Free Dallas (Time for Tammy #1) by Kit Sergeant Page B

was us, she’d have a week to cool off before murdering the three of us—four if Linda decided to participate after all—with her bare man hands. Jane and Linda were going home for the break, but Dallas and I weren’t. Dallas because he was trying out for the Club Volleyball team; Eckhart is too small to have any real sports teams besides basketball, but the Volleyball team occasionally plays other schools’ club teams. Consequently, Dallas was never around anymore, citing volleyball practice every time we tried to get him to come back to our dorm.
    I wasn’t going home for Fall Break because my parents were visiting the week before.
    “And now my sister’s coming too,” I told them during one of our roof meetings.
    “Your twin, right?” Linda asked.
    I nodded again, gathering a scoop of gravel in my hands.
    “How come you never talk about her? I thought twins were inseparable,” Jane said.
    “Not Corrie and I. We’re fraternal,” I told them. I didn’t want to get into the finer nuances of our relationship. Not to mention the Kellen-factor. “We don’t even have the same birthday. She was born at 11 pm, and I was born at 12:30 am the next day.”
    “You don’t even share the same birthday?” Linda clarified.
    “No. What about you?” I asked Jane. I already knew Linda had two older brothers, one who worked at Disneyworld and got a discount on clothing, hence the fact that Linda’s wardrobe was filled with T-shirts with cartoons on them.
    “I’m an only child.” Jane said. Linda looked over at me and nodded knowingly, as if Jane not having any siblings explained a lot.
     
    On one rare night when Dallas showed up to dinner while we were there, I waved to him as he walked in. I didn’t dare to hope he’d join us, but my heart leapt a little bit when he sat his tray down at our customary four-top. Since it was usually just Jane, Linda, and me at mealtimes, we stopped sitting at the longer tables. That way it looked more like we didn’t want anyone to join us than we just didn’t have any more dining companions to add.
    “What’s up guys?” he asked, grinning at the three of us.
    I shrugged shyly back at him.
    “Dallas, what the hell are you eating?” Jane asked, taking stock of his tray.
    He picked up a long, greenish pod. “Snap peas.”
    “Is that it?” my sawdusted tongue managed to squeak out. His plate was piled up high with the pods and nothing else.
    He nodded.
    “You are so strange,” Jane said, glancing over at me. I shrugged again.
    “Hey, are you any of you guys rich?” Dallas asked.
    I swallowed the diet pop I’d been drinking. “What?”
    “You know, do your parents have money, like most everyone else around here?”
    “Nope,” Jane said, popping a fry into her mouth. “Tammy’s dad’s a doctor though.”
    Dallas finally looked at me with interest. “Do you have a car?”
    “No. I have a sister and a brother, and my dad has a small practice. We are NOT rich.”
    Dallas looked over at Linda. “What about you Pam... Linda?” he quickly corrected himself as Jane frowned at him.
    “I don’t have a car.”
    Dallas went on describing all of the various cars his dormmates (but not Sonofabitch or the Dadian) sported. I couldn’t help feeling my status at Eckhart would have risen dramatically if I possessed a car. I could get off campus whenever I wanted to. Maybe Dallas would have wanted to go get fast-food and call me to take him. Maybe there was a movie he would want to see, and I would be his only ride, and then he’d asked me to go with him and buy me popcorn as a thank-you. And then our fingers would touch as both reached into the popcorn container at the same time…
    “I think my roommate’s rich,” Jane returned to our previous topic. “She bragged to me today that her parents were taking her out for sushi tonight.”
    “She told you that and didn’t invite you?” Dallas asked her. “Man, if someone told me they were eating someplace other than this