Chapter 5

"Hey, want to eat lunch with me and the guys?" Jason asked, catching up to Kylie in the hall.

She put her textbooks in her locker and pulled out her purse and a book. She hesitated, face flickering as she considered his invitation. "Um. Okay." She put the book back and closed the locker, then followed him, playing nervously with the thick braid of her hair.

"Were you really that surprised that I let Mike give me a blowjob?" he asked, dropping back so that he was walking beside her.

"Um, yeah," she said. "Guys like you tend to be really, um, defensive about things like that."

"Nah." Jason shook his head. "I mean, I know I like girls, so it's cool, you know? Mikes a nice guy, but I wouldn't date him or anything, and it's nothing wrong with him. He's just got the wrong body parts to turn me on -- even if he did give me the best damned blow job I've ever had. Now if he was a girl, well, I'd have asked her out in a heartbeat."

"You'd ask someone out just because you liked their ... their mouth?" she asked.

Jason stopped and looked at her for a second. "Well, yeah. Don't get me wrong, though. That wouldn't be the only reason I asked them out, but if a girl gave me a blowjob like that, I'd damned sure want to get to know her better. We might never be anything more than friends who have sex together, but there's nothing wrong with that, you know? I mean, back at my old school, I'd had sex with almost all of the cheerleaders -- one of them was gay, but I'd slept with all the rest. It was fun, and none of us pretended it was anything more than that."

"What did people think of them?" Kylie asked.

"Huh?" Jason said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're a guy," Kylie said. "It's okay for you to sleep with all the girls you want. No one is going to treat you any different. But how did those girls get treated?"

"Uh ... the same way they treated us guys?" Jason asked. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with having sex."

"Yeah, but once they did, how likely would anyone be to believe them if they didn't want to anymore?" she asked.

Jason looked at her, puzzled. "What do you mean? If they said no, they meant no. Heck, there was a while where one of the girls was dating the gay girl, and they were exclusive. No big deal, although I think that might be why they broke up -- she'd been one of the ones that really enjoyed the orgy parties, and I think she missed them."

Kylie shuddered, and Jason asked, "What?"

"I guess I just don't get it," she said.

"What don't you get?" he asked.

"How people can be so casual about things," she said.

"Why not?" Jason asked.

Kylie looked totally confused, and he continued. "Really, I mean, why shouldn't you? Unless you're dating somebody and monogamous, of course."

"If it matters enough to be monogamous when you're dating, shouldn't it matter enough to wait for someone special?" Kylie asked.

"Only if you want to," he said. "But, I mean, wouldn't you want to be the best lover you could be for that someone special, rather than not having a clue what to do?"

"No," Kylie responded. "I'd rather learn together. If I ever were to find someone special, I would want to make those memories with him, not leave myself with nothing new to explore with him."

Jason shook his head. "You're making an assumption, though I guess it makes sense if you've never had a lover. Okay, look. I've slept with lots of girls, right? And every single time, we had new things to explore. Every person is different. Some girls like one thing, some girls like another. Some girls like some things with one guy, but totally different things with another. There's always new things to explore. You never run out." He paused. "Hey. Make you a deal."

Kylie looked at him warily.

"Share that sandwich with me, and we can go ask Ms. Smith about this, see whether she agrees with me or you."

Kylie laughed. "You'd starve. It's fat-free cheese on diet bread." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It's a matter of opinion, obviously. The thing is, mine shouldn't be considered wrong just because the majority doesn't share it."

"Oh, of course not." Jason hesitated. "I guess I think it's a shame."

"Why?" Kylie asked. "I don't see any shame in not wanting to ... um, do it ... with just anyone."

Jason grinned. "No, not like that. Um, look, promise me you won't take this wrong?"

"Er ... okaaaay?" Kylie asked.

"If I didn't know how much this all freaked you out, I might have asked you for relief this morning. You're really pretty."

Kylie almost choked on her sandwich and reached for her cup of water, blushing.

"You okay?"

"Eep! Um, yeah. Just surprised me there," she said.

"Sorry," Jason said.

"No, it's okay. There's nothing to be sorry for. Um. Thanks, I guess," Kylie said.

"Well, it was a compliment." He grinned. "What would you do, though, if you met that someone special and they weren't a virgin?"

"I don't really know," she said. "As long as I have to live in the US, that seems the most likely prospect, though. There just aren't any virgins here."

"Or what if he didn't want to be exclusive?" Jason asked. "Or she, didn't mean to assume, sorry."

"That would be harder," Kylie said. "Because it would be important to me, and if he didn't share my opinion, that'd be one thing, but ... But to act on that, when he knew how I felt, would show that he wanted to sleep around more than he wanted to be with me, because he'd have to know how much it would hurt me."

"Well, yes, but you would also be cutting yourself off from things you could explore together, like you and him and another guy -- that's fun, especially for the girl. Or you and him and another girl." He grinned. "That's really fun, especially if you're bi."