Double Threat My Bleep (7 page)

“Want a pillow?” Alex asks, slipping out of his shoes and crouching down next to me. “You look tired. You can take a nap up there if you want. We don’t have to stay up till your mom gets here. She’ll wake us with a call.”

I punch him playfully. “Are you kidding me? I’m not going to see you again until Thanksgiving and you wanna sleep.”

“Sorry, just an idea.” He tosses a pillow at me and it hits me in the face. He laughs. I laugh. And then I lunge the pillow back at him. He falls over and I smack him with the pillow again. He grabs another pillow from his bed and starts swinging away at me like he’s going for a homerun.

“Stop, stop,” I say, out of breath. “Really, truce. I’m gonna have an asthma attack.”

He lightly nudges me with the pillow in the side of the head. “You don’t have asthma, dork.”

“What’s that have to do with anything?” I start to chuckle and we both slide down to the floor once again. “This is awesome. This is the best surprise my mom has ever given me.”

Alex kisses me on the cheek and round two begins. And I’m not talking about our pillow fight.

Chapter Nine

“We
want details,” Keesh yells as soon as I get to her house.

“Shhh,” I say, putting my index finger to my lips.

Steph closes the door to Keesh’s room. She crashes herself down on Keesh’s bed. “So tell us. Don’t leave anything out.”

“Oh my gosh, you guys. I just got here. You’re not going to offer me a drink or anything. Just the juicy details, huh,” I kid with them.

“So they’re juicy huh?” Keesh teases. “I knew they would be. Now spill. You can get something to drink when you’re done.”

“Well…” I don’t know where to begin, “it took us forever to get there. I had to listen to our moms talk about sex, which was really gross by the way and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.”

“Ewww,” Steph interrupts. “I’m glad my mom couldn’t go.”

“Yeah, you’re lucky.” I continue, “So we got there in the late afternoon and Alex was waiting for me outside his dorm. Oh my gosh you guys. He looked so freakin’ cute.”

“Ohhhh,” Steph squeals. She seems just as excited as I am.

Keesh stops our little ooo-ing and aww-ing session and says, “Alright already, did you do it or what?”

I can’t help but start laughing. “Are you serious? Just like that…did you do it or what?”

“Yes, just like that. Do I need to buy you a JoBro virginity ring? Or are you about to freak out because you think you’re pregnant like the chick in Traveling Pants after her first time?”

We look at each other in silence. Steph is the first to start laughing. It’s contagious. I can’t hold it in. Keesh is crazy. “I hate to disappoint my girls, but I may as well become a lifelong holder of a V-Card and get it laminated because my college man was acting like a scared little boy and I don’t see myself dipping into my brown paper bag anytime soon.” My lunch bag full of condoms hasn’t been touched since the day I got it. And after this weekend, who knows when it will be.

“What?” Steph yelps.

Keesh says the same. “What? He’s scared. He’s in college. Don’t college guys take every chance they can to get busy? Don’t they like keep score or something like that?”

“Not my boyfriend, I guess.”

“Then, what did you guys do?” Steph asks.

“We did make out a few times. But he always stopped before it got too serious. Something about how he didn’t want my visit to be all about us getting physical.”

“Dang, I was sure you were going to come back all de-flowered and tell us what it’s like.” Keesh chews on a fingernail.

“Well, don’t sound so disappointed. What’s up with that, Keesh?”

“Nothing. I was just curious is all,” she tells us.

“Are you thinking about doing it with Jon?” Steph questions her.

“No…yes…I don’t know. He’s been really cool lately. He hasn’t pressured me. He’s just been going along with me with whatever I’m comfortable with. And it’s kinda nice. I like it. But I’m just scared. I don’t know what to expect. I’m afraid, you know.”

Steph sits next to her and puts her arm around her. “Well if you’re scared or afraid, then it’s a good sign you're not ready.”

“I agree. Steph’s right.” She is right. Even though Alex was making me feel things I’ve never felt before, I’m glad it didn’t go any further. After talking to my girls, I don’t think I’m ready either. Maybe Alex knows that and that’s why he stopped. He stopped for me.

“So now what? When do you get to see him again?” Keesh asks me.

“Not till Thanksgiving.”

“What are you going to do about Homecoming? He’s not going to be here to take you. You’re still gonna go though right?” Steph asks.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to go by myself.” The thought of me going as a third wheel makes me sick. But the thought of missing a school dance sucks butt too.

“We’ll figure it out by then. Don’t worry. We still have a month. You know what I’m worried about?” Keesh says.

“What?” Steph and I answer together.

“Soccer,” she says. “We start again on Monday.”

“At least we don’t have to try out again.”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

Keesh starts in on the explanation. “It depends on if there are a lot of new girls who can play well. We could end up having to compete for spots.”

“Are you kidding me?” I ask. That’s not a good sign. I don’t want to have to compete for a spot with a bunch of ninth graders. I could very well lose.

“Don’t worry, Meggie, I heard the competition isn’t that great so I think we’ll be fine.” She stands up and walks over to the door. “Well, what are we going to do now? I thought we were going to need a few hours to hear all the details about your weekend full of hot sweaty dorm room love making, so I didn’t plan anything.”

I chuckle. “Hot and sweaty.”

“Dorm room sexfest,” Steph says.

“Stop, you guys. It was all very innocent,” I say, smirking inside. Sure, the bed wasn’t rocking, but it was still far from innocent.

“Let’s call the guys. I think I can get Dom to take us all to the movies,” Steph suggests.

“Sounds good to me,” I respond.

“Okay, you call him and I’m gonna go get us some drinks.” Keesh heads out of her room while Steph takes out her cell.

“Hey babe,” Dom says to Steph as we jump in his van. “Hey, girls.”

“Hi.”

“There’s been a change of plans. We’re going to go to Denny’s instead. Is that okay?”

“Why? What happened?” Steph asks.

“I called the guys and they already had plans to go there and meet. So I thought we’d go too.”

“Who’s going?” I ask.

“Ben and Ness are already there. Jon, Josh, and Erica are on their way.” Whew. No Travis tonight. “And we’re gonna pick up Trav on the way.”

Great.

We all pile out of the van at Denny’s and head in to meet the rest of the crew. Like usual, everyone is in the back. I wonder if Denny’s does that on purpose. They reserve the far back of the restaurant for teenagers, to isolate them from the well-mannered guests. I swear Denny’s brings out the worst in a group of adolescents. We’d never be this loud and obnoxious at home. There’s just something about this place that urges us to raise our voices, chew with our mouths open, throw food at each other, and use foul language.

“Awww…here she comes,” Jonathan says. “Does Meggie have a little after sex glow?”

Keesh smacks him in the back of the head, before leaning down to kiss him. “Not Meggie. She left a big V and came back a big V.”

Everyone chuckles and stares at me. “So this is what you’ve all been talking about while I’ve been gone. Geez…is there nothing sacred here? Would anyone else like to broadcast their sex stories for the rest of us?” They all look at me blankly. “I didn’t think so.”

“Maybe none of us have any stories to tell,” Erica says, like she’s as pure as snow.

“Yeah, I doubt that,” I scoff, looking around at all of them.

The server interrupts us. “Can I get you all something to drink?” She continues to take orders and then hurries off.

“So how’s C-High?” Erica does a great job of changing the subject. “Are you all excited about homecoming?”

“Heck yeah,” Keesh exclaims.

“Sure,” Steph says.

“What about you, Meg?” Erica asks. “Do you want to go?”

“I’d love to but I don’t want to go without Alex,” I admit to them.

“Yeah, Meggie, doesn’t have too good of a history with homecoming,” Jonathan jokes. Only he’s the only one who’s laughing. Keesh kicks him under the table.

“Oh, I gotta hear this one,” Travis says. If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under right now. His smile dissipates and he takes a sip of his drink.

Vanessa excuses herself to go to the restroom.

“What the hell, Jon?” Ben says, when Ness is far enough away.

“I’m sorry, dude. I wasn’t thinking,” he pleads.

“Wow. Really, Jon Jon. Just don’t say anything for the rest of the night, okay?” Keesh says. I don’t know how she’s so patient with his dumb ass sometimes. I hope Vanessa is okay. We never talk about last year’s homecoming. It was a little awkward hanging out with them after Ben came on to me that night, right in front of her, but we’ve all done a good job of pretending like it never happened.

“Okay, okay, don’t trip,” Jon says, “I’ll be cool. I promise.”

“Why? What happened?” Erica asks. She’s one of the few who hasn’t heard about the incident.

“Nothing, babe,” Josh says, giving her a look that suggests he’ll tell her later.

Erica turns to me. “So, Meggie, I was thinking maybe you could go with Josh. I’m gonna be out of town and I don’t want him to miss it. I thought you guys could go as buds, you know.”

“Better watch out for that,” I hear someone mumble. Vanessa is coming back to the table. Did she really just say that? Ben gives her a nasty look. I look away and pretend not to notice.

I try to ignore the comment, but that was just stupid. Does she really think Erica has anything to worry about? One…I love my boyfriend. Two…have you seen Erica? And three…Erica and Josh are perfect for each other.

Forget Ness. I look over at Josh. “Do you really want to go?”

“Why not, Meggie? You don’t want to miss it, do you? I’ll call Alex if you want, but I don’t think he’ll mind if we go.”

“You don’t need to. He’ll be cool. Let’s go for it then.”

Chapter Ten

Oh
goodness. I should’ve really practiced before today. Actually, I don’t think I’ve touched a ball since the final game of the season last year. And the burning in my legs is proof. The one thing I do remember is to drink water. I’ve been chugging it since we got home from our road trip. Alex reminded me.

Well, I guess there is good news and bad news after today’s soccer tryouts. Good news: I made the team. Bad news: our team sucks so bad that I made the team. There wasn’t even enough decent new players to bump me out of my spot, so it looks like I’m a soccer player for another season. I should probably be more excited, but the thought of spending every day for the next several months after school running back and forth across a field and getting thrown on the ground by some beastly girls doesn’t sound very promising right now.

Keesh, on the other hand, is thrilled. She, of course, is still on Varsity. And with all the players that graduated last year, it looks like she’s going to be the star, and the captain. That’s not a surprise. She’s a freakin’ awesome player. I wouldn’t be surprised if she continued to play in college.

“You look like shit, Meg,” Jonathan says, standing over me as I lie flat on my back on the grass.

“That’s because I feel like shit,” I answer. “You don’t look so great yourself.” He’s dripping with sweat, has grass stains all over his socks, and I’m pretty sure his arm is bleeding.

“What? This?” he remarks, holding up the arm that’s dripping with blood. “It’s no biggie. Just having fun.”

“Well if slicing myself into pieces is having fun, I’d rather be bored.” I sit up and try to stretch forward and touch my toes. Omigod, everything feels so tight.

Keesh jogs up and flings her arms around Jon’s waist from behind to hug his back. “Great practice, huh. Feels good to be back.” He turns around and gives her a peck on the lips. Wow. What’s with the sudden change to public displays of affection? I thought last time was a fluke.

“Oh yeah, feels great alright.” Jonathan lifts her up and kisses her again.

“Okay, you guys, I’m right here. Thanks for the show,” I tease. “But can we keep it PG?”

“PG is all Jon can handle,” Keesh says.

He smacks her in the booty. “That’s what you think,” he responds.

“Alright already. You guys are making me sick. Let’s go home.”

“Well, you have to get up first. Is that possible?” Keesh asks, with a chuckle.

“I guess I’m going to have to.” I roll over to all fours, and slowly stabilize myself to a standing position. Why do I subject myself to such torture? And it doesn’t get any easier either.

“You guys want to come over for dinner?” Jon asks.

“I’d love to, but we have a crap load of reading for Mr. Marino’s class due tomorrow,” I explain.

“If that guy wasn’t so fine, I’d probably drop down to college prep. I’m barely keeping up,” Keesh tells us. I know what she means.

“That’s whack. Can’t you guys just fake it? You read half and you read the other half and tell each other about it. Isn’t that what you guys did last year?” That was last year. I’m beginning to wish I was a freshman again.

I take a Kit Kat out of my bag and rip it open. “Yeah, that doesn’t work for his class. He makes us debate everything. And you have to be able to really discuss the topics or else you get docked points. He sucks.” I can’t believe I just said that about the hottest teacher in the world.

“Wouldn’t you both like to know?” Jonathan takes a jab at us.

“Don’t be jealous, Jon Jon, you know I love ya,” Keesh tells him. Love? They are in love?

“I hope I can stay awake long enough to get all of it done. I still need to do math too.” I’m complaining. I know.