Chapter 64

“After all, if you run far enough, no one can catch you.”
—V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows

WEDNESDAY MORNING, Brittany and I read our papers in Ms. Levy’s class—a one-page argumentative oration. We’d chosen ‘mandatory birth control’ as our topic. Brittany argued for and I argued against. Beca and I had worked hard to shape arguments for and against but had no idea what our counterparts, Desi and Brittany, would present. Since we didn’t know how they’d argue, we made up our own scenario and focused on the elements in the Brutus and Marc Antony speeches. I decided to go all out on the satire aspect, regardless of what Brittany said in her argument.

In class, we’d all discussed the elements of argument and subtle discreditation. We’d seen some pretty malicious attacks in the first two days of reading our papers. The biggest criticism was that they lacked subtlety and were not persuasive. Brittany and I had agreed that we would not hold attacks on each other’s character as anything more than the assignment and we would immediately kiss after our presentation in the class to show people that we were not taking things personally.

“Of course Jacob would be opposed to birth control. Jacob is a boy. Boys never bear the responsibility for pregnancy. Boys are driven to spread their seed to as many girls as possible, making fertile fields blossom with new life. But boys are not driven to tend the fields after they are planted. Boys do not stay for the harvest. Boys do not mill the wheat or bake the bread. Their irresponsibility is the foundation of the need for mandatory birth control.”

Brittany’s discourse was fun and funny. I expected her to cite facts and number regarding teen pregnancy. Instead, she stayed vague on the facts and suggestive in the presentation. “Every unplanned and unwanted pregnancy in the world resulted from a man having unprotected sex with a woman,” she concluded. I was called to deliver my opposition argument.

“You have heard that mandatory birth control is a good thing. Brittany has told you the many reasons birth control is good, and Brittany is a pure and innocent girl. Yes, I could recite statistics that show how the country will be damaged by a sudden drop in births. That a quarter of the births in our country that would normally be parented by those in the mandatory age bracket for birth control will suddenly be missing. But these are merely statistics. The importance of this issue is the purity and innocence of Brittany.” I could see clearly, even as I read from my paper, Brittany blushing. She wasn’t sure yet if I was praising her innocence or ridiculing it.

“Purity and innocence know little of the truth. Brittany has not experienced the mind-blanking pleasure of copulation. Because Brittany is pure and innocent, she does not fully comprehend the biological drive within the female of the species to reproduce. And in purity and innocence, Brittany does not know the joy and euphoria of looking into her lover’s eyes and knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are about to create new life within her body.

“And by Federal law, she will be denied that experience whether she wills it or not. She and any possible mate she might have will be delayed in their maturity leaving a false sense of innocence in the wake of the destruction of her purity.

“But Brittany is pure and innocent. In her youthful trust, she cannot fathom that the government elected by the people would ever do something so blatantly evil to her body and her mind. And sadly, she will one day look back, no longer in innocence and purity, to see the destruction of her youth without the growth and maturity that she should have grown into.”

I laid my paper on Ms. Levy’s desk and walked over to Brittany. She blushed scarlet but nonetheless stood and kissed me deeply. The class applauded, more at our display than our presentations, I think. I glanced up at my classmates.

“Perhaps not quite so innocent as I supposed,” I sighed.

“I am going to dance my boyfriend around the room, stripping an article of clothing from him and from me with every measure of the music. And when we are naked, I am going to find out exactly the difference between my purity and innocence and whatever it is that comes after,” Brittany said at lunch after she’d sat on my lap and kissed me in front of our girlfriends.

“Wow! That’s sure a different response than I had when Desi presented my approval of birth control as weak and ineffective. Instead of attacking the idea of birth control directly, she parodied the concept. She talked about the inadequacy of birth control and compared it to handcuffing teens to the passenger door so they could not drive and get into accidents. Or sewing the lips of the vagina together so that no penetration could be possible,” Beca laughed.

“Just pointing out the stupidity. I think the one that encouraged teen births so the babies could be fattened and used to feed the troops was best,” Desi said.

“You didn’t really say that!” Rachel asked, horrified.

“I borrowed it from Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal.”

We settled down to our lunch with a few jabs going back and forth as we ate.

“Is anyone coming to my birthday fete tomorrow?” Livy asked. I snapped toward her.

“Did we get invites? Is this like a big thing like Brittany’s quinceañera?” I asked.

“I wish,” Livy laughed. “I’ve got a volleyball match at six o’clock. Maybe one of my teammates will remember to wish me happy seventeen.”

“I’ll be there,” I said, glancing over at Rachel. She winked at me.

“Yep. I think I should pick you up for school tomorrow morning so Jacob and I can take you home after the game.”

“I suppose giving you a dozen orgasms like Jacob had before the cross country meet yesterday is a bad idea, huh?” Joan said.

“A dozen? Is that why he kind of wobbled over the finish line in last place?” Livy asked. “How about after the game?”

“Just leave that to us,” Rachel said.

I almost missed Livy’s game. I’d forgotten to write in my Literary Journal, which I usually do at our Thursday study session, so after cross country practice—which Livy skipped—I sat in the school cafeteria and did the last bit of reading and writing. Ms. Levy was very strict about Journals needing to be handed in at the beginning of class on Fridays or no credit would be given. She always handed them back at the beginning of class on Monday and said she held herself to the same standard as her students. I just didn’t want to disappoint her. I’d written a new story and planned to include the green folder with my Journal.

Rachel found me in the cafeteria and handed me a sandwich and some chips.

“I swung by your house to pick you up and your mother said you’d stayed at school. She gave me the sack lunch for you,” Rachel said.

“You could have claimed a lot of points by saying you were so concerned about me that you made my favorite kind of sandwich and brought it so I wouldn’t starve during the game,” I laughed as I kissed her.

“I told you once before: I don’t cook.”

I finished my sandwich and held Rachel’s hand as we went to the gym for the start of the game. Sometimes, just walking with my hand in hers was as precious to me as making love. She glanced up with a smile and leaned against me as we walked, letting me know she felt the same way.

Livy got some good playing time in the second and fifth games of the match and was showing what she could do both at the net and as a setter. I was beginning to understand more about the game but was mostly just interested in watching the bouncing boobs on the court. And cheering Livy. She won the match, three games to two, and gave us a quick kiss courtside before she headed off to the showers.

When she came out of the locker room, she was wearing her letter jacket over my favorite peach tank top and obviously nothing under it. She had a slightly flared denim skirt on that left about a mile of leg exposed before it reached her Converse high tops. She looked good enough to eat. Rachel thought the same thing.

“Okay, you two get in the back,” Rache said when we got to her car. “Do a lot of kissing and touching. Jacob, you’ve got about five minutes to get her naked before I get back there to join you.”

Livy’s letter jacket landed in the front passenger seat. We pulled out of the school parking lot and she had her lips plastered against mine as I slid my hand inside that peach tank top to cup her left boob. I started the other hand up inside and she lifted her arms to allow me to pull her shirt off, only getting caught a second on her ponytail. Then she started panting as I groped both breasts and kissed her some more. She pushed my hands down to get them busy on her skirt and my face followed, catching a nipple between my lips as I unzipped her skirt and started tugging at it.

I could recognize where Rachel was headed, just from a glance out the window. As we drove past the one security light in the parking lot and into the shadows, I gripped Livy’s panties and pulled them down off her hips. When I got to her feet, I decided to leave the tennis shoes and started kissing my way up her legs.

Rachel turned off the Yaris and jumped in the back seat with us.

“Happy birthday, lover,” Rachel said as she kissed and caressed Livy. I just kept working my way up between her thighs.

“Am I getting birthday orgasms?” Livy sighed.

“You sure are, baby. Jacob is going to lick you up and when you’ve had an orgasm on his tongue, we’ll trade places and I’ll lick you to an orgasm while he kisses you and teases your nipples. After that, we’ll just have to see how many you can take.”

Livy squealed as I reached my target and started licking.

I think we only managed four big Os by the time we all were just cuddled together kissing and petting each other. Rachel and I mostly kept our clothes on, but that didn’t keep Livy from getting her hands in our pants.

“We could fuck,” Livy said. “If anybody wanted to give me that for a birthday present.”

“We don’t fuck in the backseat the first time,” Rachel said firmly. “We want you in our bed. All night if possible.”

“If not, then all day,” I added. “Making love with you the first time will be no backseat quickie. We want all of you.”