A companion piece to last year's short story "Larsen," this new story "Larsen in Love" provides a final meditation of this beloved character and sets the stage for the next generation of prep school kids. Pre-order now exclusively on Kindle. You can read an excerpt below...
Larsen in Love: A Prep School Blues Story
“One more photo, boys.” Jenna held up her camera. “Please!”
Derek sighed at his sister’s request, but dutifully posed for yet another picture in the living room with Thomas, his best friend. Arm in arm, the two high school freshmen made a handsome pair. Derek had blond hair and blue eyes like his sister. Thomas had blue eyes too behind his thick framed, round glasses, while his face was paler and his hair was darker. They were about to attend their first school dance together and they were going as friends. About this Derek had been clear, he did in fact like boys, but he did not have a boyfriend, and if he ever did, it certainly would not be Thomas. Still, they looked very elegant together posed by the mantel in their rented tuxedos.
“Smile!” Jenna called out. The boys did as she asked.
Looking at the trio in front of him, Larsen smiled too. This was his little family. Jenna Wayne, his girlfriend. Derek Wayne, her kid brother, who had lived with them since the death of his parents. Thomas Karinsky, who spent so much time at their house that he felt like family. The only thing that would make this moment better would be if Jenna could join them at the dance. Unfortunately, she had to work catering a last minute event. Larsen would have to fulfill her obligation as a chaperone in her place.
“Larsen, make sure you take plenty more all night,” Jenna implored him after she clicked her last shot. “I want to see everything.”
“It’ll be just like you were there,” Larsen assured her.
“Let me get one of you too.” Jenna lifted her camera again and focused on Larsen. “I can’t remember ever seeing you in a suit before. You wear it well.”
Managing the gas station that they owned, Michael Larsen did not often have to wear a suit as he neared his thirties, but he could still fill one out. He worked out regularly enough to maintain the hard, strong body he had developed lifting weights and playing sports in high school. He had grown a scruffy brown beard since then, but he still looked much the same as he had in his youth. Those years were probably the only time in his life he had to wear a jacket and tie on a daily basis, as part of his uniform, just like Derek and Thomas did now at the very same college prep school, Prospere Academy.
“Boys, get in the car, I’ll be right there!” Larsen told them. When they had gone, he kissed Jenna on the lips.
“I love you, Larsen,” she said.
“I love you too,” he replied. He kissed her again.
Jenna tasted sweet, like the delicious goodies she was always baking in the oven. He could still taste her kiss as he got into his big vintage Cadillac, where the boys were already waiting in the back seat, whispering to each other and laughing. He turned the key in the ignition and tuned the radio to his favorite classic rock station. The boys simultaneously groaned.
“Come on, Larsen,” Derek complained. “Not that old stuff again!”
“You’ll have plenty of your top ten hits at the dance.” Larsen chuckled and turned up the volume as he pulled out of the driveway. “Whatever it is you kids listen to nowadays."
“I wish,” Thomas chimed in. “If Coach Chardonnay is DJ, it’s gonna be even older music than this.”
“And if it’s Mr. Winters, we’ll be dancing to show tunes all night,” Derek added.
“Mr. Winters isn’t coming tonight, don’t you remember?” Thomas nudged Derek. “Neither is Sol…”
Larsen turned the music up even more so that it drowned out the sound of their conversation in the backseat. He was glad that Jack Winters would not be at the dance. Although Jack had been Derek’s drama teacher for several months now, Larsen had only shared the most minimal interactions with his old friend. Well, unlike Derek and Thomas, Jack and Larsen had been more than friends. Their youthful friendship had been an important one for Larsen, but the brief attempt at a relationship that followed seemed more of an afterthought in his mind. Larsen sometimes forgot about it as he went through his daily routine of working at the gas station and coming home to Jenna. This was only natural. After all, at this point, he had been with Jenna for much longer than he was ever with Jack. More than a decade had passed since that precious short time during their senior year when Jack and Larsen had gone from being friends to being boyfriends. They had gone to their junior prom as friends and then to their senior prom as boyfriends. That last dance had been the end of it. Larsen knew it was his fault things between them went wrong, but after all this time, he did not blame himself. It was so long ago.
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