Augury

Time marched on and by the time I was in high school we had all pretty much forgotten about the weird videos. For most of that time, I was a nerd and proud of it: I spent my Friday nights at the game store, Deck ‘n Bones, playing board games with Corey and the regulars. On Sunday afternoons we played Dungeons and Dragons there. The Deck ‘n Bones crowd was made up of people of all ages, but Corey and I were the youngest, and it made us feel mature to be accepted by them.

In my sophomore year I made a school friend - Tia - who took me under her wing and tried to introduce me to regular teen life. One Friday night I skipped board game night, dressed like a teen girl was supposed to, and went with Tia to a party. Corey was upset that I was abandoning him, but he wouldn’t admit it.

I wasn’t even sure if it really counted as a party: there were only eight of us there. But there were no parents, and there was beer, which was a first for me. Near the end of the night we all stripped down to our underwear and went swimming. Rico gave me a back rub in the pool: a perfect gentleman, his hands never ventured anywhere they weren’t supposed to. I rewarded him with an innocent but lingering kiss - my first. It was a good night.