As they headed toward the garage through the dining room, they saw Pete’s mom reading by herself in the corner.
“Arnesto, how’s college going?” she asked.
“Fine, thank you, Mrs. Morgan.”
“Pete misses you at school,” she said.
“Mom, please, I’m walking Arnesto out to his car.”
Arnesto noticed the cigarette in her hand. She wasn’t overt about her smoking — she only smoked three cigarettes per day, and only at night, away from the rest of Pete’s family.
Arnesto and Mrs. Morgan said goodbye, then the boys walked out through the garage. Arnesto opened his car door and leaned on it. “Hey, Pete. If I did remember something else about you or a family member—”
“No! I was kidding earlier. You’ve already told me too much, thanks. Please never tell me any more about my future, including my family. I want to be ignorant like everybody else.”
“But what if it’s… important?”
“Then I especially don’t want to know. I don’t want to spend my life fretting about things I probably shouldn’t know in the first place. Besides, with you mucking up the timeline, who knows what will actually happen?”
Arnesto saw the seriousness in Pete’s face and felt he had to respect his friend’s wishes. “Okay,” Arnesto nodded, then got into his car and drove off.
Served
Downtown, Near University
Sunday, November 26, 1989
Early Afternoon
Thanksgiving over, Arnesto returned to school early. He spent his first day back in his dorm alternating between cursing the gobbledygook that is Assembly programming and cursing the airship levels in Super Mario Bros. 3, which was most likely programmed in Assembly. How did I ever beat this game? he wondered.
Needing a break and confident he still had some time before thousands of his fellow students returned and ruined the parking situation, he decided to venture downtown. Parking was better there, too. For once, it was a sunny day and the sun felt nice and warm on his face. It also made it harder to see into the front window of Mona’s. There was nobody seated at the two window tables closest to the door, so instead of walking by like usual, he stopped there and pressed his face to the window.
“The food looks even better from the inside,” a familiar voice said, startling him.
It was her. Katrina, the first true love of his lives.
“Oh yeah?” he said, returning her smile. He got these words out despite not being able to think.
“If you’re hungry, you should come in. It’s delicious food.”
“Will you be my waitress?” he asked. She smiled, then looked inside briefly, surveying the situation.
“If you wait a minute, I can clock in, get my apron, and seat you in my section.” Instant chemistry.
“Okay.” He watched her disappear inside, which gave him his first chance to really look at her, at least her backside. She had long, silky smooth black hair which she had pinned up for work. She was also wearing stylish clothes as part of her work uniform, which fit her athletic nineteen-year-old body very nicely.
He waited, then walked in. Right on cue, she met him at the hostess station and led him to his table. The dinner rush wouldn’t start for a while, so throughout the meal, they had ample opportunity to flirt with each other until, finally, she brought him the bill.
“Oh,” he said, looking over the bill with a confused expression. “I don’t see your phone number on here.”
She laughed. “Aw, you’re totally my type, but I’m kind of seeing someone right now.”
WHAT! Oh, right, she did have boyfriends before me. She’s probably still seeing that one she told me about. What was his name, Sean? What do I do now?! he thought.
“You deserve better,” he said.
“Why? Do you… know him?” she asked.
“I know… better,” he smiled. She laughed but didn’t seem to know what to say, so he continued. “Tell you what. Here’s my number,” he said, writing down his number and handing it to her. “No pressure, but if things don’t happen to work out with Billy Bob or whatever—”
“Sean,” she said after a chuckle.
“Right, if things don’t work out with Billy Sean, you can call me. Bye for now.” He left feeling taller than he ever had in his life — partially assisted by his final growth spurt, which had come at last.
One week later, a newly single Katrina called to invite him over to watch a rented copy of Rain Man on VHS.
After dating her a couple weeks and feeling secure their relationship really was happening all over again, Arnesto decided to call Pete to let him know the good news.
“I found my wife!”
“Congratulations! Dude, I’m so happy for you. Did you bone her yet?” Pete liked to get straight to the point.
“I did! You know, I always remembered enjoying sex, but my memories did not do it justice. It’s amazing. I mean… goddamn.”
“Stop rubbing it in,” Pete said. “Min-seo is still holding out on me. Wait a second. Tell me the truth. Did you invent time travel so you could go back in time and lose your virginity before me?”
“What?! No!”
“You did, didn’t you. Oh my god, I knew you were hyper-competitive, Arnesto, but I didn’t think you were this petty.”
“Dude, I’m not—”
“Admit it. This is exactly the kind of thing you would do.”
“Okay, I’m immature now, but—”
“Aha!”
“Pete, let me finish, goddammit. It was a much older version of me that invented time travel, one who couldn’t care less about something like that.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
Arnesto liked the sound of that. Maybe their bickering would end. “Right, it doesn’t matter.”
“Because I was first.”
Arnesto didn’t know what to say. It might be best to drop it. But how could he? “I have lost my virginity, and you haven’t. So I am first.”
“You’re first now, in this universe. But this is your second go-around. Which obviously happened after your first go-around, in which I lost mine first. I was the first first, the absolute first.”
Pete was either envious or in desperate need of having his pipes cleaned. Arnesto remembered being both when the situation was reversed. Still, Pete had a point. “Okay, Pete. You were first.”
“Thank you.”
“But I didn’t invent time travel just to get laid before you, I mean, this go-around.”
“Okay,” Pete said.
“It’s astounding to me that we remain friends,” Arnesto said. “Then again, that was the other us, and they never had this conversation. I have to go. I’m seeing her again tonight.”
Arnesto and Katrina were inseparable after that. He spent almost every night at her place. They didn’t even have their first argument until his birthday the following spring.
“I’m glad you’re only a year younger than me again,” she said, grabbing another one of the cupcakes she had baked for his birthday. She had turned twenty in February. “That month I was two years older made me feel like I was robbing the cradle,” she laughed.
Arnesto had decided he would tell her the truth that day — how mad could she get on his birthday? “Yeah, you know what, though, Snuggleblossoms?” he asked. They hadn’t had nicknames in their former life, but Arnesto thought it would be fun this time around. Still, he hadn’t yet found a nickname for her they could agree upon.