The three were good friends, as good as friends could be. Jane and
Rita had met in the sixth grade. Ben, he had always seemed to be there,
like a brother or a cousin. He lived in a house up on the hill, the two
girls lived at the foot. They could party together, talk together, or just
be together. Jane wasn't beautiful, but she had a way with men. Her long, light
brown hair and ready smile attracted men. She went through boyfriends like
most people went through twinkies. It was uncommon for her to show up
anywhere with the same guy twice. Every man seemed to have a crush on her,
or have had one at one time. Rita was different; she had one boyfriend for
the past year, Chas. Chas was a football player who had originally been
going out with Jane. He was tall, dark haired and dark eyed. He instantly
entranced Rita with his charm and masculinity. Jane and Ben were afraid; they knew Chas's reputation and were afraid that Rita might get hurt. One weekend, Ben's parents had left for a week to go to Hawaii. Ben
was sitting around the house, waiting for one of his friends to call him
for a party. He was careful not to let anyone know his parents were
gone--parties were fine, but he didn't want to clean up afterwards. His
thoughts turned to his girlfriend, Tracy. She had dumped him when she
moved. Ben tried to take it philosophically, but his heart wouldn't let
him. He wished that his emotions were more like Jane's. The phone rang. "Hi?" he answered. "Ben? Are your parents gone?" It was a measure of how close Ben was
to Jane to let her know this. "Yeah... Why? You sound upset." "We need to use your house." "We?" "Yeah. Chas just dumped Rita." "Come on over." Ben knew what this meant. Rita was so in love with
Chas that she would probably be suicidal with grief. Rita's parents would
be unsympathetic. A typical comment form them would be "that's what you get
for dating a jock". Jane's parents were probably throwing another party.
They were great at partying. Unfortunately, they were not very quiet
parties. Ben's house was the only place were they could console Rita.
