Waltz of Her Life

Over the next few days she started her classes, resumed her Tuesday/Thursday routine at the dream lab and got herself re-acquainted with her hustle-bustle schedule. The first Saturday night of the semester, Lauren and her same three roommates staged a huge party with kegs and a whole bar full of liquor. As she promised, she kept the apartment and the walls outside free of embarrassing banners. Yet four perfect looking lattice-topped cherry pies lie neatly arranged on the counter. Small pictures of cherries had been posted everywhere: the refrigerator, the stereo, the mirrors in the bathroom, and the doors to the bedrooms upstairs.

More than one person asked "What's with all of the cherries?" leaving Lauren cheerfully willing to decode the entire mystery for them. One by one people approached her with congratulations and hugs, saying things like "Welcome to the Sexual Revolution!" and "You've finally joined the party!" While Linda was mad at first, by the time she'd drunk a few White Zinfandels, she laughed along with everyone else. After all, what was a few embarrassing personal details between friends? When Seth called her the next day and she told him, he laughed heartily for a full minute.

By her 21st birthday, when she let her friends escort her to five different bars for free drinks, the semester was in full swing and everything in her life was running smoothly.

A little too smoothly.

Around Thanksgiving something happened that would change her life forever. It started when Lauren drove her glamorous Mustang, top down, to the Glienke's on an eerily warm November day. "Hey you," she said, when she arrived at the cottage. "Are you up for another rowdy roadtrip for another free concert?"

"Who?" Linda asked.

"Yes, them!" Lauren said, pointing at her and laughing.

"What are you talking about?" Linda asked, noticing that her wild friend was wearing a cute blue and white striped bare-midriff top and torn jeans with sandals, as if it had been the middle of the summer.

"Jeannie and Greg got free tickets for another big concert! The Who!"

Linda finally got Lauren's joke and laughed. "In Cincinnati?"

"Well, they ain't coming all the way out here, child."

"Well, when is it?"

"Monday, December 3rd. We'd go on Sunday and come back on Tuesday. I'm driving."

Linda thought about her clinicals and her finals schedule. "No, I can't. No way. I need that time for studying."

"Finals aren't until the week after that," Lauren said.