Part: 2 of ??

Classification: other/tri

Rating: If you watch Dawson's Creek, you can read this.

Note from Jen: Okay, so this is really not along the lines of DC. I don't blame you if you don't like this part, but it's kind of required. Please, send feedback and let me know how I'm doing.

What Did I Do

I, Erik Collin Reiker, am living a nightmare. Everything was great until twenty minutes ago, when I broke up with Joey. I have perfect grades, I'm only a year and a half away from graduating from Brown pre-law, I've got great friends, an awesome dad, and an hour ago, the most wonderful girlfriend. Now I've lost the most important one, Joey.

I didn't want to, but I could tell something was wrong with Joey, so I did. Maybe she didn't like me the same way anymore; maybe there's someone else; I don't know, but I don't want to find out. If she told me that, I swear, my heart would literally break.

Joey is the best thing, in a long line of very good things, that has ever happened to me. If I told her that, she would think I was crazy; I am, crazy in love with her. I may sound like a wimp, who can't go on without her, and maybe I am, but I intend to try.

Try is what the Reiker's do best. My great grandfather came to the United States from Germany in 1910 and went straight to Yale. He became a lawyer and started Reiker and Associates with two of his friends. He met a girl soon after, and fell in love, but she didn't feel the same way, or couldn't feel the same way. Her father was 'morally opposed to lawyers', so she wasn't allowed to see my grandfather. He was willing to give up everything for her, and he almost did, so they could be together. They were married in 1916 and remained so until they died, a week within each other in 1994.

My grandfather, born in 1921 after three girls, was also a good man. Of course, he rebelled against his father, and went to war after his Yale graduation in 1943 with the Air Force against his native country. Did I forget to mention that we're Jewish? Well, we are. So this was a big thing for him, something he had to do. Eventually, his father realized this, and forgave him.

After the war, he went to law school, and joined his father at Reiker and Associates, that changed to Reiker and Son and Associates. My grandfather met his future wife when she was a nurse during the war, and married her on VJ-Day, 1945. They've been married for 59 years, and are still healthy and great grandparents at 79 and 83, respectively.

My father was the first to actually rebel in the strongest sense of the word. Born in 1946, once again after three girls who were triplets, he started college at Yale to appease my grandfather. In 1966, he dropped out, joined the Army and went to Vietnam. He stayed there for a year until he was shot three times in the leg and had to return home. Frustrated, he agreed to go back to college, on one condition: he could go to Harvard. So, my father was a 1969 graduate of Harvard, only one year late, and went to Harvard Law School. He met my mother there, and married her a month after graduation in 1972 at the age of 26. He joined my grandfather and great grandfather at what is now Reiker and Sons and Associates. My mother is a lawyer as well, but a criminal lawyer with her own practice.

I know, I'm boring you, but now there's me. I was born on January 4, 1983, after my three sisters, Maggie, Emma, and Becky. I lived in Boston for my whole life until high school when the three Reiker men agreed it would be best to send their predecessor to boarding school to ensure I wouldn't rebel.

So I went to Phillips Academy, the same prep school President George Bush went to, and played lacrosse, soccer and baseball. For two years, until I convinced my father in a very articulate speech that Prep schools weren't as varied or as educational as regular high schools, I stayed there.

Regardless of quitting there, I graduated at the top of the class of 2001 of Woodrow Wilson High in downtown Boston. Being a son of a Reiker, aledictorian, Senior Sportsman of the Year, 2-year captain of lacrosse, soccer and baseball, and being a National Merit Scholar didn't do anything for my social life in an inner-city school. But I did have a few good friends, who were teammates, but also regular middle class guys. No one could ever call me a spoiled rich kid, because there was no way I would let myself become one.

Their insurance wouldn't have worked anyway, because since I was 12, I've had my eye set on Brown University. I was the kind of kid who did what I wanted without fail, so I went, without even the slightest persuasion from the Reiker's. They probably knew they wouldn't be able to get through to the stubborn one, so they left me alone. I decided the day I got there that I wanted to be pre-law, not because the last three Reiker's were, but because I as good at it, and I liked it. I played lacrosse on the Brown team for two years, but I injured my shoulder in the championship game sophomore year, and I can't play anymore. I thought about soccer, but decided to stick to schoolwork.

I met Joey at her freshman orientation. My English literature teacher freshman year suggested I help out, so I reluctantly put my name on the list before I went home for the summer. The administration called me in mid-July and I went back early. I thank Mr. Jones every time I look at Joey for telling me to do the orientation. So back to how I met her.

Well, I was slouching around the student union, waiting for the new arrivals, when I saw this group of six, three guys and three girls, all come in together with their respective parents. They seemed to know each other, and that was way too Brady Bunch to even think about, so I paid no attention. They must have said their goodbyes and split from each other because the next thing I noticed was three of the guys and one of the girls hanging out a table away from me. Scoping out the fresh blood, they seemed like a couple of rich kids not wanting to be snobby; people I could get along with. I walked over and introduced myself and I found I had just met Andie, Jack, Pacey, and Dawson. We talked a little about Brown, and about the Reiker's (three of them recognized the name), and about Boston (they were all from a small town on Cape Cod). They had obviously lost their two other friends, because I didn't see Jen and Joey until three days later.

We (the helpers) were conducting our tours that day, and I was very unenthusiastically taking them through the library. We finally got to the sports complex, something I could be more excited about, when a girl from the back of the group made a acerbic comment to her friend about sports. I hadn't noticed her before, probably because I wasn't paying attention, but there she was. Tall, brown hair, beautiful in an unconventional way. Her friend was the antithesis of her; blond, short, gorgeous in a supermodel way, and most guys would have gone for her. I finished the tour, and went about my own business, knowing I'd never have a chance with someone with that caliber of beauty.

Later that night in the cafeteria, I met her. The four Brady Bunchers were there with two more that were back to me. Dawson waved me over when I had finished, and I reluctantly went. He introduced me to Joey and Jen and that was when I got it bad. I was so totally in love with the sight of her alone, not to mention the wise-ass comment she had made about football.

I had tickets to a Springsteen concert the next night, and my old roomie was supposed to go, but he called and canceled on me, so I tried my luck at Joey when we were alone in the student union. To my surprise, she said yes, and that was the night everything started.

But today is the day that everything ended. Two and a half years later, I still love her, but I just gave her up. What possessed me to be so stupid, I'll never know, but I needed to do it. I gave her a load of crap when I told her that I didn't think our relationship would work. I'd have died for her; married her tomorrow; given her everything. I don't need any reassurance or time off to know that I will always love her, no matter what.

And I hope she knows that.

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