The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [201]
“Thinking about playing any football this fall?” Carroll asked, shaking with Studs.
“Maybe,” said Studs.
“If you do, let me know.”
Studs asked Dowson how his brother was, and Dowson said all right. He was here some place with Gertrude O’Reilley.
They talked until the music for the next dance was heard. They again waited for others to go in first and then followed.
“Everybody is here,” she said in a very natural voice, as if her body was not tight against him.
“Yeah,” he said, looking at her, hoping she’d say something else, some hint about the way they were dancing, and that it meant something to her. Colored lights were played across the floor. Silly words were in his head. He was silent.
“Oh, there’s Mike!” Lucy exclaimed.
“Mike who?”
“Don’t you know him? Mike Crowley. He’s such a cute boy.”
“Hello, Mike,” Lucy called.
“He’s a darling boy,” she told Studs.
Studs looked after him. He was a big, dumb, but decent-looking young chap, and the girl with him seemed eighteen or nineteen, a plain-looking girl with a wide, Dutch face.
“He’s only a boy, but he’s so darling. He’s the captain of St. Ignatius football team, and everybody says he’s a fine player and that some day he’ll be a famous college football player.”
“Oh,” said Studs, looking again after Mike Crowley, wanting to meet him, wanting Lucy to remember that he’d been and still was a good player.
Studs told her he had just seen Dan Donoghue on the floor. He danced towards Dan, good old Dan. It made him feel better and more confident than he had all evening. Dan smiled with surprise, but Studs knew he was glad to see him, and said he’d never expect to see them together, and Studs liked it; particularly, because Dan linked him and Lucy together as if it was very natural and expected. After the dance, Dan and Studs walked off the dance floor together, and Dan’s girl and Lucy strolled just ahead of them.
Studs asked how everything was going, as if it was a question of grave import. Dan said he couldn’t complain, and asked Studs how it was riding, and Studs said he couldn’t complain either. He asked about the old fellows, and Studs said he’d seen some, and he hadn’t seen others. Dan said to tell them all he’d been asking for them.
They grouped together in the lobby. Studs felt as if he belonged, one of a talking group. Good old Dan. Dan was no cake-eater either, and if Dan could enjoy these dances, well, he could. He’d take Lucy to more of them. He looked at her as she laughed with Dan’s girl, Catherine Marie Boylan. He envied everybody who knew her. He wanted the dance to be over, and the two of them to be alone in a cab, because it would mean the chance he’d been waiting for all his life, ever since they had sat in the tree. If he didn’t make the most of it, win her, maybe he might never have another chance.
Studs and Dan exchanged dances. Catherine Marie was only a kid, but damn pretty, with chestnut hair, round face, blue eyes, athletic figure.
“I feel as if I know you,” she said on the dance floor.
“Yes.”
“Dan’s spoken so much of you.”
“We went to school together.”
“I know, he thinks a lot of you.”
“First down ten,” Dan said: Studs had bumped Catherine Marie into him and Lucy.
Studs smiled, but his confidence was severely shaken. He danced rottenly and had nothing to say. Different from Dan and Lucy, they were talking so naturally. Some guys were just built that way, and could break into any new place. He wasn’t and couldn’t. Hell, he didn’t belong with all these broads. They were not his kind. He couldn’t talk about dances, and didn’t know the people they talked about and knew.
“Oh, there’s Perc Bymnes,” Catherine Marie said.
Studs said nothing, because after all, she was his old pal Dan’s girl, and he didn’t want to make a snotty crack. They waited between pieces. A heavy but soft fellow with a thin girl in blue on his arm approached them. Catherine Marie greeted them effusively. Studs didn’t like the way the punk seemed to have polish rubbed all over him, the way shoe polish was lathered