Vindication for Jenna

Dan lay on top of Jenna moving back and forth, grunting. She stared at his blank face. His mouth hung open dumbly while his eyes stared fixedly at some point to the right of her head. Jenna could have rolled her eyes and he wouldn’t have noticed; so she did.
When he was finished, Dan rolled over on his back, taking the right side of the bed that he always claimed.
“God I missed you girl,” he huffed. Jenna gave him a small, weak smile that went over-looked anyway. She turned her back to him and pulled her knees up to her chest. The stars outside the large window in Dan’s room held her attention for just a minute. Before long Jenna’s mind had wandered towards someone who, at this time, was just as miserable as her. She turned around on impulse to face Dan.
“I cheated on you while you were away.” He opened his eyes and turned his head to face her. It was the first time he really looked at her in hours. Twenty-four seconds later he said, “What?”
“I had sex with someone else while you were California,” she said calmly with only a hint of smugness. Dan thought vaguely of the cute blonde he’d gotten stoned with on the beach one night in Cali. Another more important thought seized him.
“With who?”
Jenna stared back into his dark brown eyes while she thought about whether or not to tell the truth. Even though she was looking at brown eyes, all she saw was a pair of blue ones. Her decision was made for her.
“Michael,” she breathed. His name was like a breath of fresh air. Michael, the only kind person living in this house. Michael, whom I never really saw before you left. Michael, who changed everything while you were off on some internship that I begged you not to take.
Within seconds Dan was out of bed and pulling on sweatpants. Jenna pulled her underwear on in one fluid motion, but was still twelve steps behind by the time she pulled one of Dan’s dirty t-shirts over her head. They thudded noisily down the grand staircase, not caring who they awoke. Dan’s goal was clear in his head, but Jenna’s wasn’t as solid. She wasn’t running after Dan to protect Michael. He was stronger than Dan, and was used to fighting for things while Dan was handed everything. No, it wasn’t to protect him. Jenna’s primary motive was desire. She simply wanted to be with Michael.

***

Dan’s parents never questioned Jenna’s presence at their house during their son’s absence. To them she was a lost puppy, a pet of Dan’s. Maybe they wrote it off as her not knowing what else to do with her life, or maybe they just didn’t care. That was the more likely option. They hardly cared about their own son, why should they care about his poor, t-shirt wearing girlfriend? In any case, the house was big enough for her to never get in their way and that was all that mattered.
Jenna did stay away at first. She wasn’t so uncivilized as to come over uninvited. But she was invited. Michael, the quiet boy living in Dan’s house that she’d only previously seen in passing, had struck up a friendship with her. He had seen her at the library many days in a row looking, not lost, but lonely. Jenna had seen him too, but never thought anything of it, except to finally have solved the mystery of where he spent all of his time. It wasn’t until Michael saw her crying over a novel that he finally decided to approach her.
Weeks passed in the library like years aboard a ship traveling towards some unknown destination. The two talked about everything from the past to the future, but it wasn’t until a bond of trust was formed between them that either mentioned the present.
Jenna was curious about how Michael came to be living with Dan’s family. She was surprised by the simplicity of the situation. Michael was in his sophomore year of college and, paying for everything on his own, decided it would be cheaper to commute. His father was an old friend of Dan’s father who heard about his situation and took Michael in at a reduced rental fee. Michael was in the library all the time studying.
As it turns out, Jenna’s involvement with Dan turned out to be harder to explain. She wouldn’t have brought it up at all but Michael, who never openly said a bad word about the family he boarded with, was insanely curious as to why anyone would be involved with them by choice. She didn’t have a real answer for him.
One day Jenna broke down in a fit of frustration and admitted for the first time to anyone what she really thought of sex. Michael sat there with his chin in his hand and a crease between his eyebrows. He didn’t say a word or take his eyes off her. Jenna felt a little nervous, but found that once she started ranting she couldn’t stop. When she was finished she just sat there, out of breath, and waited for him to say something. After a few moments, Michael asked, “Jenna, was Dan your first?” She answered meekly that, yes, he was. That was the day Jenna learned what sex really was, what it was really meant to be. And for the first time ever, she attached the words “making love” to the act.

***

Jenna descended the last of the basement stairs to find that Dan faced a locked door. The pounding was enough to wake the neighbors, and then there was the yelling on top of it. Jenna wasn’t surprised to see a light turn on at the top of the stairs. They heard a lock turn and the door opened. There stood Michael in his boxers just as bare-chested as Dan. Before Jenna could fully take in the sight of him, Dan lunged. He got in maybe one good punch before Michael responded. All the while, the two were screaming at each other.
“You asshole! How dare you fuck my girlfriend! She’s mine! D’you hear me?!”
“She’s not yours! She’s not anybody’s!”
“I’m gonna kill you!”
“She’s too good for you! You don’t even love her!”
“And like you do?”
“Yeah!”
Jenna felt her already racing heart jump a little inside her. It looked to be a good thing for Dan that his Dad swooped in when he did to pull them apart.
“What’s going on down here,” Dan’s mom asked as she fastened her robe more tightly around her waist.
“He was screwing my girlfriend behind my back!” Dan yelled.
Dan’s father turned to Michael. “Is that true?”
“I wouldn’t choose those words,” Michael said angrily.
“Michael?”
“Yes, sir. It’s true.”
Dan’s face turned red all over again. His father just sighed and said, “Yeah…well.” He stepped out from between the boys and headed for the stairs without looking at Jenna. “Dan, go back to bed,” he said over his shoulder. Dan shot one more enraged look at Michael and, like his father, climbed the stairs without looking at Jenna. His mother gave her an icy look, but said nothing and followed her husband and son.
Jenna wondered if Dan’s father would kick Michael out after this. She decided that, no, he wouldn’t. Michael was responsible and paid his rent on time, sometimes even over-paying. Most importantly, he was hardly ever around, and therefore never in the man’s way. The petty squabbling of teenagers over some girl were none of his concern; especially a girl who was not financially or socially worth fighting over.
Dan and his family took all the tension with them, leaving Jenna and Michael and a sense of relief behind. Jenna smiled at Michael and whispered, “Sorry.” His returning smile was ear-to-ear.
“You told him,” he stated.
“Yeah, I guess I did.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “I slept with him,” she whispered into his bare chest.
“Would you call it sex?”
“No, not like it is with us.”
“Well if it wasn’t really sex to you, then you didn’t really sleep with him.” Jenna lifted her head gratefully and Michael kissed her for real.
“Would you understand if I told you I have to go talk to him?”
“Yes.”
Michael released her with some reluctance and she ascended the dark stairs in search of Dan. She found him outside on the front porch smoking a cigarette. She sat down beside him and said, “You don’t smoke.” Dan ignored her at first and then changed his mind.
“I’m out of weed,” he said. Jenna nodded and waited for him to say more. “I wouldn’t take you for a cheater.”
“It wasn’t for sex. Michael and I had more of a relationship in the two months you were away than you and I had in the entire year we were together.”
“Gee, Jen, that sure makes me feel a lot better,” Dan said sarcastically, still looking straight ahead, still smoking his cigarette.
“I’m not trying to make you feel better.”
“Ouch.”
“I just want you to understand why.”
“You can’t tell me it wasn’t about the sex; it’s always about the sex. Was he really that much better than me?”
“Yes.” That caught his attention. Dan turned his head slowly in her direction. He wore a very disgusted look. “You’re not a very compassionate lover, Daniel. You never considered how I might feel--” Dan opened his mouth to argue. “No! Listen to me for once!” And he did. He listened to every word Jenna had to say about how she felt, not only about sex, but about their relationship, and even about…Michael. He winced through her insults and rolled his eyes at some points, but in the end he understood.
“Wow,” Dan said, a little appalled by everything Jenna had said. Jenna felt a wild sense of relief wash over her. “So what now,” Dan asked.
Jenna thought about it for a minute then said, “Now you let me be happy, and I hope you find someone you think is worth it to love right.”
“Okay,” Dan said glumly.
“Okay?” Jenna smiled at him.
“Okay,” he said more firmly.
Dan nodded slowly while putting out his fourth and final cigarette. They went back into the house and parted in the foyer. Dan ascended the marble stairs to his room while Jenna took the carpeted basement stairs towards Michael.
Michael, who had changed everything.