Chapter 1

“Mickey...”

He didn’t even flinch. He just kept looking at his beer while the tall brunette stood next to him. After a few awkward moments, she sat on his table, in front of him.

“Mickey ... Michael, can we talk?”

He raised his head and looked at her, devoid of emotion. Then he lowered his gaze and kept looking at his half-empty mug.

“Michael,” insisted the brunette. “Don’t you think I have been punished enough?” His eyes looked at her again, but there was now a spark in them. The emotion was unmistakable: hate.

She winced at his expression. “I’m in town for another three days. If you want to talk, here’s my number,” she said, standing up and leaving a business card on the table. She walked away and, after a few steps, turned her head just in time to see her brother taking the card and ripping it to pieces.

...

“Mickey...”

He flinched. “What does she want now?” he thought.

Michael Jenkins wasn’t a nerd. He didn’t have the brains to be one. He was just an average high school student, with average grades and an average appearance. Eighteen years old, he was also painfully shy. The voice that called him had a lot to do with that. That voice belonged to Anna, his little sister. She was everything he wasn’t: A member of the cheerleading squad, an outstanding student, and owner of an incredible body crowned by a luxuriant mane of dark, brown hair. She was also her brother’s nemesis. For years now, she and her clique had made him her target of scorn, pranks, and disrespect.

“Yes?” he answered.

“Would you like to go to a party?” she asked in a sweet voice.

“What?” he blurted, confused. She rarely acknowledged his existence, even less tried to have a sibling relationship.

“Would you like to go to a party?” she repeated.

“No, thanks”, he said. He didn’t know what cruel joke she planned to do, and didn’t want to find out, either.

“Come on, big brother,” she insisted. Then she bent down and whispered in his ear: “Don’t you want to lose your virginity?”

He looked at her, shocked. “Yes, big brother. Janet’s parents are not in the city and the squad is going to have a party next Saturday at her home. The tradition is to sacrifice a virgin. Guess what? I volunteered you as the sacrifice. You’re welcome,” she beamed.

Mike hesitated. He knew that since Anna had turned seventeen she had a very active sex life, one he could only dream of. Their parents were strangely permissive, or indifferent, to that. More than once she had arrived home late with her clothes in disarray, but they said nothing.

“Sacrifice?” He didn’t like the sound of it.

“Yes,” she said. “You go to the party a virgin, you leave the party not a virgin.” Her eyebrows danced suggestively.

“Why me?” he asked. “I mean, you and I haven’t been exactly good buddies for a long time.”

She looked pained. “I know, that’s why I want to do something nice for you.”

Mike still had doubts, but the opportunity was too good to miss.

“Ok, I’ll go,” he said.

“Great! Gonna tell the other girls!” jumped Anna. “Oh, it’s a secret so don’t tell anybody,” she added, and then turned to leave. But before reaching the door, Mike called her.

“Anna.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

She gave him a sweet smile and left.

His next day at school was bizarre. From being one of the invisible ones, he suddenly found himself being greeted by the “in-crowd”. Even the nerds noticed it.

“Dude, what’s up with that?” asked Kevin, his only friend.

“No idea,” he answered. He wasn’t going to jeopardize his chance by blabbing about it.

Despite being siblings, Mickey and Anna never walked home together. She always stayed for cheerleading practice or just to hang out with her friends so, after school ended, he had started to walk home when a voice called him.

“Mickey!” He turned and it was Janet, head cheerleader and star of his masturbation fantasies. She was driving her black Camaro. A cliché, of course, but she managed to pull it off. “Would you like a lift?” she asked. He was astounded, she had never talked to him despite being seated next to each other for the last four years.

“I’m good...” he answered.

“Come on!” said Janet, opening the passenger’s door. And added in a low voice: “The sacrificial offering must be pampered.”

He entered the car and sat on the plush bucket seat. Janet gave him a smile. He smiled back.

“So, how come we have never talked?” she asked.

“Dunno...” he mumbled.

“Never mind,” she said. “I’m sure we will talk a lot after Saturday”, and her hand patted his leg. He blushed and felt the start of an erection. She began to talk about school, the squad, etc., and after a few minutes, she caressed his leg with her fingers. His breathing became ragged, but the girl timed her caresses perfectly and when she pulled over in front of his house, he was painfully hard.

“Don’t jerk off,” she said while he opened the car door. “You’ll need it on Saturday.” He saw her leave and stood there for a few minutes, afraid to meet his parents while showing an obvious erection.

Dinner was also a surprise. Anna was not in her customary bitchy mood but was actually nice to him. Even their parents were pleasantly surprised.

After dinner and already in his bedroom, he started to think about Janet and her soft fingers. He badly wanted to masturbate, but her remark about Saturday held him off.

Tuesday was a repeat of Monday, but after school, he was joined by Kelly, another cheerleader.

“Hi Mickey,” she said. “Will you walk me home?” She lived a few streets before his, but normally her boyfriend picked her up. Not today.

“Of course,” he answered. Like Janet yesterday, she started to talk trivia while he simply nodded. Suddenly she felt her hand on his, her fingers intertwined with his. He looked at her but she simply smiled and put her head on his shoulder. His heart rate shot through the roof as he felt her breast against his arm. “Your boyfriend?” he asked.

Her boyfriend was one of the biggest jocks in school and also had a trigger temperament. It wouldn’t be good to be stomped to the floor by a jealous boyfriend.

“Don’t worry about him,” she answered. “We broke up today.”

“Oh”, he said. And again, an erection started to grow. When they reached her home, she kissed him goodbye and patted his crotch.

“Keep it for Saturday,” she said. Again, he had to wait for its erection to subside before stiffly walking home.

He didn’t know what to think. People who had never bothered to talk to him now were nice - scratch that, more than nice - to him. The jocks had stopped their bullying, and some of them had actually nodded to him.

“Anna?” he knocked on his sister’s door.

“Come on in!” she answered.

He entered her bedroom, a place that, until last Sunday, was forbidden to him. She was lying on her bed with her laptop, and he struggled to keep his eyes on her face instead of on those long, well-shaped legs.

“Can we talk?”

“Of course, big brother. About what?”

“Well, it’s strange. First a lot of people start to be nice to me, then Janet and Kelly...”

“It’s ok,” she interrupted. “I told you, you’re the sacrifice. They want you to feel comfortable.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why is that? Neither them nor you have ever cared about me or my feelings, but now ... it feels weird.”

She looked strangely guilty. “I didn’t know you felt like this.”

He wanted to say “Of course you don’t know, you have never wanted to know”, but instead asked another question.

“So, after Saturday, will things continue as before?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, you know, you being rude to me, all the others ignoring or bullying me, that kind of thing.”

Her eyes didn’t meet his.

“I’m your sister, you’re my brother,” she said. “We are grownups now, and grownups don’t act as children. You’ll see, Saturday will be unforgettable.”

Mickey left relieved, not realizing that she had not actually answered his question.

Wednesday and Thursday were a repeat of the previous days, but with Helen and Sarah, another two cheerleaders, who also said goodbye by patting his crotch and telling him to save his strength for Saturday.

On Friday, as soon as he crossed the school gate, Anna appeared next to him.

“Hey big bro, will you walk me home?”

“Of course,” he said. “What happened to your practice?”

“Canceled, coach called in sick. So, I thought we could walk home together, for a change.”

Mickey actually felt good. It was nice to walk together with his sister, who was blabbing about this and that, and he even made a few jokes that were received with a smile and a laugh. After the last four days, he wondered if she would also pat his crotch and tell him to wait for Saturday. She didn’t.

...

The house was huge, one of those mansions you see in the movies. He was at the door alone, Anna had gone earlier to help with the preparations.

He hesitated again. “When something is too good to be true, perhaps it’s too good to be true,” he thought. But losing his virginity was too powerful an incentive, so he knocked on the door.

...

Mickey was frustrated. There were about 20 people, most of them from his school. The party was ok, the music was great, and the food was plentiful. But that was all. Every time he asked a girl for a dance, she would say no. Every time he sat on a couch or stayed in a corner, one of the cheerleaders came to talk to him, telling him to save his strength and giving him a quick pat on his crotch. Every time he asked them for a dance, they still said no. When Ann came to see how he was doing, he complained that nobody wanted to dance with him and that nobody had said anything about a sex party. She asked him to be patient, that very soon his time would come.

He didn’t know what to think. Suddenly Janet announced: “Listen, everybody, underwear time!” Mickey was astounded by how both men and women started to undress. His eyes went to his sister, wearing some fancy underwear that left little to anyone’s imagination. All the other girls were wearing similar garments, and the boys were almost exclusively in briefs or trunks.

One of the girls came and asked him why he wasn’t in his underwear.

Self-conscious, he took off his clothes and stood in his boxers and shoes.

The music resumed and everybody started to dance. Everybody but him, that is. He counted heads again and yes, there were 12 boys, 12 girls, and him. He was the odd man out. He was debating about leaving when Ann and Janet came to him.

“Mickey, your time has arrived,” said Janet, producing a blindfold. He took a step back, but Ann took his arm and said “It’s part of the ritual, don’t worry”.

Reluctantly, Mickey allowed them to put the blindfold on him, and then he felt the girls marching him to the garden.

He heard Janet again: “Ok, now it’s time to GET NAKED!!!” He heard howls and whistles, and felt Ann squirming to take off her underwear.

“At last,” he thought. Who would be the one? Janet was the logical choice, being the host. Perhaps Kelly? She seemed to have a good time when he walked her home. Ann? A bit, scratch that, a lot pervy, but he could live with it. His penis engorged, which called for an approving pat from Janet.

Then the girls left him and he was alone, surrounded by all the other guests.

Somebody took his blindfold off.

He was stunned. In front of him, there was not a girl, but a sheep. They expected him to have sex with a sheep!

Suddenly he felt a big guy behind him pinning his arms down. “Come on, dork!” he laughed. “You were told you would lose your virginity, but nobody told you it was going to be with a girl!”

The whole crowd started to laugh. He looked at those faces, trying to find a sympathetic one. There was none. Janet and Kelly were laughing, too. Desperate, he searched for Ann. And he saw her.

Laughing harder than anybody else.

Something broke inside him. He had to escape. He remembered something he had read once in a survival book. He still had his shoes on, so he stomped his heel on his tormentor’s foot, almost breaking a toe.

Surprised, the jock cried in pain and released him. Before anyone else could react, he ran away. The next thing he knew, he was on the street, half-naked, with his clothes in his arms. He didn’t even remember picking them up.

...

Mickey opened the door of his home. He tried to sneak into his room, but it was not to be. The kitchen’s light was on and there was his mom, obviously munching on a midnight snack.

“Hey, dear, back so early?” she smiled.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel well, so I wanted to go to bed.” He didn’t dare to tell her what had happened.

“Ok, sleep well,” she said and kept eating.

Mickey fell on his bed, his body aching and his soul crushed. He didn’t know how he would face those people at school on Monday.