Chapter 60: Prom and Pomp and Circumstance, Part I

April/May 1981 — Milford/Cincinnati, Ohio

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I called Karin, then swam and ate breakfast with Stephanie. When Dad got up, I thanked him profusely for allowing the party and for keeping Mom away from us. He told me he was quite pleased with our behavior, and that, as he’d expected, there had been no fights, no booze or drugs, and that we’d left everything spotless. He warned me that Mom might say something to me about it and reminded me to just keep my cool. I promised I would.

Senior year was quickly coming to an end and graduation was only a month away. There wasn’t much left to do at school, and Seniors were allowed to skip final exams if they had at least a B in a class, which meant that I had no final exams to take. The days at school seemed to fly by and May 21st crept ever closer.

Josh Richards received his host family information, and I was pleased to see he would be in Kungsbacka, which was only about fifteen miles south of Hovås, where I had lived. He’d be going to school in Göteborg, though I didn’t recognize the name of the school. He had learned a couple of dozen phrases and around 150 vocabulary words, which gave him a huge head start. I wrote out a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers for him, including those for Torbjörn, Sofia, and Tomas. I’d let them know about Josh as well.

The Friday following my birthday party was the first of May, and it was less than three weeks before my impending break-up with Kara. She called it ‘taking a break’, which sounded slightly better, but that didn’t change my feelings about it. After our usual dinner, we went to the apartment to talk.

“What are you going to tell your parents, Kara?”

“Nothing. Why should I? They certainly don’t know we’re sleeping together and that’s really all that’s changing, isn’t it? Or are you going to stop seeing me?” she asked.

“Of course not,” I said. “If I had my way, nothing would change until August!”

“It’s better this way. Because I know what’s going to happen, I’d rather you and Bethany had a good Prom. If I could go with you, that might be different, but we both know I can’t. It should be me staying with you in the hotel after your Senior Prom,” she said wistfully.

“Your parents would never permit it! What would you do? Tell them that we’re having sex, so it doesn’t matter? I doubt it!” I said with a grin.

Kara sighed, “I wish I could tell them. I wish I could go to Chicago with you in June. I wish so many things that can’t happen now.”

“Speaking of wishes, you were being pretty risqué with your comments at my party!”

“And you loved it, Steve Adams, and you know it!”

I chuckled, “If I were Bethany, I’d say subconsciously you WANT me to, as you put it, ‘fuck your cute little ass’. And you WANT to have a threesome.”

Kara blushed bright red and said nothing, dropping her gaze. That confirmed in my mind that she’d at least been thinking about those things. I waited to see what she would say.

“No,” she said softly after a moment, “that’s not true.”

It was far too weak of a denial. I put my hand under her chin and lifted her face so I could look into her eyes.

“Kara Blanchard, there is nothing wrong with being curious, or even having desires like that. Do you remember your first reaction to the verses from Song of Songs? Let’s just say that your attitude towards me sampling your ‘mixed wine’ from your ‘goblet’ has changed quite dramatically!”

Kara nodded, her face as red as if she had a bad case of sunburn.

“And,” I continued. “I certainly can’t imagine the Kara who I met back in August asking if I wanted her to ‘suck my big dick and swallow my hot cum’ or asking me to ‘fuck her hot, tight pussy with my big dick’!”

Kara smiled, “I almost can’t believe I said those things! They’re so naughty! But you get me so worked up that I sometimes just want to be so bad!”

“It’s OK, Kara. I mostly don’t like to talk like that, but I understand for you it’s kind of a rebellion. You’re saying things that would scandalize your parents and your pastor, and that gives you a good feeling. But don’t let the rebellion go too far. You don’t want to get out of control. I’ve been there, and it’s not good. I’m sure that you remember everything I told you about that.”

“Steve Adams, this is why I love you so much! You spent five months trying to talk me out of having sex with you, and even right when we were about to do it, you were more concerned about me than you were about putting your big dick in my extremely tight, virgin pussy!” she giggled. “Sorry, that just seemed the right thing to say!”

“It was! If you think about it, it’s the contrast and the internal conflict I’ve had with being with you from the first day. The battle between treating you like a ‘good girl’ from the ‘Holy Rollers’ table versus treating you like the girls I’m usually with,” I said gently.

Kara paused for a moment, then said, “This is kind of like how you treated Bethany, I think. From what the two of you have told me, you treated her with kid gloves and were walking on eggshells around her until she finally made you frustrated enough to get past all of that. And once you got past it, then you two made love and from what you both said, it was fantastic then, and it’s been fantastic since you came back from Sweden.”

“That comparison fits, I guess. I have treated you both like that.”

“I also talked to Joyce and asked her some pretty direct questions. You treated her differently, too, until her Prom.”

“There are some similarities there, as well,” I admitted. “Maybe I shouldn’t have had you, Joyce, and Bethany become friends!” I said with a smile.

“Too late!” she said with an impish smile.

I thought for a moment and decided that there was only one path to resolving this issue. I had to give Kara the freedom to decide. She was having the same internal debate that Joyce once had.

“Kara,” I said softly, “if you want to do any of those things, or anything else, all you have to do is ask. I won’t say ‘no’ again.”

She looked at me for a moment with indecision in her eyes.

“Make love to me, Steve, please,” she asked.

I took her in my arms and we kissed and slowly removed each other’s clothes, then got into bed and made love. After a shower, I took her home.

On Saturday morning, my sister asked me to take her to breakfast, which was her code for wanting to go to the apartment for sex. I chuckled, and we headed out to have breakfast and a good, hard fuck. That evening, Kara and I had our usual date, ending with us making love.

The next three weeks followed the usual pattern, though Kara and I took some extra opportunities to make love. She seemed at peace with her decision, though I was still sad that she felt it was better for us to change our relationship now, rather than in August. In the end, it was my choice that had forced things, because I wasn’t willing to give up Jennifer for Kara, or for anyone else, for that matter.

The day before Prom arrived, our last day as a couple, and Kara had asked me to spend the afternoon and evening with her. Stephanie, Debbie V and Mary took the bus home after school, and I skipped helping Mr. Herbers in the computer lab so that Kara and I could leave directly from school. I knew exactly what she was going to want to do, but I asked anyway. I was both looking forward to this, but also hating it, given it might be the last time we ever made love, or if not the last, the last for a very, very long time.

“What did you want to do tonight, Kara?” I asked with a grin.

“What do you think?” she giggled.

We headed to the apartment and went inside. After kicking off our shoes, we embraced and kissed softly. Kara broke the kiss.

“Just love me gently tonight. It’s our last night until ... well, until you come to your senses!” she giggled.

We made love twice, showered, and then walked to Frisch’s for dinner. When we finished dinner, we walked back to the apartment and made love twice more. The last coupling was sweet and slow, both of us savoring what we knew could be the last time. I made it last as long as I possibly could, focusing on ensuring that Kara had a final, earth-shattering orgasm.

We spent the last hour in bed, cuddling, and kissing softly, hardly talking at all, just soft words reassuring each other that our feelings for each other would always remain strong, and trying to convince ourselves that we’d join again, some day.

Was I doing the right thing? So many of my friends — Kara, Bethany, Elyse, and Joyce — had said that things change; that people change over time. They thought that my relationship with Jennifer was changing, and not in such a way that would lead to marriage. Even Dad, who rarely had ever said anything about any of my friends, thought that I should choose Kara over Jennifer!

A few — Melanie, Larry, and Stephanie — thought that Jennifer was my soulmate, and the one I would be with in the end. I was almost sure that Jennifer, even after I saw Karin again, would hold my heart, but did I really have to leave Kara? Was I doing the right thing by continuing to place my future with Jennifer or with Karin when I had Kara, who basically had committed herself to me?

I sighed to myself, but decided that this time, I had to take this bitter pill now, and then find the truth in the Fall. If I didn’t, I would always wonder and Jennifer would forever be a temptation, even long after I married. I realized that doing that would be unfair to Kara. It was a small solace, of course, for losing what I had with her.

“I’m going to miss this,” Kara sighed.

“All you need to do is ask and we can do it any time you want,” I said, hugging her tight.

“You know better. Either I have you exclusively, or you don’t have me in that way. I still want to go out with you and spend time with you, but not this way,” she said, running her hand along my thigh.

We got out of bed and showered, lovingly washing each other’s bodies, then drying each other and dressing. I drove Kara home and after a quick kiss, she walked into the house with less than two minutes to spare.

On Friday, the day of the Prom, Kara greeted me in chemistry class by kissing me on the cheek, which was how she normally greeted me. I smiled and took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled and squeezed back. She didn’t drop my hand until we had to start taking notes. The rest of the day went by quickly. As we left school for the day, Kara came to find me.

“I wish I could go with you to Prom tonight,” she said. “I’m kind of jealous of Bethany, but I do want you to have a good time!”

She kissed me on the cheek and went to catch her bus. I went to my car and drove home, dropping Mary and Debbie V at their houses.

Bethany and I had agreed that I’d drive us to Prom rather than taking a limo, given we had booked a hotel room. The Prom was being held at the Hyatt Regency and I had booked our room there as well. The only downside was that it reminded me of Becky, because that’s where the disaster of my infidelity had occurred.

When I arrived home, I showered and put on shorts and a t-shirt, given it was too early to put on my tuxedo. I went to find my dad and let him know about my plans for the evening. I purposefully had not filled him in before because I didn’t want Mom to find out in advance and try to interfere. From my perspective, because I was eighteen, there shouldn’t be an issue. I was, on the other hand, a bit concerned about Bethany’s parents because she hadn’t told them in advance.

Dad chuckled when I told him and told me he would have been surprised if I hadn’t stayed out all night, though he was a bit concerned about Kara. I told him that she knew what was going on, and that we had more or less broken up because she knew that I was going to be with Jennifer in Chicago.

“Steve, I don’t usually interfere in who you see, but I have to say, I think Kara’s a better girl for you than Jennifer. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s drop-dead gorgeous.”

“Dad, Jennifer and I have more or less been together since Freshman year. We’ve had lots of ups and downs and now we finally have a chance to really be together. Kara knew that when we started dating; in fact, Jennifer and I had both agreed to go to IIT and had been accepted before Kara and I started going steady.”

“I wasn’t trying to imply you were misleading her, Steve, just letting you know my opinion. I won’t say anything else about it — it’s totally up to you who you date and whichever girl you decide to be with in the end, I’ll always treat her as a daughter.”

“Thanks, Dad, that means a lot to me!” I said. “And Dad, next weekend I want to have some friends over for a graduation party. It’ll mostly be the same group that was here for my birthday. It’ll just be on Saturday afternoon for three or four hours — we’ll grill burgers and swim. There’s a party that night at my friend Kathy’s house, and one on Sunday at Ralph’s house.”

“That’s fine, Son. You’ve shown you’re responsible and we’ve never had any trouble with your friends.”

“Thanks!” I said.

I walked back to my room and found Stephanie waiting for me.

“Did Dad tell you that he and Mom are going to French Lick in two weeks? They’ll leave on Friday afternoon and come back on Sunday. Jeff is spending the night at Jimmie’s house on Friday and Saturday. You know what that means?”

“That I can have Bethany spend the night!” I smirked.

She smacked me hard on the arm, “No! You and I can sleep together! And if you want, I can invite Shelly and Trish for Saturday night,” she smirked.

“I’ll have to get Bethany’s permission, Squirt.”

“Leave that to me. She’s has her own plans, so I don’t think she’ll object,” she giggled.

“Why do I think things are going to be very interesting this Summer?” I chuckled.

“Just wait, Big Brother. Dad also told me I could go to Chicago with you!” she said with a huge smile.

“Whoa! I’ll make sure I tell Jennifer when I talk to her!” I said, happy that the plans were coming together.

Stephanie stayed in my room to help me put on my tuxedo. I very much enjoyed the intimacy and further understood what Kara had said about what it might like to be to be married. When Stephanie and I cooked together, slept together, and now, as she helped me dress, I imagined being with Jennifer and doing those things with her for the rest of my life. The last thing Stephanie did was help me tie the bowtie.