Chapter 23

The weekend had been one of the best in my life, but then Monday morning brought me another pair of ruined panties. For the first time since my very first period, I was completely taken by surprise by its arrival. Usually I got crampy or moody just before it started, but I’d noticed nothing this time. Then I remembered the wonderful side-effect of having an IUD.

School that morning felt different. I had a girlfriend named Samantha Juliet Green and we had spent a wonderful weekend getting to know each other better. Joe liked her a lot, I could tell. He treated her almost like he treated his best friend Mark. Mom put her to work doing chores right along with me, which perversely showed how much she liked her. Dad kept his distance until the topic of professional baseball came up. Then Dad and Sam had a lively chat about which teams were going to the playoffs in the fall.

After I hit my locker before lunch, I practically danced into the lunch room. When Sam caught sight of me, her eyes sparkled and she stood to hug me before we sat down. Some of the smirks around the table told me they knew all about us becoming intimate at this point, but I didn’t care as I dug into my sack lunch.

“So, Sam, I didn’t see you around much this weekend,” Simon said. He was the team catcher and was as tall as he was broad. He was also a boarding student.

Sam glanced at me, almost like she was checking if I was okay with her telling her friends. I just grinned and shrugged to indicate I was fine with whatever.

“I stayed over at Steph’s house,” Sam admitted with a rising blush. “Her family is so cool about everything. I had a blast.”

Just three small sentences. Facts that had no deeper meaning unless you saw the way she looked at me when she said them. I swear she was grinning so big her face was gonna stick that way.

“Awesome,” Simon said with a satisfied nod.

The others around the table were mostly older than me, but no one seemed to mind me being there. The conversation flowed naturally and I even jumped in a few times. It was obvious to me that they all really liked Sam and accepted me for her sake, but that didn’t bother me at all.

One thing I noticed during lunch was Bethany and Collen were fighting, albeit quietly. The previous week she had clung to him whenever I’d seen them, like she wanted everyone to know they were together. Whatever was going on came to a head and she ran crying to the same bathroom I’d hidden in the previous week. Sam must have noticed me watching.

“Do you need to go see what’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said as I touched her thigh under the table. “Whatever her problem is, it doesn’t involve me. Not anymore.”

Sam nodded, her lips pressed thin, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I knew that Bethany and I would probably patch things up at some point, but I wasn’t in a hurry. And her place is my life had definitely moved to below the place my girlfriend held after all the crap she’d put me and Joe through.

The school frowned on public displays of affections, so I hugged Sam again after lunch. She kissed me on the cheek near my ear and made me shiver.

“Any chance you can hang out after school?” Sam whispered.

“I’d love to, but Joe is grounded and I’ve got my period.”

Sam immediately pulled out her smartphone. I was so jelly that she had one and I didn’t. My parents promised to consider it for my next birthday. I peeked at her screen and saw her thumbing in my name.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Adding you to my period tracker app,” she smirked. “Did you start today?”

“Well, last night, but yeah.”

“Let me know when you finish,” she said with a smoldering look in her eyes.

“So you can put it in your app?” I guessed. For some reason talking about periods with my girlfriend was making me hot. Gross, I know, but damn she was so adorable.

“That, too.” She glanced around and risked a quick kiss before skipping off towards her locker.

Everyday we found a little time to spend together. She started passing me notes about silly, mundane things in her daily life, so I did the same. On Wednesday after school, she handed me a larger note that was rolled and tied with a red ribbon instead of being folded.

“Don’t open this until you get home tonight, then call me on my cell.”

When I got home I ran upstairs and shut myself up in my bedroom. After dumping my books on my desk, I carefully untied the ribbon and rolled it out. The paper was thick and slightly yellow, but I figured out why when the sketch appeared.

She had captured herself perfectly. Her nude body was now as familiar as my own as I traced the artful curves she’d drawn. The pose was reclined, like she was in bed waiting for me. She had managed to capture her own smoldering expression so well that my mouth watered in response. Her hips, her breasts, the soft tuft of hair at the joining of her thighs, it was all conveyed with a few strokes of a pencil and smudges of charcoal.

I left the sketch on my desk and ran back downstairs. I had her number dialed on the house line in seconds.

“So what do you think?” she asked with a pleased purr.

“I think I love it,” I answered immediately.

“I think I love you,” she whispered.

My heart stopped. My mind couldn’t form words to respond, but my eyes instantly teared up.

“You don’t have to say it back,” she continued. “I just wanted you to know.”

“Oh, Sam,” I cried into the phone. “I wouldn’t just say it back if I didn’t feel the same way.” Before I could say the words, she changed the subject.

“I want to draw you. I know you can’t stay after school, but can we sneak off at lunch tomorrow?” Sam asked. She was usually so self-assured, but her tone told me how much she wanted me to do this and was scared I’d say no.

“Of course,” I replied and got a sigh in response. “Oh, and you need to update your app.”

“Only three days?” she gasped and I laughed as I wiped my eyes. “Holy crap, I’m totally jealous.”

“Mine were so painful before I went to the doctor for it. I got an UID that releases hormones a few weeks ago. This is my first period since I got it, but it was so much better than it used to be.”

“You have an IUD?” Sam exclaimed.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling self-conscious at her reaction for some reason.

“Wow,” she whispered. “I never thought of doing that to make my periods easier.”

“Well, it worked for me,” I said. “And getting it hurt less than my period cramps.”

“Wait, that means we can fool around tomorrow!”

Her enthusiasm made me laugh. “Can you draw me and fool around before the end of lunch?”