Chapter 20

I didn't wake up until ten fifteen the next morning. I had told Karen that I'd be over at her house before noon. I took a quick shower to wake myself up, got dressed, and went out into the living room. Kate and Clara were both on the floor, watching television. Clara was on her side, and Kate was behind her, resting her chin on Clara's butt. My mom was in the kitchen, and I finally found my dad out in the back yard, shaking the crumbs out of our electric toaster.

"Papa, I need some money for the movies." I usually only called him papa when I needed something from him. Kate almost always called him that. He preferred papa to either dad or pop.

"Larry, you've been going out a lot and spending too much money. When was the last time you gave your mama and me some money for that business with the house?"

"I know, and you're right. I've been the one that buys movie tickets, drinks and food for Kate for the past month though. I'm going to work hard next summer and pay you back all of that money."

"How much do you need?"

"Can I get twenty dollars? That would cover all that I spent on Kate and her friend, Clara, at the movies so far."

"You think I've got a money tree? You think I just reach up and pick the money off of the branches? Ten dollars, and no more. You better make your own money if you are going to be doing all of this dating." He handed me the ten dollars, which was about as much as I had really hoped to get from him.

"Thank you papa." I left him so that he could go back to his banging on the side of that toaster. I went into the kitchen to see my mother.

"Anyu, Apu just gave me half of what I need to cover the money I've spent on Kate so far. I've got a date today, and not enough money now to cover it." My mother loved it when I used any Hungarian words.

"Get my purse, Laurant. How many times have I told you not to bother your father for money? You know how he gets. Now he'll be in a bad mood all day." I went and got her purse and she gave me five dollars from her wallet.

"What's this? Five dollars won't even cover the movies and the snacks." My mother narrowed her eyes at me, but I didn't back away. My hand was still out, and I wasn't going to let her hard eyed stare sidetrack me from my mission. "I've had to spend four times this much on Kate and her friends, just taking them around with me." If I counted the money I had spent on the movie date with just Clara and I, that was true. My mom grabbed the five dollar bill out of my hand, and replaced it with a twenty dollar bill.

"Go give your papa his money back now. Don't ask me for any more money for the rest of the month either." Happily, I went out into the backyard again. I had a plan to increase my wealth.

"Papa, I told mama about the money you gave me, and she says I have to give it back to you."

"Did your mama say why you need to give it back?"

"She said giving anyone money makes you get in a bad mood all day." I handed him the ten dollars back, turning away as I did it.

"Larry, take this instead then. Your mama is always saying that I'm too cheap. I'm not cheap, here." He thrust a twenty dollar bill at me. I had no choice, I had to take it, because my mother told me to always do what my father told me to do. I knew that they would get together later and discuss this, because that's what they always did. My father would go in the kitchen soon, and tell my mother that she didn't know him as well as she thought she did. When she looked at him, he'd brag about making me take the twenty dollars.

My mother wouldn't tell him about the twenty that she'd given me too. Later, when he wasn't around, she would talk to me about it, and I'd tell her that papa had insisted that I take it. She would tell me that I should have come back and given her back her money. I'd tell her that I thought the money she gave me was to repay me for what I had already spent on Kate and her friends, and my dad's money was for the date that I'd told him was the reason for me asking him for money in the first place. Believe it or not, my mother would always accept that kind of an explanation, and that would be the end of it.

I went back to my bedroom and got another rubber out of my crystal radio box. I also picked up the wrapping from the rubber I had used the night before. I was going to throw it away somewhere, somewhere between my house and Karen's. I had originally planned on riding my bike over to Karen's, but I didn't know if it would still be light out when I started to head back home. It was only a fifteen minute walk anyway, so that is what I decided to do.

I got to Karen's a little before noon, and she opened the door wearing a dress that was the kind my mom and Kate wore when they were cleaning the house. It wasn't the kind of dress someone would wear to go outside the house. Karen looked around outside, at all the neighbors houses, after she had let me in, and I had walked by her.

"We have a lot of nosy neighbors, but I didn't see anyone looking out their windows."

"Will you get into trouble if your parents find out that you had a boy over while they were gone?"

"Only a little bit. They never told me that I couldn't have school friends over today. I already told them that you were taking me to the movies later."

We went into her living room and I walked right over to her sofa and sat down on it. She excused herself and went into the kitchen, after asking me if I wanted a soda. She came back, after a minute or so, with two bottles of Pepsi. She handed one to me, explaining that Pepsi was the only cola in the house. I told her that I liked Pepsi as well as Coke anyway. She sat down on the middle cushion of the sofa. She was about two feet away from me.

"The chili will be ready in another hour, will that be all right? I've got the fries made already, and I'm keeping them warm in the oven for us. Did you and Denise have a good time last night?"

"Yes, it was fine, although it was cold out when we walked home."

"She called me this morning before nine o'clock. She kept asking me a bunch of questions about what I'd told you about Tommy Lampkin. I told her that I hadn't ever mentioned Tommy to you."

"That's true. I don't remember us talking about him."

"She also told me that she had told you everything about Tommy and Danny and all the things she's done?"

"Karen, if you don't quit talking about Denise, I'm going to leave. How many times do we have to go through this? I don't want to talk about Denise with you, and I don't want to talk about you with Denise."

"Why do you always say that? Denise and I tell each other everything anyway."

"I don't like that either. It isn't any of your business what Denise and I do, and it isn't any of hers what you and I do. I don't like knowing that you two always tell each other what I've done with you." I got up from the sofa. Karen jumped up as soon as I did.

"Okay, Larry. I'll shut up about Denise. I don't want us to fight about things all the time."

"We fight because you ignore what I've told you. It's only simple courtesy to not do something that someone tells you upsets them. I like you, and I like being with you, but you seem to be more interested in Denise and me. Do you think we would all get along better if I just went out with Denise? That way she could tell you everything we had done, and you and I wouldn't fight anymore."

"Or better, you and I could go out, not Denise, and I could tell her what we were doing."

"I'm leaving, Karen. This whole thing is getting me very upset. I'll see you in school on Monday."

I started walking towards her front door. It was my honest intention to just leave her house and walk back home. I think she thought I was kidding or something. She didn't say anything to me until I got to her front door.

"Larry, if you leave, you'll be sorry. I have big plans for us today." I put my hand on her doorknob and turned it, opening the door.

"I had big plans and high hopes for today too, Karen, but I'm not in any mood to keep putting up with your continued rudeness."

I walked out her door, and started walking towards my house. I hadn't gotten very far, less than a block, when Karen came running after me. She had put on a heavy coat, at least, before coming out into the cold, windy air. She yelled at me to stop as she half ran, half walked towards me. I stopped walking to allow her to catch up with me. I wasn't looking forward to the two of us having a big argument out in public, but I didn't want to run away from one either.

"Larry, please come back so we can talk at least. I've made all of that chili for us. If I say I'm sorry, will you please come back and talk to me?"

"Karen, you don't listen. It's almost like you've decided that what I want, what I have to say, isn't important to you. I've got a sister who is like that, and I don't want to have to deal with even more of that with my girlfriends too."

"Girlfriends! Not girlfriend like everyone else. With you it always has to be the plural. Denise and I were both wondering whether she and I were your only girls. Maybe you have some other girls that you take out during the week?"

"Karen, that isn't anybodys business but mine. It isn't any of my business who you go out with besides me. I'm not trying to find out what you've been doing. We aren't going steady, so why would it matter?"

"It does matter! It matters because I really like you. Every time you go out with Denise, it almost drives me crazy with worry that she will sleep with you before I can. After she does, you will probably stop going out with me, just because of that. She already said she wants to do it with you. If you come back, I'll let you do it with me right now. I've never done it before, Larry, but I'll let you do it to me if you will just come back to my house."

I took her arm and turned us both around, walking back towards her house.

"Karen, I don't want to do it with you. If you did it with me now, it would just be so you can place some kind of obligation on me because I did it with you. The way you've been talking, it would be like I was taking something from you that had all kinds of strings attached to it. If we ever did go all the way, it would be because we both want it so much we can't resist doing it. I don't feel that way right now, not about you, and not about Denise either. I'm not going to take advantage of that offer you just made me. I won't do things like that, just because I can. I know this first time should be important to you. I'm sure you wouldn't want to have your first time be when you weren't really thinking clearly."

We got to her house, and we both went inside. I took my coat off while she took hers off and hung it up. I kept mine near me, because I wasn't planning on staying very much longer. I sat back down on the sofa and waited for her to come join me. She came back, but this time she sat on the cushion on the other end from where I sat.

"You don't want to do it to me?"

"No, not today, and never like this. I like you, Karen, and I'd still like you if we never did it together. You act like it's some kind of race that you are in with Denise, but, to me, it isn't. I've never done it with anyone either. It is scary for me to think about doing it too. I've done a lot of other things, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go all the way someday soon, but not before I feel sure about it being the right time, the right place, and the right girl for me. I came very close once, but she changed her mind right before we did it. I was ready then, but she wasn't."

"Was it Denise?"

"No. Denise and I haven't gotten close like that. We've only gone out twice. Today is only our second date too."

"Yes, but you've walked me home twice, and we've had lunch together four times already. All of those count."

"What do they count towards?"

"Towards our relationship. Towards how the other girls know that we're going out together now. That's important."

"I never learned how any of that stuff worked before. Like when a boy asks a girl out, and she says no, people tell the guy he shouldn't ask anyone else again until after enough time goes by that people forget he asked that other girl. I've never understood that either."

"No girl wants to go out with a boy when she's his second, third, or even fourth choice. If she tells him yes, it just shows how desperate she was for a date."

"Suppose, she likes the boy, and was hoping he would ask her out, even before he asked that other girl?"

"She tells him no, but makes sure he knows that she would really like to go out with him the next week. Maybe she tells him that she has something she can't get out of, or else she'd have said yes."

"To me, that is all very stupid. I know guys that asked two or three girls out on the same day, got shot down by all of them, and have never asked any girls out since. Then, there are guys like me who put off asking anyone because they were afraid they would get turned down too."

"That's plain silly, Larry. I bet every girl in our class would have gone out with you. Of course, that's if they weren't already going with someone else."

"Would you have gone out with me if I'd asked you back in September?"

"Yes. I've liked you since even before we had that fight, Larry. I've liked you longer that Denise has, and she's liked you for more than a year and a half."

"With Denise, I sort of knew she kind of liked me from before I ever asked her out. I thought you hated me though."

"No, except for maybe two or three days right after you called me a big, fat, idiot in front of all my friends."

"This whole thing, you girls, and dating and trying to understand how you all think, has got me all mixed up. Two months ago, I didn't have anything big to worry about, and now, I'm worried all the time. I liked it better when I wasn't always afraid I was going to mess things up."

"It's a lot easier for boys than it is for girls, Larry. You don't build everything around one thing like we do."

"Boys?"

"No, it's more than boys, but boys are a big part of it. It's about style. That includes everything. It's how you dress, where you live, who your friends are, which boys like you, how popular you are with different groups. One mistake, and a girl's reputation is ruined. Boys don't have to deal with any of that."