Chapter 4: Jennifer

Mark and Nick were part of a larger group of friends, and I would often hang around with various people. There were girls in our group, and there was some casual dating that went on. As for me, I had very low self-esteem and never had the nerve to ask any of them out.

Jennifer was considered to be the hottest of all the girls. She was curvy, had brown eyes, and brown curly hair. She was born with one leg slightly shorter than the other and walked with a bit of a limp.

She had a really bubbly friendly personality and she got along with everyone. She was really easy going and liked to talk about raunchy things. She loved rock music: AC/DC was her favorite band.

Her best friend was Lisa. Lisa was a tomboy. And there were unsubstantiated rumors that Lisa was a lesbian. Lisa’s house was in an expensive neighborhood in the hills that had a sauna.

There was also an unsubstantiated rumor that Lisa had “eaten out” Jennifer in the sauna on more than one occasion.

Our group of friends used to hang around in a park beside the elementary school most of us attended when younger. A little wooded area sat beside where kids would go to smoke pot or make out.

One afternoon, I showed up at the park and a bunch of kids were already there. Jennifer was there, chatting away, and I talked with some of the guys. As the afternoon dwindled, the crowd dwindled also. Eventually, it was just me and Jennifer.

We chatted for a while and as it got a bit later she asked me to walk her home. We cut through the maze of paths in the wooded area, and suddenly I was aware that she wasn’t beside me. I turned back and she was in one of the little hidden spots, sitting on a slight hill behind a shrub.

“What are you doing? Don’t you want to get going?”

“Yeah, but just sit for a second.”

I sat beside her, a bit annoyed because it was getting chilly and I didn’t have a jacket. She leaned back and rested with her arms extended behind her.

We sat in silence for a while. She tapped her feet on the ground.

“Do you not want to go home or something?”

“No I do, but we just never talked alone like this.”

I was really, really oblivious at this point in my life. There was a tiny kernel of a thought that maybe she was hinting at something, but my conscious mind rejected that outright. There was no way.

“Oh, okay.”

“Well, ask me anything you want,” she said.

I quickly looked at her. She pulled her knees close and rested her head. I thought for a second. There was the one HUGE question that I really wanted to ask her.

“Well, I do have one question but I don’t think I should ask.”

She sat up and smiled.

“Oh, I like the sound of that!”

“Nah. You might get offended and not talk to me anymore.”

She laughed, “I won’t do that.”

I decided to just go for it.

“The rumor,” I said.

“What rumor?”

“You know, you and Lisa...”

“Oh.” Jennifer sat up and looked at me. “What rumor is this?”

“You know, the rumor.”