Chapter 16: Kissing Cousins?

July 3–4, 1978

On Monday I woke early, as usual, and ate breakfast. I did my chores and swam, and just before lunch, I called Pete to see if I could put a plan in place to see Anna. Pete was glad to hear from me.

“Pete, you remember my friend Anna?”

“I do.”

“She has a sister. Would you be interested in a double date with them?”

“What’s her sister like?”

“Your age, not seeing anyone right now. She seems OK to me, but I don’t know her too well.”

“Ah, you need a way to see Anna and can’t drive.”

“You’re on to me, Pete!”

“Tell you what, if she’ll go out with me, sure. I owe you. You’re a good friend.”

“Pete, I hope someday you can forgive Melanie. I think you two could work things out, eventually.”

“She betrayed my trust. That’s hard to get past.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. I’ll call you when I figure things out. Is Friday good for you if I can swing it?”

“Sure. I haven’t asked anybody out yet.”

I called Anna next. I told her my idea, and she went to ask her sister. She came back and said that Gina wasn’t sure, but she’d let me know on Wednesday. She thought she could convince her because Pete was a good guy.

“Tell your sister he was trained by the same girl who trained me!”

She giggled, “That might actually work!”

She promised to call me on Wednesday and let me know.

After lunch, I called Bethany. She had talked to Doctor Mercer about all of our conversations and said she was ready for me to ask her out. I told her I thought I should ask her dad for permission.

“But he’ll never give it!”

“Trust me, OK? Please?”

“OK. When can you ask?”

“How about Sunday after lunch?”

“OK! I’ll make sure they’re here!”

After I hung up, Stephanie and I hung out and talked. She asked what I was going to do about Vickie.

“I have no idea, Squirt. I mean, she’s cute, she has a hot body and all, but she’s still our cousin.”

“She’ll be really mad if you don’t do it.”

“I know. But I’d rather have her mad than make a big mistake.”

We shot some pool, and we played a couple of board games. I liked hanging out with her.

“Steve, I think you should do it. It’s not like she’s going to fall in love with you or anything. From what I read and hear, you know how to make a girl happy. Her first time should be good.”

“You know, I’m not sure I need my little sister’s help to get laid.”

“You’re a dumb boy,” Stephanie smirked. “You need lots of help.”

“So you keep telling me.”

“That’s because you keep forgetting! I read your journal while you were swimming. You had sex all night with Becky and then broke up with her?”

“No, you have that backwards. We broke up and then had sex all night.”

“That makes no sense!” Stephanie protested.

“Actually, it does,” I replied. “I wonder if you’re as smart as you think you are!”

She started to stick her tongue out at me, but thought better of it.

Dinner was bland as usual and I spent the night watching TV. I did finish copying the old journal onto the loose leaf paper. I wrote some more to try to sort out my thoughts about Jennifer. We had to find a good way forward. I didn’t want to mess it up.

I called Jennifer before I went to bed and asked if she wanted to play chess on Thursday. She agreed and asked which day the coming weekend I was available to come to dinner and I suggested Sunday.

I slept well that night. Interestingly, I dreamed of Bethany. Of a single kiss.

I woke early on the Fourth, as was my custom. I decided to swim first this morning, thinking that might be a good habit to get into and wondering why I hadn’t thought of it before. It would cut down on showers. I did my laps, checked the chemicals, showered and had breakfast.

I did my chores and then shot some pool. I was trying to do that several times a week to keep up my skills. I hadn’t found much time to study or play chess, so I spent perhaps an hour with a book on improving play. Then I grabbed the newspaper and worked out the chess problem they printed each day.

I still hadn’t decided what to do about Vickie. She’d arrive after lunch and stay the night. Even if I decided to do what she wanted, I wasn’t sure how I could manage that with mom and dad home and having Stephanie and Ed with us. I decided to call Melanie. I still needed to talk to her, and I’d pick her brain for advice.

Melanie asked about Becky and I told her that we had broken up.

“So, did you give her the goodbye fuck?”

“No. I gave her six goodbye fucks.”

“You didn’t!”

“Who are we talking about here, Melanie?” I chuckled.

“Wow. Before or after you guys broke up?”

“After. No way I would have done it before. And if we were staying together, I wouldn’t have done it. For the same reason, I’ve put Jennifer off.”

“You know Jennifer is going to expect a good fucking now, right?”

“Yes. And I told her we still had a lot to talk about. I talked to Becky for hours before we broke up. It was after we finished talking that we went at it.”

“So then you’ll do what she wants?”

“Yes, Melanie. After we talk. And before you ask, I told her if she wants a threesome with you, she can have it.”

Melanie burst out laughing.

“Oh Steve, you may not survive!”

“I’ll take my chances. Becky already tried to kill me with sex.”

“Yeah, but there’s two of us.”

“True. But you can’t be involved until you and I work out all of our issues. We’re not there yet.”

“I know. Hey, aren’t you seeing your cousin today?”

“Yeah, that’s why I called. For advice.”

“I already told you to go for it. Think about it. You said she was cute with a hot body. She’s your cousin, so she’s not going to fall in love with you. You don’t see her that often. Seriously, just knock her socks off!”

“I’m still a bit uncomfortable with the idea.”

“Well, then don’t do it. But you keep asking about it. You want it. You know it.”

“I’ll think about it, Melanie.”

“You’ve thought enough. Make your decision and stick to it.”

We hung up. I knew Melanie’s opinion. I had one more person to ask. I walked out of my room into Stephanie’s room.

“Hey, Squirt.”

“Hey, Big Bro.”

“So, about Vickie.”

“You should do it.”

“That simple, huh?”

“You do it with all the other girls that ask, so why not her.”

She had a point. I had never turned down anyone that I liked permanently; only short term because they weren’t ready or there was no protection.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“So, are you going to?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I just have to figure out how not to get caught and to have enough time to do it right.”

I went back to my room. I remembered I had a question for Jennie, so I called her.

We caught up. She was going out with Kent that evening and she was thinking he might ask her to marry him soon. I told her I thought that was great news. I told her why I was calling. I explained about Anna.

“Steve, you have to be more careful. There’s no such thing as ‘safe’. While I have no doubt she’s telling the truth about never having a period, that doesn’t mean she can’t get pregnant. I know it sounds odd, but it’s true. And you are right that a girl can get pregnant at any point in her cycle. You can’t take risks of having unprotected sex. Not even once.”

“Jennie, she can’t get pregnant if you don’t cum, though, right?”

“That’s not true either. You could have a small amount of sperm in the fluid that comes out before you actually cum. Don’t take any chances that way. With the girl who never had a period, you still have to use condoms. OK? And you’re not going to know for sure for quite some time. It’s not like she’ll get her period and you’ll know.”

“I know. That’s worrying me a bit.”

“It’s probably OK, but you can’t be sure, Steve. You also have to listen. She said ‘safe’, not that she was on the Pill. You should have asked that question before you had sex with her, not after!”

“Thanks, Jennie. I’m usually careful about that. I just made a mistake.”

“Well, you could pay for that kind of mistake for the rest of your life.”

“I know. Thanks again.”

Most of my female friends were on the Pill, though Melanie used a diaphragm. Vickie was on the Pill. I had used a condom with Kellie. It was Mary and Anna that were at issue. Mary was fine, since she’d had her period since we’d messed around. Only time would tell with Anna.

The plan for the Fourth was that Mrs. Krajick would drop Ed at our house around 5:00pm. Dad would drop us off for dinner and then we’d walk to the park to watch the fireworks. We’d go for ice cream afterwards and Mrs. Krajick would pick us up around 11:00pm from Graeter’s.

I came up with a plan and went to talk to Stephanie. She thought it might work. If it didn’t, I’d need a backup plan. Of course, Stephanie had to point out that this was going to add to what I owed her. I sighed theatrically and agreed.

Vickie arrived just after 3:00pm. She wanted to swim before we went out, so the three of us got into the pool. Unfortunately, Jeff decided to get into the pool as well. He was making a nuisance of himself, as usual. Stephanie just rolled her eyes. I wasn’t able to talk to Vickie because he was there.

We got out, I rinsed off, dressed, and came out to find that my plans had come completely apart before we had even left the house. Mom called me into the office and announced that Jeff had asked to go along and she had told him yes. Without asking me or Stephanie. Steph was going to be mad, I was sure, because Jeff would annoy her and Ed as much as he could.

Internally I seethed, but there was nothing I could do. She’d just spoiled the evening in every possible way, even if I hadn’t been trying to do what Vickie wanted. I went to find Stephanie. I pulled her away from Vickie to my room and told her. As I predicted, she was super angry.

“Why? He’s just going to annoy and tease me and Ed all night. He won’t bug you and Vickie because you’re cousins. He’s ruining everything!”

“Tell Mom. But I doubt it’ll do any good.”

“You’re right.”

There wasn’t much we could do about it. If we tried to ditch him, he’d tell. And there was no way we could split up like I had planned. Stephanie and Ed were totally cool. They would never say a word. But Jeff? Oh, he’d tell Mom and find some way to make it look like either Stephanie or I were doing something bad, even if we weren’t.

Stephanie and I went back to her room and shut the door. We told Vickie that Jeff had to come with us and that really put a crimp in my plans. I had everything arranged, I said, until he made a mess. Vickie’s face fell when she realized what that meant. She glanced sideways at Stephanie.

“She knows Vickie. She knows everything I do. Don’t worry. She looks out for me. And she won’t say anything to anyone.”

“Well, now what do we do?”

“I don’t know yet. Let me think about it.”

“Please figure something out!”

“I’ll try my best.”

I left the girls there and went to shoot some pool to think. I had to work on Wednesday, so it had to be tonight somehow. I couldn’t think of a way to ditch Jeff, so my plan to use the apartment was dead. I had originally planned to have Stephanie take Ed off alone to the fireworks, but no way that could work now. It would get back to my mom.

Doing it in my bed meant being so quiet and so careful that it wouldn’t be nearly as good, plus the risk of being caught was pretty high. Even sneaking out to use the room Mary and I had used was out since it was right under my parents’ bedroom. I had to think of a place to go.

All of a sudden, I got an idea. I put some shoes on and went for a walk. The horse farm had been sold in the Spring and was going to be divided into six lots. The buildings hadn’t been demolished yet. I walked across the field and past the barn to the old farm house. I saw that the door wasn’t shut tight, which meant we’d be able to get in. I walked back home, wondering if I could pull that off. Leaving the house was risky, but seemed the least risky of all the options. But the ramifications of getting caught were just too great.

I was thinking that this was not going to happen. I had one last thing to try. I doubted it would work, but I’d give it a try. Even if it didn’t achieve the ultimate goal, it might help Stephanie. I went to find Dad.

“Dad, Mom said we have to take Jeff along tonight. I know arguing with her won’t help, but he’s going to do everything he can to annoy Stephanie and Ed. It’s going to totally wreck her night. And he’ll just deny everything and Mom will believe him. He won’t really be able to bother Vickie and me, but I know him. He’s going to ruin Stephanie’s night.”