About Those Frat Brothers

I alluded to Paul's fraternity brothers having bigger egos than accomplishments in bed. Here's the rest of that story, as I know it.

I think his name was Rick. Since I've been annoyed with him for over 40 years, you'd think I could remember it better, the way I remember Tom Moorshare's name. Anyway, at the time, I knew three things about him. He was an ATO, he was engaged to a girl back east somewhere, and, as he was asking me out on an evening private swim date in the campus pool, I found out he was a lifeguard with keys. He assured me we wouldn't get into any trouble.

I loved to swim. Really loved it. And a lifeguard? Instant rescue if needed, which it never was, and I didn't have to worry about safety. And since I knew he was engaged, it should be safe enough that way too, right? Yeah, right! You guessed it: this was still my naive stage. The pool was great, but I found him swimming uncomfortably close to me wherever I moved about in the pool. I was a good enough swimmer that I always managed to maneuver away. But it really spoiled the fun. Eventually it was time to go, and I found myself almost fearful he'd follow me into the girl's locker room. Perhaps he'd taken the hint by then, since the rest of the evening ended on a nicely casual level. At least I thought it was nice.

However, he apparently had quite a collection of girls he "took swimming", and word seemed to get around that I was "one of those." How do you go back to your frat brothers and say, "Oh, that Heather, do you believe she thought the date was really just for swimming?" And they'd all have a good chuckle, right?

Ignorance is bliss, and my new reputation was kept from me. For a while, anyway. One day a girl down the hall named Geri, a year older than I was, asked me into her room for a "friendly warning". It may have been a warning, however useless, but it certainly wasn't friendly. It was smugly self-righteous, and I never wanted anything to do with her again after that. Ever. I was told flat out to stay away from two of the frat brothers. Rick was named, because he was engaged. Of course I knew that, and that's why nothing had happened. She dismissed that, having heard different.

The other was a puzzler. I was to stay away from Tom Moorshare. Sure. No Problem. Uh, who is he, exactly?

She couldn't believe I didn't know. After all, Tom was the one who thought I was pursuing him. After much discussion and resorting to a picture, I finally figured out where I'd seen him. He sat down in the front row of my astronomy class. I had noticed him, because he was quite a distraction. From where I sat up in back, he was in my direct line-of-sight to the professor, and since I was getting an "A" in that class, I had been paying quite a bit of attention to the professor. Tom sat with another guy, and they were always turning around and looking back in my direction. I had no clue why, or even that they might be looking at me specifically. There were other students around, and the exit door was back behind me a few more rows. I'm sure most times they turned around they caught me looking back at them, or so their egos assumed, since I was watching the professor and taking notes. I just wished they'd settle down so I could enjoy the class more.

So that was Tom Moorshare, eh? Well, just tell him to stay out of my life and I guess we can both be happy. I have to wonder, however, after all these years, where such an ego has taken him.