Chapter 18

Monday, Kim walked over to where I was sitting. I stood and she sat. We sat on opposite sides of the table for a minute, staring at each other. I couldn’t help but grin.

“You messed up my life. I hope you know that,” she said.

One of Kim’s friends came over, sat and talked to her for a couple of minutes then realized she was interrupting. I was nice. Kim was nice. But she knew. She left.

“How did I mess up your life?”

“You little shit. You don’t even know,” she said with a face that would make anyone pause.

“No. I really don’t. What did I do? I want to make it right, whatever it is.”

“You gave me my first orgasm and then you took me to another level and now all I can think about is you and your damn life-ruining tongue and fingers,” she said and busted into a giant smile. “Seriously. I don’t want to eat. I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to study. All I want is for you to eat me up and give another one of those.”

Another friend came over to ask Kim some questions. Kim didn’t hide her agitation very well this time around but her friend was clueless and missed it. After a couple of minutes Kim told her we were in the middle of a private conversation. She looked at Kim, then me, then Kim again and finally realized what should have been obvious. She realized she had blown it and left.

“I would be more than happy to. I have you right where I want you, begging for more. Right until you beg me to stop.”

“That’s it? That’s your strategy? To keep me begging? Because it works. I know my parents knew something was up. They had to. The best thing I could do was avoid them. What do they call it in the movies, a well-fucked look? Well, I’m pretty sure I had one of those.”

“You didn’t. You couldn’t have. One day, I’ll give you one of those.”

“That’s all I need, for you to take me to another level. I love you big time.”

“I love you too.”

“Troublemaker.”

“That’s me. I loved that. I loved being able to do that for you, to make you feel that good. Highlight of my life.”

“You mean that don’t you?”

“I mean that. You were amazing.”

“I was loud.”

“About that. The people at the Awendaw Nature Center called and asked if we would keep it down next time.” The nature center was about ten miles from where we had anchored.

“I hope you told them ‘No’. Unless you’re going to slack off.” The bell ending lunch rang and we hadn’t talked about anything else. “I’m ruined. Your fault. End of story.”

“They said their birds of prey at the avian thing were pretty shook up.”

“Stop. You ruined me.”

“My work here is done. See you after school?” She nodded. “I have a huge Latin test, right before practice. I know it’s going to be a bear. Ugh.”

“You’ll nail it. How many more of these big tests?” I held up two fingers and when I did, she licked her lips.

“Oh, good. Now, I can focus on Latin,” I said and gave her a quick kiss and we parted.

I took my Latin test but I didn’t have a great feeling about it. I might have been a bit distracted the day before. I did have an outstanding swim practice that day and gave it a shot at five hundred yards at race speed. It was doable but tough for me to keep winning form for that long. I started to break down and get a little sloppy at three hundred yards and my splits showed. I didn’t have enough time in the season to build it up enough to be competitive at that distance. Coach Miller’s plan was to put me in the water for the two hundred medley relay, the two hundred freestyle, the one hundred freestyle and the four hundred freestyle relay. I’d be racing in four races and anchoring two of the relays. No freshman at Porter had ever done that before. Coach told me that since I was a freshman, he didn’t want me to feel a lot of pressure. “Do your best and let the results speak for themselves,” he said. Right.

Kim was waiting outside the locker room when practice was over. I thought she might be and raced to meet her. We were riding with my carpool. When we got to the car, there was a bit of a scuffle about who would sit next to her. After my carpool buddies were done goofing off, I held the front door open for Kim and then climbed in the backseat.

“You two are clowns. I wouldn’t let her sit next to either of you in church.”

“Ouch. That stings. Hi, Kim.” She shook her head and we took the short drive to my house.

“Harpo, Phillips,” she said by way of greeting. They both had goofy smiles and I knew I’d simply have to get used to it.

We arrived at my house and Mom was ready to go but Kim and I needed to change. I told her we’d be right out.

“Change in different rooms, please.”

“What’s the fun in that?” I said, right before I got hit in the back of the head with a gym towel.

We re-started with a push day. I watched Kim examine my gym with curiosity, especially when she checked out all the pulley attachments. I explained to Kim what muscles we would be working on and what exercises we would use to build those muscles. I could really use my anatomy posters and she realized this was serious business. She had a question for everything. Sometimes, two. It was my turn to teach.

“I get that we warm up with a light weight. That makes sense. But once we’re warmed up you do three sets of six reps. Why? Why not two sets of nine reps, or one set of eighteen reps. Why eighteen reps in the first place?”

“That’s a really good question. I’ve asked a lot of people and a couple of coaches and they don’t all agree. One thing most of them all said as that everyone is different and you have to get in touch with your own body, don’t violate basic principles and make the changes you think you need to. It’s different for everyone and a lot of the rules are pretty soft. But if we can do more than six reps, the weight is probably too light to build muscle quickly. Doing more than one set with the same weight helps the muscle grow better. If we did more than three sets, we wouldn’t have the energy for the rest of the workout.”

“Okay, why split it into three parts? Why do push, pull, legs? Why not just do all three parts every day?”

“That’s an easier question. Some people do but I know I wouldn’t have the energy at the end of the workout. Your muscles need time to grow. They need to rest. So, we do push on Monday and Thursday and these muscles get to rest on the other days.”

“Who figured this out? Does everyone agree with this? It seems arbitrary.”

“Guys who compete in bodybuilding figured it out and they don’t all use the same routine. Mike Mentzer uses a really different routine and he swears by it. Arnold likes behind the head military press and other people say it’s really bad for your shoulders.”

“So, how do you know what’s right?”

“We’re sticking with the basics that pretty much everyone agrees with. Try what we’re doing and if you don’t see the results you want, you can change it up.”

“Okay. What exercises do we do to fix my flabby ass?”

“Oh, honey,” Mom said. “I’d kill for your flabby ass.”

“Me too,” I said and that got the stink eye from Mom.

I told Kim to take it easy the first day and just do one set of most of the exercises and perhaps two of the main exercises like bench press and military press. She wanted to do more but understood the reasoning. About half way through the workout she was starting to wear out and I told her to relax and not try to do too much.

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” she replied.

“If you do too much, tomorrow, you’ll wish you were dead,” Mom cautioned.

“You wouldn’t let us ride horses as long as we wanted because you said our thighs would hurt. Same thing,” I said and she nodded. She could relate to that.

Kim pretended to slow down but she was all in and had a great start. Mom and I were both pretty impressed with her level of effort. When we finished, Kim looked at my workout chart to consider what we would be doing next.

She stood in front of the mirror and I guess she was flexing but I couldn’t figure it out until she asked a couple of questions.

“Push works your chest, right?” I nodded. “Makes it bigger, right?” I nodded again as she looked in the mirror. “Do my boobs look bigger to you?”

“Don’t answer that, Jack. It’s a trap,” Mom said. “Kim, you are trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s what Dad says.”

“It took me a couple of weeks to see changes. Boobs aren’t muscles so lifting won’t make them bigger. But you can make your chest stronger and your back wider and that’s just as good. Almost as good. Veronica does not need to know that. Her tatas are big enough just the way they are.” They laughed at that but I was afraid to.

We were finished. Mom put her arm around Kim and they walked to the house together while I cleaned up and got a head start setting up a couple of exercises for the next day. I figured whatever Mom was talking to Kim about might need an extra minute so I worked the heavy bag. It had been a while since I had and I wore out after six rounds. Not bad but not what I’d built up to, either. I grabbed a bunch of used towels and walked up to the house. Mom and Kim were talking in the kitchen and Mom made a face that let me know to scram.

I took a shower and changed and when I came out, they were still talking. I knew better than to interrupt. I went to the library and started reading. Riders of the Purple Sage was one of those books I’d normally race through but for some reason, I’d lingered on it. Kim and I hadn’t really talked about it much. Sally and I talked about the details in a book. I missed that but thought it was simply because I hadn’t pursued it.

“Be right back. I’m going to run Kim home,” Mom hollered to me.

Wait a minute. What? I walked toward the front door and down the steps, meeting Kim in the driveway.

“What was that all about?” I asked as Mom got the car.

“Your mom’s protecting you. It’s fine. See you tomorrow,” she said and when I still looked clueless, she added, “Don’t worry about it. Nothing’s wrong. Tell you tomorrow if your mom doesn’t tell you tonight. Love you.” The car pulled out of the garage, Kim kissed me quickly, got in and I was left standing in the driveway with my mouth hanging open. What just happened?

I went inside and checked on dinner. It was done, so I pulled plates out and poured drinks. Mom was back before I could finish making a salad to go with it. We sat down to eat and I didn’t say a word. I waited for Mom to say something. That lasted a very long ten minutes before Mom broke the silence.

‘You’re dying to know what we talked about.”

“I’m a wee bit curious.”

“A wee bit, huh? You’re going to find out from Kim, anyway. I simply reminded her that while you’re the guy, she is a year older and to not forget how young you are. That’s all.”

“It took you forty-five minutes to say that?”

“To say it properly. Yes, it took that long. Relax. I’m not upset with you or Kim. When I was her age, I’d dated boys that were two or three years older than me. I had more experience than she does. When we started talking, I had no idea how little experience she had. I think she’s spent more time with you the last couple of weeks than all the rest of the boys she’s dated put together. So, it seems you have more experience than she does. She’s still older. Normally, I’d expect the boy to take responsibility for a lot of aspects of dating. I suggested she share in that a bit more than normal because of your age.”

“That makes it sound like you want her to be my babysitter,” I said with no small amount of indignation.

“No. That’s not it and I don’t think she thought that way. But, and this is pretty important, if you two are still dating a couple of months from now, she’ll have her driver’s license. You won’t. If she drives you places, she’ll be the responsible party. Then, she’ll be eighteen and you’ll still be a minor. It’s just something to think about. And you should play a role, too. Don’t position her to get in trouble for anything. That one year could make a lot of difference.”

I stewed on it. I didn’t like it but I had to admit it made sense. It was quiet for a long time while I decided if I was pissed at Mom or thankful. I decided I was kind of pissed. Mom knew. Of course, she knew.

“If you want to be angry with me, that’s fine. But while you’re busy being angry with me, I want you to consider how much latitude I’ve given you, both with Sally and now Kim. I expect to give you more latitude with Kim, because she is older. But I’m not going to pretend you’re seventeen or eighteen just because you’re doing the things an older kid would do. One year doesn’t seem like that much but do the math. I wouldn’t leave you alone until you were twelve. That’s less than three years ago. Three years of being old enough to be responsible. Kim has had twenty-five percent more time at that age. That’s a lot.”

“What am I doing that an older kid would do?”

Her shoulders slumped and looked at me, incredulously. “Do you really have to ask? I just don’t want Kim, or you, to forget that, smart as you are, you have been known to do some middle schooler type stupid stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Do you really want to go there?”

I thought about that one for a minute and decided that I’d just asked the mother of all stupid questions. “I withdraw the question.”

“I would if I were you. Staying out of trouble should be a shared responsibility, more so because of your age. I don’t think Kim sees a problem with that. She certainly doesn’t see you as a little kid and neither of us thinks of her as your babysitter. Okay? Let me know when you’re done being mad at me and I’ll serve dessert.”

“That sounds like extortion.”

“It should. It’s the very definition of extortion. Do you want chocolate ice cream or not?”

“Yes, please.”

“I shall take that as a sign that you’re not mad at me, or at least not mad enough to forgo chocolate ice cream.”

“The latter. You didn’t do this with Sally, you know.”

“You and Sally are the same age, and you didn’t go sailing together alone for a day. I should have talked with Kim before that but her parents didn’t seem to have a problem with it. You’re growing up. You’re growing up too fast. But you are not grown up. Nuts?”

Mom could switch like that. Fine. I got nuts on mine. We ate our ice cream and I sort of stopped being mad at her. Not entirely. It was embarrassing and I had a hunch I’d get a ribbing from Kim the next day.

I remembered that I wanted to call Sally so I went to the guest room. I don’t know if Mom even remembered we had a separate line in the guest room but it was becoming my favorite place to talk. You never knew where a conversation was going to go.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Mr. Varsity. Nice.”

“Yeah. Thanks. I wanted to share a couple of things with you. Spring Fling this coming Friday, right? Do you know who you’re going with?”

“Mystery man. His name’s Rory.”

“Rory. That’s Irish, I think. Okay, here’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I told myself that I wouldn’t compare you and Kim but then I realized I couldn’t help it. So, I just went with it and compared everything. What’s weird is that the two of you are so different. How could I love you and her when she’s so different? But I do. So, just go ahead and compare and get it out of the way. You’re going to anyway and if you do, don’t think of winners and losers, just differences. It’s weird.”

“You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you?”

“Pretty much. That’s why I’m calling, I guess. Just to tell you that I learned different isn’t a bad thing.”

“You and Karen, both told her not to compete with me because she’d lose. That made me feel pretty good. But if you’ve fallen for her, she should win, now.”

“No. No contest. When I swim butterfly, I’m not competing with backstroke guys. She can’t win in your event.”

“That’s pretty sweet. She should win but that was sweet that you would make a way for me not to lose.”

“Never. Never, ever. Sally, I may have fallen for Kim but I still love you. I think I always will. I care for you so much and I’d do anything for you. I’m glad you have a date for the dance.”

“Thank you.”

“But just so you know, I hate it, too.”

“Yeah. I’ve gotten pretty good at that.”

“Rory better be a great guy. But he’ll be different and that’s okay. I told Franklin that the two of you were really different and that it surprised me. You want to know what he said? He said it’s a good thing.’”

“Well, Kim’s pretty different so ... I like what we still have.”

“Me too. I hate you.”

“I hate you too. I have to go to dinner. Love you.”

“Wait. Just one more thing.”

She covered the phone and hollered to her mom. “Okay.”

“Rory might have dated a bunch before and maybe he hasn’t. He might not know how to kiss or anything. You might have to show him the way so don’t embarrass him.”

“I didn’t even think of that. He’s older so I just figured he’d know.”

“Yeah, well Kim is older too and that’s not how it turned out. Just be flexible.”

“Wait. Kim?”

“She learns fast and that’s all I want to say about that. You and I did a lot, Sally. I bet you could be pretty intimidating to some guy. We sort of learned together.”

“You had a video and stuff and I had Katie but Rory might not.”

“Exactly. And remember, don’t go home.”

“Stop,” she said, laughing. “I’ll think about all that. Thanks. Bye.”

“I hope you have a great time at the dance,” I said and we hung up. That went better than I thought. I didn’t ask much about Rory, though. After the dance, maybe.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked at lunch the next day.

“Funny guy. Your mom loves you and she’s just looking out for you.”

“It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Probably. But that wasn’t her intention. The good news, I’m making a buck an hour for babysitting.”

“That’s not funny,” I said but she was deliberately trying to be serious and it was obvious. “Okay, it’s kind of funny.” We both laughed.

“Do we have that out of the way?”

I assured her it was and we talked about all kinds of other things. I told her I’d called Sally the night before and sort of shared the conversation about the crazy differences. She agreed that she and Sally were really different and didn’t ask about how she fared in this category or that. She’d been warned not to compete and she still wasn’t going to. I liked that, even though I thought she’d win, it was something I’d never have to worry about.

That afternoon, Kim surprised me by showing up for swim practice. I put in a good effort, and we had a few races to help get our heads screwed on straight for our upcoming meet. It would be the last of the season. After results came in from ours and other meets, I’d know if I was going to compete in regionals. With me being new to the relay teams it was important for us to practice getting used to each other’s finish. Disqualification for leaving the platform too soon on a relay was a death sentence. Everybody works all season to get ready and if you leave the platform early, your team is disqualified and all of that is gone. I thought waiting for the swimmer in front of you to touch the wall was the hardest part of a race. It was certainly the most pressure. Once you were in the water, you could just focus on swimming.

After practice, Kim and I were walking out to the car when Birch came up and tapped me on the shoulder. We hadn’t talked about much besides swimming in a couple of weeks and I knew why.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Birch. What’s up?” I asked.

“Two things, no, three. First, it’s really weird seeing you walking with my girl.” All three of us laughed at that. It was a weird dynamic. “Second, yesterday I got a scholarship offer, I’m going to take and I thought you’d want to know.”

“Where?” Kim and I both asked at the same time.

“UC Santa Barbara. Pretty happy about that. And third, I’m really happy for you, Jack. I hope you smoke ‘em on Thursday. You surprised everybody when you had the chance. Miller’s really impressed with that. I want to tell you what might be on the line. If you do well, well enough to get a regional invite, you and me will probably be the only two. We’ve got five guys graduating.”

“Not sure how the two are connected,” I said.

“Next season. Coach will want a team captain with some experience. You’ll be a sophomore and I don’t think Porter’s ever had a sophomore team captain but you’d be the obvious choice.”

“That wasn’t even on my radar. I feel like the little fish in a big pond, for like, the first time in my life.”

“Yeah, well, if you do well at regionals, even if you don’t win, you’ll be a bigger fish than you thought. I’m just saying that because you could do a little team captain kind of shit on Thursday.”

“Motivate and encourage,” I said, realizing I hadn’t done any of that all season because I thought I was the one that needed it.

“Exactly. Just something to think about. If you finish out the season like that, people will remember when practice starts next fall. Even if Claire does well and Coach gives him the nod for team captain, he definitely will make you captain the following year. I’ve got my scholarship. That’s why I came. Your turn.”

“I’m expecting you to take regionals and then state so don’t sound like you’re done.”

“I’m not done. But I see the flags,” he said meaning he wasn’t far from the finish line.

“Thanks, Birch. You’re a good friend.”

“You, too,” he said. “Take care of my girl,” and he was gone.

“There’s a lot going on in him that I don’t know anything about,” Kim said.

“No kidding. When I asked him to sit with me to sort of set you two up, I never would have dreamed it would turn out this way. Not in a million years.”

“Thought you’d kissed your chance goodbye?”

“Completely.”

“Sally won,” she said.

“Not today,” I answered and she gave a me nice hug and kiss before we got in the car. She climbed in the back seat, leaving me shotgun. We rode to my house in silence as the two goofballs in the back kept their hands to themselves and bit their lips. It was pretty funny.

It was a pull day and Kim loved it. Mom told her about the random biker chick and they compared backs in the mirror. Mom pulled her top up in back so Kim could see but I saw too. She really looked good. I was pretty happy for her. We had a good workout and Kim didn’t ask too many questions. The next day was leg day and I let them know I was going to go very light since the meet was the following day. We debated cancelling but decided not to. There was no tension between Mom and Kim and I was pretty happy about that. At dinner, I told Mom that Kim said she was getting paid to babysit and Mom howled.

I was sitting at my table, minding my own business and waiting for Kim when Giggles walked up and put a sheet of paper on the table in front of me.

“Hi, Mel. What’s this?” Other people thought the nickname Giggles was funny but Mel was just about done wearing braces and I could tell, so I didn’t call her that.

“It’s my resume,” she said and took a seat across from me.

I looked at it, noting a lot of fun stuff about Mel but I didn’t think it would land her a job anywhere. “Interesting Mel. Plan on trying to get a job?”

“No. I figured if you ever dump Kim, I want to be first in line.” She had a perfectly straight face.

“So, you’re applying for the position in advance?”

“Exactly. If you ever dump Kim.”

“That’s not going to happen but if she ever dumps me, Mel...”

“Fat chance. She’s gone totally Jack crazy so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“She’s Jack crazy, huh?”

“Yeah. So, can you really walk on water?”

“Stop fooling around.”

“Well, she’s got it bad. You’re pretty cute but I wouldn’t try to steal you ... unless you wanted to be stolen.”

“Sorry. I’m pretty happy. You’re funny, Mel. The right guy will come along. So, this...” I said holding up her resume.

“That is me fooling around. We had some extra time in keyboarding class. You can relax about losing her. You two make a lot of people jealous, though. I think you should feel bad about that, for a little while, at any rate,” she said and got up.

“What’s this?” Kim said as she started to sit.

Mel grabbed it. “It’s a testament to desperation,” she said. “I have creative writing class this afternoon. I’m going to write an ode to despair,” she said with her best Eeyore impression and walked away.

I told Kim about the conversation and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Kim listened, smiled and laughed.

“That’s Giggles being all dramatic. She does really like you though.”

“She barely knows me.”

“Nevertheless, she would very much like to fuck you silly.”

“Does she have special experience in turning otherwise rational men silly?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s a virgin. She’s unique and someday, some guy is going to discover her and make her happy. He’ll be a winner. It won’t be you, though.”

“No. Hey, I decided to grow a mustache.”

“No kidding. When are you going to start?”

“I already started. I’ve been working on it for nearly fifteen years so far.”

“Hmm,” she said, looking at my slick upper lip. “I think you need to give it a couple more minutes to let it thicken up a bit,” she said and looked at her watch. I made a face like I was straining. I raised my eyebrows in a question. “Not yet, Aquaman. Keep trying.”

“Am I going to have to get used to that?”

“Yeah. I don’t know who started it but you may as well get used to it. It’s probably going to stick.”

“Great. Could be worse, I guess. Hey, I meant to tell you something. Sunday on the boat, I didn’t say this before but I thought it was kind of obvious at the time.” I looked around. There was no one close but I leaned forward and lowered my voice anyway. “When you straddled my thighs and rode me like a horse ... that was the hottest thing in the world. You’re the hottest thing in the world.”

“Don’t get me wound up. I’m glad you enjoyed that but please don’t get me started. I have an afternoon full of tests and quizzes.”

“Party pooper. I messed up on my last Latin test.”

“You failed?”

“No. No, but I messed up. I didn’t go blank. I got a B.”

“B. End of the world.”

“Funny. I don’t get those. Well, I guess I do. Pisses me off though. It wasn’t that hard of a test. Something, or someone distracted me. I will be so glad to have Latin behind me. Hey, I saw your picture today. It was in Webster’s under ‘Stone Fox’ and here’s the crazy thing, the cheapskates used the same picture for ‘luscious’ too. I thought that was pretty cheap, using the same picture twice.”

“Nice. Yours must be in there under goofball.”

“Everybody knows that. Aquaman?”

“I didn’t start it but I kind of like it.”

“Aquaman. I’ve been called worse.” I looked in my sack and pulled out a nectarine. I split it in two and started to take a bite but had a better idea. I licked it once but Kim didn’t notice. I licked it again and she looked up. I licked it again and then sort of sucked on the juicy part, making as much noise as I could.

“Stop it. Doggone it, Jack.” I sucked on it and raised my eyebrows. “Just stop it. You’re making me jealous of a peach.”

“Nectarine,” I said and gave it another loud slurp.

“Jack Pierce! Stop it,” she said laughing and covering her face with her hands.

“How am I supposed to improve it I don’t practice?”

“You’re impossible.”

“Thank you.” I looked in my sack. “Hey, there’s a banana too. Want it?”

“No. Stop,” she said and buried her face in her hands again, laughing and trying to hide it but it didn’t work. After a few minutes, without looking up, she asked, “Done?”

“Could be.” She looked up. “Okay. Seriously and as brief as I can,” I said. “What you did was amazing. Spectacular, even. There. I just wanted you to know.”

“Did the trick, huh?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“One day, for real.”

“One day,” I answered and the bell rang.

“Last practice of the season today, huh?”

“Yeah. And tomorrow, Bishop England. I don’t even know if they have a good team. It’s just important for us to beat our cross-town rival, you know? We’ve got our work cut out for us. See you after.”

We had a short team meeting after practice and Coach Miller gave us the line-up and told those not scheduled to race to be prepared. I added a tiny little bit of encouragement and some of the guys noticed.

That afternoon it was leg day. Mom and Kim hit it hard and I slacked off in a major way. I hit my calves and abs and stretched a bit but I didn’t want to do anything that would have a negative impact on my performance the next day. I told Kim that as much as I wanted to spend time with her, I needed to get my Zen on. She understood and Mom drove her home.

Thursday happened. I don’t remember anything except that the cheerleaders were in uniform. I sort of woke up when we got on the bus to make the thirty-minute ride over to Bishop England. The door was about to close, when Kim stepped on and asked the driver if there was room for one more. The driver looked back at Coach and he nodded. Kim got on. Giggles stepped on and asked if there was room for one more and they kept doing it until both the entire varsity and JV cheerleader squads were on the bus. Coach apparently knew it was coming and was happy to have them. Just them being on the bus with us was a motivator. We weren’t used to getting a lot of attention and this was the third time but the first to get the varsity squad.