Chapter 7

I never thought I would look forward to the end of the weekend when school was in session, but it meant an escape from my prison. My mother couldn’t keep me locked up in my bedroom when I had to go to school. It was an opportunity to get out of the house and be with my friends.

I waited on my front porch like I always did. Debbie and Gina lived around the corner and passed my house on the walk to school. Gina’s house was the farthest from mine so Gina would pick up Debbie and then I would join them. When I spotted my friends, I flew down the cement stairs to street level. They sped up and soon we were walking the few blocks to our high school.

“So how was it?” Debbie asked. She was literally jumping up and down.

“I don’t know yet,” I said. “My mother hasn’t told me how long I’m going to be punished.”

“Not that! The date!”

I quickly looked over my shoulder to my porch. We hadn’t gotten very far yet. But my mother wasn’t spying. I walked a little faster to put some distance between us and my house. Debbie and Gina kept pace with me. Once we crossed the street, I slowed down.

“It was great. He put his arm around me in the movie theater.”

“He did not!” Gina said. I saw the envy in her face.

“Did so. And he sort of kissed me in the theater.”

Both Debbie and Gina abruptly stopped walking. I took two more steps before I stopped, turned, and walked back to them.

“What do you mean ‘sort of’?” Debbie asked. “Either he did or he didn’t.”

“He was feeding me Milk Duds and—”

“What!” both Debbie and Gina shouted.

“Yeah, it was like a game. He was putting them into my mouth, you know, like the Romans did with grapes. And when he got to the last one, he held it in his lips and pressed his lips to mine and pushed it into my mouth.”

“Ohmigod!” Debbie said. “He kissed you.”

“That’s not a real kiss,” Gina said with crossed her arms.

Gina wasn’t happy that I got to kiss a boy before her. I’d show her.

“Well,” I said with a smirk, “later we kissed a lot. When we went parking.”

“You did not!” Debbie said.

Gina simply fumed.

“Come on,” I said, “we better get to school. I’ll tell you on the way.”

So we started walking again and I told them about Canarsie Pier and the waves and the stars. Both my friends were jealous. And then I told them how Joey had hugged me and kissed me. No more than that. I had to keep the rest secret. Even from my best friends.

“And we kissed with our tongues,” I said.

“Yuck!” Gina said and scrunched up her nose.

“Wow!” Debbie said at the same time. Her eyes were wide.

I glared at Gina. She had gotten me angry.

“Well, that’s how you kiss when you’re not a baby,” I said.

Debbie chimed in. “Yeah, that’s what my sister said. I told you guys about it.”

Gina crossed her arms and frowned, but didn’t say anything more. I guess she felt it was two against one.

“So how was it?” Debbie asked. She sounded a little envious, but more curious.

“Great! Do you know how you feel when you look at a boy you like?”

Debbie frantically nodded. Gina continued to scowl.

“Well, it’s like that but ten times more. A hundred times more.”

All the way to the school, Debbie and I chatted about my date and the kissing. Gina remained silent the whole time. Fuming. We separated when we got to the school and, once I was in my first period class, I stopped thinking about the date. That is, until it was time for my English class. As I dragged my feet plodding through the halls to my English classroom, others rushed by me. I stopped a few times thinking about skipping the class only to have someone bump into me. I couldn’t afford to miss even one class. It was an advanced class. So I kept going. And what good would it do? If I didn’t go today I’d have to go tomorrow. I might as well get it over with.

Joey was already sitting at his desk when I arrived.

“Hi,” he said as I sat down.

“Hi.” I was fumbling with my books, not looking at him.

“Are we good?” Joey asked.

I looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“You seemed mad at me Saturday. Did I do something wrong?”

He had taken my virginity by jamming a finger inside my pussy. It had hurt like hell. But everything else about the date was wonderful. Even the stuff he shouldn’t have done. Stuff I should not have allowed him to do. But I enjoyed it all, except the painful part.

“Maybe a little,” I said. “I don’t know. I had a good time, though.”

Joey smiled. “So can we do it again?”

Do what again? Go on a date or touch my tits and put his hand inside my panties?

“I didn’t tell my mother I was going on a date and she found out so for now I can’t date,” I said real fast in one breath. “She’s really pissed.”

“Aha, that explains a lot. Let me know when she allows you. I really like you.”

Oh my god! He liked me. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face as I nodded.

After my English class, I met up with Debbie and Gina in the cafeteria. Gina still wasn’t talking to me. Debbie couldn’t sit still.

“So, did he kiss you?” Debbie whispered.

I looked around, but no one had heard. “I told you he did.”

“I mean in class.”

“What! Of course not.”

Debbie stuck her bottom lip out. “Too bad.”

“Can’t we talk about something else?” Gina asked in her whining voice.

So we did, to both Gina’s and my delight. Debbie didn’t look happy about it, but she soon fell into the conversation. Everything was back to normal.

When I was in my last class of the day, I gazed at Mr. Roman. My Band teacher wasn’t like my other teachers. He was young and informal with us. And he was cute. I really liked his blond hair and goatee and the way he spoke. My father would disapprove. Call him a beatnik as a negative term.

“We’ve been playing classical and big band music,” Mr. Roman said. “You cats don’t seem to be enjoying that. You must think I’m...” he used an index finger from each hand to draw a box in the air, “ ... square.”

The class giggled.

“So what do you dig?” Mr. Roman asked.

The room was so quiet I could hear my heart beating.

“Come on, man, what kind of music do you cats like?” he asked.

I don’t know what came over me, but I shouted, “Rock ‘n roll. I love Elvis.”

Mr. Roman stared at me for a few moments and then smiled. He bent his knees like Elvis did, got onto his toes, and ground and bumped his pelvis. The class burst into laughter. That is, everyone but me. I turned bright red and wanted to crawl under the desk. But there was no desk. Just my chair and a sheet music stand.

“I’m more into Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie,” Mr. Roman said, “and I dig Gene Krupa, but rock ‘n roll has a hip beat.” He looked at me with his dreamy eyes and said, “Not sure if any of the rock ‘n roll sheet music has a clarinet though. Want to switch to the guitar or drums?”

I thought I was going to die. My voice was stuck somewhere deep in my throat. My mouth was dry. But Mr. Roman wasn’t expecting an answer. He smiled at me and winked before turning back to the class and resuming his lesson.