Chapter 20

My performance in the parking lot drew mixed reviews during the rest of the school day, but in general there were more who said, “he deserved it” than “you’re an asshole.” One person whose response surprised me was Shelia. I figured she’d let loose on me with that Irish redhead temper, but the two times we passed in the hall she just looked at me weirdly. I didn’t know what to make of that.

I caught up with Michelle in Spanish. After class, as we walked to her locker, I told her what happened and my punishment. She said that next Tuesday she was getting her license and she’d drive me.

Then she grinned and said, “That way I can take you parking every day on the way home.”

No one was paying us any attention so I kissed her.

“Rochelli tried to kick me in your birthday present but he missed,” I whispered in her ear.

She blushed prettily and whispered back; “Don’t tease me about that, Johnny. Every time I think about it I soak my panties. It’s all I can do to keep from raping you every time we are together.”

Michelle and I hadn’t gone all the way yet, although we had done about everything else a couple could do. I was the one to convince her to wait until her birthday because she’d wanted to make love since after our first date. I had been putting her off because I didn’t want to make love to her and leave her with unrealistic expectations that we would be together forever. I mean I liked the hell out of Michelle, but I was nowhere near ready to settle down. I thought that Michelle giving up her virginity was a big deal and I really didn’t know if I was worthy of getting it if I couldn’t commit to her. Yeah, I know, suddenly I was one of those smart teenagers I complained about who over thought the problem. Michelle finally had to set me straight.

“Listen, Johnny. I like you a lot and I have for years, but I never considered us getting married or anything like that. I want you to be my first because I know you’ll be loving and sweet and considerate. I picked you to be the one when I was fourteen, remember. I still feel the same as I did then. I know in my heart that you’ll make it special for me.”

My plan for Tony Rochelli’s downfall did not happen, at least not the way I envisioned. The fight with Tony was the reason. Here’s what actually happened.

After school, at four in the afternoon of the day I fought Tony, Mr. Cavanaugh called me on my cell. He asked me if I could come see him immediately. I agreed and was ringing the doorbell by four-twenty. Ellen answered the door and led me to Mr. Cavanaugh’s home office. Shelia was sitting on the sofa. God, she looked small and pitiful, her eyes red rimmed, her makeup streaked and smeared. Elaine and Ellen were sitting on either side of her holding her hands. Mr. Cavanaugh was sitting behind his desk, I could tell he was upset, but he was in control of himself.

“Johnny, thank you for coming so quickly. Shelia has been telling me a most interesting story. She tells me that she and Rochelli have been partying for three weeks on drugs and booze. Naturally, I wondered if your fight with the Rochelli boy this morning had anything to do with that.”

Man, did that question put me on the spot. I thought for a minute and asked him if we could speak in private for a moment. He said sure, got up from behind his desk and walked me to the media room.

“What’s this all about, Johnny?”

So I told him everything. When I was finished he sat there with his fingers steepled, his face a practiced neutral mask.

“You thought of this yourself?” he finally asked.

I nodded affirmatively.

“Why didn’t you come directly to me?” he followed up.

I told him my reasoning. It was his turn to nod his understanding. He stood up and extended his hand.

“You are an extraordinary young man, Johnny. I’m proud to know you. I’m also deeply indebted to you. I’ll handle things from here, though. Okay?”

With a sigh of relief I said it was more than okay.

A week later Tony Rochelli withdrew from Palmdale High and transferred to a private military school near West Point, New York. Mister Cavanaugh had modified my plan to the extent that he used Al Jerdin’s lead on the drug dealer to get Tony busted buying a quarter ounce of cocaine. He — and the County Sheriff, no less — delivered Tony to his father with an ultimatum. Either Tony went away voluntarily, or he’d be dragged through the courts. I accepted what went down, although I thought Tony should have gone to jail. To me, him getting away that easy proved Papa’s adage that “money talks and bullshit walks.”

Oh, and Shelia’s sudden confession to her father? The twins engineered that. Shelia came home and told them about the fight, then told them a few other things. Ellen and Elaine used their persuasive ability on her and convinced her to fess up to Mr. Cavanaugh. Smart little shits, aren’t they?

I suffered the indignity of riding the bus until Tuesday afternoon when Michelle drove me home in her new car with her new license. Michelle’s parents gave her a used lime green Volkswagen Beetle. It was high mileage but had been given a clean bill of health by the experts down at Pulaski’s Auto Service Center. I almost caused Michelle to wreck when I told her that in four days a Pulaski dipstick would be checking her ‘oil,’ too.

I was able to give Michelle the experience she deserved the weekend after her birthday when my father flew out to Houston for his own romantic weekend with Mom. Mom had a three day weekend like we did because of MLK Day so she and Dad decided to burn up the sheets at some motel on South Padre Island. Go Mom and Dad!

Michelle did not try to pull anything sneaky to get to spend the weekend with me. Instead, she sat down with her mother and told her what she wanted to do. Mrs. Hoffman went for it without protest, proud of her daughter for being honest. Heck her mom even helped her pack. Michelle said it was as if her mom was acknowledging a change in their relationship towards one of a more adult nature. I told you that Michelle had a lot of character!

Friday night Michelle arrived with her suitcase at seven. I had dinner ready when she arrived. I stole Katrina’s idea and had a supermarket roasted lemon-pepper chicken with a couple of side dishes in the oven.

After dinner we sat on the couch cuddling, kissing and talking. At nine Michelle went upstairs to my room with her bag. She came down ten minutes later in an electric blue camisole and matching tap pants. She stood in front of me and let me stare at her, a small smile on her lips. She looked good, and she knew it.

“Come on, Johnny. It’s time for bed.”

She held out her hand but instead I swept her up in my arms. She whooped in delight and wrapped her arms tightly around my neck. I carried her up to my room and deposited her on the bed. Michelle’s hymen was long gone, sacrificed to applicator tip tampons and her own fingers. She was tight but wet and willing, so her defloweration was a rousing success. All the stamina I developed with Caroline Hernandez stood me in good stead with Michelle as we made love in every manner she could think of. Michelle was so sweetly enthusiastic she made my night as memorable as I made hers. When Kong absolutely could not get hard again we fell asleep in a naked tangle.

Michelle was a joy to be around and the weekend was fantastic for both of us. Michelle loved being naked with me and she was determined to make up for the lovemaking she said my being old fashioned cheated her out of. We ate delivery food and did it like hyped up rabbits all over the house. The most dressed either of us got on Saturday, was her putting on one of my long sleeve button up shirts and her panties, to go pay the pizza guy. She looked so cute, I jumped her bent over the coffee table as she was setting down the pizza box. Saturday night we were both too sore for more so we just kissed and snuggled. Michelle was a world class snuggle bunny, she loved to sleep as close to me as humanly possible.

Sunday Michelle went to Mass with me for the first time. I introduced her to the Cavanaughs as we were leaving. The twins immediately hijacked Michelle leaving me with their parents and Shelia. Mister Cavanaugh and Shelia started toward their car but Missus Cavanaugh stayed planted in front of me.

“Thank you for what you did for my daughter,” she said.

I shrugged. “You know me, Missus Cavanaugh, always trying to make myself look good.”

No high road for me when it came to her. She took my sarcasm without rancor.

“I misjudged you horribly, young man. I wish we could start all over.”

“I don’t know how we could ever do that, Missus Cavanaugh. It would be like putting toothpaste back in the tube. But I’m willing to try to let bygones be bygones if you’ll do the same.”

I stuck out my hand but she surprised me by kissing me on the cheek.

“I’ll try too, Johnny Pulaski; and I know if I mess up, you’ll tell me about it,” she said with a grin.

When she walked off I saw the twins standing within earshot with Michelle. They both wore huge smiles. They ran up and gave me hugs and kisses then raced after their mother.

Michelle walked up to me as the twins skipped off, she looked perplexed.

“You were right, I’ve never met anyone like them, but I like them. They asked me if I was going to be in your harem too. What did they mean by that?”

I laughed and told her about how I spoofed them with the harem thing.

“But don’t worry, Shelly, so far you have a lock on head concubine.”

Her eyebrows went up, “So far? I thought I earned that job yesterday.”

Michelle left that evening in time to be home at eight as she had promised her mother. I told her I’d see her tomorrow as Stan and I were going to work on a new weight routine for baseball that he’d read about.

Katrina called at nine my time. We jabbered away for an hour. I told her all about my weekend, including Friday. She was pleased that everything worked out as well as it did considering my track record in fights and with spending the night with anyone but her. She filled me in on her life since we had talked last on Wednesday. She said it was damned cold again, that the temperature had been below zero for the entire weekend. She said Borkowski and his dickhead friends were still making her life miserable, but she was hanging tough. After we hung up I decided I had better talk to Papa about what Katrina was going through. After all, he was a GI once. Maybe he knew how she could handle it better.

I called Papa and asked if we could meet for breakfast in the morning and he said, “Oh, hell yeah.”

At eight the next morning we were ogling Tina’s treasures at Mama’s diner. Tina asked me about my love life as she took our order. I told her that it was most excellent, but not because of Rachael. Rachael was busy getting back into the grind at UCF. She was taking a course load that would allow her to graduate in only three years so she was slammed. An occasional phone call had been our only contact. Tina laughed and kissed me on top of my head.

“All you Pulaskis are the same,” she said.

While we were waiting for our food I told Papa what I knew about Katrina’s plight. Man, oh man, did that ever piss him off. He grumbled about chicken shit officers and their charm schools but said he just might be able to help. He said Colorado Springs was where Fort Carson was located and Fort Carson was now the home station of his old unit, the Tenth Special Forces Group. He said Special Forces guys took care of their own, including old retired farts like him. He knew some people out there through his ties with the Special Forces Association.

“I’ll make a few calls later this evening,” he said.

It was nice not having to deal with Tony Rochelli’s insults and jibes when school started back on the Tuesday after the long MLK weekend. Tony was still on in-school suspension for the next two days, no one, me included, knew that the axe was going to fall on his head the upcoming Saturday night. The Cavanaughs kept Shelia home from school all the rest of the week. The flu was the reason the school received and it was the story Tony got when he was unable to talk to her on the phone all week.

Not being able to drive my truck to school did not turn out to be the inconvenience I thought it would, thanks to the Hoffmans. Michelle picked me up in the morning and took me home on the days without baseball practice. On the days we practiced, Stan drove me home. I liked riding to school with Michelle. It seemed to start my day off right. I studied Michelle on the sly as we rode to school Tuesday morning wondering if there would be something about her that announced she was no longer a virgin. If there was, I couldn’t see it.

On Wednesday morning we were no sooner out of my driveway when she said, “Honey we have a problem.”

Don’t you just love conversations that start that way?

“What kind of problem, Shelly?” I asked warily.

“The-us-not-having-sex-for-three-days-and-I’m-climbing-the-walls kind of problem,” she replied.

“Oh,” I said brightly.

“Yeah, oh! You got me addicted to the Kong and it’s your responsibility to see that I get a fix any time I need one. Got it?”

I got it. I teased her all the way to school and any time we were together for the rest of the day. On the way home I played with her through her cute little Super Girl panties until she was sloshing. As soon as we were inside my front door I grabbed her up and threw her over my shoulder. I carried her into the family room, put her down, spun her around and pushed her across the back of the couch. She kicked and squealed as I unzipped, pulled the gusset of her panties aside and pushed into her. I swear she was so wound up she started coming before I was all the way in. I managed to hold on until she came again before I unloaded. We gasped and panted still joined for a minute before I pulled out. Michelle stood up dizzily and sagged against me.