Chapter 8

Friday, March 22, 2002

JR did not come to check on us the next morning; Jenny got up with me at the alarm, vanished into the bathroom by herself. I followed shortly, then a simple breakfast with everyone bright-eyed and smiling around the table.

Mom stopped me before I left the table. "You're going to the basketball game tonight?"

"Yes." I looked at JR and Jenny. "I promised I'd take JR, Jenny and Penny. The girl I'm going with asked if she can take her sister. She's a freshman. Shannon's sister, I mean."

Mom nodded. "And the dance after?" I nodded. "You will be home by midnight, ok?" Again I nodded emphatically. "Earlier would be better." No problem, I thought to myself. I'd made it clear to the others that I was on a date with Shannon; both JR and Jenny seemed okay with it.

At lunch, Shannon joined me again; again I didn't see Tony or Sue Ellen. Finally, just a bit before the end of the lunch period, Sue Ellen walked by. "Sue Ellen!" I called and she smiled at me and came over.

"Where's Tony?"

Sue Ellen's expression didn't change, but something behind her eyes did. "There's a team meeting. Last night, too." I got the distinct impression it was time to change the subject.

"You and Tony will be at the game tonight?"

Sue Ellen shrugged. "Yeah."

"See you," I said, confidently. She nodded, turned and walked away. Unless I was wrong, she was pissed at something, but not something having to do with me. Did she and Tony have a fight? I wasn't sure, I hoped not.

Again I picked up JR, Jenny and Penny after school, and we all went to our house. All three wanted to get ready for the evening, not anything else; we studied for a bit after we got home, then showered and dressed, then a hasty dinner.

At six, I was at Shannon's, and she came out with her sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was red-haired, shorter than Shannon, less talkative than all the rest of us combined.

As I expected, though, the addition of two more passengers into Mom's venerable hand-me down Camry that I drove, exceeded the camel's load limit.

Shannon got into the front seat; there was nothing for Elizabeth to do but sit on someone's lap in the back. Jenny was tallest, so her lap was where Elizabeth got to sit.

We got to the game, and we'd only been there a few seconds when Tony appeared. "Have you seen Roger Parker?" he asked and I shook my head.

"If you see him, find me. Or one of the team." I looked at him, curious. Tony's expression was bland, unhelpful.

"Sure," I told him.

"Sue Ellen might need a ride home tonight, after. Could you?"

"Sure, Tony."

On the ride to the game, we had been six in the Camry, and Shannon's sister had to sit on Jenny's lap. One more? If it was Sue Ellen, I was going to have to relegate Penny and JR to sharing. I mentally crossed my fingers. That would be a crowded back seat... What if JR and Penny got frisky? JR had said Penny wasn't in a very good mood, what if Penny didn't want someone sitting on her lap?

The girl's basketball team won handily; there was a lot of shouting, applause and everyone had a good time. The boys stunk, lost badly, were bad losers and there were several small fights. We didn't quite boo, but there was no applause, no shouting, and no good time.

The dance started and I took Shannon off for a spin, remembering last week and Marsha. Shannon was far, far more sedate than Marsha had been. We danced three times, and then I danced with JR, then Jenny. Penny was in a surly mood, wanting to be left alone; even JR and Jenny were careful to be polite to her.

It was, I thought, entirely because of 'that time of month.' I'd heard a thousand jokes about it; never really been sure when any girl was suffering from that in particular. In it's own way, it was educational.

I'd come back with Jenny and was talking to the others when I felt Jenny's eyes widen. I looked up, saw Roger and two other guys coming closer; one looked older than the rest. A faint resemblance to Jenny. The last was Keith Driscoll, a senior who loved to bully anyone he could, particularly girls.

"I want to talk to my sister," the older guy said.

So, this was Jenny's brother. Well over six feet, dark. Darker, even, than Jenny. His expression told me all I needed to know.

"Get lost," I told him, standing up, putting myself between him and Jenny. "She doesn't want to talk to you. Not ever again."

Roger moved past me, towards Shannon. "Want to dance?"

"Get lost, creep!" Shannon said with heat.

Roger was unfazed, turned to JR. "How about it? You were a good fuck the other day, really good." It was clear to me he was deliberately ignoring Penny. From the look on Penny's face, she was very angry.

"And you were an asshole," JR told him to his face, loud enough for several people to turn our way.

"Please, we don't want any trouble," I said, still mild. "Why don't you guys just haul on out of here?"

Roger started to say something to Penny, but abruptly Tony was there, right in Roger's face.

"Parker!"

Roger looked at Tony, and then smiled at Tony in a way that told me that in a second, Roger was going to get decked.

"You hit on Sue Ellen the other day!" Tony told him. I goggled in surprise; Roger had a death wish!

"You hit on Janey Sussman, Melinda Lopez, Susy Gonzales, Emily Suderman, Gloria Rodriquez!" A list of names known to me; girlfriends of the football team starters or cheerleaders. "They all told you to get lost. Evidently you don't know how to do that," Tony continued.

Roger smirked and gave Tony the finger.

Tony smiled then. "Lucky you, me and some friends have decided to teach you what it means to get lost."

There had to have been a signal; I didn't see it. It was like magic; all of a sudden two dozen of the football team appeared, crowding around Roger, separating him from the others. Our basketball team might be puny, but the football team had been city champions once in three years, went to state a couple of times as well; they were all large guys, and no one, no one at all was slow getting out of their way. A moment later the group had moved outside, Roger in their midst.

I looked around; Jenny's brother and Keith Driscoll had vanished. Now that was no surprise! No one, no one sane anyway, messes with the entire football team!

The dance sputtered on for a few minutes; most people decided they had other, more important things to do.

Sue Ellen appeared. "Tony said you'd give me a ride."

"Sure, but you're gonna have to have someone sitting on your lap," I told her.

Sue Ellen looked at the group of girls, laughed. "Tom Ferguson! I do believe you have a harem!"

"Tom's the harem guard," Jenny said. I don't know if anyone else noticed that Jenny wasn't kidding, her voice hard.

"And good at it!" Shannon agreed. From the tone in Shannon's voice, I could tell Shannon had noticed what Jenny had said and how she'd said it.

"How about we go over to my place?" Sue Ellen said. "Like usual, my parents are out. Dad got a DVD of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves today, we can watch it."

I blinked, remembering last Friday and Marsha. "How long is Tony going to be?" I was a little smug, not thinking about it.

Sue Ellen smiled, not a nice smile. "Roger pissed us off. And that's really pissed off the guys! Tony said, maybe tomorrow afternoon." I blinked; Penny and Shannon laughed, then the others. "Going to get him really, really lost," Sue Ellen added, and we all smiled again. Good grief! The better part of a day? Where could they get in ten, twelve hours?

The dance was essentially over, and it was just a little past nine. We gathered our stuff, and we drove over to Sue Ellen's. I didn't pay much attention to the seating, just enough to know that Shannon was still riding shotgun, JR was sitting on Sue Ellen's lap, Elizabeth, Shannon's sister, on Jenny's and Penny was by herself.

I was a little surprised that the seating didn't change in Sue Ellen's family room. It was set up as a home theater; the sound and picture of the movie were almost theater quality, really cool! JR was sitting next to Sue Ellen on a couch, the two of them talking. Jenny and Elizabeth on another couch, Shannon and I together on what was, I thought, a love seat; designed for two, not three. Penny was sitting by herself on the floor, a few feet from Jenny.

Almost at once, Penny leaned her head down, asleep I was sure. After a bit, Sue Ellen said something to JR, and the two of them got up. I thought they were after drinks, but they didn't return.

I'd been sitting with my arm around Shannon, and after a bit, we started kissing. I'd had a week to get to know about kissing; I'd not rate myself as all that expert, no matter how good the reviews had been. Still, I wasn't an amateur any longer, either. I was careful, considerate, and didn't push it with Shannon. Even so, after a half hour of the movie, there was just her in my private universe, no one else.

At one point, Shannon pulled away, and looked around. I did too; the only one left was Penny, and she was obviously sound asleep. Shannon looked at me and kissed me lightly. "I'm not a virgin," she said in a low voice.

"Neither am I," I replied.

"That said, I don't sleep with every boy I date," she continued.

I decided to say nothing; I'd only slept with one girl I'd dated; the rest were rather ad hoc.

"Shannon," I said to her, wanting nothing more than honest. "Put me alone in a room with the ugliest girl in school and I'd be hard. I'm a guy." Shannon looked at me curiously. "I wouldn't sleep with the ugliest girl in school, nor the most beautiful: not unless she wanted to be with me and I wanted to be with her.

"I like you, but I don't know you that well yet," I told her.

"Well enough to do this," Shannon murmured, kissing me again, this time using her tongue.

I moved my hand, lightly brushed her breast. "How about well enough to do this?" I asked her. "But nothing you don't want. Not ever."

She pulled back, looked into my eyes. "I do believe you mean that."

I'd never talked about personal things of others before; suddenly I found I wanted to. "Shannon... " She met my eyes. "There's something I want to tell you."

I nodded towards the door where Jenny and Elizabeth had vanished earlier. "Jenny has moved in with us. Her parents are indifferent towards her. Her brother is scum."

"Sam?" Shannon asked and I nodded. "God, he gives me the creeps! I can't imagine having him for a brother!"

"It was bad," I told her as simply as I knew how. "Jenny's never had anyone in her life care for her, to look out for her. Shannon, Jenny and I sleep together. Just sleep," I added hastily.

I saw her eyes widen, then focus on me. "What do you mean, you sleep together?"

"No one in Jenny's entire life, up until lately, has wrapped their arms around her, told her she was loved, kept her safe. Jenny is in a lot of ways as much a sister to me as JR." Oh yeah! I sighed to myself. "I hold her, tell her I care about her -- as a sister."

Shannon was silent for a while. "I've never had a boy tell me to my face that he was sleeping with another girl."

"Sleeping as in," I snored theatrically; Shannon giggled.

"Twice you've stood up to Roger. This last time, Sam and Keith as well." She shook her head. "God! I can't believe I ever dated Roger! Just for two and a half weekends, last fall. The worst mistake of my life!"

"Mistakes can happen to anyone. Roger talked his way into my sister's panties. And she doesn't like guys that much. When Penny broke up with Roger, he started bad-mouthing both of them. That's when JR told everyone that she and Penny had gotten back together because Roger couldn't keep even one of them happy."

She looked at me. "Do you suppose that was it? What made Roger start hitting on the football team's girlfriends? He wanted to show he was adequate?"

"Boy!" I exclaimed, "That would be a major, major mistake." I laughed, remembering. "Was a major mistake."

Shannon nodded. "I suspect, about now, wherever Roger is, he's realized that."

We kissed again; after a bit I started to stroke her breasts. Shannon kissed back with more fervor, and for quite a bit of time we did just that. It was interesting, I thought to myself. I've spent more time playing with Shannon's breasts than with any other girl's. I've kissed her longer now, than anyone else, too. Always before kissing and touching had been steps on the road we were traveling, a way point on the journey. With Shannon, I realized that this was the journey, and I contented myself with that.

Abruptly, there was simply the hiss of static on the TV; the DVD had finished and ended. I blinked, and as if on cue, Sue Ellen reappeared with JR. "It's late, Tom," JR said quietly. I looked at her, contemplated if I could possibly be imagining it, or had JR made love with Sue Ellen? I wasn't a hundred per cent sure, but the 99% left me uncomfortable.