Chapter 43: Firsts, Part IV

January 1981, Milford, Ohio

On Monday, when I sat down beside Kara in chemistry class, she reached over and squeezed my hand.

“Kara, let’s have lunch, I need to tell you what happened on Saturday.”

“OK. I’ll meet you at the computer lab.”

I dropped my hand to her knee and squeezed as the bell rang and Kara smiled.

At lunch, I stopped to tell Bethany I’d be talking to Kara and then went to the computer lab. Kara arrived just about the same time I did. I unlocked the door, and we went inside. We set our lunches down on the table and embraced, kissing deeply. We broke the kiss and sat down to eat.

“My mom freaked out,” I said. “First, she demanded your phone number. When I refused, she said I was grounded. Then she tried to take my car keys, but I wouldn’t give her the keys to a car I own. When I refused, she told me to move out. Dad put his foot down and stopped her. It was pretty bad, but she doesn’t know your last name and my dad seems to have forgotten,” I said with a wan smile.

“Your dad seems pretty cool, all things considered. Your mom, on the other hand, is just plain nuts.”

“She is. I knew it was a bad idea to take you there. And yes, my dad is cool. He thinks you’re hot!”

“He said that?”

“Not that word, but without question, he thinks you’re a total fox. So do I.”

“Thanks,” she said, with a bit of a blush.

“We have to talk about us, too. There are some things I need to tell you.”

“OK,” she said nervously.

“First, I made a promise to someone for this Friday that I really need to keep.”

“What kind of promise?”

“I promised to grant a birthday wish for a former lover of mine’s little sister.”

“Are you talking about sex?”

“Yes. I promised to have sex with her on her birthday. It would only be one time. I made the promise before Friday night. You really surprised me, by the way.”

“I know. I had the opportunity, so I took it. I thought for a time you were going to say ‘no’. It was really touch and go for you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I didn’t want you to regret it. It looks like I was worried for nothing.”

“No, you were right to worry. I almost backed out a couple of times. I was afraid. I’m not anymore. I love what we did together and I’m looking forward to Saturday. Susie told me that I should make sure you screwed my brains out!”

“You talked to Susie?”

“She and I talked a lot beforehand. She knows your reputation, Steve. So, on Saturday, I want you to screw my brains out! And I understand from Susie that there are other ways. We can talk on Saturday!” she giggled.

I chuckled, but came back to my question. “So, what do I tell the birthday girl?”

“Look, I know your reputation. I know of your struggles. I want to help you. I guess everything depends on where you want this to go.”

“I don’t know. I want to take it one day at a time. I can’t promise you anything other than that right now.”

Kara grabbed my hands and looked me in the eye.

“Do you love me, Steve?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And I love you, too. I fell in love with you back in October. But, and please listen to me carefully, when I planned to be with you on Friday, my only plan was for you to take my virginity. It didn’t work out the way I thought it would, but I’m really happy how it did turn out. So, because of what I had planned, and because I didn’t tell you in advance, I’m OK with you keeping your promise. One time, Steve Adams.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m not sure about anything other than the fact that I’m in love with you and that I want you to make love to me on Saturday. Are you seeing anyone else, Steve? Sleeping with anyone else? Because if you are, you will need to stop.”

“No, I’m not. Just you. I will see my friend Joyce for dinner later this month and, of course, I’ll take my friend Elyse to the Sweetheart Dance.”

“Do you plan to have sex with them?”

“No, I don’t. I also plan to take Bethany to Prom, because you can’t go.”

“Same question.”

I knew I had to tell her the truth. There was no way around it.

“Our plan, before you and I got together, was to get a hotel room. It would be the first and only time we spent the night together. We’ve made love in the past, but we aren’t intimate now and wouldn’t be except that time.”

Kara sighed, “I should have known how hard this was going to be. I know something of your history and all about your reputation as a kind of Casanova. The Prom is still far in the future. We’re taking things one day at a time. If I ask you in May not to do that, will you agree not to?”

What I’d said to my dad earlier was very much true. A steady girlfriend. I wasn’t sure how to deal with that. At this point, though, the only way forward was one step at a time, one foot in front of the other.

“Are you thinking that we’re going steady?” I asked warily.

“That scares you, doesn’t it?”

“I guess it does,” I admitted. “I want to date you, and I don’t plan on dating anyone else. I will see my friends, of course, and a lot of them are female. I won’t have sex with any of my friends, unless you and I have some kind of agreement beforehand, which I am not expecting to happen. It’s not quite going steady, but for all intents and purposes, it is. No girlfriends other than you, and no sex with any of my friends, and that would include Bethany.”

I was finessing the whole situation with Stephanie, but I didn’t see that I had a choice. There was no way it could get back to Kara, and I would be keeping the promise I was making.

“Good. I’d rather we were officially going steady, but I can work with what you just promised. I know it’s difficult for you. You’re used to having all these girls who drop their panties if you simply look at them. You’re going to have to work on that. I’ll help you. Both by being your lover and being your friend to help you work through any issues.”

“Thanks. You know that on Sundays I work with my friend Beth on our business. Also, not this weekend, but the next, I’ll be in Cincinnati for a government symposium. That Sunday afternoon I have to go see my boss. The next Saturday I’m having dinner with my friend Joyce, who is my boss’ granddaughter. I hope all that is OK.”

“Well, for that weekend you won’t see me, I guess we could go out on the Thursday before or the Monday after. I can be accommodating and flexible. I know you have obligations. So do I. As long as we communicate, I think everything will be fine.”

“One last problem. Your dad and the church issue.”

“I’ll talk to him and see if I can get him to back off. At some point, though, you and I will have to deal with that issue.”

“Actually, that makes me think of another problem, and maybe a bigger one.”

“What’s that?”

“The ‘virgin until marriage’ girl dating the ‘screw any girl who asks nicely’ boy is going to lead to a lot of people talking. That’s going to cause you problems, I’m afraid.”

Kara was silent for a bit.

“I guess you aren’t willing to sit at our lunch table?” Kara said.

“No, not really. I mean, I could, but I don’t think that would help, anyway. Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d want you to sit at my lunch table with the rest of my friends.”

“I don’t want to hide our relationship,” Kara said.

“Me either, but everyone will assume that you’re having sex with me once they see us together. And people will find out unless we never go out, and never spend time together at school. I can’t imagine that you want that. I certainly don’t.”

“No, I don’t. I didn’t consider that problem when we first went out. But people have seen us together already. I don’t think we can hide it.”

“And when my reputation gets back to your dad or your pastor? Then what?”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens. Remember, one day at a time.”

We finished our lunch and before we left the lab, we kissed for several minutes. I really enjoyed the soft caresses and the way her body fit against mine.

After school that day, I talked to Doctor Mercer and told her everything that had happened, but focused on the confrontation with my mom. We had a good talk and while Doctor Mercer was concerned about my complete disrespect for my mom, she was happy I had kept my temper under control.

That evening, after dinner, I let Dad know that Stephanie and I were going to go get a present for Donna. We left the house, and once we’d bought the present, we had it wrapped at the store and then drove to Donna’s new house in Batavia. I purposefully hadn’t told Stephanie or Dad so that if it got back to Mom, Stephanie would be able to safely blame me.

Donna was surprised to see us, and she threw her arms around me and gave me a soft French kiss. She took us to see her baby boy, and both Stephanie and I had a chance to hold him. Donna opened her presents and thanked us for the baby clothes and pack of diapers that Stephanie had selected. We didn’t stay long and Donna asked us to come see her again if we could. She hugged me tightly just before we left.

“Of course, you can see me anytime!” Donna whispered in my ear. “I’ll be healed enough in a month or two!”

I smiled, and we said our goodbyes. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and we left.

On Tuesday, it was clear how Kara wanted to handle things. When I sat down next to her in chemistry class, I was a bit surprised when Kara kissed me on the cheek. She’d obviously decided to be open about this. I reached over and took her hand and squeezed it. A bigger surprise came at lunch time.

“Steve, could I sit with you and your friends?” Josh Richards asked.

“Now why would a ‘Holy Roller’ want to sit with us?” Mary asked.

“Mary!” I warned gently. “Give the guy a break. He’s not coming to preach to us, are you Josh?”

“No. I’d just like to be your friend.”

“Then sit down. Just watch out for Mary, though. She’s a tigress!” I teased.

“You ought to know, Steve Adams!” Mary said.

Josh laughed and sat down next to Mary, who gave him a low growl, to more chuckles all around.

“Steve, what’s going on with you and Kara?” Bethany asked. “I heard that she kissed you in chemistry class today.”

“Wow!” I chuckled. “That news spread fast!”

“What Steve Adams gets kissed by a girl like Kara Blanchard, it’s going to spread like wildfire!” Bethany giggled. “I bet the entire Junior High knows already!”

“We’re dating,” I said.

“Dating? You and Kara?”

“Yes,” I said. “Are you changing your mind about our relationship?”

“No, but we should talk,” Bethany said. “It was one thing to try to get into her panties; it’s a whole different thing to date her.”

“Bethany!” Kathy said sternly. “You shouldn’t talk about her like that.”

“Sorry, Kathy. You’re right. Steve, I’m sorry. Let’s talk later. Call me tonight, please.”

“I will.”

That evening I called Bethany. I wasn’t surprised when she immediately asked about Kara.

“I’m in love with her. There’s no reason to hide it.”

“In love?” Bethany asked in surprise. “You’re joking, right? What about Jennifer? What about Karin? For that matter, what about me?”

“Well, first of all, none of the three of you are available to me at this point, so in one sense, it’s not a pressing concern. I don’t have to decide anything today, and I’m following my ‘one day at a time’ plan. Do you want me to speculate? You know what happens when I do stuff like that.”

“Actually, in this case, and given where you are now, I think it’s OK to speculate,” Bethany said.

“In all honesty, I don’t think Kara and I will ever marry. She’d pretty much have to give up the whole evangelical thing because that’s not something I could ever accept. I certainly wouldn’t want to raise my kids the way she and her friends were raised. That said, now that she’s had sex, her views might well have changed somewhat.”

“Steve, compare how you love Kara at this point with Jennifer and me, and how you loved Birgit.”

I thought about it for a minute and sighed, “It’s closer to Birgit than you or Jennifer.”

“Wow! And you think you won’t marry? I don’t get it.”

“Neither do I. I didn’t plan for this to happen. You know it started out as teasing and just kind of spiraled out of control. All I can do is take things one day at a time,” I said with a sigh. “But I can give you an example of why I don’t think we’ll marry. She’s not allowed to go to dances with me, so I’m taking Elyse to the Sweetheart Dance and you to Prom. On our first real date, I wanted to go to the movies, but she wouldn’t go see a PG movie without permission from her parents.”

Bethany started laughing. “So, she can’t dance with you or go to the movies, but she’ll fuck you? Do you know how messed up that is?”

“Yeah, and that’s why I don’t think this will lead to marriage. But you know what, right now, having just one girlfriend, one that I’m faithful to, is a good thing. It could have been you, Bethany, you do realize that, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know. But honestly, I think this might work out best for us. Of course, if you’re faithful to her, what does that mean for me screwing your brains out at Prom?”

“I let her know that you and I were going to Prom. And what our plans were. She’s still trying to get her head around how to deal with me and my roguish ways,” I smiled broadly. “She might just tolerate that single deviation from monogamy.”

“And Stephanie?” Bethany asked.

“Kara has no idea about that. And I will never tell her. I committed to Kara that I wouldn’t have sex with any of my female friends unless she and I had a clear agreement about it. I didn’t say I would not have sex with my sister.”

“You know what?” she laughed. “You should forget about computers and be a lawyer. Talk about parsing words carefully.”

“Hell, Bethany, I’m just trying to get through life one day at a time! Joyce keeps telling me that everything changes when we go to college. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure that she’s right. That means worry about my goals and what I can do each day to achieve them. And seeing what happens.”

“Do you remember when I told you I thought you could be faithful? This will be a good test. Hopefully, you’ll pass. I’m not counting Stephanie because that’s such a strange situation that it really doesn’t apply. But if you truly can go from now until Prom with only having sex with Kara, I think that vindicates my faith in you.”

“Thanks. That is my intent. With Stephanie as the one exception. Well, wait, there’s also Tracy V’s birthday this Friday and I have permission from Kara to keep my promise to deflower Tracy at her party.”

“Permission?! Wow.”

“Yeah, Kara and I discussed it. It’s a one-time thing. There’s no way she’ll agree to random deflowerings. I think that’s why she wants our relationship to be public. She’ll take the risk of people thinking she’s sleeping with me to keep me on the straight and narrow. And frankly, I suspect that all of you agree I need that.”

“Jennifer doesn’t. She’s simply assumed you were going to be unfaithful long-term. Have you told her yet?”

“No. I needed to sort things out with Kara first. I’ll tell Jennifer on Sunday.”

“OK. I support you and I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Sweetheart!”

We hung up, and I finished my homework before going to bed.

On Wednesday, I was surprised when Miss Alvis, my English teacher for Junior English, asked me to try out for the Spring play. She had been impressed by an oral presentation that I’d given and wanted me to try my hand at acting. I said that I was concerned about practice because I had Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays pretty much booked with other things. She asked me to try out anyway, and said that given the part she had for me was dialogue, and she knew I could memorize it quickly, we could probably work around my schedule. I told her that I’d give it a shot.

On Wednesday evening, Beth and I drove to a vet’s office in Goshen and demonstrated our software. He was interested, and we worked out a deal with him for the software. Beth was ecstatic, and I was pretty happy as well. Beth had three more visits lined up, and she was confident that we’d probably get at least two, if not all three of them.