The Underclassman Ch. 23

Supporter of the Arts
Mick had set his alarm a little earlier than usual for his typical Sunday mornings as he had made plans to meet up with Sean at the fitness center and get a workout in before heading to The Dugout around noontime for his shift. Midterms were that week and Mick also wanted to do as much studying as he possibly could. He started himself a cup of coffee before running down to his own washroom to brush his teeth and throw some water on his face and upon returning, Mick added just a bit of sugar and milk to his steaming brew before sitting down at his desk and opening his laptop to peruse the news and his emails.
The first message at the top of his inbox was from one of his ex-military buddies who was also currently enrolled in college, letting Mick know that some of his old squad mates were planning to meet up in Las Vegas for spring break. The very next email he opened was from student housing advising on-campus residents that during the recess, they had to vacate their dormitories by midday next Saturday and were not permitted to return until the following Sunday.
"Crap," Mick said to himself, as he fell back against his chair and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair. He had not given any real thought to the upcoming respite due to being preoccupied with prepping for exams. Suddenly it was apparent that he needed to figure something out and quick, also realizing that he may have to miss some time from work. "Gil is going to flip," thought Mick, knowing how busy it was anticipated that the bar would be for the next two weekends.
Mick finished up his morning routine and headed out to meet Sean. While working-out in the free weights area he broached the subject with his gym partner, inquiring what Sean's plans were for the break. "Heading up to Arapahoe Basin for spring skiing," he answered. Mick started in, explaining his dilemma but did not get far before Sean interjected, "Come on and go with me." Mick admitted to his friend that he was not much of a skier. "Then don't ski!" chortled Sean, "Après ski." Sean went on to explain to Mick that The Legend, as locals called it, was known for its spring skiing and party scene. "You should see the tailgating in the parking lot," Sean told him, "You'd swear you were at a football game." Mick thanked his friend for the invitation and told Sean that he would give it some serious thought.
"Hey, before I forget about it," said Sean, "Do you have any interest in playing league softball after the break?" "Maybe," his friend replied. "Edgar the chemistry lab manager always put a team together and they still need a few more people," Sean told him.
Mick loved the game of baseball, having played several years of little league and a year of JV and three years of varsity ball for his high school team. He was not nearly as fond of softball however. There were pick-up games and leagues in the service, and his family always played a game at their 4th of July picnic, and Mick would always ask the question, "Why can't we just play baseball instead?" A large part of his dislike for softball stemmed from his lack of prowess at the plate. Mick was an excellent contact hitter who could consistently crush a baseball for line drive extra base hits, but when it came to softball, it was a completely different story. He could not seem to master the arc of a slow-pitched softball and was always too impatient, never letting the pitch get over the plate.
Sean informed Mick that, "Your buddy Perry is playing," further saying before his friend could reply, "and so is Terri."
"I take it this is a coed team?" asked Mick.
"Yep," replied Sean, adding, "run by city parks and rec."
"Pencil me in," Mick told him.
"I'll let them know," said Sean.
After having returned from his workout and showered, Mick headed out a little early so he could have some time to speak to Gil before his shift started. When he arrived at The Dugout, Mick found its owner situated at the end of the bar finishing his lunch with Lonnie behind the counter cutting fruit.
"Do you have a moment," Mick asked his boss.
"This can't be good," replied Gil as he turned towards his employee.
Mick went about fully explaining his predicament to Gilman who then asked the obvious, "You are aware that the men's basketball tournament starts on Thursday and Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, aren't you?" Mick apologized for coming to him so late with the problem but assured Gil that it was not his preference to miss work and leave The Dugout in the lurch. Gil called out to his barkeep, "Are you catching this?" Without bothering to look up, Lonnie shook his head disapprovingly as he continued slicing his garnishes. "What is my best bartender going to do without his best barback?" posed Gil as he extended his hand out, gesturing at his barkeeper.
"Bullshit," blurted Lonnie, before Mick could offer an answer. "You aren't going anywhere," he informed Mick as he chucked an orange wedge past his head.
Nonplussed Alanya Escort by both their reactions, Mick shrugged his shoulders while splaying his palms and asked in a frustrated tone, "So what am I supposed to do?"
"You can crash at my place on the sofa bed," Lonnie informed his coworker. For a few seconds, Mick stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.
"Joe... can Mick just work my same schedules?" asked Lonnie of the proprietor.
"Fine by me," answered Gil.
"Just bring your shit with you on Saturday," Lonnie told Mick, "Then get up Monday morning and head off to Disneyland or wherever the fuck it is you plan on going." Mick thanked Lonnie for offering to put him up. "Just be back in time for the following Friday," Lonnie advised him.
"Now go get clocked in and get to work before I fire you," joked Gil, "And pick up that orange!"
On Monday evening, Abigail came to Mick's room to study for their calculus midterm being given on the following morning, however she seemed intent on talking about anything but. "You have yet to tell me about you spring break plans," she said to him. Mick informed her that he just figured out what he was going to do about work, but still was not sure about the actual break part. "Come with us to Lake Havasu," suggested Abby.
"Us?" inquired Mick apprehensively.
Abby told him that she and her boyfriend Jimmy were going to drive to Arizona and spend the week at his uncle's house and hang out with his cousins on their boat. "It's one big party scene on the lake," she said.
"Don't you think you should run that by Jimmy first?" Mick asked her.
"He won't care," Abby said dismissively, prompting Mick to reply, "I'm not so sure about that."
Before Abigail could attempt to give him any more assurances, Mick inquired, "So how does he even begin to explain that to his family?"
"Explain what?" asked Abby.
"That his girlfriend who lives next to the only guy in her dorm invited him on break with her boyfriend to his family's house?" said Mick. Again, before she had the chance to offer any of her thoughts on the matter, Mick told Abby, "I appreciate that you always think of me but I'm going to have to pass on this invitation."
"Speaking of invitations," shot Abby, "Zoe's dance recital is Thursday evening... Be ready to go by six-fifteen."
"Wait, what?" stammered Mick, "This is the first I've heard about this."
Sounding perturbed, Abby told him that, "We discussed it at the beginning of the semester."
"I don't remember there being any discussion about me actually going," he replied.
"I just figured you'd want to be there to support your friend," remarked Abigail dryly.
"I hate that," Mick stated loudly, "I hate when you guilt trip me like that."
"Six-fifteen," she reiterated.
The first words out of every person's mouth that Mick ran into seemed to be, "Where are you going for spring break?" It actually started to irritate him some. He was sitting in chemistry class Wednesday morning reviewing his notes for the exam when Katrín sat down beside him and asked, "Ready for the midterm?"
"Probably as ready as I'm going to be," Mick responded.
"You are going to let me cheat off you, right?" Katrín jocosely requested.
"Maybe, if you've got enough cash," he advised her.
"Need more beer money for spring break?" she inquired.
Kat found it curious when Mick let the comment pass without offering a reply. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked.
"Not at all," said Mick as he looked up from his notes at her.
"I don't think I've heard what your plans are for the break," remarked Katrín.
"That's because I've yet to make any," he informed her. The astonished look on his classmate's face was obvious, and Mick admitted, "I know, I'm cutting it close."
"You are welcome to come with us to my parents' house for the week," Kat offered.
For the second time now, Mick had to ask who us was. Katrín let Mick know that a few members of the astronomy club were staying at her house during the break for stargazing. "It's not quite a dark sky site, but the light pollution is pretty low," she told him. Kat informed Mick that she did not expect the humidity to be too high and the moon was at waning crescent and did not rise until two hours prior to sunrise. "So the seeing should be really good," stated Kat.
"I don't even have a pair of binoculars," Mick told her, which elicited a laugh from his classmate. She let him know that, "We'll have my 80mm refractor which is at the house, Logan is bringing his 10" Dobsonian, and Matthew and Natalie have a 9" Schmidt-Cassegrain." Katrín went on to further say that another member Liz was bringing her solar telescope. "And I have a white light wedge for my scope, so during the day we can look at prominences and sunspots," Kat added.
"I haven't understood a single thing you've said yet," admitted Mick, causing her to chuckle once more.
Katrín told Mick Alanya Escort Bayan that they planned to do some day trips into Denver to go to a planetarium, and up to Rocky Mountain National Park. "Matt wants to look for a Clark's Nutcracker for his birding life list," she told Mick before asking him, "Have you ever been up to RMNP?" Mick told Kat that he had not but hoped to while going to school in Colorado.
Dr. Dannenburg ambled into the room and immediately instructed the class to put away their textbooks, laptops and notes, to pull out their calculators and prepare to take the midterm.
"That settles it," asserted Katrín, "you have to come with us." Mick thanked her for the invitation and said, "I'll let you know."
* * *
Agitated, Mick looked at his watch for the second time and asked Abby in a curt tone, "Why are we here so early?"
"I wanted to be sure to get a good seat," she told her dorm mate. He turned in his chair, looking over both shoulders to thoroughly survey the entire auditorium before pointing at a small group of women conversing down by the emergency exit on the right side of the stage.
"Besides those three, there's no one else in here," remarked Mick, "So why did you sit so far back?"
"I have this weird thing about going to the movies, okay?" barked Abigail defensively. "If I don't sit exactly in the center at the right elevation," she continued, "I can't enjoy the show."
Mick made sure to first look away before rolling his eyes. As he was peering off into the distance, his attention was drawn to movement out of the corner of his eye, and he spied one of the young women who had been talking strolling across the front of the stage. Her dark hair had crimson streaks and was cropped in a short bob with bangs and parted down the middle. She was clad in a black leather jacket with an asymmetrical zipper, a short red and black tartan kilt, over the knee red and black stripped socks, and a pair of heavy black leather boots.
The girl sat down in the left section of the auditorium, taking the seat adjacent to the aisle and two rows in front of Mick who continued checking her out. Based on the stitching around the soles of her boot he could tell that she was rocking a pair of Doc Martens which were laced only halfway up. Punk... emo... goth? Mick was not sure, but she looked pretty hot, nonetheless. The young woman got herself situated before she slowly turned her head, incrementally, to look over her shoulder. She caught Mick looking back at her and she smiled coyly before turning back around.
"What time did Zoey leave?" inquired Mick.
Abby told him that, "She was still getting ready before I left."
Incredulous, he slammed his palms down on the armrests of his seat while spouting, "Are you kidding me... We are here before her even?" Abby said nothing in return as she was beginning to get a bit irritated herself. "Doesn't she have to warm up or something?" interrogated Mick.
"I would assume so," replied Abby.
Mick shook his head back forth several times, slowly turning his gaze back towards the girl across the way. He discovered that she was watching him and once more their eyes briefly met and this time, Mick smiled at her before turning away.
"And before you get more bent out of shape... no, Jimmy is not coming," Abby informed him. Mick let out a loud huff as he slumped down into his seat. "What's a few minutes matter anyway?" she asked.
"I could have been studying for my last exam tomorrow," Mick told her.
"I just figured you'd want to come and support your friend," remarked Abby, sounding uncharacteristically pissy.
Mick sat back up in his seat and twisted around to face Abby, and mustering every ounce of sincerity in his being, told her that, "I do want to support my friend, that's why I'm sitting here with her."
Abigail was taken aback by his unexpected words and she felt like she was going to blush. "I meant Zoey," she said sheepishly.
"Zoey too," replied Mick.
His revelation had a calming effect, lowering the temperature between them both. There was even a hint of awkward silence hanging in the air and figuring he would need some assistance with staying awake for this next hour and a half, Mick thought it was a good opportunity to slip away for a moment.
"I'm going to go find the men's room and a drink," he told her before offering, "Would you like anything?"
"No thank you," she replied. "No Red Bulls," Abby prohibited Mick as he rose from his seat, playfully adding that, "You're wound up enough as it is."
Mick stood up and slid down to the end of the line of seats, attracting the attention of the young woman. They smiled at one another as he exited his row. Mick then walked up the low slopping steps and through the double doors to find a vending machine and as he aimlessly wandered the corridors in search of an energy drink, he could hear what sounded like a theatrical performance taking place.
Drawn Escort Alanya to the noise, Mick eventually found himself in the lobby at the main entrance of the performing arts center. "Welcome to the Zephyr Theater" read the sign above the multiple closed doorways from behind which voices could be heard. He latched onto the pull handle, peeled back the door and walked into hall. The house lights in the auditorium were off but was stage was lit well enough that Mick was immediately overwhelmed with amazement, discovering that he was standing in a wonderfully resplendent theater graced by elegant woodworking, ornate gilding and frescos. The proscenium arch was adorned with rich red drapery having a scalloped valence trimmed in gold. The room conjured thoughts of an opera house, or a theater one might find in Manhattan or Chicago.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" asked a muliebral voice.
Mick jerked around to find the girl in the leather jacket standing right behind him. Her aquamarine eyes were bordered with heavy eyeliner and she bore a small ring through her left eyebrow, in addition to a septum piercing and several studs in both ears.
"It does make me question why my dormitory is in such sad shape," he told her.
"This was a gift from one of the university's presidents back in 1970's," stated the young woman before telling him, "My name is Bellamy."
"I'm Mick," he offered in return.
The girl continued to regale him with the history of the hall, that it was originally a theater somewhere in the Midwest and had been slated for demolition before one of the past presidents intervened. "She had fond childhood memories of going there with her parents, so she provided an initial gift, pursued some grants and held fundraisers to preserve the interior components of the structure," said Bellamy. She continued by telling Mick that, "It was carefully disassembled and transported here then meticulously reconstructed."
"That's amazing," remarked Mick as he continued peruse the grand playhouse.
"Over the years, the performing arts center has been expanded around the theater," Bellamy told him, "and now includes several smaller stages and a concert hall."
"You sound pretty knowledgeable," commented Mick.
"I'm a set design and construction major," she told him, adding, "We are currently working on this production of A Streetcar Named Desire."
"You build the backdrops?" he asked her.
"It's much more than that," stated Bellamy before going on to tell Mick that the vocation required conducting research on the time period and location of the scene, and she had to be able to sketch, use CAD and paint, know carpentry and how to sew.
"That sounds rather interesting," Mick responded.
"After two years of getting nowhere with a fine arts degree I figured I needed something more," admitted Bellamy. "Would you like to see more of the theater?" she asked him.
"Sure, absolutely," Mick definitively replied.
"Come with me," instructed his new friend as she moved past him. Mick followed behind Bellamy who led him over to an open arched doorway at the back of the theater which had a chain across its entrance with a sign that read, "Seating Closed." She unfastened the barricade and pulled it back, but he hesitated. "It'll be fine," Bellamy assured him.
Mick entered the enclosed passageway and began ascending the stairs as she resecured the chain. Along the way he passed a few more arched doorways occluded by floor length curtains of red velvet. Mick asked Bellamy as he continued to climb, "How much further?"
"All the way up," she advised him.
When they reached the top, Bellamy pulled back the curtains of the final doorway and said to Mick, "In here." He walked through the entryway and found that he was standing in one of the theater's boxes high up to the side of the stage which was appointed with four wooden baroque chairs featuring plush seat cushions and backrests. "Have a seat," said Bellamy as she removed the small leather backpack she was carrying before sitting down herself.
Meticulously, Mick surveyed the grandiose hall taking in its splendor, and he noticed that except for the half dozen thespians on stage and a few people in the front row, he and Bellamy appeared to be the only other individuals in the house.
"Do you attend the performing arts frequently?" she asked tongue in cheek, to which he facetiously replied, "I try and make it to the movies at least twice a year."
Bellamy unzipped and removed her leather jacket then placed it across the chair directly behind her. She was wearing a black, sheer mesh top over a black balconette bra which cradled her modest breasts. Even through her dark sleeve, Mick could make out that Bellamy's entire left arm was covered in one continuous brightly colored tattoo of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and flowers. The punk, pierced, tattooed look, or girls with short hair was not what Mick was usually attracted to, but he could not deny there was something alluring about his recent acquaintance as Bellamy's unabashed display had certainly piqued his interest, demonstrated by his dick that began to twitch in his pants.
"Then I take it your girlfriend dragged you to the dance performance tonight?" inquired Bellamy.