fidgeted with one of her bracelets. "It's... not so bad. Three or four weeks."

"Three or four week- WEEKS?! That's practically our whole vacation!"

"Not really," she said pleadingly. "It's not even half! But... yeah, I know. Pretty rough."

Reggie flopped back against his seat, eyes wide, limbs going cold. "No... I had all sorts of stuff planned... we were going to..."

"Don't tell me any of it," she asked softly. "We can do it all when I get back?"

"And where, pray tell, are you going? A convent, if your mother's behind this."

A smirk was all he got for the trouble of his quip. "She's not, you jerk. Or... well, she is, but not so recently. See, eventually my father did call to let her know he wouldn't be able to take me this summer. And, as you may be able to predict-"

"She flipped her wig."

"She flipped her wig," she confirmed. "Hours of screaming later, I am most certainly staying with him for June. If my new stepmommy-" this word she said with no small amount of loathing "-drives me bonkers, I can come back only three weeks in, but both Mom and Dad want me to give her a shot. Though from what little contact we've had, I don't think it's going to matter what kind of shot I give her."

"Unless it's a howitzer."

"Quit that," she giggled. "You're making me laugh, and I'm trying to be serious about this. I... I don't really want to go there anymore. Especially now that I have something holding me here for the summer."

Reggie slid down toward the floorboard, a sullen look coming over him. "So... when do you leave for this Brady Bunch fantasy camp?"

"Um... tomorrow afternoon."

"HELL NO!"

"Don't be like this," she pleaded desperately, lips scrunching up in such a way that made it seem like she was simultaneously trying not to cry, and fighting against constipation. "It's... I'm going, it's not like I want to, but it's going to happen. So come on, just tell me you'll miss me or something, and then-"

"But I don't WANT to miss you!" he blew up. "Because that means you have to be gone for me to miss you, and sorry, but I prefer you stay!"

"Reggie, you're not helping."

Sighing, he punched the steering wheel of his car. "Rats."

"I know. But, really... I'm not that depressed about it. Just let down."

That made him sit back up. "What?! But... I thought we... well, isn't that a fine kettle of fish! You don't even care that I'm going to completely lose my mind with you off in uncharted waters!"

"It's just out of state. Not on the far side of Saturn."

"OUT OF STATE!" he bellowed. "I thought these ipswitches lived in Midvale!"

"Enough," she sighed. "I should have known you wouldn't take this well, but I guess I'm a hopeless optimist."

"Why would I take this well? You're going away! We were going to do so much together - and we wouldn't even have school to tie us up!"

"I know," she said yet again, and it definitely showed that repeating it was wearing on her nerves. "But I will be back, and then we can do all those things and more, way, way more! Which is why it's so hard to be upset over it, because... we were almost denied being together ever again."

That put out the fire in his belly. "Well... okay, yeah, there was that. But I... I really didn't want to lose a single moment with you."

"It's only a few weeks."

"That's a few weeks too many! I want to spend every single last instant of the rest of our lives joined at the hip, you know that, right?"

A little snort as she tilted her head. "Really? Every waking moment, for our whole lives? You don't think you'll get sick of me?"

"YES!" He turned toward her as much as was possible within the confines of the car. "And I don't care - I WANT to be sick of you, I want to be around you so much that it actually comes to pass, because it'll mean we're together! I want to take you to prom, and mistakenly pick out a corsage that makes you sneeze, and blink in our picture, and lose the deposit on the limo because Jughead brings a suitcase full of hamburgers with him and dribbles ketchup on the carpets! I want to stick my fraternity pin on your shirt, and miss, and draw blood and have to apologize profusely as they wheel you away in the ambulance to get tetanus shots! I want Archie to be the best man at our wedding, so he can somehow lose the ring, trip your father, AND set the bouquet on fire! I want to be insanely jealous of you when you make tons more money than me, because you went through nine-thousand credit hours on the road to becoming a practicioner of holistic medicine - or a professional softball player, whichever career works out! I want you to come into the living room and find me watching the playoffs, then make me turn it off because I promised to mow the lawn a week ago! I want to rub your feet when you've been out helping find the neighbor's lost puppy for six hours - when it was in the friggin' dog house the whole time!"

"This is your fantasy?" she scoffed. "Underwhelming, if you-"

"It doesn't end there! I... want to keep you laid up in bed after a, uh, certain operation.... and bring you a homecooked lunch that I kind of burned, and watch you laugh and smile at it because you appreciate my terrible culinary skills! I want our adopted children from Peru to break the TV with a hammer and blame it on each other, even though it was a collective plan! I wanna groan when Veronica gives a toast filled with horribly-inappropriate comments about us at our fiftieth anniversary - our sixtieth! I want your face, no matter how wrinkled it becomes, to be the last one I ever see in my life!"

Midge was no longer scoffing, nor laughing. In fact, all she was doing was staring straight at him, unblinking, shocked. Seconds drifted by. A dog barked somewhere. Then, grunting, Reggie reached for the ignition, but Midge stayed his hand.

"What?" he demanded. "We... we gotta get to school."

"I love you, Reggie Mantle." He didn't have to look up to see that she was crying, but he did anyway - and it rent him in pieces. "And I'm always going to, for the rest of our years. After that, maybe. Prepare to be sick to death of this girl."

Wild horses couldn't keep them apart after that. Only when they heard a crowd of passerby chattering about how romantic it was did they break apart some minutes later, laughing and crying and petting each other's heads and necks.

"I love you, too," he said - which made her laugh. It had been unnecessary to verbalize.

________________________________

"Chee, there it went - another year at Arr-Aych."

Archie nodded as he thumped Jughead on the back. "Yeah. It's funny... we were all so excited about this summer, but now that it's here..."

"Sorry, guys," Midge said quietly as they jogged down the front steps. "Reggie told me about the idea you brainstormed last night - and I would have been there to head you off if I hadn't been called in for a last-minute shift. Which is totally useless, since I'm going to have to quit that job to head out of town anyway..."

"It's not your fault," Betty soothed, patting her on the shoulder. "We can still hit Miami Beach when you get back, instead."

She let out a blast of unconvincing laughter. "You guys are going to put a whole vacation on hold for me? Don't be dumb."

"We're not," Ethel told her seriously. "It's pragmatic; why go on a vacation when you know you're not going to be having any fun? Because that's what you bring to the table."

"Listen to them," Reggie told her, throwing his arm around her back and nearly sending her straight into Jughead. "A casual observer may be fooled into thinking they like you."

"Stop," she snorted, swatting his hand from her shoulder. "Goofball."

"I could probably have the beach airlifted to you," Veronica remarked. "Would only take pulling the right strings..."

"No thanks, Moneybags," Jughead grunted. "Leave it where it is. Wouldn't want to get sand in all your shiny helicopters, now, would you?"

As if cued by some invisible force, they all stopped dead to stare up at the flagpole. There, the red, white and blue fluttered in the light breeze - and right below it, a pair of polka-dotted boxers with a stitched likeness of Mr. Weatherbee on the seat. "Nice work," Archie commented. "But last year's was funnier, with the word balloon and all."

"Sorry, I didn't have much time to throw it together," Reggie sighed with an extra dash of melodrama. "Too much going on. Guess that's what growing up's about."

"You'll make up for it," Jughead said with confidence. "We expect nothing but greatness from your Senior Prank - which means you should start planning now."

"Boys," Ethel gusted, shaking her head.

"Hey, I always love these," Betty laughed with a shrug. "But if asked by faculty, I will deny such feelings."

Midge grinned. "Hey - let's all go to Pop's and see if we can't stay there until closing! We still have yearbooks to swap and sign!"

"Oh," Reggie said, squirming visibly. "Well... we were going to drop by Arch's and practice, we've got Battle of the Bands in two weeks."

The next few seconds were exactly long enough for her eyebrows to knit before Archie snorted, ruining it; then the rest of the gang was laughing, and Midge was punching him in the shoulder. "What a funny, funny guy. You'll look even funnier with a black eye, you know that?"

"That's pretty," Veronica suddenly purred, pointing to Midge's neckline. "Never noticed that before. Where'd you get it?"

At that, Midge rolled her eyes as she fondled her chain. "From Mr. Laugh Riot over there."

Betty smiled. "It's sweet."

"Anything for my Bantam Beauty." When Midge kicked him - hard - he gasped, "What? What'd I say?"

"There's Chuck and Nancy - hey!" Veronica shouted. "Pop's?" They could see them nodding vigorously across the parking lot. "Cool - two more for our 'First Day Of Freedom Jamboree'."

"Shotgun!"

Then Ethel was chasing after Jughead as he neared Archie's Mustang. "Oh, no you don't - you always stick me in the back!"

"Where you belong, horseface!"

"UHT!"

Veronica heaved a put-upon sigh, folding her arms. "Come along, Elizabeth - we shall be riding to Mr. Tate's establishment in style, unlike certain cretins."

"Verily," Betty giggled. "See you guys there, okay?"

The moment everyone was out of earshot, Midge laid into him. "You really couldn't keep that nickname under your lid, huh? One whole week before you drop it out in the open..."

"Oh, come off it," he chuckled. "They'll never remember in all the scuffle. Besides, I'm proud of how feisty my little chickadee is."

"Carry me."

Reggie turned, hands still in his pockets and frowned down at her. "Excuse moi?"

"Just once, like when we first... I know, it's weird. Neverm-WHOAH!"

A quick swoop had taken her up into his arms, legs draped elegantly off to the side as he supported her back, her schoolbag swinging wildly behind them, both of her arms flung around his neck in desperation to avoid falling. That brief, shocked, frightened-yet-exhilirated expression she loosed from this action was payment enough. As he picked his way toward his convertible, he kissed her, and she returned it sweetly, understated and gentle, content. Then he plopped her in the passenger seat and she cackled aloud.

"Off we go!" he said as he vaulted his own door and put his sunglasses on, starting the engine. "So, we going straight there, or was there anything you wanted to stop-"

"Hey," she whispered, cocking her head toward the speaker in the door. "Isn't that... the music playing, that's my CD, right?"

It took him a second or two to process her question. "Oh, right, yeah - yeah, it is. For some reason I can't stop listening to it, even though this kind of stuff usually makes my ears bleed..."

"Reggie... I'm so glad I took you up on it."

"Hmm?"

"You told me 'all this can be yours'," she said softly. "Just before Moose and I broke up. You were joking, but-"

"Never was." He could see her blinking at him out of the corner of his eye. "Every time I laid it on thick, I was doing so because... I figured you'd just laugh me off. I mean, look what happened when you finally figured out I was serious!"

"Yeah?" Her arms folded over her chest. "And what DID happen?"

"We lived happily ever after. And who wants that?"

A wet little laugh. "How exactly is it that you have the technology to combine sarcasm and sincerity?"

"Ahh," he told her, a broad grin spreading across his devilishly handsome features. "That, dear lady, is one of the many mysteries that make up Reggie Mantle."

________________________________To Be CONCLUDED...
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