Chapter 1

“Say that again?”

“I’m pregnant. What are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know what you are going to do about it, but it isn’t my problem so I’m not going to do anything.”

“What do you mean it isn’t your problem? You put it there.”

“I seriously doubt that. We always used condoms and I don’t remember one of them breaking.”

“So? They aren’t one hundred percent effective. Says so right on the package.”

“As far as I’m concerned they worked just fine. All I’ll give you is if you decide to have it once it gets here we will do a DNA check on it to see if it is mine. If it proves to be mine we can decide where to go from there.”

I suppose I should give some back story on the events that led to Penny’s confronting me with her problem.

I met Penelope Martin when her family moved into the house next door to us. We were the same age so we ended up as playmates and it pretty much stayed that way until we reached dating age.

I guess because of my constant association with Penny I just never thought we were anything other than friendly neighbors. It wasn’t until I came home one night from a date with Pauline French and found Penny on my front porch swing with my mom that I found out Penny didn’t feel the same way.

Penny had obviously been crying and I wasn’t going to get involved with a crying girl. No way! I was just about by them on the way into the house when my mother said:

“Come sit with us Robert.”

That in itself was a bad sign. She only called me Robert when she thought I’d done something wrong. Any time else it would be Bobby. As I sat down with them I was trying to think of what I had done that warranted a “Robert.” It turned out to be the last thing I would have thought of.

“We have a problem here Robert. Penny came over to see you ad when I told her you were out on a date the poor girl teared up and started to cry. It took me a bit to get it out of her, but the situation is that she doesn’t know why you date other girls and not her. She has always thought you were her boyfriend and that she was your girlfriend and she was crushed when you started seeing other girls.”

“I didn’t know she felt that way. She never let me know. But it doesn’t matter because I’ve never seen her as anything other than a friend.”

Mom and I had been talking as if Penny wasn’t there, but when I made that statement she let us know she was there by a loud screaming “No!” and she got up and ran from the porch.

Mom said “Go after her Bobby. You two need to talk this out.”

I didn’t want to, mainly because I had no idea of what to say, but mm had said “Go” and so I went. I caught up with Penny just as she was going up her front porch steps.

“Penny; wait up.”

“Go away.”

“We have to talk Penny. Sit down and talk to me.”

She gave me a look I couldn’t read, but she did sit down on the steps.

“Why didn’t you ever let me know how you felt?”

“I didn’t think I needed to. We were always together. You could have gone off and done other things, but you stayed with me. I always thought that it meant that you saw me as your girlfriend.”

“You really look at me as your boyfriend?”

She looked at me with tear stained cheeks and nodded a yes.

“Then I guess I’d better start acting like one. Want to go with me to the movies tomorrow?”

She literally jumped up and threw her arms around me and said “yes, yes, yes.”

From that point on we were a couple all the way through high school and the first year of college. Along the way Penny gifted me with her virginity on her eighteenth birthday. On her nineteenth, after having dinner with her parents and mine, I pulled a box out of my pocket, opened it to show the ring and then asked if she could maybe find a place for it. She threw herself at me and we both fell to the floor with our parents laughing at us.

One night as we were having burgers and fries at Harry’s Shake Shack after seeing a movie Penny asked:

“How much do you love me Bobby?”

“I don’t know if it is enough for me to go along with what you are about to hit me with” I said jokingly.

“It isn’t that bad. You and I have been together since we were seven years old and you are the only guy I’ve ever been with. I’m curious about what other guys might be like.”

“And you are telling me this why?”

“I want you to be okay with it. I’m not wanting to break us up, I just want to be able to date some other guy once in a while.”

“Define ‘once in a while’ for me.”

“I don’t know. Maybe once every two weeks or so. It would depend on a guy I might like to date asking me out. I’m not going to say yes to every guy who asks.”

“I don’t like the idea Penny. I don’t want you doing it.”

“But I want to.”

“No Penny.”

“What? You don’t own me Bob. You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“So even though I’m against it you are going to do it?”

“Yes I am.”

I reached over for her left hand and she let me take it. I guess she thought I intended to plead with her not to do it so she wasn’t ready for it when I pulled the engagement ring off her finger as I said:

“Not wearing this you won’t.”

I dropped the ring in my shirt pocket, stood up and said “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I’m taking you home.”

“I thought we were going to the Holiday Inn.”

“Not any more. Come on; get up if you don’t want to be left here.”

She just sat there and looked at me as though she did not think I meant what I said. I turned and headed for the door. I was turning the key in the ignition when the passenger door opened and she got in.

“You were just going to leave me here?”

“I told you to get up so we could go, but you just sat there.

“What the hell is wrong with you Bob? Why are you acting this way?”

“Just be quiet and think about it. You might have it figured out by the time I get you home.”

That got me the “You can’t treat me like this” attitude” and she turned and looked out the passenger side window and sulked. When I pulled into her driveway instead of waiting for me to get out and come around and get her door she got out, slammed the door, and stalked up her stairs and into her house.

We avoided each other for the next two days and then I figured it was time for me to mend some fences. It was a Thursday evening and I went over to her house and rang the bell. Mrs. Martin answered the door and I asked to speak to Penny.

“She’s not here Bobby.”

“Know what time she will be back?”

“No idea Bobby. She’s on a date and you know how that goes.”

“So she did it. She really went and did it.”

“You sound like you don’t know. She said she talked to you about it.”

“She did and I told her I was against it and if she went through with it we were done. Don’t bother telling her I stopped by.”

I turned and walked away. Away from the Martin’s house and away from Penny.

I didn’t see her again until school on Monday. We both had Business Law as our first class in the morning. I waited until I saw where Penny sat down and then I took a seat on the other side of the room. The class was the only one we shared in the morning so I made sure I beat Penny out the door at the end of the class.

We didn’t have the same lunch period so I didn’t need to duck her until Marketing and Merchandising at three. Apparently Penny did the same thing for the afternoon class that I did for the morning class and waited until I was seated and then sat as far away from mw as she could. It seemed we were both doing our best to avoid each other. It meant I didn’t need to try harder; I’d just let Penny do it.

It didn’t take very long for people to notice that Penny and I weren’t a couple anymore. Thursday during lunch in the Student Union cafeteria Pauline French sat down at my table and asked:

“Is it true that my competition is out of the picture now?”

“Your competition?”

“Penny. I’m hearing that the two of you have broken up. True?”

“True, but how was she your competition? The last time I took you home after a date and asked you out for the following Friday you told me you didn’t want to date me anymore.”

“That was in the eighth grade. Things change as time goes by.”

“Is this your clever way of telling me you wouldn’t mind asking me out?”

“See? College does make you smarter.”

“So where are we going on our date?”

“My sorority is having a keger tomorrow night.”

“What time?”

“Any time after six. Just ring the doorbell and tell whoever answers your mine.”

“A bit possessive are we?”

“Hey; I’m just glad I was able to get to you first.”

I rang the doorbell at the Alpha Kappa Alpha house at 5:59 pm and was surprised when Nancy Neubert answered the bell. “Bobby? What are you doing here?”

“I’m Pauline’s date for the evening.”

“You and Pauline? What happened to Penny?”

“She wasn’t satisfied with me. Wanted to spread her wings and date other guys.”

“You and Pauline serious yet?”

“Too soon to tell.”

“If it doesn’t work out keep me in mind.”

“Shame, shame Miss Neubert. Where’s that sorority sister solidarity?”

“If I could have gotten you away from Penny we wouldn’t have to be worrying about solidarity now.”

Just then Pauline came up and said “Get away from my man you slut.”

Nancy laughed and said “Now, now Pauline; that’s no way to speak to a sister.”

Pauline looked at me and said “Maybe it was a mistake to bring you here to Slut Central. I’m going to have to stay right by your side all night.”

As I followed her into the house I said “Slut Central?”

“Maybe not all the girls.”

“You?”

“Not telling.”

“The Pauline I dated way back when wouldn’t even let me kiss her.”

“That was then.”

It was a fun night. I knew four of the girls from high school and seven of the guys, most of whom were members of Iota Phi Theta. I did dance with the four girls I knew. Surprisingly enough it was at the insistence of Pauline. I found out later it was one of the sorority’s rules that a sister had to share her date at least five times at any function where dancing was taking place.

I’d dated three of the four so they weren’t strangers to me. I’d tried a couple of times with the fourth, but Carla had always turned me down. I was close to being shocked when she came up to me and asked me to dance. As we danced I asked her why she had come up to me when she had always turned me down. What she told me came as a surprise.

“Penny told me if I ever dated you she would scratch my eyes out and I believed her. You aren’t with Penny now so I feel safe. But now I guess I’ll have to be careful of Pauline.”

“It’s only our first date.”

“Maybe, but she is a sorority sister and we have some unwritten rules.”

“Crap! First Penny and now unwritten rules. I can’t seem to catch a break.”

She laughed, the dance ended and Carla said “Cheer up. You’re still young and things could change. I still have the same phone number.”

When it was time for me to leave Pauline gave me a very nice kiss and then I asked her if she had anything going for the next day and when she said no I asked her if she would like to have dinner with me and maybe take in a show. She said she love to and we made arrangements for me to pick her up at four. We had a nice time and when I took her back to the sorority house I received another nice kiss.

Pauline gave it up on our fifth date and after that we got together two or three times a week. She was really into oral and sixty-nine was her favorite number.

Several times while on a date with Pauline I saw Penny with some guy and it never seemed to be the same guy twice.

Penny had tried several times to get to me, but I did a good job of avoiding her.

Pauline and I dated enough over the next three or for weeks that people started thinking of us as a couple. One night when I came home after a date with Pauline I found Penny sitting on my steps (I was living in an apartment over my parent’s garage) waiting for me.

“We need to talk” she said.

“About what?”

“About us.”

“There is no us anymore.”

“Could we go inside?”

I figured why not and so I said okay and we walked up the steps and into the apartment. She sat down on the couch and said:

“I hear you are going steady with Pauline French.”

“So?”

“What do you mean “So?” How can you go steady with someone when we both know you are mine?”

“I haven’t been yours since the day you told me you were going to date other guys. We might have had a chance if you hadn’t gone through with it, but you did go through with it.”

She stood up, pulled her dress up over her head, dropped it on the floor and stood there in just panties and bra. As she unfastened her bra she said: