Chapter 10

Jeannie’s turn:

It’s been TWO weeks since we told Mom and Dad what we were doing.

I’m still shocked at the response.

Don’t get me wrong. I ... We, Johnny and I, are deliriously happy that it turned out like it did. I was almost in terror over one day getting caught by Mom and Dad.

Deep down I knew my parents wouldn’t get so drastic as to send Johnny off somewhere. I knew that. But I reckoned on a big explosion, then a lot of rules and restrictions, a lot of yelling and tears, you know, DRAMA beyond imagining.

Instead, when I told Mom, I saw signs that she was trying hard to stay composed, but she did. And then Dad...

I guess the fact that he’s got a brother and sister living together, that sort of bent him in the direction of NOT going off the deep end.

So, rules. Keep it looking like normal big brother and his bright, cute sister while in public. No open sexuality in front of Mom and Dad. And we can sleep together ... etc.

I did note that Saturday afternoon around the pool, we were all out there, but Mom made a very definite statement that she and Dad were going inside for the evening, leaving me and Johnny by ourselves.

Sex in the pool sounds a whole lot more romantic and exciting than it seems to be in practice, but we definitely tried. Oh, yeah, we’ll try again, you know, but it’s not something I’m going to be daydreaming about. I mean, yes, I do daydream about me and Johnny all tangled up, but the pool won’t figure into those thoughts.

At the pool, though, I really appreciate the privacy fence because I love swimming in the nude. So does Johnny. And if we’re not doing it in the water ... penetration, you know, there are many other fun things to do. I particularly like it when he hauls himself out to sit on the edge. His legs spread. I can swim right up there and ... Mmmmm.

We’ve really had a lot of fun in those two weeks.

Other news. My ‘friend’ Reena, the one that first wanted to do Johnny on the edge of the pool, I’m careful about calling her ‘friend’ now. She’s fourteen and her reputation is ... well ... News got out about her getting hauled into the police station.

One night she was at a guy’s house. The guy and his friend were enjoying Reena’s best attributes when his parents unexpectedly returned. Reena and the extra guy bailed out of the second-floor window and by the time they reached the ground, cops were there. Apparently there’d been a couple of burglaries in that neighborhood recently and a neighbor spotted ‘unusual activity’.

It was a big deal – main guy’s parents, second guy’s parents, why they were in the house with no adults at home, but in the company of a fourteen year old girl whose panties were still in the bedroom ... Lots of talk about statutory rape, lots of accusations. Word got out because guys talk. All the story might not be accurate, but your imagination can fill in the gaps.

Me, I got a lot of the details from Reena herself. She can’t keep her mouth shut in more ways than one.

“Dad’s got me sooooo grounded,” she said. “He even picks me up from volleyball.”

“Well, you do make all your practices now.”

“Yeah ... I guess ... I was having a lot of fun skipping them every now and then. Goin’ somewhere to meet a guy and fuck. It really is fun, you know...” Her eyes narrowed. “You DO know, don’t you?”

“I know it’s fun. Yes.”

She squealed a little. “Who’re YOU doing it with?!?”

“I’m not saying. It’s our business. I mean, I don’t want everybody knowing who I’ve been with...”

“Yeah ... word gets around pretty good.”

“I do know that. You’re famous.”

“Uh, yeah ... I get all kinds of attention.”

“I don’t want that,” I said. “So I don’t tell anybody.”

“Even your BEST friend?”

Okay, Reena’s NOT my best friend. Good friend, maybe, maybe not. Hanging around her gets me that wrong kind of attention.

“Nobody. Gramma says, ‘two people can keep a secret if one of ‘em’s dead.’ I kinda believe that.”

“I guess it’s just that sometimes I have something that’s gonna make me explode if I don’t tell people.”

“Like at the slumber party when you said that about you and Ranger...”

“Yeah ... Like that.”

“You ‘n’ Ranger ... still...”

“Exploding time. I gotta tell somebody...”

“What?” I asked. “Do I really want to know?”

“I gotta tell somebody.”

I glanced around. Nobody in earshot. “Okay. It’s not illegal, is it?”

“No.”

“Okay. Tell me.”

“Somebody gave me a disease...”

“What kind of disease?”

“Two, really. Chlamydia and gonorrhea.”

“How’d you find out?”

“When Dad got me from the police station, he took me straight to the emergency room. They did this ‘rape kit’ thingie, and they took specimens. The results...”

“I thought you would use, you know, condoms...”

“My cousin, she took me to a clinic and got me birth control pills. That’s another story. So sometimes I didn’t use condoms. Guys like it better...”

“Really?” I’m trying to sound curious. Actually, I am curious. Johnny and I never used a condom, but then it’s just me and him and we’re exclusive and I’m on the pill.

“I can’t really tell any difference except when it’s over, stuff drips out of me like crazy.”

“But somebody gave you...”

“Yeah. I had shots and pills and had to go back in for retests. Still gotta go back one more time.”

“Wow!”

“Birth control pills’re shit, too...” she leaned in very conspiratorially. “I got pregnant.”

I stifled a gasp.

She continued. “Dad took me to Chicago. I thought they had this pill you take and that’s all I needed. I was too pregnant. It didn’t hurt...” She looked at me. “I thought I was safe, taking those pills. Maybe I missed one or something...”

“Wow!”

“Don’t tell anyone ... An abortion ... I’m too YOUNG to have a baby.”

“You definitely are. But you...”

“I thought I was safe ... Funny thing is, Ranger had to go to the doctor. His dick was burning when he peed. He had gonorrhea ‘n stuff, too...”

“Did he get it from you?”

“He might’ve gave it to me. I’m not the ONLY girl he fucked. I wasn’t even the first. I dunno. So, no, I’m not doin’ Ranger ... Not right now, anyway.”

I’m thinking that this is what being an ignorant slut would get you, an example good enough for a text book they wouldn’t print because ‘slut’ is a bad word and that everybody should be completely free to do everybody else because those old morals are relics of a bygone time.

Of course, I’m thinking that thought while in reality I’m breaking some of those old moral boundaries pretty badly myself.

But I’m different, right? And then I start the thought train that ‘I’m different’ is probably a very popular argument when somebody starts breaking rules.

I guess Reena’s not TOO slow. She read the look on my face when my mind drifted to that bunch of thoughts.

“Are you listening?”

“Yes, I’m listening, Reena. That’s a lot of stuff to absorb.”

“Well, Danielle told me she couldn’t believe I was so stupid – doing a bunch of different guys.”

“Reena, I’ve been your friend for a long time. I shoulda told you that, too, when you started.”

She hung her head for a moment. “I prob’ly woudn’t’ve listened. But what would YOU say?”

“Find a good guy, a nice, safe, good guy, and hang onto him. If you’re gonna have sex, do it with him.”

“But I don’t WANT any of those guys...”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Reena. I wouldn’t be doin’ it with somebody that I couldn’t see the future with. I just won’t...”

“Well,” she explained, “you get goin’, and things feel really good and exciting and next thing you know ... and then next time, you remember how good that felt, and you kinda wanna do it again.”

“I know. But I don’t go there with just anybody. I just won’t.” I sighed. “Besides, it’s not like I’m dating or anything. Mom ‘n’ Dad said not until I’m fifteen or sixteen. I mean, I can go to the movies or something as part of a group, but nothing’s going to happen in the middle of a bunch of other people ... It’s not like I’m gonna sneak off with some guy.”

“Been there, done that...”

“I just can’t.”

She gazed at me. I saw a touch of regret. “I did. I mean, after me ‘n’ Ranger got past play-wrestling, I guess I kinda went crazy.”

“I guess that happens,” I said soothingly.

“Yeah...”

There’s nothing past that for me to say. She wanted to talk. I listened, tried to be soothing and non-judgmental.

And I told every bit of it to Johnny.

It’s interesting to see what parts stuck in his mind.

“So you kinda told her you were doin’ it.”

“She says ‘fucking’. I can’t say that about you and me, Johnny. I know, that first night, it was a lot of things ... Experimenting, you know. Discovering. But it was you and me. And I loved you. Lots of things. But never ‘fucking’.”

“I can’t call it that, either.”

“She’s probably going crazy trying to figure out who you’re doing.”

I smiled. “Probably. And I think she has no idea of how wonderful it is. No stress. No sneaking. No hiding. No wondering who’s tonight or who’s next. Just me and the guy who’ll be mine forever.”

He kissed me. “I worry sometimes. We’re ... I love what we have, but it’s just so far out there. I worry that you’ll decide that some other guy would make more sense ... society would accept that.”