Chapter 2

Katie took my hand and led me down the hall to her room. I held back a little admiring the view from behind, her panties had a big wet or dark spot in the crotch. This time I figured I would find out which.

But I didn't, not that night.

It was 3 in the morning. We went into Katie's room, she shut the door and fell into my arms and held me tight. She pulled my face to hers and kissed me deeply.

"Thank you, Pete. I'll always be grateful for what you did."

"Do you think you'll be okay, now? Will he leave you alone?"

"I think so. I always had the feeling he hated what he did ... He always seemed very sad, afterward."

"Then maybe he should see a shrink."

"I hope he will ... maybe we can talk about it later."

I kissed her again and said I should probably go home.

"Call me!"

"I'll see you at school."

My parents either didn't know I had sneaked out or decided not to make an issue of it ... but I woke late and missed my first class.

I found a note in my locker. 'See you at lunch! xxx K.'

I was set for anything, despite the 'kisses' ... including, that now she didn't need me anymore.

But that wasn't the case. She asked me what I had planned for the weekend.

"I have farm chores every morning and evening, of course. But I can have the afternoons off. Why?"

She wanted me to go on a picnic with her.

Came the day, I picked her up and drove us to a nearby state park. All the kids knew it if they drove or were allowed to ride with the other kids. I mean they knew the 'good places'. But this was the afternoon, not after dark, and we were on a picnic not a beer party.

She had fixed a nice lunch and I'd brought the sodas and washed my car blanket (bringing me a sidelong glance from my mom, when she saw it, of course).

We sparred verbally all the time we ate our lunch of course but that was of little consequence ... what was amazing was the subject after we'd cleaned up the remains and settled back on the blanket, her head snuggled on my arm.

"Pete?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we should talk about us."

"What about us?"

"About what we do when we're together."

That didn't sound promising ... guess I'd heard "we can always be friends" often enough to be a cynic when I heard a girl say something like that.

She guessed my thoughts. "Let me ask you a question, Pete ... remember you know a secret I don't want to ever get out, so you can trust me."

I nodded.

"Do you masturbate a lot?"

I colored, I'm sure. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"How often and how old were you when you started?"

"Ummmm..."

She leaned over and kissed me. "I was seven when I started. And I do it 2 or 3 times a day, sometimes."

I've no idea what look I gave her back, but it must have been alarming.

"You think girls are all that different than boys?'

"I think they don't tell me about it..."

"So ... tell me."

"I was about eight, I think. But I played with myself since I can remember." I decided to go one-up on her... "and I had my first sex dream when I was about 5, it was scary."

She looked interested. "Me too!."

"But I don't want to talk about it ... it's still scary."

She caressed my cheek. It felt funny, like she really cared for me. I'd had girls grope me before ... they aren't all that different than boys about touching other people, either. This was different - a loving touch.

"Pete, I need to tell you right now that you're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. And I want us to always be friends..."

I groaned and turned away. I could hear her giggle. She tapped my shoulder ... I turned and tried to usurp her rejection.

"Uh-oh ... here comes 'I hope you will always be my friend'"

She turned my face toward hers and spoke soberly.

"You think we don't know what that does to guys?"